Too much dark malts and roasted barley in my stout?

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Erik7494

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I just made my first stout according to the following recipe:

66% 5 lbs Two-row Pale
13% 1 lbs Munich Malt - 20L
8% 10 oz Roasted Barley info
8% 10 oz Chocolate Malt
4% 5 oz Flake Oats

60 mins 0.75 Northern Brewer leaf
30 mins 1 East Kent Goldings pellet

o.g. came out at 1.039, put it in the fermenter yesterday and fermentation is going crazy, so no problems there.

I am starting to wonder though if I used to much barley and chocolate malts relative to the other malts. (I added them midway through the mashing). Wort is blacker than black and smell is quite strong. Or is it supposed to smell this strong and will it mellow down?

I am wondering, with hindsight, if I didn't use too much chocolate malt and roasted barley, and if so, is there any thing I can do about it (for example make a small batch of pale only wort and add it to mix)
 
That looks just fine...it will smell a bit strong right away...but since I don't know what "smell" you are talking about, I can only assume that they are desired since this is a stout of course.
 
A bit low in base malts making your OG low. think you may have wanted a stout to come in around 1.05 as an OG.

Your will have a lot of flavor with all that malt and barley, were your going for a chocolate taste?
 
Don't worry about the color too much. It will look WAY darker in the fermenter than it will in your glass.
 
I am wondering the same thing about a beer I brewed today. How did it turn out Erik7494? Did the roasted barley over power it? Or did the smell mellow out?

I made a 5 gallon batch today with 8oz roasted barley, and 8 oz special B. Another 8oz of Honey malt, and 8oz of Crystal 60l, all mashed for 60 minutes with 1# two row. Then added 4# of light DME and boiled. I wasn't trying to make a stout, would you say that's what I have given my grain bill? I also added 8 oz honey at flame out.

Based on the smell, I pretty much started to worry about this right after dumping in the roasted barley, which was last. Everything had smelled nice and sweet til then. I was hoping to produce a sweeter beer, and finished it with orange zest and a shake of cinnamon. I also used US-4 to try and save a more malty profile. From the smell of things, I may have used too much roasted barley. Any thoughts or input is appreciated.
 
agentEhrman said:
I am wondering the same thing about a beer I brewed today. How did it turn out Erik7494? Did the roasted barley over power it? Or did the smell mellow out?

I made a 5 gallon batch today with 8oz roasted barley, and 8 oz special B. Another 8oz of Honey malt, and 8oz of Crystal 60l, all mashed for 60 minutes with 1# two row. Then added 4# of light DME and boiled. I wasn't trying to make a stout, would you say that's what I have given my grain bill? I also added 8 oz honey at flame out.

Based on the smell, I pretty much started to worry about this right after dumping in the roasted barley, which was last. Everything had smelled nice and sweet til then. I was hoping to produce a sweeter beer, and finished it with orange zest and a shake of cinnamon. I also used US-4 to try and save a more malty profile. From the smell of things, I may have used too much roasted barley. Any thoughts or input is appreciated.
Click to expand...

Yes, with 8 ounces of roasted barley you made a stout. I made an oatmeal stout today, and I used about that.
 
You have 16% black grains which is a bit high but it's not outrageous. A 10% addition is standard in a basic Guinness/Irish style stout. It will make the beer darker, drier and lower in alcohol but it will still be fine.
 
Bummer, was hoping for mine to be more of a holiday brew. I think/hope I will still enjoy it quite a bit, but some of the people I had in mind while brewing it aren't going to like it. . . Thanks for the feedback Yooper and BidEd
 
Yooper said:
Yes, with 8 ounces of roasted barley you made a stout. I made an oatmeal stout today, and I used about that.
Click to expand...


Do you think it will over power the other specialty grains I used, to the point of wasting them? I'm hoping to still come out with something on the sweeter side of stout at least...
 
Mine turned out fine in the end. In the beginning the balance was a bit off, with a lot of chocolate/coffee flavor, but for the rest a very dry, low body stout, but now a few months later it is much more balanced. I am going to try this recipe again with a more base malts.
 

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