Critique my latest stout recipe

[Queequeg]

This is what I have planned for my next brew. The target is for it to be thick and full bodied with an intense bittersweet chocolate taste and a citrus hop aroma.


Style: American Stout
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 8.68 gal
Post Boil Volume: 7.36 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 6.08 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.68 gal
Estimated OG: 1.070 SG
Estimated Color: 44.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 58.1 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 69.9 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
13 lbs 2.9 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) Grain 1 67.0 %
1 lbs 15.5 oz Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 2 10.0 %
15.7 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.0 %
15.7 oz Chocolate Malt (253.8 SRM) Grain 4 5.0 %
15.7 oz Chocolate Rye (Weyermann) (245.0 SRM) Grain 5 5.0 %
15.7 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 6 5.0 %
9.4 oz Roasted Barley (Thomas Fawcett) (609.0 S Grain 7 3.0 %
1.34 oz Warrior [16.70 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 56.1 IBUs
0.99 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 9 0.6 IBUs
0.99 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 10 1.4 IBUs
1.0 pkg Dry English Ale (White Labs #WLP007) [35 Yeast 11 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 19 lbs 10.8 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 27.34 qt of water at 167.0 F 156.0 F 45 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 3 steps (Drain mash tun , 3.12gal, 3.12gal) of 168.0 F water

Anything I should consider adjusting?

 

[Shaneoco1981]

Why are you going with such odd ball weights for your hops, grain bill and final volume?

 

[Calder]

Looks ok to me. I did a similar one this weekend:

7 gallons, 1.065, 65 Ibus
1.4 lbs chocolate
1.4 lbs crystal 120
1.4 lbs oats
0.4 lbs roast barley
Balance maris otter

Columbus for bittering, with cascade at fwh, 5, and 0

Essex yeast.

With the rye and oats in there, it could take some time to drain the mash off the grain.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Might be too heavy on the flaked barley.

 

[JayDubWill]

Your grain bill looks good, but I don't think your going to get the thick, full bodied, and intense flavors your describing at that gravity. I would bump everything up to a gravity of at least 1.090, which will put you squarely in RIS territory.

 

[JayDubWill]

One other thought on your hop schedule, consider moving some of your late additions to 20~30 min or so. The malt backbone can stand up to the increased bitterness, however I find a lot of late addition hop aroma and flavor to clash severely with the chocolate roast malt goodness (I'm looking at you, Victory Storm King).

Edit: I just re-read your post and realized hoppy aroma was what your going for. In that case don't change the hop schedule.

 

[Wolfbrau]

That's a fine recipe. My personal preference? I'd drop the flaked barley and crystal malts. Switch out the flaked oats for Simpson's Golden Naked Oats, increase to compensate for dropping the flaked barley. Use a *slightly* lower attenuating yeast. If you have the capability, consider using a lager yeast. I know, crazy, right? Old baltic porter trick.

Dry hop at the veeeerrry end to get that nice aroma.

Edit: By lower attenuating, I mean one that will leave more residual sugars. Not ferment further.

 

[Queequeg]

Why are you going with such odd ball weights for your hops, grain bill and final volume?

Because it's converted from metric by beersmith

 

[JimRausch]

First thing I noticed was the yeast- you are planning on doing a starter, right? 1 WL tube won't be enough for a 1.070.
I would have to agree that almost 2lb flaked barley sounds like a lot. Personally I'd cut that back to 1lb.
Also, almost 2 lb of chocolate malt plus over 1/2 lb of roasted barley sounds like a lot of roast to me.
But.... stouts are my 'white whale'. I do a great porter, but only once have managed to turn out a stout that I was proud of. So, take my advice with a grain of salt. Good luck!

 

[Queequeg]

Yeah I will be doing a starter, I just use beersmith to plug in a tube to calculate the final gravity specifically for that yeast strain.

The total amount of roasted malt is 13%, some recipes have up to 15% roasted barley alone. It some a lot by weight but then there is 13Lbs of base malt.

 

[Queequeg]

That's a fine recipe. My personal preference? I'd drop the flaked barley and crystal malts. Switch out the flaked oats for Simpson's Golden Naked Oats, increase to compensate for dropping the flaked barley.

That's an interesting idea but I really wanted the bittersweet flavour of the crystal 120. NGO are only lightly caramelized according to a quick google.

Use a *slightly* lower attenuating yeast. If you have the capability, consider using a lager yeast. I know, crazy, right? Old baltic porter trick.

Dry hop at the veeeerrry end to get that nice aroma.

Edit: By lower attenuating, I mean one that will leave more residual sugars. Not ferment further.

If I go for a different yeast it will probably be London Ale III.

 

[Queequeg]

OK taking into account what folks are saying I am going to;

cut back the flaked barley by half,
switch to London Ale yeast WLP013 (because of the smoke and oak qualities and its %5 less attentutive than WLP007)
Reduce the late stage hopping so that it compliment and doesn't clash with the malt bill, therefore I will swap out the current malt bill for a single oz of Chinook at knockout.

This has resulted in having to adjust the SG gravity to get to the AVB I want, increasing the bittering addition to keep the IBU/SG ratio the same, lowering the mash temp to keep the FG at something that resembles a finished beer (FG 1.020 as opposed to FG 1.024)

I will also be pre boiling the oats and flaked barley to make sure I extract the maximum amount of beta-glucans, proteins oils etc.

Here is the amended recipe.

Style: American Stout
TYPE: All Grain


Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 8.68 gal
Post Boil Volume: 7.36 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 6.08 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.68 gal
Estimated OG: 1.073 SG
Estimated Color: 45.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 59.3 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 69.9 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
14 lbs 9.1 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) Grain 1 72.0 %
1 lbs 0.2 oz Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 2 5.0 %
1 lbs 0.2 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.0 %
1 lbs 0.2 oz Chocolate Malt (253.8 SRM) Grain 4 5.0 %
1 lbs 0.2 oz Chocolate Rye (Weyermann) (245.0 SRM) Grain 5 5.0 %
1 lbs 0.2 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 6 5.0 %
9.7 oz Roasted Barley (Thomas Fawcett) (609.0 S Grain 7 3.0 %
1.41 oz Warrior [16.70 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 8 57.9 IBUs
0.99 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 9 1.4 IBUs
1.0 pkg London Ale (White Labs #WLP013) [35.49 m Yeast 10 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 20 lbs 3.7 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 28.04 qt of water at 162.5 F 152.0 F 60 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 3 steps (Drain mash tun , 2.39gal, 2.39gal) of 168.0 F water

 

[JayDubWill]

Looks like a solid stout to me, keep us posted on how it turns out!

 

[sputnam]

your post boil is over 7 gallons, your batch size is just over 6 - what are you doing with that other gallon?

 

[Queequeg]

Some gets lost in the dead space of the kettle plate chiller, pump and lines. In reality only about a quart, so I usually get a bit more than 6 gallons. I would change my equipment profile but then I would have to adjust my brewhouse efficacy