Mcbobs

Recipes 

Hey guys, as a new member and enthusiast just joining the board, I'd really like any help I can get on my first recipe. I've never brewed before, but I think a nice chocolate stout with a hint of cherry is something I can pull off quite nicely. Anyways, here is my ingredient list and any help/comments you have for me is much appreciated!

3lbs Light Dry Extract (60 minutes)
3lbs Wheat Dry Extract (60 minutes)
2.5lbs Roasted Barley (15 minutes)
1lb Flaked Oats (10 minutes)
1oz Saaz pellets 5.8% AA (5 minutes)

16oz Chocolate Baking Powder @ flameout
2oz Cherry Flavoring @ flameout

Nottingham yeast for pitching

Thanks in advance for any help! Really looking forward to getting my first batch underway!

-Matt

(ps. If I have misused any terms, please correct me as I'm still a learning noobie!)

brewdude25

Recipes 

Sounds interesting. Might want to balance it out on the hop side a little more than you have. 5 minutes will do pretty much nothing for bittering.

Mcbobs

Recipes 

Hmm... Maybe I'll bump the time up to 15 minutes when I add the barley and then a second ounce at 10 minutes to round out the boil. This is all a HUGE experiment being my first batch AND first recipe. It should definitely be interesting to see how things turn out.

-Matt

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CaptYesterday

Recipes 

Here's a couple of things that jumped out at me:

You're going to want to steep or mash the Roasted Barley and Flaked Oats. RB can be steeped, but I'm not sure whether steeping will get what you're looking for from the oats. They might have to be mashed. If you boil them, you will get a lot of astringency from the husks.

2.5 lbs Roasted Barley is a LOT. Might want to scale that down to 1 lb.

You might also want to bump your hop addition to 60 to get better bittering utilization.

Finally I would add the flavoring after fermentation is complete just so you add it to taste.

Good luck!

quixand

Recipes 

Flaked needs to be mashed to get what you hope to get from it, unless you're just looking to get haze.

brewdude25

Recipes 

As tempting as it is to be creative right away. I would recommend following at least one simple recipe for your first batch. That way you can get the process down. You may have a lot of questions on your first attempt. The more simple the better. Thats just my opinion though.

Mcbobs

Recipes 

Alright guys, here's my revised recipe.

1lb Roasted Barley steeped 30 min
.5lb Flaked oats steeped 30 min

3lbs Wheat Dry Extract
2.5 Light Dry Extract
1oz Saaz Pellets 5.8% AA @ 60 min
1oz Saaz Pellets 5.8% AA @ 30 min

Pitched with Nottingham yeast

16oz Chocolate Baking powder in Secondary
2oz Cherry flavoring in Secondary

Estimated OG 1.058
Estimated FG 1.015
Estimated IBU 30.4
Estimated SRM 38.5
Estimated ABV 5.63

-Matt

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CaptYesterday

Recipes 

Looks good. Remember to keep the water and grains below 170 when steeping, as going higher will lead to tannin extraction.

Let us know how it turns out.

mkling

Recipes 

Steeping flaked oats won't help you at all. It'll just lead to hazy, starchy beer. You've got no enzymes to help convert the starches into sugars in the oats. If you're really committed to the oats, you'll need to do a mini-mash by adding a pound or two of 2 row malt & if I were doing that, I'd up the oats back to 1 lb to give it some real character.

Also the full pound of cocoa powder seems a bit high to me. I was just listening to Jamil's show on Specialty beers where he gives his cherry chocolate stout recipe. He goes for 8 oz of cocoa (he says use Hershey's -- it has less fat than others which can cause problems). You can listen over at the Brewing Network's website. If you really want to brew a cherry chocolate stout, I think hearing his advice would be very valuable.

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Mcbobs

Recipes 

Okay. The more reading I do, the more confused I get and I'm beginning to think that creating my own recipe may be better suited for some time down the road.

Since I still really want to do a cherry chocolate stout, and at the least a chocolate stout, would it be possible to do an oatmeal stout kit and then adding chocolate into the secondary? I dont see a reason for not being able to, but hopefully someone can clarify this as to whether or not its feasible to do or not.

Thanks again for all your help so far guys!
-Matt

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