Extract - Birthday Stout

MBowling5494 · 06-02-2011, 09:53 PM

Recipe Type: Extract
Yeast: Wyeast 1084
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: est 1.078
Final Gravity: est 1.020
IBU: 29.3
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: est 79.1
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 21
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14
Tasting Notes: N/A

Hey guys,
I'm wanting to make a stout for my friends birthday coming up. This is the first recipe I've written on my own, I've only done other people's recipes so far. Here is what I'm thinking of doing, will this turn out right or am I way off?
6.5 lb Pale LME
3.5 lb Dark LME
1.5 lb Black Patent Male
1.5 lb Crystal 60L
1.5 lb Chocolate Malt
0.5 lb Roasted Barley
2 oz Kent Goldings (60 mins)
1 tsp Irish Moss

Ferment for 3 weeks, then rack to secondary on top of 2oz vanilla extract. Leave for 2 weeks in secondary, then bottle condition for 3 weeks. Any help, suggestions or tips are appreciated. Like I said, it's my first recipe so I'm trying not to screw it up too bad.
Thanks

Jakemo · 06-02-2011, 10:00 PM

I would suggest considering a little bit of flavor and aroma hops. Since you're using EKG, maybe stick with noble varieties, try an addition at 20 and one at 5.

Also, having that much black patent might give the beer an overly roasty flavor. Like almost-burnt toast. It could be alright tho, there's only one way to find out! If you do want to change it, maybe reduce it to .5 lb as well.

Let us know how it works out!

Jakemo · 06-02-2011, 10:02 PM

Try beercalculus.hopville.org, it's an easy, straight-forward recipe calculator, you can mess around with amounts of everything and get a good idea of what it will end up like. Again, good luck!

MBowling5494 · 06-02-2011, 10:13 PM

Thanks for the advice! What about adding .5 oz of Spalt at 30 mins and .5 oz at 15?

Jakemo · 06-02-2011, 10:26 PM

Hop on that website, or your favorite piece of brewing software, and punch it in, see where it leaves you in terms of IBUs. 30 min will add a chunk of IBUs, and 15 will also add a small amount.

Don't hesitate to look back at other stout recipes you've brewed and liked to see how those hop additions were managed. Knowing how a recipe tastes can help immensely when designing your own.

It's definitely foreign territory when you create your first recipe, and you'll learn a LOT from brewing your first recipe creation. It's pretty awesome how much of an impact it makes on your understanding of the dynamics of a recipe.

You really should be using OG, FG, and IBUs as indicators when crafting a recipe; it'd be a lot easier to help you out if I had a rough idea of where those stand with your current recipe. Post em if you got em! Thanks!

MBowling5494 · 06-02-2011, 10:45 PM

With my original recipe beersmith showed estimates of:
OG 1.078
FG 1.020
IBU 29.3

With the changes you suggested I get:
OG 1.075
FG 1.019
IBU 38.4

The extra hops really helped add some flavor, a 9 pt jump just from adding those at the end. I didn't lose as much gravity as I thought I would by knocking the patent down to .5 lbs but I'm sure it makes it more tolerable to drink. 1.5 lbs does seem a little excessive looking back now. I think I was just in the mindset of stout=BLACK and ignored that whole flavor thing that so many people seem to care about.

Jakemo · 06-02-2011, 11:24 PM

Haha yeah... flavor only really matters to a small, tight-knit group of radicals.

Even with the new hop additons, it's gonna be a pretty sweet stout. Is that what you have in mind? If you want a more balanced stout, I would recommend getting a higher AA bittering hop like Northern Brewer or Brewer's Gold and saving the EKG for flavor and aroma.

EKG is such a yummy hop and it seems like it would be good to use it as such. I hate to yank YOUR recipe around, these are just suggestions.

MBowling5494 · 06-02-2011, 11:34 PM

Yeah I was going more for the sweet side. My friend likes to say he likes stouts but doesn't like all the bitterness or coffee flavors that make a stout, well, a stout. So I'm going a little off style to meet him in the middle. I really appreciate all the input, doing a recipe myself was more intimidating than I thought it would be. BeerSmith is truly a godsend with trial and error. Using Brewers gold for bittering and EKG for flavor and aroma I'm at 33 IBU, so hopefully the flavor of the EKG with shine through a little more with a slightly more mild bittering hop. I'm going to brew it up Wednesday night, I'll let you know how it turns out!