Jordan's Graduation Stout

I've lived with the same two guys for my entire college career. We've each taken breaks, changed our majors, transferred schools, worked our butts off, and finally found what we really enjoy doing. It's been a long six years, and now the first of us has graduated. Jordan's a fan of big bold stouts, and seeing as he graduated in December that was the perfect style to make. I knew I would be serving this out of a keg at his graduation party, so in lieu of trying to fit a 10%+ ABV stout into everyone's stomachs along with all the delicious gumbo I opted to serve something a little smaller that still packed a warming punch, a Mole Stout.

I had to throw this brew together in a quick pinch, so I adopted this recipe from The Mad Fermentationist's Breakfast Stout Riff with some minor changes, mostly in the extras. I added dried habaneros, a split vanilla bean, cocoa nibs, and a cinnamon stick. This was all a few months ago, so I'm writing this post just to keep a record of this beer because it turned out really good. The heat was strong, and mostly in the back of the throat, but not unbearable. I wanted to use ancho chiles for more balanced heat/flavor, but they were out of stock at work and I had the habaneros already. The heat totally overpowered the vanilla, cinnamon was detectable, as was the cocoa, but I could have used more of each or lowered the peppers. I might also mash at a higher temp if I brew this again, although the beer didn't finish at a really low gravity it felt a little thin even with the flaked rye and might benefit from some dextrins. 

I also racked a couple liters of this into a freshly emptied itty bitty whiskey barrel. A 5 gallon Corsair barrel has been on my wish list for some time, but given that we've been moving every couple years it hasn't seemed wise to invest in one if I'm just going to have to move it while it's full. So I picked up one of the small 2 Liter Wasmund Barrels to subdue my barrel desires. This is the first beer that went in to it after the whiskey, and it came out tasting rather harsh. Next will be the Old Ale that is also destined for my Homebrew Club's barrel project, that post is soon to come.  I also plan on giving the barrel a coat of Gulf Wax to slow the evaporation, which currently happens at a frighteningly quick rate due to the crazy surface area to volume ratio.

Mole Stout

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Mash Temp: 151

Estimated OG: 1.072

Estimated IBU: 42

Efficiency: 70%

Batch Size: 5.0

Boil Time: 60

Grain Bill

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12.0 lbs Pale Malt - 77.52%

1.25 lbs Flaked Rye - 8.07%

0.8 lbs Chocolate - 5.3%

0.45 lbs Carafa II - 2.9%

0.34 lbs Black Patent - 2.2%

0.34 lbs Caramel 120 - 2.2%

0.28 lbs Roasted Barley - 1.8%

Hops

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2.4 oz Williamette Pellets - 5.3%AA @ 60 mins

0.4 oz Williamette Pellets - 5.3%AA @ 30 mins

0.2 oz Williamette Pellets - 5.3%AA @ 0 mins

Yeast

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WLP 001

Extras

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1 whirlfloc @ 15 mins

0.5 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 mins

3 large dried Habanero Chiles, shredded

1 split Vanilla Bean

1 Cinnamon Stick

2 oz Cocoa Nibs

Notes

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5.2 gallons at 1.074

Chiles, Vanilla, Cinnamon, and Nibs all put in a muslin bag and dipped in a bowl of Four Roses Bourbon. Added that to the primary after 2 weeks, left in for 7 days before kegging. Finished out at 1.021. Kegged and force carbed.

I bottled up a couple sixers of this beer straight from the keg using a DIY beer gun made from a picnic tap with a racking cane and #2 drilled stopper. I submitted a couple bottles to a home brew competition (Bluff City Extravaganza) and this beer won bronze in Category 21: Spice/Herb/Veggie Beer!