National Homebrew Club Ireland

Instructions on site:

Ingredients. Roasted Barley, Chocolate Malt, Carapils Malt. Galena hops 1 Whirlfloc Tablet. 1 Ale Yeast Suitable for all grain or extract brewing. Requires 3.0kg Dark Dry Malt Extract, or 5.2kg of crushed Maris Otter malt for all grain brewing. Once the wort comes to the boil add the hops as labelled. These hops will be left to boil for an hour. 15 minutes from the end of the one hour boil, add the whirlfloc tablet.

I was surprised to find no flavour/aroma hop additions, only bittering Galena hops to be added at 60mins. I checked it out, and the roast flavours are meant to shine through, which the aroma hops might take away from (though adding some aroma hops yerself couldn't hurt a bit of complexity). I left the kit as is anyways for a fair review. I tasted Porterhouse's wrasslers xxx and celebration stouts recently and really liked them both so I'm looking forward to tasting this kit.

There's a decent whack of malt in there. I had to pack it into 2 hopsacks and they were pretty full.

Here's some pics with my crappy wort chiller (the tap will not fit securely, and this is a universal tap, and no matter how many jubilee clips I attach it still leaks): http://imgur.com/a/t9xDh

Anyhoo, I cooled and mixed with cold water to 20C and added the US-05 dry. Made up to 21L - Friday 31st Jan. Will update when I bottle.

Hi DM

Is your chiller leaking at the hose connection?

You need to get yourself a roll of insulation tape and wrap the copper pipe where you've attached the hose.
This will increase the O.D. of the copper.  Start on the coil side of the pipe so you get an overlap, don't be afraid to lash the tape on and make sure its approx. 5cm wide.
You want a nice tight fit before you put the clips on.  If needs be you can soak the end of the hose in hot water to help slide it over.

HTH

Damian

Cheers Damo, that sounds great.

Wasn't expecting a fix for the wort chiller. I knew it'd be something I shoulda thought of in the end. It's been fun chilling with a squeezy toilet paper rag stopping the water running into the pot, but I think it's time for the insulation tape upgrade :)

use a flame or gas ring being careful to take it to the point that it softens but not catch fire, it should shink onto the copper

no probs :)

Quote from: DrowningManatee on February 05, 2014, 01:28:27 PM
I was surprised to find no flavour/aroma hop additions, only bittering Galena hops to be added at 60mins.

many stouts only use hops for bittering. I think you did the right thing leaving it as-is  ;)
There's always next time to go crazy!

How did this beer turn out in the end?

Here's some images of the final beer taken by my housemate. The beer is actually darker and not so ruby red in real life, it was a sunny day:

http://imgur.com/a/yiRwp

I'm not usually a stout fan but drinking this batch has taken the final nail off that coffin:

Appearance: Almost black, but ruby red with the light shining through. A vigorous pour yielded 2 fingers of head with medium head retention. The lacing on the glass was prominent.

Smell: Cocoa, caramel, sharp roasted barley (how I like it ie.Guinness foreign extra as opposed to plain guinness). 'Thick' smell if that makes any sense?

Taste: Rich. Chocolate, coffee upfront. Bitterness from roasted barley and hops at the end.

Mouthfeel: Medium-full bodied (the internet seems to reckon Irish stouts have a light body?) with lightish carbonation. No nitro system but I think I like it a bit sharp and roasty anyway (less creamy).

Overall:
Great beer that has persuaded me into the world of stouts. I will buy this kit again as I now want a regular supply of this beer. I don't like guinness as it tastes flavourless to me, but this is a full, rich taste experience. My mates reckoned they could detect the homebrew twang but I couldn't really find it. Really impressed, recommend it to anyone.

Loving that first pic

I don't think i've ever heard someone say they don't like the HBC stout :)

Good to see the HBC Stout kit has another fan ... I keep coming back to this one, it really is a tasty stout

Generally brew in 13 - 15 ltr batches, would ye reckon the kit with 1.5kg of extract and maybe some dem sugar would manage this.

If you want it as is expected you should skip the dem and could lay off the extract a bit (though of course it'd be nice to ramp up the abv - if thats what yer afer then go for it. I know dem sugar has some unfermentables but would it dry it out a bit?) . I dont really know but thats my 2 cent, someone else might know a bit more about it

Just reread this and I see what you mean now, I was assuming 2x1.5kg extract, sorry

I just bottled a batch of this last week and looking forward to giving it a go.

