So... What is it?
A white stout is a beer that challenges traditional expectations by combining the appearance of a light-colored beer, often resembling a pale ale or even a golden lager, with the flavors typically associated with a stout. Unlike a traditional stout, which is typically dark brown to black in color with roasted malt flavors, a white stout achieves its stout-like characteristics through the use of coffee beans, cocoa nibs and even spiced tinctures in the fermentation step, to maintain a lighter color with full body stouty goodness!
What's our like?
Our White stout takes an already strange style... and makes it even stranger! not only is ours a blonde ale infused with all the roasty goodness of a coffee bean based stout, it is also packed full of spices such as vanilla, sultanas, allspice berries, cinnamon, cacao nib extract and of course, REAL hot cross buns thrown into the mash! To top it all off is a late boil addition of lactose to bring everything together with a creamy sweetness that lingers on the tongue. Coming in at a reasonable 4.7% it is a very sessionable hot cross bun in a glass to keep you warm and cozy all Easter weekend long!
POST BREW ALTERATIONS
- In hindsight we would increase our sultana (raisin) addition from 500g (1.1 lb) to 1kg (2.2 lb) to really boost the Hot cross bun character!
Batch Size & Stats
- 19L / 5 gal finished beer
- 25L (6.6 gal) wort
- Starting gravity – 1.048
- Final gravity 1.013
- ABV – 4.7%
What ingredients?
Water
With sparging
- 20L (5.2 gal) Strike water at 69°C (156.2°F)
- 15L (3.9 gal) Sparge water approx. 78°C (172°F)
Without sparging
- 30L (7.9 gal) strike water approx. 69°C (156.2°F)
Malts
Total Grain Bill 4.91kg (10.8 4lb)
- Pale ale malt – 3.98kg (8.77 lb)
- wheat – 490g (1.08 lb)
- Rolled Oats - 290g (0.64 lb)
- Gladiator malt (dextrin malt)– 150g (0.33 lb)
- Rice Hulls - 250g (0.55 lb)
Adjuncts
- Traditional Hot Cross Buns - 450g (1 lb) in Mash
- Lactose - 220g (0.48 lb) start of boil
- sultanas (raisins) - 500g (1.1 lb) - end of fermentation
Spice Tincture - soak all spices in cacao nib spirit for a week before adding to fermenter at final gravity
- 2 vanilla beans
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 8 all spice berries
- cacao nib spirit 250mL - (to make this toast 500g of cacao nibs at 180°C (356°F) for 5 mins then soak nibs in 700mL of rum or vodka for a week then strain)
Hops & whirlfloc tablets
Northern Brewer
- 20g (0.7 oz) - 60 minutes left in the boil
Spalt Spalter
- 35g (1.23 oz) - 5 minutes left in the boil
Whirlfloc
- 0.75g (0.025 oz) / 1 tablet – 15 minutes left in the boil
Yeast options & fermentation temperatures
- US-05 – ferment at 20°C (68°F) 23g (0.81 oz) / (2 packets)
- AUS-05 – ferment at 20°C (68°F) 23g (0.81 oz) / (2 packets)
- S-04 – ferment at 18°C (64.4°F) 22g (0.81 oz) / (2 packets)
Water Profile
- Ca2+62
- Mg2+ 9
- Na+ 15
- Cl- 98
- SO42- 49
- HCO3- 57
Step by step process
Step 1 – Milling
- Mill grains to medium crush (set mill rollers to a gap of approx. 1.00mm / 0.039 inches (credit card width)
- Just keep in mind roller gap settings are not universal so as you brew more batches you will find the ideal crush size for your setup
- Alternatively if you don’t have a grain mill you can order your grains crushed from most homebrew stores, both online and in person
Step 2 – Mashing
Mash for 60 minutes at 69°C (156.2°F) with 20L (5.2 gal) of strike water (with sparging - 30L (7.9 gal without sparging)
- Set your strike water to a few degrees above the target mash temperature (you can use the calculator in our website for this)
- ensure you mix in the grains thoroughly with a mash paddle to prevent dough balls from forming (big spoons, spatulas or whisks will also work)
- its easier to mash the grains and prevent dough balls if you add a little grain at a time, mix, add more grain and repeat until all the grains are mixed
if you don’t have a mash tun with heating then ensure after you have finished mixing the grains in to insulate your mash tun (thick neoprene or heavy blankets both work well)
Step 3 (optional) – Sparging
- if your setup has the capability to sparge then do so with 15L (3.9 gal) Sparge water approx. 78°C (172°F)
