Cherry Stout

I know this is a common recipe, but I thought I'd give a whack at it, tell me what you think of this basic recipe.



Untitled Recipe
13-B Sweet Stout
Author: corey

Size: 2.5 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 171.91 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.052 (1.044 - 1.060)
Terminal Gravity: 1.013 (1.012 - 1.024)
Color: 46.1 (30.0 - 40.0)
Alcohol: 5.08% (4.0% - 6.0%)
Bitterness: 30.9 (20.0 - 40.0)

Ingredients:
3.0 lb Pale Ale Malt
2.0 lb Roasted Barley
.5 lb Dark Chocolate Malt
5.0 lb Cherries (fresh) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 min
.75 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
1.0 ea White Labs WLP004 Irish Stout



Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.15

Am I correct in only calculating 5.5 pounds of malt? Were you planning on the sugar from the cherries fermenting and contributing significantly to the alcohol content?

I'd highly suggest away from that. The path I'd take is find a good solid stout recipe, back the bittering hops off a little bit because you're going to have cherry tartness anyways. Ferment the beer as normal without the cherries, and then transfer into a secondary container with the 5# of cherries just before you hit your target FG.

Also, I'd listen to the Jamil Show episode about specialty beers.

MBasile said:

Am I correct in only calculating 5.5 pounds of malt? Were you planning on the sugar from the cherries fermenting and contributing significantly to the alcohol content?

I'd highly suggest away from that. The path I'd take is find a good solid stout recipe, back the bittering hops off a little bit because you're going to have cherry tartness anyways. Ferment the beer as normal without the cherries, and then transfer into a secondary container with the 5# of cherries just before you hit your target FG.

Also, I'd listen to the Jamil Show episode about specialty beers.

Click to expand...

it's a 2.5 gallon recipe.

I brew 2.5g batches too and my grain bill usually adds up to 7-9lbs. If you're going for a true stout, keep the dark malts the same and just add to your base malt. You won't have to worry about the body and a basic pale malt is fairly neutral, so throw some more in. You should hit about 1.075 OG with a stout. May want to up the hops too.

smchasta said:

I brew 2.5g batches too and my grain bill usually adds up to 7-9lbs. If you're going for a true stout, keep the dark malts the same and just add to your base malt. You won't have to worry about the body and a basic pale malt is fairly neutral, so throw some more in. You should hit about 1.075 OG with a stout. May want to up the hops too.

Click to expand...

I was going with the guidelines that Beer Tools Pro had for a sweet stout. I appreciate your help, but it sounds like your saying that the software is wrong.

Not trying to be a dick or anything, just trying to understand.

Mustangfreak said:

I was going with the guidelines that Beer Tools Pro had for a sweet stout. I appreciate your help, but it sounds like your saying that the software is wrong.

Not trying to be a dick or anything, just trying to understand.

Click to expand...

No you're right. I'm doing up a recipe and have Imperial Stout on the brain. Forget I said anything haha

smchasta said:

No you're right. I'm doing up a recipe and have Imperial Stout on the brain. Forget I said anything haha

Click to expand...

Ah. Thanks for the help though.

I still think you're way off on your proportion of roasted grains. Darn near half your grist is roasted grains. That will not be drinkable, no matter how many cherries you put into it.

Do not exceed 10-15% of the grist. Hell, in five gallons I don't exceed a pound of roasted barley.

The great thing about grist calculation is that they scale linearly to brew length, so converting a 5 gallon recipe to 2.5 (or any other number for that matter) is easy. So find a good American Stout recipe in the database and go from there.

I'd go no further than a half pound of Chocolate and maybe four ounces of Roasted Barley, with the bulk of the grist being Pale malt.

Cheers,

Bob

Thanks!