Chestnut Stout Recipe

This is a tweaked version of Igliashon's no nonsense stout. I plan on brewing this in the next couple days when a fermenter opens up and I would appreciate any thoughts.

6 gallon recipe

2.5 # dark roasted chestnuts
4# Belgian Candi Syrup D-180
3# Quaker Quick Oats
6# Briess White Sorghum at Flameout
8 oz Maltodextrin

.5 oz Columbus at 90 min
.6 oz Columbus @ 20 min

Safeale 04

Beer Calculus puts this at 1.067 OG and approx 1.020 FG

Last time I used chestnuts I did a 24 hour mash but this time I am considering steeping them for an hour or so since I am not as reliant ont them producing fermentables this time. Considering mashing with some sweet potatoes as well and would be curious about what you guys think about that.

After primary fermentation I plan on kegging 3 gallons of this then splitting the other three gallons into another carboy and age it on bourbon oak for a while. I was thinking about 3/4 oz oak chips and was wondering about how long they should be left on the oak.

Thanks

I'd say go for it as you have it; I'm really curious about how the roasted chestnuts contribute. If you decide to do sweet potato, I'd reduce the oats accordingly. Also, don't try to mash the oats unless you have promalt (or unless you like your wort to literally have the consistency of a melty milkshake). I do think sweet potato could be a good idea.

I was thinking of steeping the oats before the boil. I do have 2.5 pounds of steel cut oats laying around from the lager I did that I might use but i am not really sure what the difference would be. If I use the sweet potatos would they be steeped preboil with the oats or are they mashed with the chestnuts

You are going to use 4lbs of D-180? I realize this is for 6 gallons but that is a lot of candi syrup. If I were you I'd scale it down. Also consider mixing up the candi syrup--180 and 90 for some complexity of flavors.

tflew said:

I was thinking of steeping the oats before the boil. I do have 2.5 pounds of steel cut oats laying around from the lager I did that I might use but i am not really sure what the difference would be. If I use the sweet potatos would they be steeped preboil with the oats or are they mashed with the chestnuts

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You could do the sweet potatoes either way; they mash well enough with just amylase, at least in my experience, but are also just fine steeped. Steel-cut vs. instant or rolled oats won't make much of a difference. If you haven't already bought the oats, I'd say go ahead and use what you've got. Don't forget to toast them (at least lightly--it really helps develop the flavor).

Also--I'm drinking a Harvester Dark Ale as I type this, and I notice this beer has a really strong acidic astringency that their other beers don't have. I suspect they didn't modify their brewing water to compensate for the increased acidity of the dark-roast chestnuts. You might want to get some chalk (calcium carbonate) and some pH strips to make sure your mash doesn't get any lower than 5.2, because this beer is so acidic it's making my jaw hurt. Which is a shame, because it's otherwise quite tasty. I'd hate to see yours go down the same route.

If water chemistry adjustments aren't your thing, I'd recommend NOT mashing the chestnuts, and just steeping them for 10 minutes or so. That seems to be the easiest solution in the homebrew setting, and everything I've read suggests it works just as well as a pH adjustment.

ChasidicCalvinist said:

You are going to use 4lbs of D-180? I realize this is for 6 gallons but that is a lot of candi syrup. If I were you I'd scale it down. Also consider mixing up the candi syrup--180 and 90 for some complexity of flavors.

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This is my first time with candi syrup and arrived at that number basically by scaling up another recipe. How much would you scale it back and what would you replace the fermentables with?

And good suggestion on the acidity Igliashon. This seems like as good a time as any to start making water adjustments

I've done 2lbs in several 5 gallon recipes and it was more than enough. I'd use 8oz dark brown sugar and 8oz molasses

I've done 2 lbs of dark candi syrup in several 3 gallon batches and found it just perfect in flavor, the only downside being a rather thin body. 4 lbs for 6 gallons should be fine, though you could certainly get by with 2.5 to 3 lbs too, I imagine.

In point of fact, this weekend I got to pour my homebrew alongside many other (non-gluten-free) homebrewers at a local fundraiser, and of the 5 styles I brought, one was the No-Nonsense Stout #2 (1/2 rice, 1/2 sorghum, lower gravity, more oats, and with cherry syrup added in secondary) and it got rave reviews. Many people came back for seconds, thirds, even fourths...and considering people were paying $20 for 10 tastings, I think it's pretty remarkable that they'd come back for second helpings of gluten-free beer, when very few of them had gluten problems. Granted, it wasn't my *most* popular beer (that would be the Chamomile-Lime IPA, which was gone before the evening was half over and developed quite a buzz among the attendees), but it was many peoples' favorites.

igliashon said:

developed quite a buzz among the attendees

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Nice...I see what you did there

I think Ill try cutting the Candi Sugar back to 3 pounds and comp with a bit of molasses. Hopefully between the oats and sweet potatoes there will be at least some sembelance of body.

Be careful with molasses! I've used just a few ounces of blackstrap barbados molasses and found it to contribute and overwhelming mineral/metallic taste that's about 10 times worse than sorghum. Use the lighter stuff if you can find it, or else go with dark brown sugar.

thats what I have heard too...I was gonna stay away from the blackstrap and look for some mild type of molasses. Alternatively there is always the brown rice extract I have on hand...

On a side not I roasted the chestnuts last night and got a nice darkish brown color

Yu are roasting the chestnuts yourself? Are they chestnut chips or whole chestnuts? DId you make the chestnut chips yourself and if so, how?

They were the chestnut beer chips from chestnuttrails.com. I bought 5 pounds of the light roast last summer and used half of them in another chestnut beer. The 2.5 pounds I roasted last night have been in my freezer since then.

If you roasted them yourself, odds are they won't be dark enough to cause excessive acidity; usually you need a nut roaster to go that dark, or at least to do it on the stove-top with constant stirring. If you just roasted them, it is imperative that you let them mellow for a couple of weeks before brewing with them, unless you don't mind aging the beer for a looooooong time. Dark-roasted grains (and nuts) need time for harsh combustion products to "waft away", or else they can contribute an astringent "scorched" bitter flavor.

wafting away...I do plan on aging half of it for a while to see how the character changes when aged over oak. I have two other brews planned for this weekend too so I figured Ill let the chestnuts mellow out until those fermentors free up in a couple weeks.

Nice! Looking good. Excited to see how this comes out!