Mash temp for Dry stout

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big supper

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If I want a dry beer I mash low right? But will that take away from mouth feel? We do have just over 2.5lbs of flaked barley in the recipe. Will that take care of the mouth-feel?

Originally I had planned on mashing at 150 but now I am wondering if I should bump it up to 154 or something.

Help quick please!! Brewing in 1.5 hours!!!!!!!!!
 
154 is not low and will yield a fairly high amount of unfermentables. I would stick to 150. I have even heard of mashes at 149 but have never tried it myself. Yes the flaked barley will help.

What are the other specifics of the recipe? OG FG indgedients setup...

good luck
 
Using Whitelabs British Ale WLP005.

We wanted to get the dry irish or something like that, but it was out of stock.
 
I have mashed at 148°F before. It does indeed dry things out a bit. Dry Stouts should be dry, but not wicked dry imho.
 
I mashed mine yesterday a bit higher (154°-ish), based on BierMuncher's recipe in the database. I was thinking about going a bit lower, but really, I wanted the beer to be more on the full, creamy side. 26% flaked barley. My gravity came in a bit higher than expected (woot! 80% efficiency), so I might be a bit out of style for a dry stout - but I'm thinking this will be a real nice beer regardless. I'm using US-05, so that should keep it from getting TOO thick.
 
bradsul said:
It's not necessary, I have done so before without thinking about it. It has never made any difference in my efficiency either way (no stuck sparges either).

Yeah I usually don't, but wasn't sure. Cheers...
 
So we ended up going for 152, hit 151 and decided to run with it. Our 3rd AG and definately our best result(as far as efficiency). Although we did buy our grain from a different store and had a much better crush. Thanks for the help!
 
Just take good notes and then you will be able to adjust up or down the next time you brew it. I did my first one at 152 and was just a tad sweeter then I wanted it so dropped it to 150. With 2# of flaked barley that one finished out at 1.012 and plenty of body. I don't crush my flaked barley but I do process it in the food processor and get an extra 2-3 points of gravity from it.


DD
 
I just did my second AG which is also a dry Irish stout, been in the primary for a week now, ended up with a OG of 1.011. My question is, currently the brew has a smoky flavor to it, I assume from the roasted barley, and I'm not a big fan of "smoked beers" will this mellow out over time? Around 10% of my grain bill was roasted barley, I'm thinking this may have been a tad too much.

EDIT: by the way I should have said it's a 5gal batch
 
Well, 10% is the classic percentage for a Guiness clone (65% base malt, 25% flaked barley, 10% roasted barley). Smoke flavors will tend to drop out over time, although I wouldn't necessarily think of roasted barley as "smokey"... I dunno, but your percentage sounds spot-on.
 
the_bird said:
Well, 10% is the classic percentage for a Guiness clone (65% base malt, 25% flaked barley, 10% roasted barley). Smoke flavors will tend to drop out over time, although I wouldn't necessarily think of roasted barley as "smokey"... I dunno, but your percentage sounds spot-on.
I've seen this classic recipe, but it doesn't state if the roasted barley is the 300L kind or the 500L kind. Some places sell the 500L as Black Barley, others sell it as roasted barley (stout). I imagine there is a BIG difference between 10% roasted barley 300L and 10% roasted barley 500L.
Any ideas?
Craig
 
Yeah I would think there would be a huge difference, I can't remember what I used, I think 300L, I'll have to check after work. I guess my main concern is that I don't recall Guinness having that much of a roasty profile. I grew up on heavy stouts and always thought Guinness was sort of tasteless in that regard. My trip to Ireland really got me into liking Guinness however, so I was hoping to make a fairly close clone to enjoy on tap, but at this point I think it's going to take some serious aging to mellow it some.
 
Well, I used 500L. Northern Brewer has both Simpson's Black Malt and Simpsons Roasted Barley at 500°-600°L. They do not sell a "Black Patent"; I'm not sure if that's the same thing as Simpson's Black Malt or not. The Black Malt IS made from malted barley (roasted barley is unmalted), so they are not the same thing.

Who sells 300L roasted barley? I'm not sure I've seen any that light (well, relatively speaking) sold as such, but I may not have been paying close enough attention. That's basically haldway between pale chocolate and "regular" chocolate malt, which is not what I think of when I'm thinking of roasted barley.
 
The roasted barley I buy is labeled at 450L. I've not noticed any flavour I'd describe as 'smokey' though. My black patent is labelled at 525L and in larger quantities I'd describe the flavour as 'acrid' before it mellows after a few months of aging.
 
I believe the Briess Roasted Barley is 300L. They sell Black Barley (unmalted) at 500L.

Based on the fact that most English Roasted Barleys are 450-500L I would guess that is the correct version. I'll order a bag of the darker variety for my next stout to see what difference it makes.

Craig
 
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