2 different stouts out of one 10 gallon batch

A friend and I are joining forces and brewing a 10 gallon batch out of his 15 gallon keggle. We want to try and make two different types of stouts out of the same 10 gallon wort. I am basically looking for some suggestions of two very different types of stouts we could make using different yeasts and various adjuncts like coffee, chocolate, vanilla, oak etc. after the boil.

Milk stout vs dry? Same recipe, just add lactose.
Oak one with bourbon soaked chips?
Maybe if you want to go crazy and try something like Cigar City's Hunahpus stout and age it on cacao beans, vinalla beans, ancho chilis, pasilla chillis, and cinnamon.

Any differences will have to be post-boil. So you're looking at things like using different yeast, dry hopping, adding flavorings/adjuncts after the boil, aging on wood, etc. The lactose is a good suggestion as well.

BrewSRQ said:

Milk stout vs dry? Same recipe, just add lactose.
Oak one with bourbon soaked chips?
Maybe if you want to go crazy and try something like Cigar City's Hunahpus stout and age it on cacao beans, vinalla beans, ancho chilis, pasilla chillis, and cinnamon.

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Thanks for the suggestions! I think we are narrowing it down to a oak vanilla bourbon stout and either a coffee or chocolate milk stout (we are going to boil the lactose separately and add it to the 5 gallons). How long would you recommend soaking the oak chips in bourbon? Any suggestions on how and how much to add the various adjuncts like cacao, vanilla, and coffee? This is my first stout adding something other than oats in the mash.

I have added lactose after my gravity was stable since it will add points to the reading. As for the oaking and the like, it depends on how much of the character you want. I've heard of people sampling several times to get the correct amount of oak.

Add some lactose to one. While it ferments, soak some orange peels in vodka, add vanilla beans and orange extract. I did this once with a milk stout I make with heavy roasted barley (no black patent). It goes from a nice roasted coffee to a milks chocolate orange ball you get around Christmas. Just don't over do the orange. I had mine soaking for at least 6 mo, so it was pungent.

There's also an "Andes mint " stout recipe floating around. I haven't tried that though.

What kind of chiller do you have? If it's counterflow, you could run off half into one carboy, then stop the flow, add some hops for a nice hopstand, and then finish running off.

Try one with a yeast that finishes dry or that leaves a lot of malt, and the other with a low attenuator. I did that once with 1450 in one and Bell's house yeast in the other. They were wildly different beers. If I were to do it again, I might try 1028 in one and 002 in the other.

kanzimonson said:

What kind of chiller do you have? If it's counterflow, you could run off half into one carboy, then stop the flow, add some hops for a nice hopstand, and then finish running off.

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I have an immersion chiller, but thanks for the suggestion that certainly would make two very different beers.

JonM said:

Try one with a yeast that finishes dry or that leaves a lot of malt, and the other with a low attenuator. I did that once with 1450 in one and Bell's house yeast in the other. They were wildly different beers. If I were to do it again, I might try 1028 in one and 002 in the other.

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Thanks for the suggestion I will definitely be using two different strains so I will probably try something like this. Right now the recipe we are using will have an estimated O.G. of 1.065. Would love to not have to make a starter and don't think I can make two. Do you think I could substitute the White Labs for dry yeast (05) with similar results?

Silentdrinker said:

Add some lactose to one. While it ferments, soak some orange peels in vodka, add vanilla beans and orange extract. I did this once with a milk stout I make with heavy roasted barley (no black patent). It goes from a nice roasted coffee to a milks chocolate orange ball you get around Christmas. Just don't over do the orange. I had mine soaking for at least 6 mo, so it was pungent.

There's also an "Andes mint " stout recipe floating around. I haven't tried that though.

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That sounds like one interesting beer!! How much vanilla bean (or extract which is better?) would you recommend for a subtle but present vanilla flavor? Also, do you have any experience adding cacao nibs or coffee and the amounts needed for those?

Ilikecats12 said:

That sounds like one interesting beer!! How much vanilla bean (or extract which is better?) would you recommend for a subtle but present vanilla flavor? Also, do you have any experience adding cacao nibs or coffee and the amounts needed for those?

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I recently did a bourbon vanilla milk stout (soaked vanilla beans and just under 1oz of oak chips in the bourbon) and I used 2 fresh beans. Seems to have a pretty nice flavour, but not overpowering.

It's better to start small with the vanilla - once it's time to bottle/keg, take a sample and if you want more vanilla presence at that time you can add some extract.

Ilikecats12 said:

That sounds like one interesting beer!! How much vanilla bean (or extract which is better?) would you recommend for a subtle but present vanilla flavor? Also, do you have any experience adding cacao nibs or coffee and the amounts needed for those?

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I soaked vanilla beans in vodka as well as orange peels. This allowed me to draw a sample, add variations of the tinctures until I found what I thought was best. Then I could scale it up.

It takes time to get a good tincture. I like to keep mine soaked for 6 months, but a month or two is minimal.

I would do 1 to 2 split scraped beans. It just depends on what you want. I used just enough vanilla to round off the roastyness of the roasted barley and chocolate malt. I don't use black patent because I think it's more of a cigarette ash kind of roast while roasted barley and chocolate malt are a much nuttier roast flavor. This made the coffee like notes turn into what's more reminiscent of milk chocolate.

And no, I don't use nibs. I've never had the desire to and probably won't. I am happy with the results I get with the grain.