Chocolate Expresso Stout : Advice please

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ABeerZale

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Been reading around the forum , found a great recipe by Tuck, but as i don't have the exact same ingredients I've tinkered a bit with the recipe. I'd love you to have a look at it and let me know what you think. Does it look good?
Do I need to make any drastic changes?

i don't know if you can see that file, first time trying to upload that. If not , I'll type it in later.

View attachment BeerXML (1).xml
 
It looks pretty good, but I might offer up a few suggestions. First, I would increase the percentage of flaked oats, or replace with flaked barley. If you go up to about 5% you'll improve the head stability and mouthfeel considerably. If it were me, I'd replace the black malt with chocolate, because you'll get plenty of flavor from the coffee and roasted barley. You could also use a little darker crystal, to get a few more caramelized notes, but you don't really need to.

As for the coffee, how are you planning to add?
 
Cheers pal. Okay, no problem going up to 5% with the flaked oats. I only have 500g of chocolate malt, but I have got some dark crystal I could use, 150EBC, 75°L.

As for the coffee, not sure, but plan to brew it, then chill overnight and add after primary fermentation. I asked in another thread whether I could use Nespresso coffee, if not I could just drop some beans into the bucket once fermentation is done. I'm open to suggestions
 
Okay, been reading around and this is my final recipe. What do you think? Will leave to age till Xmas

Pale Malt 5kg / 11 lbs
Crystal 20 500g / 1 lb
Roasted Barley 500g / 1 lb
Flaked Oats 400g / 14oz
Crystal 150 200g / 7oz

Hops
Chinook 15g /. 5 Oz 60min
Chinook 30g / 1 oz 15 min
EK Goldings 30g / 1 oz 5min

Misc.
Cocoa Powder 225g / 8 oz 15 min
Barley Malt Syrup 1L / 1 Qrt 15 ni min
Coffee 1 pint - Secondary
Brown Sugar 140g /4.9 oz
 
ABeerZale said:
Okay, been reading around and this is my final recipe. What do you think? Will leave to age till Xmas

Pale Malt 5kg / 11 lbs
Crystal 20 500g / 1 lb
Roasted Barley 500g / 1 lb
Flaked Oats 400g / 14oz
Crystal 150 200g / 7oz

Hops
Chinook 15g /. 5 Oz 60min
Chinook 30g / 1 oz 15 min
EK Goldings 30g / 1 oz 5min

Misc.
Cocoa Powder 225g / 8 oz 15 min
Barley Malt Syrup 1L / 1 Qrt 15 ni min
Coffee 1 pint - Secondary
Brown Sugar 140g /4.9 oz
Click to expand...
I lol'ed at the Xmas comment.

But anyway, I'm not sure about the hops. Chinook is like cascade to me and I wonder if 1 ounce at 15 is too much. I'm unsure but it is certainly worth a shot. It looks pretty delicious.

Will brown sugar go into secondary? If so, it should ferment out a bit due to yeast being left in suspension even after you rack to secondary. Just kind of take note of that. Also, what does barley malt syrup do? I've never heard of it.
 
Barley malt syrup is similar to molasses.
Xmas too early?
Chinook basically cos it's from the recipe I modified that lots of people seemed to like.
Thanks for the feedback
 
I'd be tempted to skip tbe sugar and 5 minute addition, you seem to be chasing the roasty coffee flavors, not hop flavors. Sugar will thin the mouthfeel fighting the oats, seems antagonistic. Unless you are looking for brown sugars slight flavor, nlt sure that amount will add much.
 
Ramitt said:
I'd be tempted to skip tbe sugar and 5 minute addition, you seem to be chasing the roasty coffee flavors, not hop flavors. Sugar will thin the mouthfeel fighting the oats, seems antagonistic. Unless you are looking for brown sugars slight flavor, nlt sure that amount will add much.
Click to expand...


Noted, you think the EK Goldings is a bit of a waste?

After reading around , Ive got some black malt which Im going to use to, maybe 200g / 7oz.

Is the 60 min Chinook addition enough?

This is my first attempt at a stout. Lots to learn, but i don't want to mess it up altogether either.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew
 
ABeerZale said:
Noted, you think the EK Goldings is a bit of a waste?
Click to expand...

I don't brew much with English hops so I am not sure exactly what they will add, just seemed like you are more after the coffee flavors malts bring. If that were my goal I would stick with early addition hops for their bitterness and not worry about flavor or aroma. If you think there is a flavor in them that would work well, by all means do it. A lot of stout recipies have no late hops.
 
Well we did it this morning. Everything going fine, then I look on the table and see the Chocolate Malt, Crystal 20 and Roast Barley!!!

*WTF???? Mash is practically done by this stage. So, after some cursing, run off a load and put in the boil pot. Heated up the remaining 16L of water to 70°C,mixed in the 3 grains set had left out* with the already mashed grain, closed her up and let it sit for 30 mins while gently heating the first run off.

Not ideal but a mistake was made and well hopefully we have saved the beer.

After 30 mins run off some more wort added to the first one in boil pot and boiled for 60 mins doing the additions as indicated in the recipe.

Wort looks good, tastes chocolatey but we were well off our OG. Should have been 1082, ended up with 1060. Ended up with 4 litres more than we should, at least everything came from the boil pot.

Fermenting now, so if it can get down to 1.010 it'll still be strong, 6.6% more or less. The lower it goes the better. Too much chit chat at the start and not paying attention to detail. We'll see what happens, fingers crossed.
 
You should be ok. Some people don't mash dark grain and steep it for a shorter time. No worries.
 
Hope so. It's bubbling away like mad at the moment, so that's a good sign.
I can't help it but fermentation does my head in, always want to know it's fine, but once it's in there, there's not a lot you can do, but wait.
 
I actually tend to add my speciality malts towards the end of my mash. I'll mash in the base malt for 45 minutes then add the specialty at the last 15 minutes. They're mostly converted anyway so they're adding color and flavor, which can be done quickly. One of my better stouts, in my opinion, was done this way and I've pretty much followed it ever since. I just set timers and ensure I have the malts nearby so I don't forget them.
 
Hello said:
I actually tend to add my speciality malts towards the end of my mash. I'll mash in the base malt for 45 minutes then add the specialty at the last 15 minutes. They're mostly converted anyway so they're adding color and flavor, which can be done quickly. One of my better stouts, in my opinion, was done this way and I've pretty much followed it ever since. I just set timers and ensure I have the malts nearby so I don't forget them.
Click to expand...

Great stuff!! Glad we didn't totally screw up this batch. From what people are saying it should be fine. Just have to pay the waiting game now.
 
And this time more as we plan to let it age till Xmas at least before drinking it.
 
We are gonna buy another fermenter and get another brew on,a nice IPA or pale ale


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew
 
Dude I could chug a quad venti mocha an hour before bed and still be out two minutes after I hit the pillow...
 

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