FrasersFolly

From Simreal

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Fraser's Folly

Original recipe by Rob Fraser

Edited by Matt and Susan Pinsonneault

"If you can't see the light, you know it's pure Folly!" This is a wonderfully flavorful stout, but it's smooth enough that even people who generally don't like dark beers enjoy it.

Amount	Ingredient
7 lbs	Munton & Fison dark extract (unhopped)
1 lb	Crystal malt
1/2 lb	Black Patent malt
3 oz	Brewer's Gold or Fuggles hops
	Yeast
3/4 cup	Priming sugar

1. Separate the hops into three 1-ounce portions.
2. Add the crushed crystal and black patent malts to 1 1/2 gal cold water and bring to boil.
3. When boiling begins remove the grains and add the malt extract.
4. Boil for 60 minutes.
   1. Add the first portion of hops 20 minutes after start of boil.
   2. Add second portion 40 minutes after start of boil.
   3. Add the remaining ounce of hops in a cheesecloth bag for the last 5 minutes of the boil.
5. After 60 minutes of boiling remove the first two portions of hops. Cool wort, pour into primary, and top off with water to 5 gallons. Pitch yeast, etc. etc.
6. Leave the last bag of hops in for a day, then remove them as well.

Notes

• 29-Jul-2007: Making 2.5-gallon batch. Used 2 oz Brewer's Gold hops split into 3 equal portions. Added 2 oz. bittersweet baker's chocolate for the last 5 minutes of the boil. Pitched yeast (Wyeast #1056 American Ale) at 82F. S.G. 1.042 @ 82F. Left the wrong hop bag in the wort; instead of the finishing hops one of the others is in there. Shouldn't make too much difference. We can always dry hop before bottling if necessary. Strong fermentation started within an hour.

• 30-Jul-2007: Removed hop bag. The beer smells awesome! Strong fermentation continues.

• 5-Aug-2007: Fermentation very slow to nonexistent. Lots of sediment and what are probably bits of hops floating on the surface of the primary. S.G. 1.010 @ 80F. Racked to secondary. Hard to tell since it's still yeasty, but we think it has enough bitterness that dry hopping will not be necessary. Can taste the chocolate. Yummy!

• 3-Sept-2007: Bottling time! S.G. 1.008 @ 80F. Good blend of bitterness and sweetness. Chocolate comes through as somewhat coffee-flavored. Added 2.25 oz of priming sugar. This is going to be awesome. And strong. Looks like it's around 7% alcohol at the moment.

Batch The Second

• 12-Dec-2009: 2.5-gallon batch. 1.5 oz Brewers Gold hops split into 3 equal portions. Added a stick of cinnamon 40 minutes into boil and 2 oz. bittersweet baker's chocolate for last 5 minutes of boil. Held off on adding finishing hops until last 2 minutes to get more aromatics. Wyeast #1056 American Ale yeast. S.G. 1.046 @ 76F.

• 13-Dec-2009: Removed hop bag. Nice, strong fermentation.

• 20-Dec-2009: Racked to secondary. 1/4" or so of sediment left in primary. Proto-beer is nice, dark color with rich nose. Tastes promising; hint of chocolate is evident. Couldn't taste the cinnamon, though.

• 3-Jan-2009: Re-racked off of sediment. S.G. 1.010 @ 70F. Rich, dark color but not as much flavor as we expected. Perhaps that will come in time.

• 31-Jan-2009: Added 1/2 cup priming sugar and bottled. Flavor has intensified nicely.