Blackstrap Licorice Ale......comments

I brewed on-the-fly on Wednesday, with just the ingredients in my house that needed to be used up. I didn't feel like stopping by the HBS.

I decided to make a second attempt at my Blackstrap Licorice Stout. I changed the recipe around considerably. I just wasnt satisfied with it and the roastyness overpowerd my last batch, so I cut all of the dark malts in half.

Could somebody please run this on promash or brewsmith and give me the lowdown on on stats, and IBU's and stuff?

Questions, comments, concerns, advice?

Here goes......

Beginning total volume of boil 7 gallons, finished at about 5.5 gallons
90 minute boil (because I started with too much water)

In two gallons I steeped @165 for 45 mins
1lb crystal
1/4 lb Chocolate
1/4 lb Roasted
1/4 lb Black Patent
1/4 lb Carapils
3oz Belgian Dark Crystal Malt
1/4 lb rolled wheat

7lbs Dark LME
1/4 tsp gypsum 90 mins
1 cup Blackstrap Molasses 90 mins
1/2 stick of Brewers Licorice 90 mins
1 tsp Nutrient/energiser 50 mins
1/4 tsp irish moss 15 mins, out of habit

Hop schedule (I improvised and just started throwing hops in at random)

90 mins 1oz UK Kent Golding Leaf 5% alpha
60 mins 1oz UK Fuggle Leaf 4.5% alpha
30 mins 1 oz US Styrian Golding Leaf 4.7% alpha
15 mins 1/2 oz US Styrian Golding Leaf 4.7% alpha
5 mins 1/2 oz US Styrain Golding Leaf 4.7% alpha

Ended up with an OG of 1.056 at 60F
Used Wyeast Stout yeast.


Thanks,
Ed

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator

If you had 1/2 pound of black patent the first time, you probably couldn't taste much else. 1-4 oz seems to do the trick.

david_42 said:

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator

If you had 1/2 pound of black patent the first time, you probably couldn't taste much else. 1-4 oz seems to do the trick.

Click to expand...

4oz has been just the ticket in my big roasty brews in the past.

Yes, that was my complaint the last time. thats ALL I tasted. I let it mellow for six months before I tapped the keg, and that helped a little.

Do did my hop schedule look decent?

BeerSmith (using all the defaults) says:
1.051 OG
1.013 FG
54.3 IBU
32.2 SRM
5.0% ABV

Not a bad looking recipe. If I were you, I'd cut the roasted barley and black patent down to about 1-2 oz each.

Also, did you have a reason for adding gypsum? Blindly adding brewing salts can have some detrimental effects on your beer. It's probably not necessary to add any salts at all to an extract brew.

To tell you the truth, I had no reason for adding the gypsum. I just wanted to use the little bit I had left in the ziplock baggie.

I hope it doesn't screw with the flavor much.

I was thinking about dryhopping this one. Anybody have suggestions of whick hops would be the best dryhop for this recipe. I dryhopped with 2oz of Fuggles on my last batch. It didn't do much for the smell.

It's an oldy, but the blackcurrent aroma of Bullion might go well. Northern Brewer or Perle might also work. I'd dry hop with 1 oz for a week, then try it.

I wouln't dry hop a stout. The grains are the main attraction - I think dry hopping would be misplaced.

And I just transfered this to secondary before I went to work. It tasted really nice. It was alot nicer then the last batch. Gravity reading was a littler higher then expected (1.021), so hopefully it finishes out fully in the secondary. I plan on letting it age awhile anyway before kegging. At least 2-3 weeks.

I love the subtle flavors of the licorice and blackstrap......yummmmy!

I didn't dry hop out of laziness, and due to the fact I was gonna be late for work.

Give it two weeks & then re-think the dry hopping. I've dry hopped after 6 months in the keg.