First stout

[exbrit]

Hey guys.

Brewing my first exract stout and after plugging the numbers into Beersmith i'm only getting 12.8 IBU's.

I cam up with the recipe myself (perhaps this is foolish) and im only using 10z of NB bittering hops at 60 min.

In all the styles of stouts that Beersmith list none are that low. Most are around 20IBU's on the low end.

I dont have any more NB hops but do have some Hallertau. Should i add more bittering hops or will the beer be fine as it is.?

BTW. I'm steeping

.5 lb of Chocolate Malt
.5 lb of Kiln Coffe
.5 lb of Roasted Barley

 

[KingBrianI]

1 oz of NB should give you more than 12.8 IBU. How big is the batch? If you haven't considered it already, look into doing a late extract addition. You'll get more IBUs from the same amount of hops that way. Don't waste the hallertau for bittering a stout.

 

[exbrit]

I'm doing a partial boil 5 gallon batch. I was told not to bother with late extract since im not trying to lighten the color of the beer.

I'm using 6 lbs of Dark DME and 1.5 lbs of Light DME

perhaps i should do a late extract addition anyway?

 

[KingBrianI]

In this case you would be using it to get more bitterness from the hops, not so much for lightening the color. I would suggest doing it, since 12.8 IBU is really too low. What AA% are the NB hops and what is boil volume?

 

[exbrit]

the NB are 8.4. AA

I changed the numbers in Beersmith and used 3lbs of Dark DME at the beginning and the rest for late addition and i came up with 24 IBU's

So i guess this is much better for the IBU's?

 

[KingBrianI]

What kind of stout are you aiming for? You might want to do the 1.5 lbs of light DME at the beginning and all the dark later to get the IBU up even more. 24 is much better than 12.8 though.

 

[exbrit]

I'm didn't really have a style of stout in mind. I guess i was just looking for a coffee type stout with OG around 1.65

Is 6lbs of DME too much to be adding at the end?

 

[KingBrianI]

As long as you pull it off the heat and stir it in really well it shouldn't be a problem.