Brew #50 and #51

I brewed a third dark stranger in December, this is my house stout that start out as Cloaked Stranger. As usual I messed around with the recipe based on what I had to hand. I wanted to get rid of my older dark malts so I used a lot more than usual. I have not tapped the keg yet but the sample bottles came out pretty spot on. As usual, this is a heavy in your face stout.

Dark Stranger Stout 3

13-A Dry Stout
Author: Reuben Gray (Saruman)
Date: 01/12/2012

Size: 24.96 L
Efficiency: 83.26%
Attenuation: 57.9%
Calories: 195.16 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.057 (1.036 - 1.050)
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Terminal Gravity: 1.024 (1.007 - 1.011)
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Color: 81.0 (49.25 - 78.8)
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Alcohol: 4.34% (4.0% - 5.0%)
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Bitterness: 42.7 (30.0 - 45.0)
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Ingredients:

3,574.0 g (59.5%) Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt - added during mash
230 g (3.8%) Munich Malt - added during mash
523 g (8.7%) Amber Malt - added during mash
500 g (8.3%) Brown Malt - added during mash
575 g (9.6%) Black Malt - added during mash
606 g (10.1%) Roasted Barley - added during mash
36 g (32.1%) Fuggle (6.1%) - added during boil, boiled 60 m
45 g (40.2%) Fuggle (4.1%) - added during boil, boiled 30 m
31 g (27.7%) East Kent Goldings (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 15 m
1 ea Danstar 3767 Nottingham

Notes

Mash 67c for 60m

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.23

This next beer was supposed to be a re-brew and tweaked version of Hopping Mad, the big American Amber/IPA type beer I did in November. I'm currently drinking that and it's beautiful. I was going to enter this next version in the upcoming homebrew competition. When I kegged it though, I was shocked at what came out. Firstly the gravity finished much higher than I had though. I expected 1.025 but I got 1.032 instead. It means I lost about 1% ABV. Secondly I could get no real hop character, unlike kegging time for Hopping Mad which was full of alpha acid hop goodness. In fact, this seemed closer to some sort of Belgian dubbel. I suspect the cause is my complete lack of temperature control in my new home. I reckon it fermented far too warm. No sample bottles from this batch so until I tap the keg (dry hopped), I will have no real idea what to class this beer so for now it's called Not Sure.
In my other house, I had a separate room that I could control the temperature in for the most part, unless it was very hot out which is not too often in Ireland. In the little Dublin home though I don't so whatever the room temp happens to be, which is usually 20 - 22C and I always kept my fermenting room at 18c unless I was doing a Belgian beer.

Not Sure...

14-C Imperial IPA
Author: Reuben Gray (Saruman)
Date: 15/12/2012

Size: 23.43 L
Efficiency: 77.49%
Attenuation: 61.9%
Calories: 287.79 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.084 (1.070 - 1.090)
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Terminal Gravity: 1.032 (1.010 - 1.020)
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Color: 56.07 (15.76 - 29.55)
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Alcohol: 6.89% (7.5% - 10.0%)
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Bitterness: 111.9 (60.0 - 120.0)
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Ingredients:

5473 g (56.5%) Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt - added during mash
1000 g (10.3%) Special B - added during mash
500 g (5.2%) Belgian Biscuit - added during mash
162 g (1.7%) Amber Malt - added during mash
386 g (4.0%) Crystal Malt - added during mash
772 g (8.0%) Light Crystal 30 - added during mash
1400 g (14.4%) Wheat Malt - added during mash
39 g (18.4%) Nelson Sauvin (12.6%) - added during boil, boiled 90 m
40 g (18.9%) Cascade (7.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 m
27 g (12.7%) Cascade (7.0%) - added during boil, boiled 30 m
27 g (12.7%) Cascade (7.0%) - added during boil, boiled 15 m
20 g (9.4%) Nelson Sauvin (12.6%) - added during boil, boiled 5 m
29 g (13.7%) Nelson Sauvin (12.6%) - steeped after boil
30 g (14.2%) Nelson Sauvin (12.6%) - added dry to primary fermenter
1 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 15 m
1 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.23