Stout recipe opinion

For my 6th brew I thought I would try a stout. I don't have an awful lot of experience, but just downloaded the Beersmith trial and threw together what I thought would be the appropriate ingredients. Can you guys let me know how you think this will turn out and whether I have made any glaring no-nos? Any help or suggested amendments would be appreciated. The recipe is below.

6.6lbs dark malt extract (syrup)
0.60lbs black treacle
1lb black patent malt (too much?)
0.5lbs chocolate malt
1.50oz bullion 8% AA at 60 mins
0.50oz Chinook 13% AA at 5 mins
1 pack 11.5g Safale - 04 ale yeast

**(I havent used either of these hops before, but after reading online descriptions about their qualities I thought they might be appropriate. Also, I have only ever used dry, re-hydrated yeast so far, so unless you think liquid yeast would have a really positive affect on the flavour, please limit any suggested alternatives to dry varieties).

Cheers

I think you have something closer to a robust porter than a stout. Usually stouts use a fair percentage of roasted barley and little to no black patent. Porters can have a fair percentage of black patent but usually no roasted barley.
I think 1# is too much black patent, especially given your intention to use dark DME and chocolate malt.
Chinook is not usually used as a finishing hops and I'm not sure it would work well in a stout. Fuggles, Willamette, and for american beer Cascades are more common hops for late addition in dark beers.
Try looking at some of the stouts posted in the recipe database. You can use beersmith to help you replace the mashed grains with pale DME when you are converting to extract.
Any commercial examples you are targeting?
Craig

Cut your black pat. to about 4 or 5 ounces, and for it to be a true stout you'll want to add a pound or so of roasted barley. That's where the stout gets most of its roasted flavor.

I just brewed an oatmeal stout last night and it had 4 oz black pat., 6 oz chocolate malt, 4 oz crystal 120, 16 oz rolled oats, and 14 oz roasted barley. Just to give you an idea. With that grain bill, you could get rid of the dark LME and go with light LME. That would give better flavor, as you'd be relying on specialty grains for color/flavor.

Cheers guys.

I'm still learning what beer styles have what ingredients in, but I will note that stouts should include roasted barley.

I didn't have any commercial beers I was trying to clone. I have tasted Guiness, Beamish and Murphys of the big names, but also had what I think was called 'Oyster Stout' the other day, think it was a Marstons beer - I enjoyed that!

Also, I didn't realise I could use the lighter malts in a stout. WhatsOnTap, you suggest this woul impart a better flavour, is this generally the case - light malt has finer flavour than dark, or are you just suggesting flavour will be better as it will come mainly from the grains?

Cheers

I forgot to add, I am just extract brewing at the mo, but may progress in time when I find I canmake consistent and quality beers.

The roasted barley is something that would require mashing, right? I have used grains for steeping before, such as crystal, is this why you mentioned substituting grains with pale DME, CBBaron?

Cheers

The roasted barley doesn't have to be mashed, just steep as you would any crystal malt. The same goes for blk. pat. or choc. malt. The reason for using light malt would be that you would get more control over the flavors imparted by your specialty grains, as you don't know what they used to make the extract. I have used dark extract, but found better results darkening stouts and other beers using specialty grains. Anyway, the spec. grains just seem "fresher" and more flavorful for just a little more work. Just my 2 sheckles. Have fun brewing

WOT

Thanks for the info.

I have previously steeped crystal at about 60-70F in all 5 gallons of my brew water, before bringing to the boil and adding extract etc. However I read on here quite recently that grains should be steeped in only a portion of the brew water, maybe 2 gallons of a 5 gal batch. I think this was due to do with the tannins extracted and the ph affect on the water. How would you suggest steeping?

I will update the recipe to include the roasted barley, lower the black pat / cut it out, change to light LME and maybe select slightly different hops, then hopefully I might have a decent stout.

Cheers

You'll want to steep the grains in 155-160 F water, 2 gallons or so, then rinse (sparge) with 1 or 2 gal of water at 170. If you leave your grains in the grain bag and sparge through a collander it helps. Good luck and have fun!

WhatsOnTap said:

I have used dark extract, but found better results darkening stouts and other beers using specialty grains. Anyway, the spec. grains just seem "fresher" and more flavorful for just a little more work. Just my 2 sheckles. Have fun brewing

WOT

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I agree 100% on this. Everything that I brew uses the lightest LME that I can find. You should be able to impart most/all of the color/flavor from using grains.

CBBaron said:

I think you have something closer to a robust porter than a stout. Usually stouts use a fair percentage of roasted barley and little to no black patent. Porters can have a fair percentage of black patent but usually no roasted barley.
I think 1# is too much black patent, especially given your intention to use dark DME and chocolate malt.
Chinook is not usually used as a finishing hops and I'm not sure it would work well in a stout. Fuggles, Willamette, and for american beer Cascades are more common hops for late addition in dark beers.
Try looking at some of the stouts posted in the recipe database. You can use beersmith to help you replace the mashed grains with pale DME when you are converting to extract.
Any commercial examples you are targeting?
Craig

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+1 on the Chinook for a finish on this stout. Its darn aggressive ( nice in sertap hop bills) even in n IIPA

I would definitely recommend using the pale malt as well. That way it will also be easier to recreate as an allgrain recipe in the future if you like it.