Serpents Stout

Hey Dennis,

My name is Matt Webster and I am the Lead Brewer at The Lost Abbey. Our Director of Production asked me to respond to your questions about Serpent Stout. This is one of my favorite beers that we brew, here is a quick run down on what goes into the brew.

OG: 24 Plato
FG: 4 Plato

60% 2-Row
6.5% Roasted Barley
6.5% Chocolate Malt
6.5% Crystal 120L
3.5% Extra Dark Crystal 165L
4% Flaked Barley
13% Dextrose (added to the boil)

We use Centennial as the bittering hop and some Magnum half way through the boil. We ferment it with our house yeast strain (similar to a British Ale yeast) at 67 degrees. One of the unique parts about this beer is we barrel ferment 10% in used bourbon barrels, to get the really charcoal and smoky notes.

Glad you enjoy the beer and happy brewing.

Cheers,

Matthew Webster
Lead Brewer
Port Brewing & The Lost Abbey

So I went ahead and plugged into beersmith for a 5.5 gallon batch

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 8.00 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.50 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.100 SG
Estimated Color: 65.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 86.1 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 70.9 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
13.00 lb Pale Ale Malt 2-Row (Briess) (3.5 SRM) Grain 1 58.6 %
1.50 lb Caramel Malt - 120L (Briess) (120.0 SRM) Grain 2 6.8 %
1.50 lb Chocolate Malt (Thomas Fawcett) (508.0 S Grain 3 6.8 %
1.50 lb Roasted Barley (Briess) (300.0 SRM) Grain 4 6.8 %
0.90 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 5 4.1 %
0.80 lb *130L Crystal (Hugh Baird) (130.0 SRM) Grain 6 3.6 %
3.00 lb Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 7 13.5 %
2.00 oz Centennial [8.70 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 60.2 IBUs
1.00 oz Magnum [14.70 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 9 25.9 IBUs
1.0 pkg British Ale (White Labs #WLP005) [35.49 Yeast 10 -

• This is the darkest crystal my LHS carries. This should be ok to substitute with, right?
  
  Mash @ 67C for 60 minutes
  
  I haven't had any experience with WLP005 and was wondering if WLP007 could be a possible substitute. I'm worried about under attenuation. I was planning on throwing about an ounce or so of dark toast oak chips in to the fermenter to mimic their 10% barrel fermentation. I was also wondering if anyone could recommend a good fermentation schedule for this (how long to leave in primary, whether or not the oak affects primary, do I also rack the oak to secondary, etc.)
  
  I probably won't be able to try this recipe for a little bit, I just brewed my first imperial stout and now don't have any open fermenters. Just figured I'd share the wealth and get a discussion going on brewing this great beer!