Beer Recipe Question

I'm new to all grain brewing scene and did some research on things and wanted to know if this recipe i came up with could use something. I used to brew with extract and this all grain stuff sounds awesome. I could use some opinions from the more expierenced.

5 gallon batch
Maris Otter (crisp) 8lbs
Malt Carafa 11 1/2lb
Malt choclate pale 1 1/2lb
Fuggle all leaf hops 1 oz.
49 oz. Sweet Cherry Puree


Thanx

What are you going for? It is pretty lightly hopped with just 1oz of Fuggles. What are your plans for the Puree?

Oh yea, that sounds good to me. I never used puree in anything. when do you put that in?
I just happen to have a open fermentor. Maybe I'll try this too.

I'm not sure I understand how much carafa and which type you're using.

That seems like alot of chocolate malt to me, but I"m not a huge chocolate malt fan anyway.

I assume the fuggles are for the 60 minute addition?

Is that 0.5 lb Carafa II and 1.5 lb Pale Chocolate malt? I think a little of that will go quite a long way. Even if it's just 0.5 lb you'll probably want one or the other of the specialty grains but not both (IMHO): it'll be drinkable but a muddled mess as it is.

I'm worried about the bitterness too.

What i'm aiming for is a choclate cherry stout. The puree since it is sanatized i was going to put in the carboy before i pitch the yeast. Supposedly the choclate pale i'm picking out is supposed to be less roasty than other cholate malts. I didn't want this beer to be really that bitter but i am going to boil the fuggle hops for an hour. the Malt Carafa 2 i'm going to use just a 1/2lb. So what do you guys think about this recipe, Do you think it will create enough alcohol also.

65chevy11 said:

What i'm aiming for is a choclate cherry stout. The puree since it is sanatized i was going to put in the carboy before i pitch the yeast. Supposedly the choclate pale i'm picking out is supposed to be less roasty than other cholate malts. I didn't want this beer to be really that bitter but i am going to boil the fuggle hops for an hour. the Malt Carafa 2 i'm going to use just a 1/2lb. So what do you guys think about this recipe, Do you think it will create enough alcohol also.

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Ok, well, I'd add the cherry to secondary, not primary.

The pale chocolate is less strong that the "regular" but 1.5 pounds is about twice what I'd use. If you really want to have the strong flavor from it, you could go to one pound but lose the carafa II.

I'm wondering why so much carafa II and so much chocolate. Those will definitely overpower any flavor you'd get from the cherries. Why the carafa anyway? I wondering what you're hoping to get from it.

Enough alcohol? Sure. It depends on what you want, but that recipe will give you about 4.75% depending on your efficiency, without even considering how much alcohol you'd get from the cherry puree. So, you'd probably be in the 6% ABV range. You only have about 15 IBUs, though, so the beer will be sweet.

hmm i musta read that as 1/2 lb choc. yea does sound like quite a bit, but eh I'll try it as is.

Thanx for the advice, thats a good idea about putting the cherries in the secondary. I was going to use the Carafa 2 just to be different and experiment with it. Maybe i'll use less choclate and more Maris Otter (crisp). Other than that do you think it would taste good and would it be considered a stout.
Thanx

It's not a stout - there's no roasted barley in there.

As-is, your recipe is a bit of a hodge-podge.

You might want to read the book Designing Great Beers or Brewing Classic Styles to get a better feel for recipe construction.

As an example, here's a simple Cherry Stout recipe:

8 pounds Marris Otter
1 pound Roasted Barley
.75 pound Flaked Barley
.5 pound Crystal 90L
.25 pound Chocolate
.25 pound Black

1 ounce Northern Brewer Hops (60 min)
1 ounce Kent Goldings Hops (60 min)

White Labs Irish Ale Yeast

Rack onto 5 pounds of cherry puree in secondary.

No, it's not a stout. It's a very, very dark brown ale, if I had to classify it. It's really not anything, just kind of a mix of dark grains. The fuggles are good, the pale chocolate is good. But adding German carafa II and no roasted barley leaves it lacking as a stout.

Just a thought:

If this is going to be your first all-grain batch, maybe trying to design a new recipe at the same time isn't the best of ideas.

If you end up having problems in your finished product, you won't be able to know if the problem was because of your all-grain technique or if it was a problem with your recipe.

There are plenty of simple, "can't miss" recipes on this site that would be make a great first all-grain brew. I'm not saying your recipe is bad, I'm just trying to maximize your chances of success!

Good luck!

I for sure thinking of putting some roasted barley in it i just don't want it to be over powering and take away from the choclate cherry flavor. What would be a good amount of roasted barley just to give me a good idea, maybe around 1/4lb.

65chevy11 said:

I for sure thinking of putting some roasted barley in it i just don't want it to be over powering and take away from the choclate cherry flavor. What would be a good amount of roasted barley just to give me a good idea, maybe around 1/4lb.

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If you want a "chocolate" flavor, chocolate malt doesn't really give you that. Chocolate is more the color of the malt, than the flavor. It's more of a nutty flavor. So, if you want "chocolate" flavor, you might want to find a recipe that has chocolate (as in coccoa) as a flavor.

A very good simple stout recipe comes from O'flannagain's recipe. Here it is:
Ó Flannagáin Standard
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: WLP004 Irish Ale
Yeast Starter: 1/2 C. DME 1 Pint Water 36 hours
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.046
Final Gravity: 1.014
IBU: 17.2
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 29 Black
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 1 Week 68
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 2 Weeks 64


6.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 64.86 %
1.00 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 10.81 %
1.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 10.81 %
0.75 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 8.11 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 5.41 %
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (60 min) Hops 17.2 IBU

_____________________________________________________________
You'd want to mash in the 156 degree area, to keep a lot of body in this.

If you want a chocolate stout, I'll see if I can dig up a recipe.
Edit- here's a link to lots of stout recipes. Some of them are chocolate/cherry stout, some are not, but all look like a good place to start. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/

YooperBrew and Broadbill are right, tweaking an existing recipe that is "tried and true" will probably give you better results as well as giving you a chance to get your process down.

Cheers!

I am going to try a basic pale ale to start with since i'm new to all grain, but i tweaked around with the recipe that i thought of and i think i'm going to just give it a try. What do you guys think?

Maris Otter (crisp) 4lb
American 2-row 4 1/2lb
Oat malt (thomas Fawcett & Sons) 1/2lb
roasted barley 1/2lb
choclate pale 1/2lb
Fuggle hops whole leaf 60 minute boil 1oz.
cocoa powder 10oz.
sweet cherry puree 49oz.