Recipe thoughts

[RotaryVirus]

This is what im planning so far. Some kind of stout .
1oz nugget hops
1oz cascade hops
1oz magnum hops
8 oz chocolate malt
8 oz pale chocolate malt
9lbs dark lme
3lbs sparkling amber lme
1lbs lactose
Yeast Wlp4025

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Are you using any software to help calculate stats like OG, ABV, IBUs, and color? Is this for a 5 gallon batch? When would you add the hops to the boil?

I generally like the approach of using a lighter color base malt (say a Golden or Pale Ale) and then using specialty grains to build up the colors. Sometimes it is hard to know what grains were used to make Dark and Amber extract. But using Dark and Amber is a valid approach.

For hops, you would probably be fine with adding 1 oz of Magnum at the start of the boil, then add 1 oz of either Cascade or Nugget towards the end of the boil (say with 10 minutes left).

I have no knowledge of Wlp4025, but a Belgian strain that looks to be targeted at making Trappist style beers seems like an odd choice. Well, unless you were aiming for a Belgian Stout.

I plugged the malt and grains into BeerSmith. For my setting targeting 5.5 gallons into the fermenter, I got 1.078 and 8.9% ABV. Is that the range you were aiming for?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

A custom calculation suggests the LME blend will have a grain bill of 45% base malt, 40% munich 10L, 12% 60L & 2% black (this does not include the Plus the results of steeping of pale chocolate & chocolate malts).

Composition of DME/LME products has been discussed in the past. Assuming Briess ("Sparkling Amber" / "Traditional Dark"), the grain bill for Traditional Dark is in the product information. One could make an educated guess at the amber ale grain bill.
for Traditional Dark, it's

For Amber, the flavor descriptors ("Its color is a deep amber and has a robust malt profile that gives the beer a nice caramel flavor note.") suggests C60L. The product has been around for a while, so one could assume an early 2000s amber ale grain bill (80% base, 5% munich 10l, 10% 60L ?)

 

[brewSJ]

I agree with CascadeBrewer -- if that's for a 5-gallon recipe then you have way too much malt extract (12 pounds DME in five gallons is an OG of around 1.110). For a stout, i would do 6 pounds total of light/Golden DME, steep the pound of roasted malts (I like 50:50 chocolate and black) and add 35-40 IBU's of your favorite hops at the start of the boil. 35 IBU's should be about 1.5 oz, but it's impossible to say more without knowing the %AA of your hops. if you're using dark extract, I would cut the chocolate to just 4 oz (or even leave it out entirely) since it's already included in the malt extract.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

if you're using dark extract, I would cut the chocolate to just 4 oz (or even leave it out entirely) since it's already included in the malt extract.

FYI - the grain bill for Briess Traditional Dark is available in the LME product information PDF.

 

[mac_1103]

if that's for a 5-gallon recipe then you have way too much malt extract (12 pounds DME in five gallons is an OG of around 1.110)

He's using 12 lbs of LME, not DME, so his OG isn't going to be anywhere near 1.110. And even if it was DME it would probably still make a pretty nice imperial stout - around 10% ABV and 70 IBU. Although I've never tried an imperial chocolate milk stout.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I generally like the approach of using a lighter color base malt (say a Golden or Pale Ale) and then using specialty grains to build up the colors. Sometimes it is hard to know what grains were used to make Dark and Amber extract. But using Dark and Amber is a valid approach.

Agreed.

Historically, kit recipes have followed this approach (light base malt + steeping grains).

I am starting to see a trend with some kit recipes where the recipe will start with an Amber or Traditional Dark DME/LME (with an understanding of the grain bill for the DME/LME) and add additional steeping grains

As an example, the Caribou Slobber extract kit used to be a "dead ringer" (pun intended) for the CYBI Moose Drool recipe; currently it starts with Amber DME as a base malt.

This is neither "good" nor "bad" - as there are many ways to make a good beer.

 

[D.B.Moody]

Why are you making "some kind of stout" without roasted barley? The taste of roasted barley practically defines stout. You're just making some kind of dark ale.

 

[sibelman]

I'm concerned that the lactose could make this high gravity beer too sweet. I agree with some other comments, but feel that the recipe could make a good dark imperial ale.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

assuming WLP4025 achieves 85% AA with LME ...

estimates: OG 97; FG 22; ABV 9.8%

 

[bike2brew]

Here is my extract based Stout using only Briess Trad Dark LME/DME. It turned out somewhere around 7.5% abv w/out any lactose to boost it and was sweet enough. In later iterations I substituted the Belgian Special B for Briess 120L and it turned out equally well. I am in process of taking this to all grain as Hops Kitchen Stout, also available on Brewer's Friend.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1328972/new-stout-ale