Sweet Stout Deception Cream Stout

Alright, got everything sorted and ready to go for tomorrow's brew day, even have a bottle of my first brew so I can relax properly. Also ended up going with WhiteLabs English Ale Yeast (WLP002).

Done. 4 weeks in primary & 3 weeks after bottling i gave in & tried a tallie. Stunning. Make this if you need a stout, you won't be disappointed. Am looking forward to the bottles I have hidden away. Not sure I can wait 6 months.

So, as stated earlier in this thread I brewed this recipe the following way:

7 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 60.6 %
1 lbs 5.0 oz White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 2 11.3 %
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3 6.5 %
12.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 4 6.5 %
12.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 5 6.5 %
1 lbs Milk Sugar (Lactose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 6 8.7 %
0.50 oz Magnum [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 25.1 IBUs
1.0 pkg London Ale Yeast (Wyeast Labs #1028) [124.21 ml] Yeast 8

I just bottled it and took a gravity reading AFTER I bottled: 1.028.. oops!
It fermented for 42 days before bottling.

Should I expect bottle bombs?

No, its up there because of the lactose. You'll be fine, but they will be well carbonated.

BigB said:

No, its up there because of the lactose. You'll be fine, but they will be well carbonated.

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thanks!

Poor me! I just cashed my first keg of this great brew this week. :*-( Guess I better get to makin' more. It's true what they say, though, the last pint is the best. I made it last fall and it lasted all winter for me, so the timing is actually perfect, since a nice summery Hefe is on the list next.

BigB said:

No, its up there because of the lactose. You'll be fine, but they will be well carbonated.

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I didn't think that lactose was fermentable. If it is not, then it shouldn't affect the carbonation.

smyrnaquince said:

I didn't think that lactose was fermentable. If it is not, then it shouldn't affect the carbonation.

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The FG is up because the lactose is unfermentable, but his beer still finished high... but not high enough to worry about bottle bombs. Thats what I meant to say, anyways, LOL... now that I think about it, I guess my first response was pretty vague! :cross:

alright, I won't worry about it!

Just finished reading the entire thread. A lot of ppl mentioned trying to make this into a chocolate stout? Has anyone done it?

I am going to brew the extract recipe and was thinking about decreasing the roasted barley a little (.25lbs) using 1 lb. of lactose, and increasing the chocolate malt a titch (or leaving it)?

From the posts some comments seem to note a strong coffee flavor. I would like to lean more on the chocolate side. Any comments or suggestions?

I like to add 3oz of Ghirardelli cocoa powder with 5-10 min left in the boil to add a chocolate flavor that blends really well with my porter. You could try that.

Brewing my second batch tomorrow.

The best recipe I've tried first up. Most take a second try and a tinker to get right but this is beautiful after 3 weeks bottled. Thx again

I was going to try a similar recipe and "dry hop" with cocoa nibs to impart a chocolate flavor.

I am tempted to just leave it as is with all of the rave reviews and then modify later. I am trying to convince a non-stout drinker.

I know some have added lactose, do you find it cloying?

What is the general concensus on the coffee flavors: strong, mild, balanced?

Thanks

hulkavitch said:

I am tempted to just leave it as is with all of the rave reviews and then modify later. I am trying to convince a non-stout drinker.

I know some have added lactose, do you find it cloying?

What is the general concensus on the coffee flavors: strong, mild, balanced?

Thanks

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If you are gearing it toward a non-stout drinker, it wouldn't hurt to add that extra half pound of lactose and make it more of a milk stout. The coffee flavor is subtle and balanced in the regular recipe.

I think the biggest thing to keep on mind with this beer is that it needs a good 6 weeks of bottle conditioning to balance everything out. If kegging, a 4-6 week secondary wouldn't hurt.

That settles it. Picking up ingredients Monday. 1lb lactose leaving the rest as is.

res291que said:

I was going to try a similar recipe and "dry hop" with cocoa nibs to impart a chocolate flavor.

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How many nibs would you use in secondary for a five gallon batch? Did you try it?

Well... I looked around and it looks like 4 oz os common.?

Yeah I agree would try 4-6 oz

Mine is a week today in primary sg 1.034. Started at 1.070 but i used 1 lb lactose and probably 4.75 amber dme and 1.75 wheat.

The fermenter is dead no krausen or anything. I will check sg again in a week hope it hasn't stalled. Atenuation at this point would be very low (in the fifties) abv 3. Something?

After all the rave review I couldn't pass this one up.

Brewed this today and have the whole house smelling like brownies! Minus a few near-boilovers this went very smoothly.

For what it's worth, I was able to find Wyeast 1450

Thanks NCBeernut for sharing! In two months I'll be drinking stout!

Just poored my first glass, brewed on 1/1/12, amazing is all have to say!

I just finally rebrewed this last week following the all-grain recipe exactly as written, but with a large starter of Wyeast American Ale II. I'm taking a gravity sample today after work and will post my findings. I'm hoping the slight over-pitching will keep me from having any attenuation problems.

Im plugging this into my beersmith and cant get my IBU under 32.7 and my SRM above 31.5....hop AA and all grains SRM are the same, batch size and boil time is the same, any clue what I might be missing? The OG hit the 1.058 spot on.

