Making a Dry Stout, need rice hulls???

I am going with no, but after my little Rye debacle I am wondering if a handful every batch wouldn't hurt.

Matt's Dry American Stout (Should be Irish, but every ingredient is American so...)

10gal batch

15lbs American 2-Row
2lbs Chocolate
.5lbs Crystal 90
.5lbs Crystal 60
5oz Black Patent

2 oz Fuggles (60min)
2 oz Mt. Hood (30 min) (I don't have anything else, though could run to the store later today for the brewday tomorrow)
Nottingham Yeast

I am confident that this will turn out tasting like beer, but I have to admit that it is a little low in OG and I might make that run to the LHBS to get another 5lbs of 2-Row and some more hops. I really am looking for about 40+ IBU's and right now it is sitting at just over 30. My Orfy's Mild Brown which I love has about 25 and after a month it lacks a little bit of bittering, and I want this stout to still have that after a month. Maybe I will go with all Fuggles and really work them at 3oz for 60min and 1 oz for 45min to get just shy of 40IBU.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

you don't need rice hulls as there is nothing that will get you a stuck mash. If you were adding large amounts of oats or flaked wheat, then yes, but you should be good.

Looks tasty, but with all that chocolate it seems more like a porter than a stout to me! You really need some roasted barley to make it a stout.

The classic recipe would be

7 lbs maris otter
2 lbs flaked barley
1 lb roast barley

Add in a yeast like Wyeast 1084 (Irish Ale), 1056 or 1028 - the latter just worked REALLY well for me in a Dry Stout. very Guinness-like.

All the best!

Rice hulls not required.

I too am a fan of the classic, simple-straight forward dry stout recipes with WLP007 as my go-to yeast.

Shawn Hargreaves said:

Looks tasty, but with all that chocolate it seems more like a porter than a stout to me! You really need some roasted barley to make it a stout.

Click to expand...

We will call it Matt's Chocolate American Stout then . I chose to go with the Black Patent over the Roasted for the reason that I wanted that flavor instead. I could up it though by all means to 9oz instead of the 5oz. Below is the style comparison I got with the recipe recalculated to 9oz.

Style Comparison
Low Mine High
OG 1.035 1.042 1.050
FG 1.007 1.011 1.011
IBU 30 39 50
SRM 34 35+
ABV 3.2 4.0 5.5

I reran it with 20lbs two row and it came out at 1.054 instead which is out of style so I am sticking with my 15lbs.

brewt00l Rice hulls not required.

I too am a fan of the classic, simple-straight forward dry stout recipes with WLP007 as my go-to yeast.

Click to expand...

I haven't used that, though have used Nottingham plenty. Maybe the next one in a five gallon so that I can get an idea of what it tastes like in comparison.

"Style" is about more than fitting into a number range...it's also process and ingredients used.

However, homebrewing is also about more than making a "style".

Do what you want and if you like it...make it again! looks tasty to me.

Bjornbrewer said:

"Style" is about more than fitting into a number range...it's also process and ingredients used.

However, homebrewing is also about more than making a "style".

Do what you want and if you like it...make it again! looks tasty to me.

Click to expand...

I agree with you about style totally! We make our own style around this forum

I am seeing two different roasted barleys 300L and 500L. Which do you use?

I dunno what the 300L stuff is, but it doesn't sound like classic Roasted Barley.

Style is only important if you're going to call something by a style name. I'm a stickler for style only in that circumstance. Because style isn't about you the brewer; it's about the drinker. You hand me this beer and call it a dry stout, I'm going to expect a Guinness or Murphy's dry Irish stout. Your recipe, however, is going to deliver something quite different. So by calling it a Dry Stout, you've confused me, and that impacts my appreciation of your work.

My rule is simple - if you're going waaaay outside the style guidelines, call it something else. Call it Matt's Mighty Black Beer or something, but don't go telling people it's Dry Stout when it has none of the hallmark characteristics I can detect with my palate. I can't tell the OG, the FG, from tasting it. I can approximate the IBU and SRM with my organic sensors, but the rest comes from what you put in it for me to taste, smell and feel. No roasted barley + flavor hops - flaked barley = wrong flavor and mouthfeel for Dry Stout. Simple as that!

