Help with Chocolate Stout

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rexbanner

rexbanner

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I'm brewing a chocolate stout today. It's actually a chocolate milk stout, which I plan on adding a half lb of baking chocolate to. I bought all the stuff for Jamil's recipe:

10 lbs maris otter
1 lb black patent
.75 lb crystal 80
.5 lb pale chocolate
1 lb lactose
1.5 oz fuggles @ 60

However, I bought a lb of crystal 80 and pale chocolate, so I could add more if I wanted. How would you change this recipe? I was thinking of adding more pale chocolate malt, maybe .25-.5 lbs more, and possibly subtracting a little black patent if I added more pale chocolate.
 
Looks like a porter to me. I feel a stout must have roast barley to be a stout. What's your target OG, IBU? I'm thinking 1.5 oz of fuggles will not be enough to balance out that malt character. Especailly without the bitterness roast barley would contribute.
 
jacksonbrown said:
Looks like a porter to me. I feel a stout must have roast barley to be a stout. What's your target OG, IBU? I'm thinking 1.5 oz of fuggles will not be enough to balance out that malt character. Especailly without the bitterness roast barley would contribute.
Click to expand...

Well, it's got a lb of black patent, so I think that's pretty stout-like. Also, it's Jamil's recipe, so I'm guessing it will be adequately balanced. It's supposed to be low on bitterness in general, so more hops and roasted barley would not be taking it in the right direction.
 
I would definitely use more pale chocolate and less black. IMLE, if you use that much black it's going to overpower the chocolate flavor. You can make a stout taste fairly chocolate-y just by grain choice/recipe without using any chocolate and that's where I'd start. But since you already got whatcha got; I'd prob swap those amounts, 1 lb pale choc and .5 lb black (maybe even down to .25 lb black).

I know many associate stouts with roast barley and porters with black malt but I think that's a strange distinction (with all due respect to Ray Daniels who AFAIK started this whole association in DGB). If it walks and talks like a stout, it's probably a stout.
 
SpanishCastleAle said:
I would definitely use more pale chocolate and less black. IMLE, if you use that much black it's going to overpower the chocolate flavor. You can make a stout taste fairly chocolate-y just by grain choice/recipe without using any chocolate and that's where I'd start. But since you already got whatcha got; I'd prob swap those amounts, 1 lb pale choc and .5 lb black (maybe even down to .25 lb black).

I know many associate stouts with roast barley and porters with black malt but I think that's a strange distinction (with all due respect to Ray Daniels who AFAIK started this whole association in DGB). If it walks and talks like a stout, it's probably a stout.
Click to expand...

Thanks. That was what I was thinking. I think that will make a perfectly tasty beer. I've heard that a chocolate stout can be made without real chocolate, but I want to try it.
 

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