- if you are not sparging and using a BIAB (brew in a bag) method then remove grains from mash tun and twist and squeeze the bag to get as much liquid out of the grains as possible
- as you start sparging (or straining your BIAB bag) begin raising the temperature of your wort to a boil
Step 4 – Boiling
- once your wort begins to boil start a timer for a 60-minute boil and add your bittering hops, 20g (0.7 oz) of Northern Brewer
- at 15 minutes left in the boil add 1 whirlfloc tablet (OR granulated whirlfloc 0.7g (0.025 oz)
- at 5 minutes left in the boil add 35g (1.23 oz) of Spalt Spatler
- after 60 mins of boil turn off your heat source
Step 5 – Whirlpooling / cooling
- after 60 mins of boil turn off your heat source and begin cooling
- once you’ve reached yeast pitching temperature take an original gravity reading of your wort
Step 6 – Yeast Pitching
- It is best to make a yeast starter before beginning your brew day (ideally 1 day before) to ensure your yeast are as active and healthy as possible before pitching, but not completely necessary – you could also just rehydrate yeast 30 minutes before pitching.
- Wort Aeration (Optional) if you have a paint mixer give your wort a quick blitz before pitching yeast to help add more dissolved oxygen into the wort to help the yeast have a healthier kick start into fermentation
- Now add your tincture of Vanilla extract! (or you can wait till end of fermentation if you prefer)
- Pitch yeast in wort a degree or two higher than the target fermentation temperature to help yeast take off more aggressively
- To make a yeast starter you can use either:
- DME (dry malt extract) at a ratio of approx. 100g per 1L water (3.5 oz per 33 fluid ounces) for gravity of approx. 1.040
- some unfermented wort kept cold and sanitary from a previous brew day
- 70g of table sugar per 1L water (2.5 oz per 33 fluid ounces) – however, it is best to use malt sugar (wort / DME) whenever possible to reduce the chance of shocking the yeast with a different food source from starter to wort pitching
- To rehydrate yeast
- Add yeast to approx. 10 times as much room temperature water as the weight of the yeast e.g. 10g yeast in 100 ml water (0.35 oz yeast in 3.5 fluid ounces water)
Step 7 – Fermentation & Fruit and Spice additions!
- Allow yeast to ferment over the next week or two (aprox)
- If you have a temperature-controlled system keep the fermenter temperature to the recommended fermentation temperature for each yeast strain (stated in the yeast ingredients section above)
- After 4 days of fermentation or around 1.015 gravity, we added our sultanas (raisins)
- On day 6 of fermentation we added our 250g (0.5 lb) of Arabica coffee beans and spice tincture and if you have temp control then raise the temperature of fermentation by 2 degrees for a diacetyl rest for the next 2 days
- 2 days after adding the coffee and spice tincture it is time to cold crash (if you can) and bottle / keg!
- It's important to note that fermentation times will vary based on your circumstances like temperature, amount of yeast pitched, the healthiness of yeast, the gravity of the wort, pH, etc. so don’t stress be patient and know that these times are just a rough guide
- If you have temp control then when there are 2 days left of fermentation raise the temperature by 2 degrees for a diacetyl rest (once gravity reaches roughly 1.014) & gravity is the same 3 days in a row move onto cold crashing! (If you can’t / don’t want to cold crash go straight to kegging/bottling your beer!)
Step 8 (optional) – Cold crashing
- begin cold crashing your fermenter (bring the temperature of your fermenter down to as close to 0°C (32°F) as possible, for 2 days to a week depending on how patient you are
- If you don’t have a temp-controlled fermenter, you can cold crash by putting your fermenter in a fridge or temp-controlled chest freezer
- After you have finished cold crashing it's time to keg/bottle your beer! If you are bottling your beer from the fermenter uncarbonated, remember to add about 5-7 grams (0.17 - 0.24 oz) of priming sugar to your bottles to carbonate your beer.