All that said, I think your recipe sounds yummy, and you both are right about style being something we define ourselves. That happens over time. Maybe someday you'll see Brown Chocolate Stout. But in the meantime, you're just going to have to deal with Style Nazis like me!

Bob

Well, yesterday I was unaware of what the BJCP Style Guidlines said were a Dry stout and after researching it appears that I am not making a dry stout.

I make wine and dry means less sweet. If I make a beer that is less sweet it doesn't make it a Dry Stout

It does seem though that I was making more of an American Stout with low alcohol. The reworked recipe is this:

Matt's Short and Stout

15lbs American 2-ROw
1lb Chocolate
1lb Roasted Barley
8oz 90L
6oz Black Patent

3oz Fuggles (60min)
1oz Fuggles (45min)
Irish Moss (15min)
Nottingham Yeast

Suggestions again?

So I just mashed in and this is the recipe I went with:

81.1 % 15.00 American Two-row Pale 35.3 2.5
5.4 % 1.00 American Chocolate 1.8 31.8
4.1 % 0.75 American Crystal 90L 1.6 6.1
4.1 % 0.75 American Black Patent 1.3 34.1
5.4 % 1.00 American Roasted Barley 1.8 40.9

Then I will add 3oz Fuggles at 60, half ounce at 45 and half ounce at 15. Good times. Mash temp at 154, strike water at 173. Ten gallon batch.

Might go with calling it the 40-40 Stout because I am at close enough to 40 SRM and 40 IBU and it has a better ring than 37-39 Stout...

Sounds good, I wouldn't worry about what you call it as long as you don't tell someone that it's a true dry stout. I may have added a couple of pounds of flaked barley to your recipe to get that chewiness but I bet it will be a great beer non the less. Cheers!

farmbrewernw, that is good critiquing with the suggestion to add the flaked barley. I wanted to see what this came out to since I haven't ever made a stout, but have enjoyed flaked products in the past. Seeing as I like stout and the rye beers I have made are tasting good so far, maybe next time I will use some flaked rye. Meh...



Here is the stout as it simmers, that keggle is ***king full!

So about two minutes after that last post my boil boiled over!



Then I decided to put up a "no sunlight" shade using a sheet pan and my spoon. Ghetto, I know. Do I need to worry about the sunlight with the hops in the beer or am I just being paranoid and over cautious?

Skunking isn't really a problem at the boil stage.

But it must be said - just because you're paranoid doesn't mean They're NOT out to get you.



Bob

A Dry Stout is indeed dry by comparison to most stouts. This comes because of the low gravity, adjuncts (Flaked Barley) and the perception of dry from the high percentage of black barley.
Your original recipe looked pretty good for a porter.

There are a range of roasted barleys available including 300L and 500L. I believe most english roasted barley is 450L to 500L while I often see 300L to 350L from american malters. Some malters also sell a Black Barley that is around 500L and is probably pretty close to the English variety. Both can work in a stout but you should probably use a little more 300L than you would 500L.

Craig

well I just got it into the keg and yeast added! Ended up coming in just over what I thought at 11.8% on the refrac (1.045ish) and nice hoppy, coffee, bitter flavor. All cleaned up and finishing the Titans game. Should turn out good and delish!

Thanks to all that gave input and I hope to see you next time, same time, same channel.

By the by, I just tasted my Rye Beer which I brewed last week and it is nice. Little more hoppy than I originally wanted, a little malty yet (only just into the keg, I can't help it) and clean flavors. Can't wait till it is carbed and chilled!

Congrats! It sounds pretty tasty. The coffee and chocolate tones in stouts always really surprise people not used to drinking more exotic types of beer. Should be a lot of fun.

Give the Rye Beer a few more weeks/months. It's amazing how flavors that are out in front of the pack as it were come back in line with some age.

Now that my stout is finished fermentation, should I leave it for any additional length of time to smooth out the roasted flavors before throwing it in the keg and starting its conditioning? I typically will go for anywhere from 10-15 days in primary and then into the keg to start carbing (another week) and then start tapping it. Do I need to wait longer with the stout?

It's not going to suffer by waiting another week in the fermenter. I'd leave it.