All-Grain Chocolate Stout Recipe

[FabulousVagabond]

Hello, all! I'm new to homebrewing, and I want to start brewing my first beer soon. I've already decided to go with an all-grain sweet stout, with chocolate and honey, and I used a recipe formulator to help me figure out the details. I'd love to have some input as to how I did for my first recipe, as well as any suggestions on improving it.

I'm looking to make a smooth, rather sweet, but not too cloying stout. I'm also brewing this in a one-gallon batch, since it's my first time and I live in an apartment.

Boil Volume: 2 gallons
Boil Length: 45 minutes
Target Volume: 1 gallon
Style: Sweet Stout
Type: Ale

Fermentables
Maris Otter: 1 lbs 5 oz
Clover Honey: 5 oz
Chocolate Malt: 3 oz
Roasted Barley: 2 oz
Crystal 120: 2 oz
Honey Malt: 2 oz

Hops
Fuggles (UK): 1.5 oz. Boil Time: 5 minutes

Yeasts
English Ale WLP002
Min Temp: 68 degF
Max Temp: 73 degF
Attenuation%: 72.5

Adjuncts
Maltodextrin: 1 oz
Lactose: 2 oz
Cocoa Powder: 1 oz
Add in last 10 minutes of boil

Priming
Brown Sugar: 1 oz. Add at bottling

Type: All-Grain
Original Gravity: 1.058
Final Gravity: 1.016
Color: 41 SRM
IBUs: 27
ABV: 5.5%

Mash Efficiency: 75%
Mash Method: Single Infusion
Sparge Method: Fly
Grain Temp: 72 degF
Initial Grist Ratio: 1.5 qt/lb
Absorption Rate: 0.15 gal/lb

Saccharification
Type: Infusion
Length: 60 minutes
Target Temp: 155 degF
Infusion Amount: 0.77 gal
Infusion Temp: 168.6 degF
Grist Ratio: 1.5


Let me know what you think.

Cheers!

 

[iambeer]

Sounds pretty good! However, I would substitute the honey with more base malt.. it will taste sweeter that way. Are you really going to fly sparge that? I use an unconverted 5 gallon cooler with paint strainer bag for my 3 gallon batches with great success.

 

[FabulousVagabond]

To be quite honest, I have no idea what fly sparging is. I just plan on straining it into the pot and going from there. Especially since I'm only brewing one gallon.

 

[Ogri]

you aren't going to get any bittering from 1.5 Oz of Fuggles at 5 mins So I'd think that your brew, as is, would be really sweet.

Maybe go for 0.5 Oz at 30 mins, or something like that, then flavour addition at, say, 15 or 20 mins plus your aroma addition at 5.

 

[FabulousVagabond]

Thanks for the advice. I reworked the recipe a bit, adding the honey after the boil, and using cacao nibs in the primary instead of using cocoa powder. I also reduced the amount of hops to .5 ounces and split the boil times to half at 30 and 45 minutes into the boil.

I think it'll help. And thanks for the welcome.