Recipe Details – Bourbon Cherry Chocolate Stout
Batch Size 5 gallons
Volume Boiled 6.5 gallons
Total Grain 16.50 lbs
Anticipated OG 1.086
Anticipated SRM 34.37
Anticipated IBU 75.5
Brewhouse Efficiency 75%
Grain Bill
8lbs Maris Otter
2lbs Golden Promise
2lbs White Wheat
15ozs Chocolate Malt
12ozs Cara-Pils
12ozs Caramel Malt 120
120zs Flaked Oats
8ozs CaraMunich
7.5ozs Black Patent
4.3ozs Roasted Barley
.5 oz Gelana pellet 13.4% AA @ 60 min
.5 oz Mt. Hood pellet 5.2% AA @ 45 min
.5 oz Styrian Goldings pellet 5.2% AA @ 30 min
1 oz Liberty pellet 3.4% AA @ 15 min
1 tab Whirlfloc tab @ 15 min
4 TBL Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min
.5 oz Liberty pellet 3.0% AA @ dry hop 1 week before keg/bottle
Added 2lbs. fresh sweet cherries, pitted and “washed” in vodka
Added 1lbs. fresh sweet cherries, pitted and soaked in Buffalo Trace Bourbon for 4 weeks
Added 1lbs. &13 ozs. of “Oregon” Red Tart Cherries in water
Added 10 Oak Cubes that were soaked in Buffalo Trace Bourbon for a week.
White Labs WLP023 Burton Ale
Starter 5/27/11 @ 10am
2 pints of water
1/2 cup DME
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
Boiled 15 min. chilled and added yeast
Brewday Specifics
Brewed 5/28/11 10am
Protein Rest 115 degrees for 20 minutes – added .5 tablespoon 5.2 Mash Stabilizer
Mash 152 degrees for 60 minutes – added .5 tablespoon 5.2 Mash Stabilizer
Continuous Sparge for 60 minutes @ 170 degrees
Boil 60 minute
Pre-Boil Gravity Not Taken
Post Boil Gravity 1.070 This number is crazy low. Not sure what really happened, but I do think the milling was not the best (I need to buy my own mill)
Fermentation Temperature 70 degrees +/-
Fermented in a 6 gallon bucket
Fermentation
The starter was not as strong as I would like. It took a full day to get into an active fermentation, but after that it blew it’s top…literally!
Transferred into a secondary fermentation bucket on 6/4/11 and added all the “Extras” Gravity at transfer was 1.022.
The beer sat in secondary until 6/25/11.
Final Gravity 1.014
7.5% ABV
Kegged.
Follow Up
I would brew this again for sure, but I would change a few things to help bring out the cherries a little more and better define their flavor. First up, I would cut out the Black Patent and drop the % of Roasted Barley. To get the color back I would include De-Husked Cafafa I. I also think I would try and work in some Chocolate Wheat Malt by lowering or eliminating the Flaked Oats and Chocolate Malt. This would simplify the Grain Bill and “Un-Mute” some of the cherry and bourbon flavors.
Threefrenchs: A Fermented Exploration 