West Coast Stout

Since I started brewing, I have been doing a stout every January to put on tap for St. Patrick's Day. Last year I did a Milk Stout (sweet). The year before I did an Oatmeal Stout. This year, since I've been blessed with a mother load of hops at a cheap price (hopsdirect.com), I decided to make a hoppier version of a stout - an American Stout.
Several years ago, I was sitting in Fort Wayne Indiana at Mad Anthony brew pub, drinking a hoppy stout they called "West Coast Stout." I was loving the beer and always thought it would be great to brew something similar. After researching a bit, I found there isn't an exact "West Coast" specific recipe; most refer to anything with more hops as "West Coast," since apparently, the west coast of the US is hoppier than Michigan. Hmm.. Anyhow, it's basically an American Stout. There really isn't a huge hop addition, just a bitter and some Centennial at the end. Anyhow, here's the recipe (mainly from Jamil/Palmer, tweaked a bit - as most all my recipes are!):

Dayton Road Brewing West Coast Stout

Fermentables:
US 2-Row Malt 11.50 lb
UK Black Malt 0.69 lb
UK Chocolate Malt 0.50 lb
US Caramel 40L Malt 0.50 lb
UK Wheat Malt 0.50 lb (head retention)

Hops
S Magnum 12.1 % 1.50 oz - 60 Min From End
US Centennial 8.7 % 1.00 oz - 5 Min From End

Yeast
SafAle US-05 (Starter)

OG: 1.060
ABV: 6.9% - tasted it while testing the gravity and WOW. Tastes awesome!


Brew session went pretty well. I was brewing another batch at the same time, and made a yeast starter for both of them. This Stout took off fermenting in about 5 hours. I plan to rack it to a secondary after a couple of weeks and tap it closer to St. Pat's day. I'll post back how it is.. I'm really looking forward to a pint of this beer. :)