Let's Brew Wednesday - 1914 Hancock Stout

Has Stout followed the trend of the other Hancock beers and had its gravity reduced? Of course, it had. None of their beers were immune. Though it’s only 3.5º lower.

The gravity is not where the big changes are. They are in the recipe. The 1897 version was a simple beer, consisting of just pale, crystal and black malt. Three new ingredients have been added, two of them types of sugar: Durax and oatine. The other was flaked oats.

What does this tell us? Well, obviously, they were selling at least some as Oatmeal Stout. It’s interesting that the style had already made it to the Southwest. The first oat Stout, from Maclay of Alloa, had been brewed less than 20 years earlier.

The sugar content is pretty high, just shy of 30%. Which makes it all the more annoying that neither of them exists any more. I’ve substituted No. 3 for both, but who knows how close that might be. You may want to add extra flaked maize for the oatine.

There were two types of hops, one from Oregon and the other English. No harvest date is given for either.

1914 Hancock Stout
pale malt	5.75 lb	47.92%
crystal malt 60 L	1.50 lb	12.50%
black malt	0.50 lb	4.17%
flaked oats	0.75 lb	6.25%
No. 3 invert sugar	3.50 lb	29.17%
Cluster 120 mins	0.50 oz
Goldings 120 mins	1.00 oz
Goldings 30 mins	1.00 oz
OG	1062
FG	1015
ABV	6.22
Apparent attenuation	75.81%
IBU	34
SRM	32
Mash at	152º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	120 minutes
pitching temp	58º F
Yeast	White Labs WLP099 Super High Gravity