Night Train 2020

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11/15/2020
about to rebrew this this week. this recipe is a snapshot of nighttrain 4 from 2019. making adjustments :

• changing millenium bittering addition back to chinook
  
• adding a little acid malt for mash ph
  
• changing to 120 minute boil to try to boost efficiency and maltiness. will collect full 7 gals wort, lose some in trub, and try to get down to 5 in fermenter (was tempted to go 7.5/5.5 but will have to add a lot more malt / DME to maintain below calculated numbers for that extra half gallon. if we are slightly under volume with target OG then that is ok for this being a big beer.
  
• currently im showing 65% efficiency and 89% attenuation for 10.3%. that seems like best case. im guessing it will end up at like 59% efficiency or worse, at which point we can add some DME. take gravity reading at preboil and flameout and make the adjustments then.
  
  eff. -> DME -> OG -> abv
  65 -> none -> 1087 -> 10.11
  60 -> 0.75lb -> 1086 -> 10.06
  55 -> 1.50lb -> 1086 -> 10.06
  50 -> 2.00lb -> 1085 -> 9.98
  
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  11/13/2019
  i did not take an OG reading on brew day smh. at 69% eff this calculator has it at 1.093, (which is likely what it was, but....with measured FG of 1.010 that makes this brew over 11% which is hard to believe. (especially since i just brewed the mona lisa stout aiming for a high OG with a ton of grain and came out only at 1.080 something at 65% eff). so for historical purposes (and because i have to present this beer to the homebrew club) i am going to heir on the side of plausibility and knock the recipe efficiency down to 65%, clocking it in at 1.088 and 10.3%abv. NEXT TIME i would brew it the exact same, just take better notes!
  
  btw i just bottled the carbonated beer last night, only a couple days on the oak cubes (amounts below), it seems perfect!
  
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  11/6/2019
  so i need to have this bottled and ready for distro in a week, so i wont be able to do the 18 days plan. i think i am just going to go heavy on the oak for 5ish days. according to below 1.5oz oak for 2.5 gallons so 3 oz for 5 gallons so lets go 6 oz for this batch (update - put it in plastic pitcher and added 6oz cognac to cover it). realistically i will put the cognac on right now and let it sit for 24 hours then move the oak cubes to the secondary (not the leftover cognac). hope this works. its going to the homebrew advent calendar.
  
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  10/3/2019
  Planning to rebrew this soon, with better notes :-)
  original clone recipe : https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/arrogant-bastard-clone.71867/
  
  for this revised recipe, axing the DME and pumping the base malt to get to 8%. night train 2 recipe was also missing aromatic malt.
  
  i have from homebrew journal that in 2017 i planned for 1 oz cognac per gallon (that batch i oaked only half the batch so it was a total of 2-2 ½ ounces and 1 or 1.5 oz oak cubes). Version 1 oaked for 18 days so ideally i would try for at least that long
  
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  Original recipe suggests pacman yeast aka Wyeast 1764. not sure what i used previously. if that not available can use 1056.
  
  anticipating getting a giant sack of grain so we'll try truly all grain. this will probably be the most grain ive used, hope it works/fits. otherwise DME substitute is fine....