Round 2: Dark Chocolate Stout

I love to brew beer, but after the first brew I did, there was a four month long whirl wind hiatus wherein my wife and I got married, our best friends got married, there were trips and various things that took me away from what I loved to do, but I wouldn't have changed them for anything.

The first time I ever tried Old Rasputin, my first real stout, I wanted to brew something close to it even if I could not brew the real thing. I found an interesting recipe on the homebrew forum I frequent. It was for a Double Chocolate Stout. It sounded all shades of delicious.

Double Chocolate Stout Recipe (Courtesy of Homebrew Talk Recipes Section) (Modified for my setup)

7.5lbs Pale Malt
1lb Crystal 77L Malt
1lb Chocolate Malt
1/2lb Roasted Barley

2oz Liberty Hops
0.5oz Saaz Hops

1pkg Saf-ale US-04 Yeast

1/2lb Chocolate Cocoa Powder (end of boil)
0.6oz Chocolate Extract (@ kegging)
12 oz milk sugar (lactose)(during fermentation)

After going through the mash I thought I was in good shape. I would forgo the search for iodine and go on time and my gut. For the most part it went well. After taking first runnings and following through with the sparge, I was pretty confident. That is, until I cooled the boiling wort and put it in the carboy. No F-ing way. There's even less beer than last time! The recipe called for 5 gallons and I got all of a little more than 3 gallons. I was heartbroken. I could go lower on the gravity I thought and after doing a little research, I found I could add boiled and cooled water to the fermenting beer without losing much. So I added 2.5 gallons. Bad move. The gravity plummeted from 1.067 to 1.042. Now, spare me, I was still a VERY new brewer and my confidence in my technique betrayed me a bit.

 I looked online to see what my final gravity might come out to and most said it would turn out either dry, or it wouldnt have much alcohol at all. After a week (the called-for fermenting time) it got down to 1.020...another big fail. That's almost 3% alcohol. This was gonna be a session or breakfast stout by the definition of it.

I tasted it and it was watered down, pretty much as anyone with any brewing experience would expect. It was still good, dont get me wrong, but it was a light, breakfast/session stout. I tried through the winter to kick this keg as fast as possible and move on. I will not make the mistake of adding water willy nilly again, that's for sure. Watch the gravity and if there's less beer than you thought, you may as well drink it an enjoy it AS IS rather than mess with a good thing on behalf of getting more volume out of it. That being said, I will also be more cognizant of my pre-boil volumes. For 5 gallons, assume 7.5 gallon pre-boil. If more, obviously add more and modify the recipes. Lessons learned. Again.