HItransplant
Well-Known Member
Bob said:Color is important to stout, but only one part of the roasted-grain spectrum. When I enjoy a stout, I absolutely require roasted-grain flavor as well as black color. If those flavors aren't there, it simply and unequivocally is not a stout. If you think stout shouldn't have a certain amount of astringency, you really need to rethink your view of stout. Roasted barley, the grain that defines stout, has a certain amount of astringency. It's part of being stout!
Now, if you suffer from excessive astringency, substituting some Carafa II or III or practicing the late steep method described above might be a good idea. Before doing that, however, I'd look to see what ingredient is causing the astringency and why. If you're getting excessive astringency in your stout, I suspect it's because of poor ingredient selection; Black Patent and equivalent malts are well known for imparting an unpleasant astringency when used in excess.
But substituting a flavorless black malt for Roasted Barley? That'll completely neuter your stout. I know we're not dealing with a specific BJCP style here, and God forbid I urge someone to brew to some sort of style, but we are talking about "stout". If you look at the existing BJCP style sheets for stout, they all list roasted-grain flavor.
Forgive me for overreacting, if it reads like that. I don't mean to be a poop!
Bob
No, that's actually helpful. Im just trying to figure these carafa malts out. I think my LHBS is misleading (not intentionally) on their use. They made it sound like you hot all the flavor of roasted barley w/o astringency...but it sounds like astringency, to a degree, is a flavor you want.
I was planning to sub carafa special III for half my roasted barley (4% roasted and 4% CS3). Is this a reasonable strategy?
Or, if I'm using 8% or so of the black barley (aka 500L roasted barley), should I still add at the end of the boil?
