1st. Stout recipe. Opinions wanted.

[DHaught]

So this is a duplicate thread. Sorry about that but I originally posted it in the beginners section and started thinking it would be more appropriate in this forum.

Ok so I started another thread about an APA recipe I put together using guidance from "the complete joy of homebrewing". This was the other recipe I came up with as an experiment just for fun and to see if it was more fun to make up recipe's than to buy kits all the time.

So this one was supposed to be a stout and I guessed at a few things and I think I may have ended up using not enough hops based on some feedback I got from an online recipe spreadsheet that I found after I had already brewed this batch.

I was hoping for some feedback about this recipe. Does this sound like a stout? Am I in the ballpark for the grain bill and what would you do different, if anything, with the hops?

5 gallon batch. 3 gallon boil.

7 lbs. Dark DME
1 lb. Crystal 120
1/3 lb. Black patent malt.
1/4 lb. Roasted Barley.
1/2 lb. American Chocolate malt.
3 inch. stick brewers licorice.

Steeped grains at 155 for 30 min. Boiled all with 2 oz. fuggle flowers for 60 min. Added 1 oz. glacier pellets for last 10 min.
Topped off with spring water, aerated, and US-05 yeast.

O.G. was 1.070
Fermenting at about 68 to 70 degrees.

Any feedback?

P.S. I transferred to secondary after about a week and fermentation had slowed to a crawl. Gravity was 1.021 and it had a decent taste. Kind of roasty and dark tasting like a stout but it seemed a little on the thin side. Not sure what to take from that. I have a hard time telling anything by tasting my samples. It always seems to taste so much different after it's bottled for a few weeks and chilled.

 

[Oldsock]

Certainly looks like a stout to me. Might just taste a bit thin due to the lack of carbonation, seems like the OG/FG are big enough that it shouldn't be thin.

My personal prference for extract beers is to use only light/pils/wheat extracts and get most of the color/flavor from the steeping grains. Not to say you can't make a great beer with dark/amber extract, but you lose control over the amounts of each ingredient.

Hope it turns out well.

 

[NorsemenRugby58]

I second what Oldsock said.... looks like a Stout recipe to me. Stouts (of which there are a few different kinds) generally will contain the following additions to the base malts...

Black Patent Malt
Chocolate Malt
Oatmeal (Flaked)
Roasted Barley

I'm sure I haven't listed them all, but most all stouts will contain one of the following and mixed in different amounts to make the recipe

 

[DHaught]

Well cool. I guess I don't have anything too far off. Gives me hope of a good beer.

 

[DHaught]

I had originally planned on adding coffee to this to make a sort of Java Stout, but wasn't sure how to go about it. I've read posts about dry coffeeing in the secondary. What kind of procedure would I use for that? Grinds, whole beans, loose or bagged, do I need to worry about bacteria? How long should I leave it in the secondary if I decide to do this?

 

[Oldsock]

I had originally planned on adding coffee to this to make a sort of Java Stout, but wasn't sure how to go about it. I've read posts about dry coffeeing in the secondary. What kind of procedure would I use for that? Grinds, whole beans, loose or bagged, do I need to worry about bacteria? How long should I leave it in the secondary if I decide to do this?

I’d suggest skipping the coffee your first time around brewing a stout. Better to get a basic recipe down before you throw another variable on there (in addition to the licorice).

That said, if you want to. I've had good results with cracked and whole beans. Bagged is easier, especially if using cracked beans. 12-24 hours is all it takes in my experience, right before bottling.

I've never had an issue with contamination from coffee, roasting would certainly make them microbe free, so the less time they hang around after that the better. You are adding it to the beer when it is already fermented, so the alcohol will help to protect it.

 

[InLimbo]

I had originally planned on adding coffee to this to make a sort of Java Stout, but wasn't sure how to go about it. I've read posts about dry coffeeing in the secondary. What kind of procedure would I use for that? Grinds, whole beans, loose or bagged, do I need to worry about bacteria? How long should I leave it in the secondary if I decide to do this?

I added coffee to an extract w/grain stout and we brewed on Thanksgiving. Basically we freshly ground the beans, brewed up maybe 14-16 cups of coffee (from .5 lb of beans), and dumped that into secondary (you can do it primary, just wait till fermentation is done). An other option is cold-steeping the grounds in the same amount of water for ~24 hours, but we were paranoid about bugs that might be on the beans. Anyways, we used french roast, and it came out great. Coffee taste and aroma was subtle but present. I'd recommend more than .5lb if you really want pronounced coffee flavor.

 

[DHaught]

Ok so I ended up adding about 10 ounces of whole beans that I got from starbucks. It was their cafe verona blend. They've been in there about 48 hours and tonight I took another gravity reading and drank the sample..... Holy crap! This stuff tastes awesome right out of the carboy!

Final gravity appears to be 1.020 as it hasn't changed in about 5 days.

If this stuff continues to improve in the bottle I don't know if I'll be able to stand it. I think it's going to have to go into the bottle tonight or first thing in the morning.

I think I am going to be very happy with my first attempt at building my own recipe.

 

[lastsecondapex]

Isn't it technically a porter? I was under the impression (don't remember where I saw this) that stouts used greater than 1.5lbs combined of roasted malt to qualify.

 

[Oldsock]

Isn't it technically a porter? I was under the impression (don't remember where I saw this) that stouts used greater than 1.5lbs combined of roasted malt to qualify.

There isn't a rule for what qualifies as a porter vs. a stout. It is pretty much up to what the brewer wants to call it.

 

[RitsiGators]

Just be careful about how long you leave the coffee grounds in there, my cousin tried a coffee stout using grinds in the secondary and it ended up more coffee than stout.

 

[DHaught]

So I ended up bottling this batch saturday night. The coffee flavor was pronounced after 48 hours with approx. 10 oz. whole beans in a bag in secondary. I kind of felt like another 12 to 18 hours would have been too much. The flavor was really excellent and I'm looking forward to get a few weeks in the bottle for conditioning.

 

[DHaught]

Well it's been in the bottle for 16 days now and it's really turning out nicely to my taste buds. A lot of the sweetness has faded and it's still fairly strong in the coffee department. It is similar to bells Java Stout but not a rich tasting. It seems a little more dry.
The alcohol is up around 7% I believe but it doesn't taste like it at all. It is very smooth drinking. I'm definitely happy with this for my first attempt at coming up with my own recipe.