Iron Brewer Challenge - African Queen Stout

So its been a while since I've brewed - and to be honest - its been a while since I've enjoyed a pint of beer. Between travel, two rounds of some pretty nasty bugs, and a crazy work schedule life hasn't been friendly to my brewing hobby.

So its damned well time I brew a beer! Even better, todays beer is another "brewing challenge" set by my homebrew club, the London Homebrewers Guild. This will be the fourth such brew I've participated in - the previous ones being a SMaSH challenge, the now infamous grocery store challenge, and and advent brew/beer exchange. This time we're doing an Iron Brewer challenge - like the Iron Chef TV show. Basically, you draw two ingredients out of a hat, and you must incorporate those into your brew.

Our list if ingredients was imaginative - but limited to things you'd find (or would find similar flavours), in beer: Grand Marnier, Cloves, Strawberries, Mint, Amaretto, Chocolate, Blueberry, Lemon, Lime, Honey, Vanilla, Baileys, and Oranges. Some of my fellow brewers received somewhat difficult combinations - strawberry & clove for example. I lucked out - Grand Mariner & Amaretto.

Based on those ingredients I started building a recipe, using cocktails as a basis for mixing my flavours. I originally started with a plan to mimic a B52 - grand marnier, amaretto and lactose (to mimic Irish cream) in a mildly hopped caramel-malt forward beer. But a few mixing the liquors into a commercial pale ale revealed that this would not be a good idea. I then began thinking about dark beers, with their intense roasted flavour. These can be quite similar to coffee & chocolate in their flavour profile, and coffee and chocolate often go well with grand marnier and amaretto. A bit of research found a hot coffee drink - an African Queen - comprised of coffee, grand marnier, amaretto and a bit of whipped cream - AKA the original mix of liquors and lactose I was planning on. I can assure you that extensive testing of this beverage has convinced me that it should work well as a beer - so I planned out a roasty milk-stout (that got converted into a more dry-ish stout due to a shopping error) based on this wonderful coffee beverage.

Not wanting to make too much of this - in case it isn't as good as my porter + liquor tests suggested it would be - I planned a 5L batch, using brew-in-a-bag to prepare the beer. I also forgot to order lactose, so instead I'm doing a high-body mash (69C) to provide some sweetness to counter the bitter liquors I am adding. Lastly, I am adding the liquors at flame-out, to drive off their alcohol while retaining their flavours & aromatics. If I find their character too mild, I can "dry booze" with a little more before bottling.

Recipe & brew-day notes below the fold...

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Recipe:

African Queen Stout

Dry Stout

Type: All Grain	Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 l
Boil Size: 7.09 l	Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min	Equipment: 5L BIAB
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 0.89 kg Canadian 2 Row Pale Malt (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 73.6 % 0.17 kg Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 2 14.0 % 50 g Blackprinz Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.1 % 50 g Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.1 % 50 g Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 5 4.1 % 2.50 g Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus (CTZ) [15.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 22.3 IBUs 7.00 g Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 7 17.0 IBUs 2 shots Amaretto (Boil 0.0 mins) Spice 8 - 2 shots Curacao (Boil 0.0 mins) Spice 9 - 1.0 pkg San Diego Super Yeast (White Labs #WLP090) Yeast 10 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.051 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.059 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG	Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.1 %
Bitterness: 39.3 IBUs	Est Color: 60.5 SRM
Mash Profile
Mash Name: BIAB, Full Body	Total Grain Weight: 1.21 kg
Sparge Water: 0.00 l	Grain Temperature: 22.2 C
Sparge Temperature: 75.6 C	Tun Temperature: 22.2 C
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE	Mash PH: 5.20
Mash Steps Name Description Step Temp Step Time Saccharification  Add 7.83 l of water at 73.2 C 68.9 C 60 min Mash Out Heat to 75.6 C 75.6 C 10 min
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Bottle	Volumes of CO2: 2.3
Pressure/Weight: 29.41 g	Carbonation Used: Bottle with 29.41 g Corn Sugar
Created with BeerSmith

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Brew-Day Notes:

1. I forgot when setting up beersmith that a BIAB setup generally has no thermal mass, so I overshot my mash temp by nearly 4C. I then over-cooled, but managed to maintain the right temp for the remainder of the 60min mash.
2. My efficiency was off the hook - instead of the expected 72% I got 87%! Prior to boil, the gravity was 1.043 instead of the predicted 1.036.  Woohoo, more booze!  To counter I upped the CTZ hops by 0.5g to balance out the sweetness.
3. I made the mistake of trying to help out SWIMBO organize the basement during the boil; the resulting boil-over cost me at least 1L (20%) of the batch.