Dry Irish Stout & other things

Sebrina

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Hi friends,
I have kegged my 2nd batch of beer. The first was an English Bitter Ale. Made every mistake one could make with the new equipment (grainfather) and had some pretty awful flavors. But many of you told me to be patient. It turned out delicious!!
So good, I have ordered the grains again (though this time I will mill the grains myself) and cannot wait to make it feeling much more comfortable with the equipment.
My second batch is the recipe from an old Brewery out of San Francisco called Anchor Steam. I brewed their porter. I realized after reading that I needed a nitro tank set up and stout/porter taps as well. Got everything and set it all up. Let the Porter age for some time. Kegged it and now waiting for the beer to get conditioned. I have tried it a few times. Whoa, it has many complex flavors and I cannot wait for it to age more and fill with nitro. I have the PSI up to 35 but read it takes a couple of weeks to condition. I was given very good short cuts from some of you here on how to speed up the conditioning of the ale. And it worked!!! 24 hours and it was ready.
SO if any of you have any suggestions for the porter, let me know.
QUESTION: I am making a dry Irish stout. The recipe only calls for 5 days of fermenting (I will obviously wait for it to reach its final gravity for at least 2 days). But there are no more directions after that. What are your suggestions for further fermenting and aging. I have a glycol chiller so I can let it sit for weeks at a certain temperature (like I did with Porter) but not sure what I should do. Should I put it down to mid 40s for a few weeks like I did the porter?
Thank you all. You have been a great help.
Sebrina
 
I’d say it means fermentation to FG is 4-5 days. After 4-5 days when you have 2- 3 days of no change you are good to package. I like to brew low gravity Irish stouts often. I go 3-4 days at fermentation temp then let rise a few for the last few points. Then sit at that a few days. 10 days tops for me on those. They get better sitting cold though once you package.
 
They don't need anything particularly special, they really are just a simple easy drinking lower ABV ale, as long as you like roasted flavours. You make sure it gets to terminal as you've already mentioned. When you're near terminal you can let it warm up a little to make sure the yeast have enough energy to consume everything (as Josh has already said). Once there's a few days with no activity, keg it and then add the gas.

I find beers with roasted malts keep getting better for a month or so after you've hit serving pressure. Then they stay at their best for at least a few months after that.

What gas mixture are you using for this beer? Is it going to be used for just serving and CO2 for the conditioning, or both conditioning the keg and serving? One of these days I'll get around to putting nitrogen into the kegerator and I'm interested how much CO2 people use in the process, if any.
 
What Josh said.

I generally allow for a diacetyl rest about the same number if days as the fermentation, at a temperature a few degrees warmer. After that time, I will either package it (if beer clarity is not important, like a hefeweitzen) or cold-crash it to 34 or 35 F for 1 to 7 days (linger is clearer) and then keg it.

For example, my Piwo Grodziskie fermented for 6 days at 67 F. I let it rest at 72 F for another 6 days, then crashed it to 35 F, where I plan to leave it for at least 5 days.
 
They don't need anything particularly special, they really are just a simple easy drinking lower ABV ale, as long as you like roasted flavours. You make sure it gets to terminal as you've already mentioned. When you're near terminal you can let it warm up a little to make sure the yeast have enough energy to consume everything (as Josh has already said). Once there's a few days with no activity, keg it and then add the gas.

I find beers with roasted malts keep getting better for a month or so after you've hit serving pressure. Then they stay at their best for at least a few months after that.

What gas mixture are you using for this beer? Is it going to be used for just serving and CO2 for the conditioning, or both conditioning the keg and serving? One of these days I'll get around to putting nitrogen into the kegerator and I'm interested how much CO2 people use in the process, if any.
I have set up nitro tank as I have a porter kegged.
It is supposedly 75%nitro the rest co2.
I’d say it means fermentation to FG is 4-5 days. After 4-5 days when you have 2- 3 days of no change you are good to package. I like to brew low gravity Irish stouts often. I go 3-4 days at fermentation temp then let rise a few for the last few points. Then sit at that a few days. 10 days tops for me on those. They get better sitting cold though once you package.
Thanks so much.
 

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