#27 Breakfast Stout

At this point, after already brewing four beers using the 1968 London ESB yeast, I'm still looking for an excuse to brew with this yeast. Since I've been thinking that a low alcohol, yet flavorful beer is great to have on tap, I figured it would have to be a beer about 5.5% ABV or under. I've been thinking about blending a beer with french press coffee as well for some time now, and so the thought of brewing another low gravity beer to accompany the Ordinary Bitter and blending it with coffee left me with the thought of a sessionable Breakfast Stout with coffee.

Draining the Breakfast Stout wort

I came up with a simple recipe that should make for a beer you'd want to have with a nice big omelet or bacon and eggs; low gravity, rich and malty, roasty with plenty of coffee flavor, a nice mouthfeel from oats, and if I end up adding coffee, the added roastiness from the coffee as well.

Breakfast Stout

Batch Volume (Gal): 6.0

Pre-Boil Volume (Gal): 4.66

Total Grain (Lbs): 7.75

OG: 1.035   Anticipated FG: ~1.012

Anticipated ABV: ~3%

IBUs: 28.7 (aimed for 23)

SRM: 28.5

Brewhouse Efficiency: 75%

Boil Duration: 95 min

Grain                              (Lbs/oz.) (%)

Muntons Marris Otter        3       38.7

Malteurop                             2       25.8

Munich Malt                         1       12.9

Chocolate Malt                   8 oz.    6.5

Crystal 80                           8 oz.    6.5

Flaked Oats                        8 oz.    6.5

Roasted Barley                  4 oz.     3.2

Hops            (AA%) (IBU) (Oz.) (Boil[min])

Millennium   15.9     28.7    0.4         90 (should be 60 min addition)

Yeast

Rehydrated and pitched 7 grams (0.6 of pack) of Safale-05 (Cal Ale) yeast

Water

Ca: 122 Mg: 2 SO4: 45 Na: 29 Cl: 61 HCO3: 198

Mash Schedule

Single Infusion   60 min ~156 F, 10 min mashout ~170 F

In mash: 2 mL Lactic Acid, 4 g CaCO3; pH ~5.6-58 

In boil: 2 g NaHCO3, 1.5 CaSO4, 2.5 CaCl2

Unfortunately, when it came time to draw off the Ordinary Bitter into the keg, and harvest yeast from the yeast cake, the Ordinary Bitter hadn't completely finished fermentation and much of the yeast that would have fermented the Breakfast Stout was still in suspension in the Bitter. I'm not quite sure why it has taken so long for the Ordinary Bitter to finish fermentation, but I think it may have gotten a late start. Hopefully it will be able to finished fermentation and conditioning in the keg, especially with a yeast like 1968 that needs a good diacetyl rest after fermentation in order to clean itself up.

Pitching the Safale-05 yeast after rehydrating

So instead of trying to use the sub par yeast cake from the Ordinary Bitter, I chose to use one of the Safale-05 packets I have saved in the kegerator just for this occasion. This particular dry yeast I find works excellently, especially after rehydration, and judging by the way it tastes it might as well be a healthy liquid yeast culture. I would have liked to use the 1968 yeast strain again, but the Safale should give me flavors that I'll enjoy as well. It'll be a bit cleaner, but I'll ferment this batch a bit higher at 68 F to try and produce a few more esters. Hopefully the resultant beer will mesh well with french press coffee as a result.

 I'm hoping to have the Black Butte Porter, Buster's Bitter, and the second batch of Ordinary Bitter ready for drinking before Thanksgiving, in time for me to move to a new apartment. In addition, the Belgian Triple and the Belgian Dubbel should finish bottle conditioning as well within the next few weeks, so with the addition of the Breakfast Stout, I should have quite a few beers to choose from. I'm hoping to squeeze in one last brew before I move, some sort of lager using the Bohemian Lager strain, so that I have something in the fermentation chamber while I'm unable to brew. Having no other opportunities to brew ales will give me the chance to lager it for quite a while before kegging.