First All Grain Batch and Recipe...Thoughts

[Goater32]

SO it has become time to go to AG. Here is the recipe I came up with. What do you guys think?


Type: All Grain
Date: 4/26/2011
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Brewer: Better Goetter Brewing
Boil Size: 6.41 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Brew Pot (7.5 gal) and Igloo Cooler (10 Gal)
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00
Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.25 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 72.50 %
1.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 12.50 %
1.00 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 10.00 %
0.50 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 5.00 %
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (60 min) Hops 20.2 IBU
0.50 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (10 min) Hops 3.7 IBU
1 Pkgs Nottingham Ale Yeast (White Labs #WLP039) Yeast-Ale



Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.050 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.08 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.65 %
Bitterness: 23.9 IBU Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 21.3 SRM Color: Color


Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge Total Grain Weight: 10.00 lb
Sparge Water: 4.74 gal Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE Mash PH: 5.4 PH

Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 12.50 qt of water at 169.3 F 154.0 F

 

[PT Ray]

I'm assuming this is an oatmeal stout. I didn't see the style listed. If so I would include 1/4 lbs of chocolate.

You have the roasted barley listed at 300 lovi. I have a hard time finding it and have to get black barley which is more like 450 lovi. If you can get the 300 lovi I might bump it up to 3/4 lbs. If it's black roasted barley, keep it where it is.

I'd bump the bitterness up, going with at least 1.5 oz of Cascade.

Overall it looks good.

 

[TastySalmon]

1/4lbs chocolate might be a little over the top. You might end up getting more coffee/roast/burnt flavors than anything else.

To each their own, though.

 

[Bob]

1/4lbs chocolate might be a little over the top. You might end up getting more coffee/roast/burnt flavors than anything else.

To each their own, though.

Er. It's a stout. I may be delusional, but I thought one of the things I want most in stout is coffee/roast/burnt flavors.

4 ounces of Chocolate against 8 ounces of Roasted Barley isn't going to go anywhere near "over the top". If anything it's cowering in a bunker like Captain Blackadder.

OP, I'd trend the mash temperature down some. You've got a goodly proportion of body-enhancing grain in that grist (22.5%), and you don't want to risk making the beer too chewy. I'd not go above 152F.

I'd drop the Crystal to 1 pound, add a half-pound of Chocolate Malt, and drop the Pale malt to 7 pounds. I love full and half-pound increments in my grists, and work hard to keep 'em that way. See, many years ago I found myself brewing a lot of 'kitchen-sink' beers with 2 oz of this and 4 oz of that. I found I preferred the beer when I simplified all the grists. Flavors became more precise; an ounce of this, two ounces of that, the flavors were all "muddy", in that none of them were distinct. The beers were all right, but not really something of which I was proud (or even truly happy). When I simplified, it just got better.

YMMV.

Good luck in your first all-grain! You're gonna be as awesome as the bitchin-est rock star from Mars.

Bob

 

[PT Ray]

1/4lbs chocolate might be a little over the top. You might end up getting more coffee/roast/burnt flavors than anything else.

To each their own, though.

It's actually on the conservative side and is very common in oatmeal and Beamish style stouts. For a straight up dry stout plan on about 10-12% black roasted barley. Oatmeals will run anywhere from 5-10% black roasted barley and 2.5-7.5% chocolate.

I threw out some popular percentages common to the style. As a whole, the posted recipe is a pretty in line with an oatmeal stout except for the absence of the chocolate malt.

 

[TastySalmon]

The reason I bring this up is that many brewers I know suggest using no chocolate for an oatmeal stout. I agree with them. I find that it ruins the beer and it ends up not being an oatmeal stout anymore, but rather a chocolate/coffee stout. 1/2lbs. chocolate malt makes it a chocolate stout. Any of the oatmeal subtleties that are enjoyed are completely masked by the chocolate.

Referring back to my original disclaimer, to each their own.

 

[Bob]

That doesn't make sense to me. If anything, Chocolate Malt is milder and more subtle than Roasted Barley. If oatmeal subtleties are going to be masked, they're going to be masked just as much by Roasted Barley as Chocolate Malt, because both are strongly flavored, with RB winning the intensity trials by several lengths.

Please help me understand this.

 

[TastySalmon]

That doesn't make sense to me. If anything, Chocolate Malt is milder and more subtle than Roasted Barley. If oatmeal subtleties are going to be masked, they're going to be masked just as much by Roasted Barley as Chocolate Malt, because both are strongly flavored, with RB winning the intensity trials by several lengths.

Please help me understand this.

This is where our taste buds and experience differs. To each their own.