6~7% Milk stout recipe critique please.

[MPBeer]

10# 2-row
0.8# RB(300)
0.8# Lactose
0.8# C60
0.8# White Wheat
0.8# Chocolate
0.8# Flaked Oats
0.6# C120
0.6# Munich
0.3# Blackprinz

+ Vanilla & Cacao


I'm trying to brew a adjunct stout with creamy, thick mouthfeel. FG 1.028 and IBU 30. Added lactose, wheat and oats for nice mouthfeel. Layered C60,C120, Chocolate and Roasted Barley for flavor, added a bit of Black malt for color and roastiness, and some munich for blackground.

I like the components of my recipe right now, but it's hard to get the right ratio. I'm looking for lots of chocolate, coffee, roasted flavor and less of licorice, dried fruits or burnt.

Thanks and cheers!

 

[stieg000]

Looks overly complicated, I'd drop the wheat, blackprinz and Munich.

 

[couchsending]

Same

I’d up the c6o to a pound as well.

 

[MPBeer]

Thanks! Always forget to go simple, maybe I'm too greedy lol.

 

[MPBeer]

10# 2-Row
1# C60
0.8# Flaked Oats
0.8# Chocolate
0.8# RB
0.8# Lactose
0.6# C120

Boil 90min

Would this be enough? Have been seeing lots of imperial stout recipe with 10+ malt varities, so it feels a bit weird to see a malt bill like this Cheers!

 

[couchsending]

What’s your water profile?

 

[FatDragon]

10# 2-Row
1# C60
0.8# Flaked Oats
0.8# Chocolate
0.8# RB
0.8# Lactose
0.6# C120

Boil 90min

Would this be enough? Have been seeing lots of imperial stout recipe with 10+ malt varities, so it feels a bit weird to see a malt bill like this Cheers!

You can get great complexity in even single malt beers, so I wouldn't worry too much about emulating those 10+ malt recipes. Like as not, most of those recipes could be replicated or improved with far fewer ingredients.

For my two cents, I'd probably up the flaked oats or add some flaked barley, but if you can actually get an FG in the 1.028 range that's probably unnecessary. I'd also drop the C120, but that's a matter of personal taste as I don't really feel like those flavors fit very well in a milk stout. Take my advice with a grain of salt, though, since I haven't made a non-partigyle milk stout in a few years.

 

[MPBeer]

What’s your water profile?

Building up with purified tap water, aiming for SO4:Chloride = 50 : 80~100.

You can get great complexity in even single malt beers, so I wouldn't worry too much about emulating those 10+ malt recipes. Like as not, most of those recipes could be replicated or improved with far fewer ingredients.

For my two cents, I'd probably up the flaked oats or add some flaked barley, but if you can actually get an FG in the 1.028 range that's probably unnecessary. I'd also drop the C120, but that's a matter of personal taste as I don't really feel like those flavors fit very well in a milk stout. Take my advice with a grain of salt, though, since I haven't made a non-partigyle milk stout in a few years.

Thanks for the tip! It seems like comboing C60~80 + C120 + Chocolate + Black/Roasted is kinda rule of thumb for stout, so I put it in. I got an advise to take it back a little when I was going for 1:1 ratio of C60:C120. Would the C120 make a sensable fruity taste? Also, what do you think the amount of flaked barley & oats will be the best? At the first place, I was going for 1# Barley and 0.6# Oats... but seems like they do pretty much the same thing except the oiliness from oats. Cheers!

 

[couchsending]

You’ll need some alkalinity in some form or another.. baking soda is the easiest one to use, others might disagree.

 

[MPBeer]

You’ll need some alkalinity in some form or another.. baking soda is the easiest one to use, others might disagree.

I'm adding 3g Gypsum and 6g CaCl2, and getting 5.37of mash ph. Do you think a tiny bit of soda will do for this case? Thanks!