I brewed this yesterday and it's bubbling in the fermenter. My OG was 1.072 though. Should I have added more water to it?

Drumking said:

I brewed this yesterday and it's bubbling in the fermenter. My OG was 1.072 though. Should I have added more water to it?

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Mine ended up at 1.072 as well but i added 1 lb of lactose. Did not aftenuate very well, i dont think i areated enough. Ended at 1.030.

KeyWestBrewing said:

Im plugging this into my beersmith and cant get my IBU under 32.7 and my SRM above 31.5....hop AA and all grains SRM are the same, batch size and boil time is the same, any clue what I might be missing? The OG hit the 1.058 spot on.

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No clue it seems that there are a lot of posts with similar issues. I think the software is bunk.

The software definitely isn't bunk. It's not perfect but I've found it to be pretty accurate for me. Actually one of the best brewing investments I've made. Anyone put this in their program and get all the right #s?

Roasted malts, especially chocolate malt, can vary considerably based on origin/maltster. I like to use a darker chocolate malt for this recipe. That should help. For the hops, I don't know why your number isn't coming out the same. I used beersmith when I originally posted this recipe, but I no longer use it because I actually didn't find it to be as accurate as my Brew Pal iPhone app for my system. I think as long as you get close to 30 IBU you should be good.

Thank you for the reply and for sharing the recipe. I will follow the recipe as is. I'm probably gonna brew this soon so come fall its ready. How long do you let this one condition before its at it's peak?

I think it is mentioned in the post a couple of times that this needs 2-3 months.

Hey guys, I brewed this yesterday, and everything came out great. I followed the extract recipe exactly, but I still had an OG of 1.070, so I'm not sure where I went wrong. Maybe I just didn't mix well when I added my ~.5 gallon of water to top it up.

A good friend of mine is deployed right now, and he can't brew, so I made a silly video of me brewing this recipe. You can watch it on Youtube. I know it's not great, but I had fun making it, and I think the vid will make my buddy laugh. (We're not gay, but the "dickie dance" was an old gag that he always pulled out (pun?) when he got drunk.)

Thanks again to NCBeernut and everyone else who has posted tips.

Oh, and I used a single 11g sachet of US-05, which Mr. Malty said would be slightly underpitching. It's bubbling away right now, so I hope it finishes well.

Cheers,
Wolf

wolfareno said:

Hey guys, I brewed this yesterday, and everything came out great. I followed the extract recipe exactly, but I still had an OG of 1.070, so I'm not sure where I went wrong. Maybe I just didn't mix well when I added my ~.5 gallon of water to top it up.

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I have brewed an extract version of this twice. I used LME instead of DME and my OGs have been high both times. My second brew was 1.068. BrewTarget says that 6 lbs of Amber LME and 1 lb of Wheat LME will give me an OG of 1.061. I used 6 lbs of Amber, and 2 lbs of Wheat and measured 1.068. So maybe scale back your Wheat DME until you hit the target gravity. Can you buy LME locally? My total bill for my second brew was $43.

darm0v said:

I have brewed an extract version of this twice. I used LME instead of DME and my OGs have been high both times. My second brew was 1.068. BrewTarget says that 6 lbs of Amber LME and 1 lb of Wheat LME will give me an OG of 1.061. I used 6 lbs of Amber, and 2 lbs of Wheat and measured 1.068. So maybe scale back your Wheat DME until you hit the target gravity. Can you buy LME locally? My total bill for my second brew was $43.

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I'm not sure my LHBS has LME, but I think you are right about the wheat causing it to be off. I think my wheat DME was 65/35. It's hard to say what I paid for mine. I ordered several grain bills together from Austin Homebrew. Thanks for the info.

Hey all, it's been awhile since this thread has had any posts. I've got this one in primary now. About two weeks in. Love the tastes I've gotten off it so far. I have to say I think I found its clone. Has anyone had buffalo sweat? I'm in Little Rock, Ar and I just tried it. It's uncanny from what I sampled with my DCS. if it's anything like this I will be a happy camper.

Beer_me_plz said:

Hey all, it's been awhile since this thread has had any posts. I've got this one in primary now. About two weeks in. Love the tastes I've gotten off it so far. I have to say I think I found its clone. Has anyone had buffalo sweat? I'm in Little Rock, Ar and I just tried it. It's uncanny from what I sampled with my DCS. if it's anything like this I will be a happy camper.

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Interesting... We are in Tallgrass' primary market here in KC and I have had Buffalo Sweat a few times. From what I remember it was nothing like Deception. I'll have to try a side by side to be sure, though.

edroberts said:

Interesting... We are in Tallgrass' primary market here in KC and I have had Buffalo Sweat a few times. From what I remember it was nothing like Deception. I'll have to try a side by side to be sure, though.

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What kind of differences do you taste? This is my first brewed stout. I'm thinking the age affects the taste way more than I realize. how do you compare the DCS after two months?

Beer_me_plz said:

What kind of differences do you taste? This is my first brewed stout. I'm thinking the age affects the taste way more than I realize. how do you compare the DCS after two months?

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I'd have to try it again to point out the differences. Its probably been a year since I had it last.

DCS improves quite a bit with age. It really settled into its own after about 6 weeks of bottle conditioning.