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Black Christmas

The roasted barley was generic pearled barley purchased from my local grocery store and roasted in my oven @425 for 90 minutes, or on my grill on med/low for about 60 minutes. Some of the barley was burnt which made a chalky, black ash which should be fine.

Brewer: KOBB Email: -
Beer: Black Christmas Style: Irish Dry Stout
Type: All grain Size: 5.1 gallons
Color:
101 HCU (~35 SRM)
Bitterness: 33 IBU
OG: 1.052 FG: 1.012
Alcohol: 5.1% v/v (4.0% w/w)
Grain: 7.5 lb. American 2-row
1 lb. Roasted barley
.7 lb. Raw barley
Mash: 77% efficiency
147-148F for 60 minutes. Lower than intended which should make this stout extra dry.
Boil: 75 minutes SG 1.038 7 gallons
4 oz. Cane sugar
Irish moss for last 15 minutes.
Hops: 1 oz. Tettnanger (3.2% AA, 60 min.)
1 oz. Willamette (4.8% AA, 60 min.)
Yeast: Fermentis 04 pitched at 70F.
Log: 12 oz.of soured Guinness Extra Stout will be added to the wort upon kegging. This was done to a batch of Irish cream ale with great results. At racking, hydrometer samples tasted great. I'm excited.
Carbonation: 1/2 cup of cane sugar added durring kegging and left at room temp for 2 weeks.
Tasting: 11/28/10-Tasted sample durring kegging. Sample tasted great. Added 12 oz of soured Guinness Extra Stout with priming sugar. Can't wait to taste this in a few weeks.

12/12/10-First pint has a strong presence of the soured Guinness Extra Stout. The mouthfeel is thinner than I would like but I knew that my low concentration of raw barley could cause this. The carbonation seems cola-like. I'm hoping that the sourness mellows and the carbonation issue will also settle with some tweaking.

12/17/10-Sour taste is more mellow but still too present. Besides that, the flavors are starting to blend nicely. Roasted characteristics are just as anticipated, very smoother even with a small portion of burnt barley, which is detectable. Must use more raw/flaked barley because this beer should be thicker. I don't think the mash temps were right. Probobly more like 152-155F.

12/22/10-Much better. This beer tastes best now, three weeks after kegging. The sourness has faded to a smoothness but the burnt barley flavor is now more aparent. Next time, maybe I'll just buy the roasted barley and not risk burning it on my grill.

Recipe posted 12/13/10.