American Stout, what now?

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cvstrat

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Entered this into a homebrew comp, and got solid scores for flavor, aroma, and everything else. Judges stated however that it lacked the "in your face" of an american stout. This is more or less a copy of the SN stout clone from BYO a while back. I'm assuming they mean they were looking for more hops and more alcohol warmth? The beer was delicious though.. best thing I've brewed so far IMO. I'm about to brew again and want to ramp it up a bit for comps. However I don't wanna make it unenjoyable.

Do you think I should adjust the 0 min hops to something a bit more robust? I felt like the malt/hop balance in the flavor was perfect. I'm also going to carb it much more aggressively as it was rather mild before.

I'm also considering possibly dropping the recipe from 6 to 5 gallons, keeping the grain bill the same to achieve a bit higher alcohol content.

Any ideas?

Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
64.4 9.60 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) America 1.036 2
21.5 3.20 lbs. Munich Malt(2-row) America 1.035 8
8.1 1.20 lbs. Black Patent Malt America 1.028 525
6.0 0.90 lbs. Crystal 60L America 1.034 60

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 oz. Magnum Pellet 14.40 54.9 60 min.
1.10 oz. Cascade Pellet 6.30 5.3 10 min.
2.40 oz. Willamette Pellet 4.60 0.0 0 min.


Yeast
-----

Safale US-05
 
I would assume that it is the ABV. I would try the drop in batch size and if that's not palatable then I would think about adding some molasses or dark brown sugar to boost the gravity. I doubt the hops was the issue. You've got a nice hops bill there.
 
I like the idea of boosting gravity w/sugars. Maybe that's the ticket. Just give it a little more oomph. The beer was amazing as is so putting in some sort of fermentable that doesn't alter flavor much would be a good idea I think.

I'm curious if anyone knows the impacts of simply dropping the batch size, besides darker color and slightly more concentrated flavors. Would it make it condensed tasting?
 
How about replacing the black patent with some roasted barley. It should increase the overall "bite" of the beer. My impressions of black patent is that it mostly for coloring and does not add much on flavor.
 
Just an FYI I decided to add 1.2 lbs of roasted barley to the mix and bumped the magnum hops up .1 oz. I brewed the original recipe and the roasted barley recipe side by side keeping the other things the same. Tasting it today after about a week in the carboy there is a noticable roast aftertaste and a slightly more present hop bitterness.

Tasting the original recipe reminded me of how much I loved that brew. Looking forward to drinking it up.
 
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