Flavor Question>>>>

Hi Everyone,

I kind of know what the answer will be but I need to see whether I'm on the right track with my brewing "intuitions". Here's the deal;

"Iron Rat Stout"

Malt:

3.3lb Dark Malt (LME)

Grains:

4oz Crystal 90L
2oz Chocolate Malt
8oz Roasted Barley
2oz Black Patent
4oz Cara-Pils

Hops:

1oz Williamette (At Boil Start)
1/2oz Williamette (at Boil+30)

Adds:

1tsp Gypsum
2tsp Irish Moss

Yeast:

WLP004

Good directions for the brew (half batch) all went well, one hour boil of a gallon and a half, it reduced to one gallon at end of boil. One week primary, five days cold condition, out of the cold now, wait for week two for bottle day. Sample tonight about 6oz, good carb, low head reten. Low aroma, taste or flavor profile is safe from off flavors so far, my question is, why is the flavor so shallow or weak?
It shows all the promise of the smokey, roasted stout flavor but in the end, it's watery....is it just......

(cough!! greenbeerstill?)

Thanks for any opinions.

Yeah, probably just green. Let it sit for a few weeks and you'll probably be fine.

personally I would have used more extract, maybe 5lbs, but thats me . . . I tend to use alot more carapils too. I woulda proably used 8-10oz (dont have promash with me at work so cant run the numbers)

let it sit, stouts need a good bit of aging

Remember that the recipe I showed was for 2.5 gallons, the LHBS Brewmaster simply took the recipe and cut it in half. So the numbers you're quoting are looking like the full batch measures.

I'm with Pumbaa. It needs more malt. Add a couple pounds of dry malt extract to it next time.

lgtg said:

Remember that the recipe I showed was for 2.5 gallons, the LHBS Brewmaster simply took the recipe and cut it in half. So the numbers you're quoting are looking like the full batch measures.

Click to expand...

Well that changes things. There shouldn't be any problems with the body then. Can you be a little more descriptive with the symptoms?

lgtg said:

Remember that the recipe I showed was for 2.5 gallons, the LHBS Brewmaster simply took the recipe and cut it in half. So the numbers you're quoting are looking like the full batch measures.

Click to expand...

I remembered, woulda still used more malt

It's OK to make small beers, really. It's just tougher to get good mouthfeel. More Cara-pils will help. So will more conditioning time.

Taste is not bad really, just not as pronounced as you would think. I'm hearing that regardless of batch size that some would increase a few items on the recipe, and that's great. I could do that with the next round. I like very full flavored, pronounced beer. I am a big malt beer guy and will probably brew bigger beers because of that. I think it's just under-conditioned right now (not even bottled yet and a prescribed minimum bottle condition time of one month) it should pan out. I'll keep you posted, bottling this sunday.

Thanks for the insight...