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irish stout

lordrahl

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two weeks ago i started an irish stout in an attempt to make a guiness clone. here is a list of ingredients i used:  1 pound pale malt, .4 pound flaked barley, .2 pound chocolte malt, .2 pound crystal120 and .1 pound roasted barley with .45 ounce east kent golding hops. mashed between 152 and 150 for one hour then sparged at 170. i then proceeded to boil for one hour using the following hop schedule .15 ounce at 15 mins .15 ounce at 30 mins and the final .15 ounce at 50 mins. then i did the cooling to 70 degrees and finally added to my fermenter. then set in a dark place where it has been fermenting for two weeks between 65 and 70 degrees. when i checked on it today it looked like it still may need one more week or so to ferment before bottling. i snapped this picture so you all could check it out
 

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When you say you "checked on it today," do you mean that you took a gravity reading, or you just gazed upon it, lovingly?

At two weeks, primary fermentation is usually completely finished. The beer may need to continue to age if it's high alcohol, but your recipe doesn't indicate much strength. In fact the recipe seems short several pounds of grain? Maybe some dry or liquid extract?

Your picture looks like it had a healthy fermentation with plenty of krausen, perhaps even staining the wall behind it a bit?
 
when i say checked on it i just mean gazed at it. i dont know how to do a gravity reading. i always just figured it was done when no more bubbles rised. and my recipie seems short because its only a one gallon
 
In the immortal words of the Car Talk guys, "You can't just look at it. I keep looking at my brother and he doesn't get any better, either."

I'm betting that it is completely done. Some of the activity you're observing may just be the expansion of the headspace as you're looking at it. If the bubble rate is 1/minute or so, it's done and ready to bottle.

The beer is probably only 3 to 3.5% abv. This was probably fermented within 72 hours, if you pitched a package of yeast.
 
my dad has one of those gravity readers i'll ask him if i can use it. i tend to agree though that it is done it only takes two weeks for any fermentation right?  i kind of just invented this recipie using elements from different sources. ive only been brewing beer for a year this is only my fourth batch. and the first recipie i tried that wasnt from one of those pre made mixes from the internet
 
In the immortal words of the Car Talk guys, "You can't just look at it. I keep looking at my brother and he doesn't get any better, either."

Click and Clack the Tappet brothers. Best show on NPR.
 
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