Tweaking Stout in Secondary

I brewed up an imperial stout recently that I plan on adding coffee(and possibly some other flavorings) too. Took a taste of it and its not as roasty as I had hoped and the pH is a little low. So two questions:

1. Has anyone successfully added steeped roasted grains to an otherwise finished beer? I was thinking of steeping some roasted barley, boil the water, chill it and then add it to the secondary.

2. Can I add something to bring up the pH at this point? Chalk or something? How do you test dosage rates?

Thanks!

How long ago did you brew it and what was your grain bill?
Why do you want t raise the pH? Yeast health or mouthfeel?
You could probably make a grain tea and add that to the fermenter. I can't guide you on how much to add, but people do it with flavorings all the time...Much like you would have with the coffee. I'd follow that procedure. Kyle

It's about 4 weeks old, just racked off of the yeast cake a few days ago for a little conditioning before I add my secondary ingredient additions.

I find the beer is a little too low in pH as it is...not tart, but sharp. I assumed this means I want to raise the pH?


Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.04 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.50 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.10 gal
Estimated OG: 1.105 SG
Estimated Color: 45.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 67.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 81.8 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
18 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 79.1 %
2 lbs Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 2 8.8 %
1 lbs American Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 3 4.4 %
12.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 4 3.3 %
8.0 oz Carafa III (525.0 SRM) Grain 5 2.2 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 6 2.2 %
2.00 oz Nugget [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 53.6 IBUs
1.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 8 8.7 IBUs
1.00 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 9 -
1.00 oz Willamette [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 10 5.6 IBUs
2.0 pkg California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) [35. Yeast 11 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 22 lbs 12.0 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 7.11 gal of water at 165.3 F 152.0 F 60 min
Mash Out Add 3.98 gal of water at 201.3 F 168.0 F 10 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 1 steps (Drain mash tun ) of 168.0 F water
Notes:

A couple things I forgot to mention.

1. I use RO water and build it up. For 12 gallons of total water(strike and sparge), I used 7.5 grams of Calcium chloride and 5 grams of Gypsum.

2. I missed the target gravity, so had to add in some extra light DME. I also added 6oz of maple syrup as fermentation died down a little. That seemed to completely ferment out.

That beast is going to meld and change with some age.

For coffee, here is what I do: very coarse grind into a muslin bag into secondary for 48 hours while cold crashing, then keg/bottle.

d3track said:

That beast is going to meld and change with some age.

For coffee, here is what I do: very coarse grind into a muslin bag into secondary for 48 hours while cold crashing, then keg/bottle.

Click to expand...

Agreed.

Thats a big beer. Give it some time to develop some flavor before making and rash decisions. As for coffee I drop coursely ground beans into the fermenter for 2-3 days.

I definitely understand what you guys are saying about giving it time. I definitely plan to, but its not going to become more roasty over time. If anything the roast would mellow, correct?

Anyway, I can always go a little overboard with the coffee to get a strong coffee roast. I did think there would be some benefit of a more complex roasted malt characteristic to compliment the coffee.

d3track said:

That beast is going to meld and change with some age.

For coffee, here is what I do: very coarse grind into a muslin bag into secondary for 48 hours while cold crashing, then keg/bottle.

Click to expand...

Or add to taste in bottling bucket (using cold brewed coffee)

daveafrank said:

1. Has anyone successfully added steeped roasted grains to an otherwise finished beer? I was thinking of steeping some roasted barley, boil the water, chill it and then add it to the secondary.

Click to expand...

I did it once, adding a black malt infusion in the secondary, and it was a bad idea. the PH went low and the beer gained a really acid taste (I didn't measure the ph).
For the coffee, I added one small cup per liter before priming to a stout, and it was ok (small cup made with italian moka). you can even try it to few bottles, and let the rest of the imperial stout age as it is.

An S.G. that high needs to age longer before it shows its true characteristics. Alcohol sweetness will subside and your grain bill should show through a little more. A quick glance at your recipe suggests you were a little light on the roasted barley. I think my stout uses 4 ounces for a 5 gallon, 1.065 batch and less than half of your basement. You've also offset it with a decent amount of chocolate (which for me is not roasty, but is mellow) and Carrara III. Coffee should add a nice roast to the beer as well, and it looks like it will come around to your expectations with that addition. Kyle

Conan said:

An S.G. that high needs to age longer before it shows its true characteristics. Alcohol sweetness will subside and your grain bill should show through a little more. A quick glance at your recipe suggests you were a little light on the roasted barley. I think my stout uses 4 ounces for a 5 gallon, 1.065 batch and less than half of your basement. You've also offset it with a decent amount of chocolate (which for me is not roasty, but is mellow) and Carrara III. Coffee should add a nice roast to the beer as well, and it looks like it will come around to your expectations with that addition. Kyle

Click to expand...

Wow thanks for the insight. This is my first time with the recipe and I was very hesitant with the roasted barley because I didn't want to go too far, but apparently I backed off too much!

Will report back in 3-4 weeks.

Glad to help, and I hope I'm right! To my taste it's easier to overdo sweet malts than roast. Let us know how it turns out. Kyle