Root Beer Float Stout Fun

[WFox93]

I've embarked on an adventure for my first big stout. I wanted to have some fun with it though, so I developed a recipe for a root beer float stout.
Root beer to me has always tasted caramelly and slightly herbal so I aimed for lots of crystal 60L for my caramel, a bit of chocolate malt and roasted barley mainly for color but a touch of flavor. To really drive home the root beer flavor I'm adding sassafras chips to my secondary. Now on the float side of things, to me the best root beer floats are thick, creamy and sweet. Call me crazy, but I put half a pound of lactose sugar in a 2 gallon batch. To solidify the fact that, yes this is a sipable rootbeeer float that's actually beer, I'm soaking a Tahitian vanilla bean in Disaronno for a week and adding that to the secondary as well. It'll stay in the the secondary on top of the additives for a week before bottling.
My starting gravity for this came out to 1.073, so really not that big but this stuff poured like oil and I'm super excited for it to be done. If it ends up tasting good, I'll go ahead and post up the recipe if I get much interest in this. If not, will be back to ask for suggestions lol.

Meh, You guys seem interested enough. Edited for recipe:
*2 Gallon Recipe All Grain*
3 lbs - 2-Row
1 lbs - Crystal 60L
.5 lbs - Carapils (Dextrine)
.75 lbs - Roasted Barley
.75 lbs - Chocolate Malt
.5 lbs - Lactose Sugar

.5 oz Cluster Hops
.5 oz Fuggles Hops

Safale - s-04 or us-05 yeast

1/2 Whirflock tablet

Sasafrass and 1 vanilla bean

-Standard Mash procedure, Sparge to 3 gal
-- This refers to my personal files, 1qt of water per pound of grain preheated at 180 and allowed to cool to 170 in the tun while adding grains.

60 minute boil

add .25 oz Cluster hops at 30 minutes
add .25 oz cluster hops and whirflock at 45 minutes (15 minutes from previous add)
add .5 oz Fuggle hops at 50 minutes (5 minutes from previous add)

My plan is two weeks in the primary fermenter then rack ontop of the sassafras and vanilla for a week, no finings because its pitch black. Then bottle age for 2-4 weeks, May try to stash a bottle or two away for next winter too.

 

[Roland_deschain]

Following

 

[Roland_deschain]

Post your recipe, I’m interested in trying something like this.

 

[Zimm9]

Sounds really interesting! I'd like to hear how it goes.

 

[WFox93]

added recipe, cheers guys

 

[WFox93]

I ended up fermenting according to my plan, not sure I mentioned it above but I did two weeks in the primary then added the Vanilla/Disaronno and Sassafras in a secondary for a week. It came down to a 1.041 gravity. Bottled on Friday and my oh my did it taste good. I used an ounce of sassafras chips in a muslin sack and one Tahitian vanilla bean soaked in just enough Disaronno to cover it for a week. It's definitely recognizable as rootbeer with vanilla and has a creamy mouthfeel and its definitely recognizable as a stout. If I was to do it again though (which I will) I'd probably cut back the sassafras, add some spearmint(? ... or is it wintergreen?), maybe a touch of star anise and some other herbally rootbeery goodness. I think I'd add some vanilla too. Then again, that may all change in a few weeks after it finishes carbonating and I'm actually able to drink it for real. I think I'm gonna try to put a bottle or two back for long term aging as well.

 

[Zimm9]

Thanks for sharing the recipe. Maybe I'll be able to experiment with it after the holidays.

 

[BrewMan13]

.... If I was to do it again though (which I will) I'd probably cut back the sassafras, add some spearmint(? ... or is it wintergreen?), maybe a touch of star anise and some other herbally rootbeery goodness....

It's wintergreen . Despite what the name makes you think of, it's not at all minty, IIRC.

 

[WFox93]

It's wintergreen . Despite what the name makes you think of, it's not at all minty, IIRC.

Awesome, I'll be sure to adjust my recipe notes. Thanks.

 

[WFox93]

I popped one open for my friends to sample yesterday, fully knowing that it wasn't carbed and still needed to age a bit but I thought it would still be a nice baseline. Jeez was the oil that poured out disgusting. way more astringant than before, wasn't carbed at all and hardly tasted like stout. a couple of my friend ended up putting a bit of Monster in to make a sort of bomb type thing with it. I'm not gonna dump it yet. I'll give it a month or so and see what it's like after that. But as of right now. It's BAD