Scared of Roasted Barley......

I am planning my first stout and I am seeking a coffee forward flavor in the stout but I am skeptical that the Roasted Barley, which from what I understand is where the coffee notes come from, can easily be over done. Once over done I have heard from other brewers, leads to almost an unpleasant burnt like character.

I've looked at dozens of recipes around the web and it seems that most use it at around 3% of the recipe and use Chocolate at the same or above (upwards of 5% or more).

How much will the flavor increase in a good way with Roasted Barley if I was to use it at 5% or even 10% of the recipe to get the coffee notes without taking it too far?

The first time you use something new, its probably best to use the most prevalent recommendation you find, as that's probably most likely what people are having success with. You'll end up with a nice drinkable beer, and you can certainly add a little bit more the second time around. Doesn't make sense to double something you've never used, especially if you're a little bit hesitant about it to begin with. Good luck!

If it's your first time using it, I would stick with the recipe. If it's not enough for you....it's an excuse to brew again. What is too much for me (I can't stand coffee), may seem like nothing to you.

I made a chocolate stout couple months ago and used Roasted Barley and Chocolate malt. Together they accounted for about 11% of the bill. It was a very flavorful stout but also very good. It is still getting better however so be prepared to wait a while if you want it to be really good.

I like to hear you had success with 11% Chocolate and Roasted Barley. I have been playing with a recipe and have been using 5% Chocolate and 3.5% Roasted Barley but was thinking about bringing it up a notch to 5% as well.

So at just 5% of each Chocolate and Roasted Barley I should be safe and get a lot of flavor?

I make stouts all the time (in fact, I made 5 this past fall) and my advice would be: "Don't be afraid of the dark! Roasted Barley is what makes a stout a stout. I typically have it as 8% of my malt bill in a stout. So around a pound in a 1.050 OG beer.

In my experience, it is Black Malt (aka Black Patent Malt - 500L) that must be dealt with a light hand. This can make a brew bitter and acrid, if too much is used.

For Chocolate Malt (350L) I find the sweet spot in a five gallon recipe to be 3/4 of a pound.

FWIW, there are a lot of bad recipes on the net. I'd recommend picking up Brewing Classic Styles--a great book with awesome base recipes for most styles.

Actually I was more heavy on the roasted barley looking back at the recipe. Only .75 lb of chocolate and 2 lbs roasted barley in about 19 lbs of grain