Black Freren Gate Stout

There I am hard at work to make another all grain brew. Last saturday I was supposed to go hill walking but then it got called off which I happy about as I wasn't feeling great. I decided to brew up the stout I had been planning. The recipe started as a Beamish/Dry Irish stout clone from Brew Your Own Magazine. I added in some other bits of malt I had about. I wanted a bit of nice malt character to beef it up a bit. I think a lot of stouts just have a roast barley taste with nothing else going on. This is going to be my winter warming stout.

Recipe:

Grain:
Pale Ale Malt 2.7kg
Roast Barley 500g
Chocolate Malt 265g
Medium Crystal 530g

Hops:
Perle 7.1%AA 30g @ 60 minutes from end of boil
Goldings 4.5%AA 14g @ 15 minutes from end of boil

Yeast: Safale US 05

Mashed 66-67 degrees celsius for an hour.

The gravity was about 1.037 so it should turn out at about 4% ABV. I think I have been taking the gravity of my beers at too high a temperature. The hygrometer works at 20 degrees but my wort would usually be at 25-28 degrees before I pitch the yeast. This might explain my wheat beer. I thought it had an ABV of about 5% but on tasting it was much stronger. I would have one bottle and feel pretty woozy. So maybe I've been underestimating the gravity. In future I'll take the sample and let it cool down and then read the gravity.

The name is taken from the Black Freren Gate in Kilkenny city near the Black Abbey Church. I used to live between the gate and the abbey. On a cold foggy night you always wondered if maybe the past and present would collide and you might glimpse a monk wandering the old cobbled streets. Hopefully some day I will get back to living in Kilkenny.