 

[couchsending]

The roasted grains will drive the PH down. Are you using Bru'n water? If you're not adding any bicarbonate
and you're adding that much CA with that much roasted grain your PH will be much lower than 5.37, closer
to 5.0 with distilled or RO water. You need bicarbonates to keep it closer to 5.3/5.4.

 

[MPBeer]

The roasted grains will drive the PH down. Are you using Bru'n water? If you're not adding any bicarbonate
and you're adding that much CA with that much roasted grain your PH will be much lower than 5.37, closer
to 5.0 with distilled or RO water. You need bicarbonates to keep it closer to 5.3/5.4.

I'm using EZ cal and it says my ph will be 5.50... here is the pic of my excel.

 

[couchsending]

I’ve never used that before but you said you’re using purified tap water. So the purified tap water you’re starting with has the water profile listed at the top? Alkalinity is listed as 63? If that’s the case then no you should be fine.

 

[MPBeer]

I’ve never used that before but you said you’re using purified tap water. So the purified tap water you’re starting with has the water profile listed at the top? Alkalinity is listed as 63? If that’s the case then no you should be fine.

Yes the purifier just kills any bacteria and chloramine... Thanks a lot! Brew day is tomorrow, wish it goes well

 

[bigdawg86]

So this grain bill below is for Goose Island Bourbon County Stout... I did a second runnings beer with this and it turned out really well. I was a touch dry for a stout so I added 1Lb of lactose, a pint of rum, and 3lbs of coconut into secondary. Pretty damn good. I think OG was somewhere around 1.070 once I added a little DME to jack up the gravity.

Why don't you use the grain bill in similar ratios to produce a beer at whatever gravity you want?

• 17 Pounds - 2 Row
• .7 Pounds - Black Malt
• 1 Pound - Crystal 60L
• 1 Pound - Chocolate Malt
• 1 Pounds - Roasted Barley
• 5 Pounds - Munich (10L)

 

[MPBeer]

So this grain bill below is for Goose Island Bourbon County Stout... I did a second runnings beer with this and it turned out really well. I was a touch dry for a stout so I added 1Lb of lactose, a pint of rum, and 3lbs of coconut into secondary. Pretty damn good. I think OG was somewhere around 1.070 once I added a little DME to jack up the gravity.

Why don't you use the grain bill in similar ratios to produce a beer at whatever gravity you want?

• 17 Pounds - 2 Row
• .7 Pounds - Black Malt
• 1 Pound - Crystal 60L
• 1 Pound - Chocolate Malt
• 1 Pounds - Roasted Barley
• 5 Pounds - Munich (10L)

Wow what's all that munich for?? I love BCBS, that thick mouthfeel and boozy chocolate cupcake smell is just insane. I'll add this to my brew list, thanks!

 

[MPBeer]

So, brewed this beer 2 days ago with below recipe.

• 10# 2-Row
• 1# C60
• 1# Chocolate
• 0.8# Flaked Oats
• 0.8# Flaked Barley
• 0.8# Roasted Barley
• 0.8# Lactose
• 0.4# C120
• 0.4# Midnight Wheat

• Warrior 0.7oz @60 (30IBU)

• S-04

Everything has gone really well. Except my efficiency came a bit low (67%), but it can be better next time I guess. Maybe I should use mill my grains more finely.

I'll be adding my vanilla and cacao 1 week later. Will report back how it is.

 

[MPBeer]

This beer is pretty damn good. It's clocking at 5.6%, so very drinkable yet full and smooth. I added 6~7oz of Ghanan cacao nibs and 3 Madagascar vanilla beans (10g). Big roastiness coming out of the malts that make people think I put a lot of coffee in this beer. Tastes like Mocha chocolate coffee or something else. I just wish it had more vanilla flavor and a bit more sweetness.

I'm going to add more lactose to make the fg around 1.032, while mashing just a bit lower to get more attenuation (alcohol up to 6.5%). Take back few flaked barley and add flaked oats, adjust IBU lower to 20, and age it with vanilla more than a week. I got a pastry stout recipe from Angry Chair, so I'm going to try that first, then combine it together. Thanks for the help one again!