Going to revist stout. Need advice!

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So my first brew was a Muntons Irish stout. Since it was my first i used granulated sugar instead of corn sugar or DME for the fermentable. I ended up bottling it too soon and it was really foamy, but it tasted pretty good. It had a sweeter taste to it but it was still nice and dark.

So anyway, my dad found a Russian Imperial Stout called Old Rasputin. Its thick as all get out and it has some pretty strong coffee tastes to it. Its nice and alcoholic and thick but its got a strong strong taste, too strong for me.

So anyway, Heres my list of questions.

1. If i use two cans of extract instead of 1 will i get a thicker constancy? Is doubling the cans of extract and keeping the amount of water the same a good idea?

2. I now know using DME and or Corn Sugar is a preferred fermentable over granulated sugar. I want to get a higher alcohol rating but still want to have a sweeter taste to it. So whats a good ratio of DME to Corn Sugar to get the pure power of the fermentable without masking out the sweetness of the sugar. My most recent brew had 3 pounds of DME and 1 pound of corn sugar in it, if that amount of fermentables means anything to anyone. It was for an IPA and its still fermenting so i havent tasted it yet.

Anyway i hope these questions make sense and if anyone needs any more info
just let me know!
 
You really need to use a calculator when putting together your recipe. That way it stays inside the guidelines of the style and you can tweak from there. Doubling the malt is going to cause a few problems, one its going to be sickly sweet if it doesn't ferment out. And since its extract they tend to have a harder time hitting their projected FG. Have you done any calculations to see how high of a OG your going to have with all that additional malt?

I would look around and try a milk / sweet stout recipe one that is proven to be good and give it a try. Milk / Sweet stouts sound more like what your looking for.
 
aleforge is right, a calculator is absolutely necessary in this recipe.

an imperial stout is a very ambitious beer. take a look at some of brewpastor's RIS recipes in the database. you need to be absolutely sure you have very healthy and enough yeast for this type of beer also. do some searches on 'big beers', there was a good article about it in this month's BYO also.
 
ok so just doubling is a bad idea. Ill have to do some math on things. Maybe when i'm doing grains ill try this type of beer.

But what about sweetness? You said a milk stout is what i'm looking for, do any companies make milk stout extract kits? If i wanna get grains and hops i gotta drive about 50 miles to Anchorage to get some, so i'm brewing extract kits till i got it down exactly.

As for the fermentables, would it be better for me to use Corn Sugar or DME. What do the two different ingredients bring to the table?
 
You should be using all extract, adding can or corn sugars to a stout is counter productive (unless it is like 13% alcohol etc.). You'll want to find a recipe that is all DME with added speciality grains that will give you your color and flavors. The milk stout means they use lactose which is a sugar that won't ferment so you are left with some sweetness.
 
Is there a place selling kits in your town, or are you ordering them online? You can order milled grains online as well. Probably from the same place you're ordering from now. Moving to partial mash is a pretty small, easy step to make but it's SO much more satisfying and gives you more that you can do with your beer.
 
ok so just doubling is a bad idea. Ill have to do some math on things. Maybe when i'm doing grains ill try this type of beer.

But what about sweetness? You said a milk stout is what i'm looking for, do any companies make milk stout extract kits? If i wanna get grains and hops i gotta drive about 50 miles to Anchorage to get some, so i'm brewing extract kits till i got it down exactly.

As for the fermentables, would it be better for me to use Corn Sugar or DME. What do the two different ingredients bring to the table?

Actually you dont' have to drive, Arctic brew will ship it to you for a pretty good price. I am in Seward and i just had a local shipping compnay pick it up for me for $20.
 
Is there a place selling kits in your town, or are you ordering them online? You can order milled grains online as well. Probably from the same place you're ordering from now. Moving to partial mash is a pretty small, easy step to make but it's SO much more satisfying and gives you more that you can do with your beer.

Yeah there is a small winery in my town that sells extract kits like coopers and muntons. They have grain but its not milled and they just ran out of hops.


SNB said:
Actually you dont' have to drive, Arctic brew will ship it to you for a pretty good price. I am in Seward and i just had a local shipping compnay pick it up for me for $20.

I didnt realize that arctic shipped. I live in wasilla and work nights so i dont get a chance to go into anchorage often. Ill have to give them a call and get something going. Thanks SNB
 
This is a very good sweet stout recipe:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/sweet-stout-116355/

Almost 6% ABV. and it is very drinkable. I would definitely use a good stout yeast for this style. Personally, I have only used White Labs and 1 pkg dry Red Star Montrachet for Edwort's Apfelwien, having said that, White Labs rocks. I only own 2 primarys right now, and one was just freed up. I will be brewing up a second batch of this stout recipe ASAP, surely sometime next week :)
 
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