Empire's End

About This Beer

Empire’s End is a 16D Foreign Extra Stout brewed for the Valley Brewer club’s BJCP learning and challenge series. The style sits in a productive middle ground: big, roasty, and full-bodied without the sweetness or syrupiness of an Imperial. It was also a King’s Birthday holiday, which made for a very pleasant morning in the garage.

The grain bill uses Maris Otter as the backbone, roast barley for the characteristic dry bite, flaked barley for body and head retention, and small additions of Gladfield Eclipse Wheat and Light Chocolate to round out the colour and flavour complexity. The hop schedule is classic English throughout: Northern Brewer for bittering efficiency, Fuggles mid-boil, East Kent Goldings late.

Brew Day

Mashed in with 20L at 67°C on the BrewZilla 35L Gen 4, 60 minutes, mashed out at 75°C for 10 minutes, then sparged with 13L at 75°C. The flaked barley went in mixed with the rest of the grain bill. With nearly 8 kg of grain and 20L of mash water, the mash tun was full, though not problematically so. Wort colour was excellent during recirculation and at the boil tasted sweet and roasty, exactly the right early signal for a stout.

Water treatment targeted the darker grain bill: calcium chloride and sodium bicarbonate as the primary additions, with small amounts of magnesium sulfate and calcium sulfate. The boil ran 60 minutes with Northern Brewer at 60, Fuggles at 20, and East Kent Goldings at 5. Pre-boil 29L, post-boil 25L, 24L into the FermZilla. OG came in at 1.075, right on target.

Fermentation

Primary in the FermZilla in the fermentation fridge at 17.5°C for 3 days, then raised to 21°C for 3 days, followed by a cleanup rest at 22°C. The fermentation curve was clean, finishing at 1.019. The vessel was set up pressure-capable but only reached around 10 PSI at 22°C, giving roughly a third natural carbonation with enough headroom that yeast activity was not suppressed. Seven days of rest and cleanup before starting a gradual cool-down to package.

The Result

Kegged on day 16, 18 June 2025. Total final volume 21.5L: 19L via closed transfer into the corny keg, 2.25L set aside for bottle conditioning, plus a taster at packaging. Carbonation target 2.2 vol CO₂.

Sampled fresh at packaging it was already showing balanced roast character. The roast was present without being harsh, which is the right starting point for the style, and a few weeks of keg conditioning should round it out further.

What’s Next

The long cleanup rest at 22°C felt like the right approach for a higher-gravity stout and I’ll keep that for similar OG dark ales going forward. Keeping the pressure moderate throughout also seemed sensible, giving the yeast enough headroom to finish properly without force-carbonating in the vessel.