Partial Mash Milk Chocolate Stout Recipe. Opinions wanted!

Hey everybody,

In the middle of a restless night, I realized that my Belgian Tripel would be off to the secondary today and my primary would be open and ready for something new.

I really wanted to go down the road of a chocolate stout, and due to the limitations of current equipment, it is going to have to be a partial mash brew. After researching a bit, I found what looked like the best recipe here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/double-chocolate-oatmeal-snout-126638/

I wanted to modify it a bit to have more of a milk stout characteristic. This led to the gravity rising and rising, so I kind of figured that I was teetering into the realm of a less bitter imperial stout.

Anyways, here is the recipe:

Recipe Type: Partial Mash
Yeast: S-04
Yeast Starter: None
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 21
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 7


Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.00 lb Amber Liquid Extract [Boil for 15 min]
1.50 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 12.43 %
1.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) (3.0 SRM) Grain 12.43 %
1 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 6.79 %
0.75 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 6.21 %
0.50 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 4.14 %
0.75 lb Lactose (0.0 SRM) Sugar 5.8%
2.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (60 min) Hops 19.7 IBU
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast
6oz fat free cocoa powder (see notes) [last 10 mins of boil]
6oz Roasted Cocoa Nibs [added to secondary]
1 Vanilla Bean [split and added to secondary]

Beer Profile Estimated Original Gravity: 1.082 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.021 SG
Estimated Color: 38.2 SRM
Bitterness: 19.7 IBU (20.0-40.0 IBU)
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 8.0 %


The IBU with this is tricky... Imperials are obviously much higher, (50-95 IBU) while sweet stouts are in the 20-40 range. I am low on the sweet stout already but nowhere near the IS range. I am just curious if anybody has any recommendations, whether it be different hops/amt or what range they feel this should fall into.

Also, I am well over the sweet stout gravity (What can I say, I like big beers ) but I am really on the lower end of an imperial. I kind of did more research and got to the amount of lactose that I felt was "right", but without ever really brewing with it before, I could be way off. Keep in mind as well that I just stuck with the hop type/amount and yeast from ChshreCat's recipe. The only modification I made was a touch more Crystal Malt and I reduced the amount of cocoa powder a touch because of the addition of cocoa nibs in the secondary. I didn't want to blow faces off with the amount of chocolate.

Any/all opinions are greatly appreciated, don't hold back.

Hi Noon. The bitterness estimate on your recipe says 28 (next to the hop addition) and 19 (in the profile). I'd want to make sure I knew which was the best estimate.

Also, I think your concern about the malt/bitter balance is right -I would also be concerned about too much malt and not enough bitter. You could reduce the amount of extract, increase the amount of Fuggles, or substitute a higher alpha acid bittering hop for the Fuggles.

For what its worth, I use 1 lb of lactose usually in my cream stouts, added towards the end of the boil.

Jim

I've found this to be a handy little reference. I think I stole it from Biermuncher I don't know if it was his original work or if he stole it from someone else

Jim

Pappers - I changed the entry at the hops addition, it is 19.7. Also thank you for the chart! It looks like I want to hit right around the 25-28 IBU area with what I am going for.

With this rich of a stout, do you think it is appropriate to add in say Kent Goldings for the last 15 minutes of the boil? Also, the addition of cocoa nibs in the secondary should definitely bitter this up a bit as well, no?

Bumping in hopes of more opinions

I'm not extremely experienced, but I have brewed my last 2 batches with cocoa powder... I have never used Nibs but what I know about cocoa powder, is it produces quite a bitter chocolate flavor. It could be overwhelming if used in excess. However, we have to take into account that my brews are still relatively green and the bitterness will likely mellow with age.

The amount of cocoa you choose should be based on the finished style you wish to achieve. If you want this to be truly milk chocolate in taste (more sweet, less bitter), I would pull back on the cocoa and maybe go the route of extract or Chocolate vodka, creme de cacao, etc. BUT, since you ARE making a stout, if you want it to be slightly bitter, leave it as is. I know in my beers, with borderline sugar coma sweet as the desired effect (dessert beer for women... ugh) 2oz of cocoa was too much.

Just my $.02, take it or leave it.

Good luck and keep us updated.