First extract recipe

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gingervitis

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Hey guys, I'm putting together my first recipe and I need some help. I love stouts and porters, so here's what I got so far:

Dry Imperial Stout (I think, right?)

7# Briess Light LME
.5# Chocolate Malt
.5# Black Patent Malt
1# Brown Sugar
1# Cane Sugar

Hop schedule:
1oz Magnum @ 60min
1oz Cascade @ 15min

Yeast: I'm thinking WLP004 Irish Ale

OG: 1.083
SRM: 37
IBU: 53


I want to use the brown sugar and cane sugar to increase the dryness, is 1 pound of each too much? How does my hop schedule look? I guess overall, I'm just looking for some guidance.

TIA :mug:
 
Just wondering why you would choose to go with a light LME instead of Dark for the stout? I'm kinda new too, so looking for information as well. Not sure about the brown or cane sugar as I've never used either. I think I'd move the Cascade to 5 min so you get more of the hop aroma.
 
In general, I use light extracts simply because it's easier to control the color and you can use them in basically any batch. If you buy dark extracts, it restricts your options. With dark ales and the like it's simply easier (not to mention more cost-effective) to use specialty grains to get the color you want and buy extracts light. That way, if you have extract left over, you can use it in another recipe.

To the OP, it looks OK from this perspective. I assume you plugged the figures into a calculator of some such to get your gravity estimates? Also, I disagree with the suggestion to move the Cascade; in a stout you rarely want much in the way of hop aroma. Just a hint is usually sufficient, which this should provide. Although if you *want* noticeable hoppiness, go for it!
 
Yep, smagee got it right with the light extract. It just seems easier to me to get the color from specialty grains and stick with a light extract. In fact, morebeer doesn't even sell dark extracts - just light and pilsner.

Any input on the sugar usage?
 
Thanks for the info. I never really thought about just using light extracts and using specialty grains to get the right color. Makes a lot of sense to stick with one thing that works and then just change it a bit to suit your needs. Did a little research on the sugars, and it sounds like they will increase the ABV as well as thin the body of the beer (or increase the dryness I believe). The threads I read recommend boiling them in the wort.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/brown-sugar-russian-imperial-stout-132059/
 
How big of a batch is this going to be, and what size boil? Just curious about the calculations.
 
Nice thread manortc. Sorry I didn't specify the batch size - 5 gallon full boil (6 gallons starting liquid)
 
I agree that the sugars will help in drying it out a bit; I'm not entirely sure that you want 2lbs of it though. I think I'd go with just the brown sugar first and see how it goes. If you still want dryer, that just means you get to brew again!

Incidentally, if you decide to keep the white sugar regardless, I'd suggest adding it a few days into fermentation (boil it in a bit of water for ~10 minutes first, of course :)). This will ensure that the yeast don't get overwhelmed by the sugar concentration during the initial fermentation process. It's not necessary, but with bigger beers like this that I try to dry out thusly, I have good success doing it this way whereas I've had a few stall out when I did the "all at once" method.

EDIT:
I'm curious where you got your OG from; plugging your figures into Beersmith gives me an expected level of 1.069 (including the white sugar). With or without the white sugar, it looks like a bit of a 'tweener batch; not quite high enough for Imperial Stout, too high for Dry Stout.
 
Not sure; different applications may use different algorithms for that (as well as IBUs), or maybe the efficiency settings in Beersmith for extracts are different than those used by HBD. Regardless, looks like a tasty recipe if nothing else :). I say give it a shot and see how you like it, then adjust accordingly!
 
2lbs of sugar is a bit much in this. its nearly 20% of the recipe, which can lead to cidery qualities. I'd just go with the brown sugar and use a higher attenuating yeast to make up for the rest of the dryness.

btw, your OG doesnt sound right. its off by nearly 10pts
 
2lbs of sugar is a bit much in this. its nearly 20% of the recipe, which can lead to cidery qualities. I'd just go with the brown sugar and use a higher attenuating yeast to make up for the rest of the dryness.

btw, your OG doesnt sound right. its off by nearly 10pts

Noob here - what does "high attenuating yeast" mean? Same thing as making a big starter?
 
no, very different, however, you really should be using a starter for this if you're not. each yeast has a common range of attenuation (the % of sugar in your wort it will convert to alcohol) and if you check out white labs website, it lists them for all their yeasts:
http://whitelabs.com/beer/homebrew_strains.html#ALE_YEAST

irish ale yeast is a middle of the road attenuator, 69-74% attenuation, whereas something like 001 or 007 gets 74-80%, which would result in a drier beer. also, if you don't feel like making a starter, you could get the dry yeast equivalents of those in Fermentis S-05 and S-04
 
Good to see that other people found the OG to be off. I was sitting here saying to myself....wait a minute. I will also agree with what has been said about the cane sugar. I would cut the cane sugar out entirely. I would also maybe then add the brown sugar after fermentation has begun (or atleast half of it) to make sure the yeast don't get lazy and just eat the simple sugars and then go to sleep.
 
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