Selecting a Stout for pops

Hey everyone, just thought i'd ask and see what your thoughts were. Any advice or criticism is welcome.

Even if you don't have a high post count.

So i'm very new to home brewing, actually only 2 batches under my belt. But, I invited my dad over to brew with me, and he loves a good stout. (BJ's Tatonka Stout is his favorite) So i'm looking for anyone's input on picking up a kit, or an extract recipe that would be similar. I've been looking at AHS, Northern Brewer, and More Beer's kits, but i'm not sure what might fight the profile, or be similar to the Tatonka. Thanks

Ok, I'm not sure how this would turn out, but here's a quick recipe I gemmed up for a RIS:

7 lbs dark DME
3 lbs base malt
1/2 lbs chocalate malt
1/2 lbs roasted barley
1/2 lbs biscuit malt
(Calculated OG: 1.085, FG: 1.021, ABV: 8.2%)

2 oz Fuggles for bittering
1 oz Fuggles for flavor aroma
(Calculated IBU: 54 if done in a 1.01 SG side wort. Doing it in the full wort would get very little utilization.)

Calculated SRM: 53

Anyone feel free to let me know what you think of that recipe, but I feel it should at least be a good start.

Is the Tatonka just your standard RIS?

Anyone tried "Jamil's Chocolate Hazelnut Porter" from B3?

I have twice made the Oatmeal Stout kit from Midwest. It's a great stout IMHO and very easy to brew. I'm a new brewer too so this kit was a solid choice for me.

Thanks nukebrewer, for the recipe.

I'm not sure what "side wort" means. Are you referring to boiling 2 gallons of wort then topping off with water?

mttewes said:

I have twice made the Oatmeal Stout kit from Midwest. It's a great stout IMHO and very easy to brew. I'm a new brewer too so this kit was a solid choice for me.

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Oh, I made that kit a couple years ago. It's good! Very easy with good instructions.

i believe he means to use a late addition on the extracts, usually 15min left in boil.

Ok thanks eriktlupus.

By the way Todd Mclellan seems to be off to a good start. Go Sharks

I have not made any stout kits yet (a porter is my next batch and I will move up to a stout next), but I am very familiar with the BJ's Brewery stout you mentioned. It is a sweet stout IMO - not like a Guiness Stout. More of chocolate/coffee overtones and not a bitter bite.

Maybe someone out there familiar with the better stout kits can use this info to help track a similar kit down.

I've not had this beer but from the information contained in this thread if you're looking to replicate the flavor to a degree, you're going to have to modify a kit or make a recipe up:

The Northern Brewer Homebrew Forum :: View topic - BJ's Tatonka Stout Clone

From one of their public relations guys...
"The malt bill uses Roast, Black and Chocolate malts as well as some dark and some light crystal on top of the usual 2-Row base malt... No more than 7% of the roasted malts... we also use some oatmeal in the mash to give this beer its chewyness... hop it like an IPA, the sugar will mask the hops... we also use a small amount of brown sugar and molasses for some extra kick... be sure to pitch enough healthy yeast."

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There is an AG recipe that you can convert to extract w/ grains in that thread...

DD2000GT said:

I have not made any stout kits yet (a porter is my next batch and I will move up to a stout next), but I am very familiar with the BJ's Brewery stout you mentioned. It is a sweet stout IMO - not like a Guiness Stout. More of chocolate/coffee overtones and not a bitter bite.

Maybe someone out there familiar with the better stout kits can use this info to help track a similar kit down.

Click to expand...

beeradvocate says the tatonka is an RIS, which should have some level of hop bitterness present. HotTrailer, are you looking for a partial mash recipe or a extract with steeping grains recipe? Also are you capable of doing full boils or only partial boils?

If partial mash then give NukeBrewer's recipe a shot. What he means by side "wort" is a hop tea. When you boil hops in a wort with a high gravity, such as an RIS, the percent of the alpha acids that get isomerized decreases, so to prevent this you boil the hops in only water in a second pot so you get the full bittering effect you need for an RIS. Just keep in mind an RIS is a big beer, its going to take a lot of yeast, and a longer time than a normal stout to be "ready"

Edit: After reading brewtools post and the link I would consider subbing some Black patent and crystal malts for the biscuit, I was going to suggest this before but I'm not a fan of biscuit so didn't want to be biased.

BJ's rates this beer as an Russian Imperial Stout with an ABV of 8% and to my taste it has quite a bit of caramel sweetness along with some raisin/plum fruit notes from Crystal 120L or Special B with a nice roasty bite.

Midwest has some excellent kits and I know Austin Homebrew Shop has some good kits as well. Maybe give them a call and see what they recommend if you can't get that information at your LHBS.

Thanks for the info everyone. I'll take a look at the other forum too.


Jomarky- I have steeped grains, but haven't done partial mash yet. And i can full boil.

That recipe in the link looks good, its all-grain so if you need help converting it to extract just let me know.

If you father could stand a good chocolate/coffee stout, I would recommend this one, created by user McAustin. I brewed it and am very happy with it.

eriktlupus said:

i believe he means to use a late addition on the extracts, usually 15min left in boil.

Click to expand...

Well, what I meant was, to boil about 1/4 lb of extract in 1 gallon of water in a different pot to get better hop utilization, but the extract late method would work too. I'm not sure which is more effective, though.

Well I reread all the suggestions and then asked my dad what flavors he likes in the stout. His answer was chocoloate, so i decided to try AHS Double Chocolate Stout. We'll be brewing that one up on sunday, and i think i might put McAustin's recipe in my folder for later. Thanks again

Austin Home Brew's sam smith oatmeal stout clone is excellent. I will make that one again.

I just cracked open a bottle of the Double Chocolate Stout from Austin Homebrew Supply, MMMM was it good. My dad loved it too. Thanks Forrest, i'll definitely be purchasing some more kits from you.

yum.
if you have a bottle of that laying about, I'll swap it for a bottle of my Terminator Stout clone


your neighbor to the north.

sure, message me and we can make it happen