Need help with Milk Stout

[TheSmithsEra]

Hi all,

I need some help constructing a partial mash recipe for my milk stout, I'm afraid currently all I have is an extract recipe with steeping grains.

How I understand it is I will get much better beer with a partial mash. Here is my recipe so far

2# Maris Otter LME 60 min
4# Maris Otter LME flame out
1# black malt
.5# pale chocolate
.75# crystal 80
1# lactose added last 15 minutes

Any help, tips, suggestions or recommendations wanted and thank you ahead of time

 

[nukebrewer]

Just fiddled with some numbers in BeerSmith and it looks like switching out the 2# of MO LME with 2.75# of Maris Otter should do the trick. All the other malts are specialty and can be mashed with the MO.

 

[TheSmithsEra]

Just fiddled with some numbers in BeerSmith and it looks like switching out the 2# of MO LME with 2.75# of Maris Otter should do the trick. All the other malts are specialty and can be mashed with the MO.

Nice! I didn't think of that, I was thinking maybe 2 row but that is a better idea I think!

 

[nukebrewer]

Nice! I didn't think of that, I was thinking maybe 2 row but that is a better idea I think!

Yeah, the best way to sub in grain for extract is just to use the grain that was used to make the extract. It's easy for light extract, but it gets harder when you go darker because you either have to find out what grains were used from the manufacturer or take a guess and most likely be wrong.

One thing I forgot to mention was that the numbers I came up with were for 72% efficiency. I'm guessing you don't know what your efficiency is, but the 2.75# will be close enough until you figure out what your efficiency is and then you can figure the exact amount of grain to use.

 

[TheSmithsEra]

Yeah, the best way to sub in grain for extract is just to use the grain that was used to make the extract. It's easy for light extract, but it gets harder when you go darker because you either have to find out what grains were used from the manufacturer or take a guess and most likely be wrong.

One thing I forgot to mention was that the numbers I came up with were for 72% efficiency. I'm guessing you don't know what your efficiency is, but the 2.75# will be close enough until you figure out what your efficiency is and then you can figure the exact amount of grain to use.

I have a brewing app on my phone and it is set to 70% effiency ( I don't understand effiency that much yet...) 1.060 OG ...

 

[nukebrewer]

I have a brewing app on my phone and it is set to 70% effiency ( I don't understand effiency that much yet...) 1.060 OG ...

There's a certain amount of sugar (or starch that can be converted to sugar) in each grain type that is the theoretical maximum and this is the potential extract (PE). When you mash, lauter and sparge, you'll get a certain amount of sugar out, the amount depending on how your system is set up. You'll never get all of the sugar out and the ratio of the amount sugar you got to the theoretical maximum is referred to as efficiency. So for a simple example, let's say you have 8# of Maris Otter and PE for it is 38 PPG (points per pound per gallon), meaning if you had 100% efficiency for a 5 gallon batch you'd have 38 ppg * 8 lbs / 5 gal = 60.8 points which when converted to specific gravity is 1.061. So you do your mash, lauter, sparge and you end up with 7.5 gallons of 1.035 wort pre-boil. To adjust for boil off you need to come up with a reduction factor which is simply the pre-boil volume divided by the post boil volume. You're a good brewer so you brew a 5.5 gallon batch to make up for trub/system losses so you end up with an actual 5 gallons of final product. So your reduction factor is 7.5 gal/5.5 gal = 1.36 and is unitless. Now you multiply the reduction factor by your pre-boil points to get 35 points * 1.36 = 47.6 points = 1.048 SG. Now just divided your post boil points by the points you would have got if you had 100% efficiency to get your lauter efficiency. 47.6 / 60.8 = 78.3%. There will be additional losses if you use a counter flow or plate chiller so you'll want to take another reading of the wort after it's in the fermenter, but for my system, since I use an immersion chiller the amount of wort in my BK is the amount going into my fermenter so measuring my pre-boil gravity gives me enough information to extrapolate to get my system's total efficiency.

Wow, that turned out to be a lot longer than I had originally intended, sorry about that. Hope you got some useful information out of that. Cheers!

 

[TheSmithsEra]

There's a certain amount of sugar (or starch that can be converted to sugar) in each grain type that is the theoretical maximum and this is the potential extract (PE). When you mash, lauter and sparge, you'll get a certain amount of sugar out, the amount depending on how your system is set up. You'll never get all of the sugar out and the ratio of the amount sugar you got to the theoretical maximum is referred to as efficiency. So for a simple example, let's say you have 8# of Maris Otter and PE for it is 38 PPG (points per pound per gallon), meaning if you had 100% efficiency for a 5 gallon batch you'd have 38 ppg * 8 lbs / 5 gal = 60.8 points which when converted to specific gravity is 1.061. So you do your mash, lauter, sparge and you end up with 7.5 gallons of 1.035 wort pre-boil. To adjust for boil off you need to come up with a reduction factor which is simply the pre-boil volume divided by the post boil volume. You're a good brewer so you brew a 5.5 gallon batch to make up for trub/system losses so you end up with an actual 5 gallons of final product. So your reduction factor is 7.5 gal/5.5 gal = 1.36 and is unitless. Now you multiply the reduction factor by your pre-boil points to get 35 points * 1.36 = 47.6 points = 1.048 SG. Now just divided your post boil points by the points you would have got if you had 100% efficiency to get your lauter efficiency. 47.6 / 60.8 = 78.3%. There will be additional losses if you use a counter flow or plate chiller so you'll want to take another reading of the wort after it's in the fermenter, but for my system, since I use an immersion chiller the amount of wort in my BK is the amount going into my fermenter so measuring my pre-boil gravity gives me enough information to extrapolate to get my system's total efficiency.

Wow, that turned out to be a lot longer than I had originally intended, sorry about that. Hope you got some useful information out of that. Cheers!

Ahhh can I use this for partial boil? I will boil 3 gallons and topping to make 5 gallons. Does my recipe cut it,?? I hope so......

 

[nukebrewer]

Yeah, as long as your reduction factor (or dilution factor in your case) is the pre-boil volume divided by the final batch volume. Also, make sure you don't include the extract in your calculations since the efficiency for extract is 100% and will throw off your efficiency calculations.

 

[TheSmithsEra]

Yeah, as long as your reduction factor (or dilution factor in your case) is the pre-boil volume divided by the final batch volume. Also, make sure you don't include the extract in your calculations since the efficiency for extract is 100% and will throw off your efficiency calculations.

Nice OK thank you

 

[TheSmithsEra]

Wow I really appreciate you helping

 

[nukebrewer]

No worries. Glad to help a fellow brewer.