Any ideas on the weights of the different grains used in this

Not a clue meself man, id only be guessin

Put this on myself yesterday, smelled lovely in the boiler. Defo think they should include the weight of the grains so that you could order them yourself for future brews

then you wouldn't buy their great product.

What OG have people been getting with this kit?

Brewed it earlier today and had to rush out the door soon after putting it in the bucket so forgot to take a reading.  Took one a few hours later when I got home and it's 1.062 (https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-CXWNWG80tpI/U7h8PJM8E2I/AAAAAAAAIE4/EeNwknuIp3M/w890-h1186-no/IMG_20140705_232857.jpg)!!

This is more than I expected for a stout...  is this usual?

I notice sometimes that the grainy bits sink to the bottom of the FV for the first few days, maybe its a bad reading if you're taking it from the tap?

Just put this on - can't wait to try it. OG was 1.043.

Hey peps, just bought this kit myself along with 1.5kg of Dark LME and 1.5kg of Maris Otter LME. I was thinking of brewing this short to 20L as I would like a this to turn out at around 6%. I'm also gonna add .5ml of Bourbon essence to each bottle for the criac.
Can anyone tell me what the abv turns out when its brewed to 23l, also if I brew to 20L would I need to add some dextrose to get 6%

Can any help a brother out, I'm hoping to brew this baby tonight

OK I'm guessing anyone who has brewed this hasn't been on here since I posted these questions .
Anyway no matter, so I'm gonna give this a go tomorrow.

Brew the kit to 20l, add 400g of brown sugar.
But brew into primary for 7-10 days,

Add to secondary and dry hop with 30g fuggles for 7 days.

At bottle conditioning
add .5ml of bourbon essence per 500ml bottle
add .3ml of vanilla essence per 500ml bottle

I'm thinking I'm going to end up with a 6% stout similar to Leann Folan,
What do you guys think

Is this the HBC Full Extract Extra Irish Stout or just Irish Stout?

Sampled a bottle of this last night.

Primary for a week - secondary for over a month (I was busy...) and its been in the bottle for over two weeks.

Absolutely chuffed with it. Tastes great, nice bitterness to it. Decent head.

I'm gonna leave it now until Xmas.

With these HBC kits, do you steep the grains or just throw them in the pot and boil them along with the extract?

Quote from: shweeney on October 16, 2014, 03:43:21 PM
With these HBC kits, do you steep the grains or just throw them in the pot and boil them along with the extract?

Steep them.

have the "Extra" version of this on at the moment.  Moved it to secondary tonight and was surprised at the amount of gunk at the bottom of the fermenter, a lot more than in any previous brew I've done.  I only did half the kit but threw in the whole whirlfloc tablet - could this be the cause of the extra trub? - I read somewhere that half a tab is enough for a full 23L batch so I may have used 4 times the necessary amount.

OG was 1050, its now at 1020 (though I took that sample from the tap with a lot of gunk) - anyone done this kit know where it's likely to finish?

I brewed the HBC dry stout on Monday afternoon and there's been no sign of fermentation yet........Did any of you experience this yourselves??

Where is your fermenter?

Are you sure the lid is on tight?

is there any foam on the top of the liquid - mine was fermenting fairly vigorously after 2 days.

Mmmmmm...the fermenter is in my sitting room, with a fairly consistent temp of 16-20 celcius. The lid is on tight alright, but I'm not 100% sure about the foam head, I'll check it out later this afternoon and report back! Thanks for the advice.

Hey Shweeney, yeah there is a reasonable amount of foam on the top alright, but still no fermentation. Sucks.

The only way to really know theres no fermentation is to check the gravity.

You could have a leak around the airlock. Try pressing down on the lid with your hand. The water level in the airlock should rise and stay there. If it doesn't rise, or falls back whilst still pressing, CO2 is escaping from somewhere.

It seems to have been an airlock issue as i took a gravity reading and it's fermented alright. Final abv should be about 3.5%.

my HBC stout has been in the bottle for 6 weeks now and I've had 2 issues with it

1. It's flat - there's a slight hiss when I open the bottle, but no head or noticeable carbonation while drinking.  Not sure if I under-primed, its the second batch in a row with this problem and they were the first 2 where I've batch primed as opposed to just priming the bottles directly; unfortunately I'd bottled this batch before I tried the last batch and noticed it.  I might try opening and re-priming a few of the bottles.

2. There's a pronounced wheat-beer-esque flavour in the aftertaste - it's not unpleasant (I like wheatbeer) but it's not what you'd expect from a stout.  Anyone any thoughts on where this might have come from?  The kit came with US05 yeast which is supposed to be very clean tasting.  Fermentation would have been at about 22C, though it might have been a few degrees warmer when I pitched.

