Brew Day: Terry's CO Milk Stout

Terry's Chocolate Orange

Each year nearing the winter holidays, a wonderful creation surfaces on shelves around the country. The chocolately, orangey masterpiece known as Terry's Chocolate Orange and better still, Terry's Dark Chocolate Orange. This recipe is an attempt to capture the essence of the Terry's CO and wrestle it into a smooth, medium bodied milk stout. Although this recipe contains no chocolate, we achieve a chocolate flavor using grains that had been transformed by the Magic of Maillard. (5 gallon extract)

Fermentables
5.5 lb DME
1.0 lb Lactose
.75 lb Chocolate
.50 lb Caramel 120L
.25 lb Dehusked Carafa III Special

Hops 

Terry's CO Milk Stout 12 hours after Pitch

0.75 oz Galena 13%  45 min
0.25 oz Fuggle 3.6% 15 min
0.25 oz Fuggle 3.6% 05 min

Yeast
Wyeast 1318 London Ale III

Other
Organic Orange Zest 4-medium navel

Estimated

OG: 1.060

FG: 1.016

ABV: 5.8%

IBU: 33

Brew Day Notes: Grains were steeped in 5.5 gal of water at 155 °F for 30 minutes. We had to take about an hour break before starting the boil due to a car accident (luckily no one was seriously injured). The rest of the day went as planned. Tried whirlfloc for the first time. We ended up with about 4.5 gal a bit above the predicted OG and decided to leave it alone. Wyeast 1318 London Ale III was streaked on a slant to bank later.

The Orange zest extract was prepared by zesting the organic oranges, and then adding the zest into a mason jar along with enough grain alcohol to cover the zest. The mixture was placed in the fridge with a lid and swirled occasionally.

There was a good bit of blow-off during fermentation. Wyeast definitely seems to be the best commercially available yeast we have tried so far. It always seems to start quickly and with great vigor. Beer was racked to secondary after 1 week in primary. Specific gravity had fallen and remained steady at 1.022. The beer remained in secondary for approximately 2 weeks. 

After beer was racked into the bottling bucket boiled water was added to bring volume up to 5 gallons reducing the final gravity to 1.017. 6 teaspoons of the orange zest extract was added and stirred into the beer along with the priming sugar. The original diluted gravity was calculated based on the volume added to the beer at bottling.

Measured (before dilution/ after dilution to 5 gal)

Vol: 4.5 gal/ 5 gal
OG: 1.065/1.053

FG: 1.022/1.017

ABV:5.6%/4.7%

Tasting Notes:
2 weeks:
Appearance: Dark brown with a thin tan head
Aroma: orange, coffee, dark chocolate
Taste: orange, coffee, chocolate, slightly sweet
Palate: Medium light body, dry finish
Overall: This beer turned out quite well. The aroma came out spot on with the chocolate orange. The body could have been thicker. Maybe adding in some flaked barley next time will take it to the next level. Compared to a Westbrook Orange Bliss chocolate orange stout, the only thing we felt the Westbrook bested it in was the body.

The Magic of Maillard

Ever walk into a homebrew shop and wonder how or why there are so many varieties and types of malt? I know when I first started home brewing I was amazed by the dozens of choices I had; black malt, chocolate malt, caramel malts, biscuit, Vienna, and victory malts . Dark specialty malts are especially important ingredients for the production of several beer styles (e.g. stouts and porters). Most of these specialty malts owe their existence to one reaction, the Maillard Reaction (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Black malt (Patent Malt)

The Maillard Reaction is responsible for many of our favorite flavors in food. Think about coffee, a nice seared steak, the crust on your favorite bread, or most importantly your favorite porter.  The Reaction is often called the “browning reaction” and it isn’t only about the color but the flavor it produces in a complex set of reactions involving sugars, amino acids, and heat.  

The reactive carbonyl group (having one oxygen atom double-bonded to a carbon atom) of the sugars found in malt reacts with the nucleophilic amino group (organic molecule with a nitrogen base that tends to donate a pair of electrons to form a bond) of the amino acid (building blocks of proteins), and forms a complex mixture of molecules responsible for a range of odors and flavors (Figure 2). This process is accelerated in an alkaline environment (e.g., lye applied to darken pretzels) and the type of the amino acids involved also determines the resulting flavors ⁽¹⁾.

Figure 2. Example of Carbonyl groups of a simple sugar

The temperature and duration of the roast largely determines the level of the reaction. Malts used primarily for coloring beer are produced on a kiln using elevated curing temperatures, while caramel malts and roasted malts are attained from roasting green malt and pilsner malt in a device similar to that used for coffee roasting ⁽²⁾. The longer the kilning process the less aromatics that are present in the finished malt and the more dry burnt flavors are added to beer. The darker malts also have no enzymes available to help in mashing (conversion of starches to fermentable sugars) which includes black malt (Black Patent), chocolate malt, and caramel (crystal malts). The next post will cover how these malts are used to create a stout.

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1. Maillard reaction. (2013, October 30). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:49, November 26, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maillard_reaction&oldid=579509781
2. Coghe, S. et al. 2006. Development of Maillard Reaction Related Characteristics During Malt Roasting. J. Inst. Brew. 112(2), 148–156, 2006

Brew Day: Oatmeal IPA

After tasting Good People's Oatmeal IPA back in August, I knew I would eventually want to make one. Finally that time has come. The recipe is a partial mash, making 5 gal (I don't have the equipment for all grain yet unfortunately). Why do a partial mash instead of just steeping the specialty malts? Check out the Hulk Mash post for the importance of mashing adjuncts.

Setup for Partial Mash. "Mash Tun" (left)

Fermentables
5.5 lb Light DME
2.0 lb 2-Row
1.0 lb Flaked oats
1.0 lb Victory

Hops (all 14.4%)

0.75 oz Citra 60 min
1.00 oz Citra 15 min
1.00 oz Citra 05 min
1.25 oz Citra 07 day dry hop

Yeast
Wyeast 1272 American Ale II

Mash schedule
60 min 153°F

65% Efficiency

Estimated

OG: 1.065

FG: 1.017

ABV: 6.3%

IBU: 66

Brew Day Notes: The "mash tun" did not hold temps well, and was consistently below the target mash temp. We had to add boiling water in addition to heat from the range several times to bring temp up to 153°F in the center of the mash. In all, it ended up mashing for about 90 minutes. Every thing else went as planned except that we ended up with slightly less than 5 gal (approx 4.75). We also inoculated a malt agar plate with Wyeast 1272 American Ale II left over from the smack pack for banking (instructions here using smack pack as your yeast sample).

Oatmeal IPA in Primary

When we racked to secondary over dry hops we lost a good bit of volume due to the huge amount of trub. It looks like we will end up with a little over 3.5 Gallons for bottling.

At bottling the hop aroma was pretty intense. Both of us agreed that it was good enough to drink flat, but more on taste after it has carbed. Ended up with a total of 39-12 oz bottles (3.6 gallons).

Measured
Vol: 4.75 gal
Eff: 70%
OG: 1.072
FG:  1.016
ABV: 7.2%

Tasting Notes:
2 weeks:
Appearance: hazy-gold, with white head, good lacing, and good head retention
Aroma: Citrus (grapefruit, tangerine), slight red fruit, bread, biscuit
Taste: apricot, fruity citrus, slight nut, malt, nice bitterness
Palate: good carbonation, nice mid-light body without the malty sweetness, no noticeable alcohol
Overall: Pretty solid beer. The oatmeal adds the needed body without adding the caramel sweetness found in some IPAs. Will not be around for very long. A brew again beer.