Brew 2. Oatmeal Stout (Black Rock)- 5.76% alc/vol

  Day 1 - Sat 27th July Black Rock Oatmeal Stout

After brewing the first batch I was keen to give it another crack.
The first batch went from 1.040 to 1.012, so doing the maths it is about 3.66% alc by vol, which is a bit light, and the stuff from the hydrometer test was a bit watery.
S when I went to the Brew House I said I wanted something with a bit more alcohol and thickness. So I got 2 cans of the Black Rock Oatmeal Stout and one bag of 1kg of Dextrose.
When I did the OG it was 1.060 and it needs to work itself down to 1.014 so hopefully there will be a beer of about 6% alc/vol. That sounds more interesting, also, because its got 2 tins worth it shouldn't be as watery.
It is going to take 10 days to ferment. They suggest 4 weeks for 2ndary fermentation, hopefully I'll still be working my way through the first batch.
Cost, 2 tins of  Black Rock Oatmeal Stout@29.90 and 1kg of Dextrose (3.50) and carbonation tablets (around 60) for $6.10. All up $69.40.
So steralised all the equipment and also collecting lots of bottles. Hopefully I'll have over 60 by the time its brewed.
I've started to get into the habit of rinsing the bottles out after drinking them so easier to steralise on bottling day. 

Day 8 fermenting - Sunday 4th August

Initially it was bubbling away like mad, also the temperature was about 24 deg C to begin with, it then started to settle down a bit to 20 deg C and not so active about day 5. It dropped down to about 17 deg C so I had to raise the temperature a bit more with the oil heater about day 6 as there has been a bit of cold snap. Its back up around 18-20 deg C. Tomorrow or Tuesday I'll check the  FG to see where it is at.

 Day 10/11 fermenting- 6th/7th August

 Checking for density it is 1.016 day 10, just a bit higher than the target of 1.014. Day 11 the same at 1.016, so ready for bottling tomorrow. I'm going to be using glass bottles for this so a slow process, over 60 bottles.
Electricity bill in and it is 11$ higher than normal. This is because I've been running the heater in the hot press so that brew temperature stays within range of 18-24 deg C. A bit of a cold snap at the moment. Also part of it was hot water for Zoe & Karl as invoice is from Thursday to Wednesday so 4 days they were here. It should drop back as there may not be many more brewing days for this batch.
So based on the calculation this one should be about 5.7% alcohol/vol. I'm looking forward to a taste of it.

So alc/vol is 5.76% which  is OK, I was hoping it would be at  6%. 


Bottling- Crisis
This was a bit of disaster. There may be a couple of dud bottles where I forgot to put in the carbonation tablets. Also the bottle cap double lever press did not work very well. I was putting quite a lot of pressure on it and the cap was still on skewed.  I thought I'd tested it, but obviously hadn't. I had 60 odd bottles of beer open and not capped. Oops!
So I did a mad dash down to the brew house and ended up buying a single lever press bottle top press for $69. That worked great and they glass bottles were capped in next to no time.
So the idea of saving on the bottles (about $16.50 for 15 PET bottles, so $33 for 30 required for the 23l) was not the saving that I thought I'd get. Anyway I prefer out of bottles rather than plastic but need to collect lots of bottles. I need about 70 333ml bottles for one batch. So I need to keep my eye out for them.
I'm also getting into the habit of rinsing the bottles straight after use so they are easier to sterilize.

So this one says 4 weeks until ready. I'll do an update when they are ready for tasting.

Tasting.

The directions recommend 4 weeks for 2nd fermentation. I did notice that there was a lot of settlement in the bottles. The front one is the bottom of the barrel so you'd expect a bit.
I tried a bottle after 2 weeks and had a wicked headache the next day. Obviously too much stuff still floating in the beer and not settled out yet. This one I'll definitely leave for the 4 week period.
15th Sept 2019
 A bit of a aching head in middle of night from this one, so only one bottle at a time so far. Maybe it needs to settle more.
Similar to the double can Coopers Stout, I can't taste too much difference, but I get a bit of a headache from this. One normal .33l bottle OK but any more and headache.
Its not as strong as the Coopers Double Stout but maybe too much residue from yeast. I wouldn't spend the extra for it again.
I may leave these to sit for a while and see if they improve with age.