Quote from: shweeney on January 09, 2015, 12:24:55 PM
my HBC stout has been in the bottle for 6 weeks now and I've had 2 issues with it

1. It's flat - there's a slight hiss when I open the bottle, but no head or noticeable carbonation while drinking.  Not sure if I under-primed, its the second batch in a row with this problem and they were the first 2 where I've batch primed as opposed to just priming the bottles directly

Perhaps the priming sugar solution didn't mix well with the beer when you racked to the bottling bucket. Can happen if the siphon is running slowly. I always do a gentle whirlpool with the racking cane to ensure the sugar is mixed through the batch.

Quote from: shweeney on January 09, 2015, 12:24:55 PM

2. There's a pronounced wheat-beer-esque flavour in the aftertaste - it's not unpleasant (I like wheatbeer) but it's not what you'd expect from a stout.  Anyone any thoughts on where this might have come from?  The kit came with US05 yeast which is supposed to be very clean tasting.  Fermentation would have been at about 22C, though it might have been a few degrees warmer when I pitched.

Belgian flavours in a beer that isn't supposed to taste Belgian is almost certainly because you pitched and fermented too warm. 22C is too warm for US-05. You're better off at <20C. And it's good practice to pitch colder than you intend to ferment at. I'd say pitching at ~25C is definitely the culprit. Far too hot.

Quote from: Bubbles on January 09, 2015, 01:13:13 PM

Perhaps the priming sugar solution didn't mix well with the beer when you racked to the bottling bucket. Can happen if the siphon is running slowly. I always do a gentle whirlpool with the racking cane to ensure the sugar is mixed through the batch.

It's possible - I might just go back to priming the bottles, I'm only doing 12L batches so I'm not convinced batch priming is saving me any time.

Quote
Belgian flavours in a beer that isn't supposed to taste Belgian is almost certainly because you pitched and fermented too warm. 22C is too warm for US-05. You're better off at <20C. And it's good practice to pitch colder than you intend to ferment at. I'd say pitching at ~25C is definitely the culprit. Far too hot.

that was my suspicion after reading some discussions elsewhere.  I don't have any temperature control so 21-22C is what I'm stuck with, but I could probably get it cooler for pitching. cheers.

The problem with carbing the bottle individually is that you just don't get the same level of control that you get with batch priming. I've made several excellent beers over the years that were let down by inappropriate (lower) levels of carbonation.

The pitching temp is even more important than the fermentation temperature. Those Belgian flavours you're tasting are esters formed during the lag phase when the yeast is reproducing in preparation for fermentation. Too much heat makes the yeast spit out more of those flavours than if it was fermented cooler. Are you doing full boils and cooling with an immersion chiller?

Is there a cooler room in your house? A cupboard, utility room, under the stairs. Anywhere there's no radiator really..

Always advisable to pop 500 ml into a Lucozade bottle, that way you can see and feel whats happening!

Quote from: Bubbles on January 09, 2015, 01:31:58 PM
The problem with carbing the bottle individually is that you just don't get the same level of control that you get with batch priming. I've made several excellent beers over the years that were let down by inappropriate (lower) levels of carbonation.

The pitching temp is even more important than the fermentation temperature. Those Belgian flavours you're tasting are esters formed during the lag phase when the yeast is reproducing in preparation for fermentation. Too much heat makes the yeast spit out more of those flavours than if it was fermented cooler. Are you doing full boils and cooling with an immersion chiller?

Is there a cooler room in your house? A cupboard, utility room, under the stairs. Anywhere there's no radiator really..

I've generally achieved decent results bottle priming, you might get the odd bottle that's less carbonated, but I've now had 2 batch-primed batches that didn't carbonate at all which is worse.

I cooled recent batches with ice, but couldn't get the last few degrees down so thought "f*** it" and pitched.  Was planning to either get an IC or move to no-chill, but in both cases the equipment is designed for full batches, and I'm happier doing smaller volumes as I only have so much space for bottles (also, if I'd done a full batch of this stout, I'd now have 40+ bottles of flat Witstout  :) )
The only cooler room is our downstairs loo, which has no heating and is definitely a few degrees cooler, but I don't want to put it in there for obvious reasons.

Quote from: Will_D on January 09, 2015, 02:06:14 PM
Always advisable to pop 500 ml into a Lucozade bottle, that way you can see and feel whats happening!

Feckin broken record!