American Old Guard Stout

DIRECTIONS
Mill the grains and mash at 154°F (68°C) for 60 minutes, aiming for a mash pH of 5.5.

Raise to 168°F (76°C) for 10 minutes and mash out. Vorlauf until the runnings are clear, then run off into the kettle. Sparge the grains and top up as necessary to obtain about 7 gallons (26.5 liters) of wort—or more, depending on your evaporation rate.

Boil for 60 minutes, following the hops schedule. After the boil, chill the wort to about 67°F (19°C), aerate well, and pitch the yeast.

Ferment at 67°F (19°C). Once fermentation is complete, cold-crash, package, and carbonate.

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Brewed 9/11/22. Used 15lb of pale malt in place of LME and DME. Did not read original recipe that has 10lb two row pale and 2 lb Munich, so will likely have a bigger beer!

Set strike temp to 161, but after mash in was 157. Lowered to 154 over 10 mins.

Mash out at 168 for 10 mins and 1 gallon of 168 sparse water. Boiled 60 mins and added yeast nutrient and whirfloc at 10 mins to go.

Pre boil gravity 1065 and post boil 1071. So hit 70% efficiency.

Fermented in plastic bucket. Temp free rose to 79 after 3 days, and gravity dropped to 1022 after 4 days and stayed there. Put into plastic keg after 7 days with 3.5 oz DME.

First sampled 10/1 after 2 weeks in keg. Garage had been warm, but flavor was amazing - as good as any American stout I’ve made. Rich, toasty malt flavor with notes of coffee and toffee. Very smooth with thick medium foam. I’d score it a solid 4.0 on untapped and thinking it’s likely to improve.

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Made 10/29/23. Added 1lb DME to hit a higher SG. Also added 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp gypsum and 1/2 tsp calcium chloride. Forgot to raise temp to 168, although used 168 sparge water at end of mash.

SG was 1075. Cooled to 67 and pitched yeast. Used chiller to keep temp at 67. It reached FG after 6 days. I then raised temp to 70 using fermerap and kept in fermenter for 10 days total. FG was 1020. Added 3.5 oz corn sugar and put into cask.


After 2 weeks in cask there’s light carbonation. Very dark color. Nose is creamy with slight coffee. Palate is very smooth, with sweetness and bitterness perfectly balanced. Good length. Solid 3.8 score.

Made 11/9/24

Strike temp at 156. Mashed in at 154 with 6.3 gallons of filtered water. Used 1 gallon for sparge. Added 1/2 tsp of gypsum and 1 tsp of baking soda to the water before mashing.

Started recirulating after 15 minutes. Lifted basket twice. Mashed for about 75 minutes total. The grains in the malt pipe didn't drain much on second lift. Added 1 gallon of 170 sparge water then left to drain while it came to the boil. Pre-boil gravity was 1065. Added 9 oz of DME rather than a full pound, as didn't want gravity to go too high.

Cooled quickly, 1 minute after I added the last 1 oz of Cascade. Cooled to 65 as water was cold then put into fermenter and added yeast from starter flask. Gravity on the tilt was 1074.

After 12 hours gravity was 1068, so a slow start to fermentation. After 24 hours is was 1054 and after 36 hours 1047.

Gravity continued to fall at a steady rate until it was 1020, then slowed down. Left it in the fermenter for 9 days, as temp was 65 degrees (room temp) so wanted to give yeast time to clean up. FG was 1018, so strong attenuation.

Made 11/16/25

Made this for cask, as kegs were full. Strike temp at 156 and mashed in at 154 with 6.5 gallons of filtered water. Added 1/2 tsp of gypsum and 1 tsp of baking soda to the water before mashing.

Started recirculating after 15 minutes. Lifted basket once after 40 mins. Mashed for about 75 minutes total. Pre-sparge gravity was 1065. Raised temp to 168 for mash out, and after 10 mins lifted basket. Added 2 gallon of 170 sparge water, as I wanted close to 6 US gallons of beer in the cask, and decided it was better to have the required volume of water in the kettle and then adjust as needed with DME to hit a target gravity. The sparge water drained very slowly after about 1 gallon of water was added to the top of the grain basket, so the grains were quite sticky and dense. Left to drain while it came to the boil.

Gravity at start of boil was 1058 and pH was 5.29.

Added 1lb of DME and gravity increased to 1065 as measured on refractometer. Added hops to schedule, including Cascade at 0 minutes as I ended the boil. Added yeast nutrient at 15 mins with Jaded and brought back to boil. Gravity showed 1070, so right on target.

Turned on Jaded and brought temp down to 67, and then transferred to fermenter. Added Tilt and it initially showed gravity was 1068, but an hour later showed it was only 1061, so I am very confused what real gravity is!

Made a 1 liter Yeast starter the day before, using 1 liter of water, 100 grams of DME and 1/2 tsp of yeast nutrient. Put on stirrer and it grew well. With 200Bn starting cells, the calc showed I should have 263 BN with the starter, and needed 251 Bn for a 1075 beer.

Added yeast as soon as it was in the fermenter and I had confirmed temp. Put onto the glycol and set at 67, as I want to control the temp through fermentation.

So starting gravity is anywhere from 1061 to 1070!

After 2 days in the fermenter yeast was overflowing!! It came out the airlock and somehow found its way through the edge of the lid, past the rubber seal. This continued for 2 days! I'm not sure if the issue was a full 6 gallons of liquid, which was close to the top, or an active yeast starter, but I've never seen anything like it. I had to rinse out the airlock several times to clean it up. It was good I used glycol and kept temp at a steady 66.

After 4 days fermentation slowed down, and gravity dropped to 1020. After 7 days I noticed a leak coming out of the tap, so beer was dripping onto the towel. I twisted the tap, but it made no difference, so I decided I had to transfer to the brown cask. There was still a lot of active yeast on top of the fermenter, but this was the only way to stop the leak. I added 3 oz of corn sugar and transferred it all to the cask. It was almost completely full, so a full6 gallons! Gravity was confirmed at 1020, so I'm hoping it will drop another 3 or 4 points in secondary (cask). I also put a few spoons of yeast cake into the cask, to encourage fermentation. After 9 hours there was a steady hiss of CO2 coming out of the cask, so I loosened the lid as I didn't want too much pressure build up.