Critique this Stout

Irish Creme Stout
8lb Dark Dry Malt Extract
1.5lb Flaked Barley
.5lb Chocalate Malt

2pkgs Safale -05

2.5oz. Northern Brewers @60 min.

8gal. boil
7.5 gal batch
I will be doing a late addition on the extract, I have 2 pkgs.@ 4lbs. each so I will probably use 2lbs in initial boil and then add 6lbs. with 15 min. left in boil.

If you want it to be really Irish: replace the chocolate malt with roasted barley, I think it's really essential in a stout. And maybe go with EKG hops.
Just so you know, steeping the roasted/chocolate barley (whatever you go with) will work, but steeping the flaked barley really won't add anything. You need to do a partial mash if you want to use that much flaked grain.

Ditto on the roasted barley.

I agree with the EKG, partial mash, and the roasted barley. I also think you should splurge and get liquid yeast appropriate for an Irish stout (e.g., Wyeast 1084 or White Labs Irish Ale) or something that sounds interesting and will leave a round, full bodied beer (e.g., White Labs English Ale).


TL

Also, I don't understand the late addition of extract. I've heard of a few others doing it, but I haven't had a chance to learn about that. I've always understood that, with nearly every style, you want to boil a wort for at least an hour to get a better hot break. That includes extract brews. Affecting the gravity with a partial extract addition also plays around with your hop utilization.


TL

TexLaw said:

Also, I don't understand the late addition of extract. I've heard of a few others doing it, but I haven't had a chance to learn about that. I've always understood that, with nearly every style, you want to boil a wort for at least an hour to get a better hot break. That includes extract brews. Affecting the gravity with a partial extract addition also plays around with your hop utilization.

TL

Click to expand...

Yes, it affects hop utilization. late extract is done to keep light colored beers closer to an SRM that's true to style, and also because high gravity wort gets poorer hop utilization...so you spend more money to buy hops to get the same bitterness, vs adding extract later in the boil after you've gotten your bitterness.

with a stout, I don't think I'd bother with late extract addition, if you're doing a full boil. full boil doesn't give you wickedly high gravity, so the hop utilization would be normal. if it was a very small boil, adding half the extract in th elast 15 mins or so would help keep the beer from being too sweet due to lower than expected bitterness.

there's way better explainations here and on the net, but that's a synopsis of why.

Gotcha. With the price of hops at under $2/ounce (for now), I think you would be better off to boil all the extract and get the hot break. If cost is that much of a concern, though, I would consider going with a higher alpha hop. There are just too many things that can get weird on you if you leave all those proteins in there.

I guess you could also try a split boil, one with a lower gravity and your hops, and the other with the balance of your extract. That's a hassle, but it covers all the bases.


TL

I used to do split boils, two 12qt pots, ingredients split evenly. it worked ok, uses twice the electricity though, and still required a gallon of top off water.

it was easier to go all grain than replace electric with gas range