Let's Brew - 1812 Truman Stout

Here's a recipe from the earliest surviving Truman brewing book. The one I forgot to process for over 15 years.

With war still raging in Europe, taxes were high in 1812. Which explains the rather modest gravity of this Stout.

In the last few years before the appearance of black malt, London brewers had replaced much of the brown malt with pale malt. But it still made up at least a third of the grist. The result is a colour which today loos awfully pale for a Stout.

Happily, this Truman brewing book didn’t encode the mashing temperatures. Revealing a four-mash scheme. Kicking off with two at around the same temperature, then a hotter one and finishing with another like the first two. Don’t ask me why they mashed this way.

Mash number	barrels	strike heat	tap heat
1	300	162º F	142º F
2	160	168º F	147º F
3	180	182º F	157º F
4	220	161º F	154º F

The fermentation was short and hot, lasting just four days and peaking at 83º F.

One type of hops: English from the 1811 harvest. 

1812 Truman Stout
pale malt	10.25 lb	65.08%
brown malt	5.50 lb	34.92%
Goldings 90 min	2.25 oz
Goldings 60 min	2.25 oz
Goldings 30 min	2.25 oz
Goldings dry hops	0.50 oz
OG	1064
FG	1012
ABV	6.88
Apparent attenuation	81.25%
IBU	79
SRM	24
Mash at	148º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	90 minutes
pitching temp	64º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale