Can you make a fully extract Stout?

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saucebag

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It seems you need to at least add a few small amounts of grain for what I am assuming is color, mouth feel, etc. is it possible to make an extract stout? if so, talk to me Goose?
 
Yes, use dme of your choice plus some sinamar for colouring. Will be pretty smooth though. I think there are also dark extracts available, you can play around with them as well. I don't know how much crystal they contain and how sweet they end up.
 
If you are looking to make a stout with a shorter brew day /1/ /2/, there are a number of techniques for steeping the specialty malts in parallel with heating/boiling the water/wort in the primary kettle. eta: there are also couple different techniques that I have used when adding specialty malts to IPAs, APAs, Ambers, and Red IPAs. If there's interest in this techniques, let me know.

Williams Brewing and MoreBeer currently offer a number of specialty malt extracts. Williams will often include a grain bill in the product description. MoreBeer might do this as well, I didn't look beyond noticing they have specialty malt extracts at their site.

Pro tip: the grain bill for Briess Traditional Dark can be found in the LME product information sheet (54% Bonlander® Munich Malt 10L, 30% Base malt, 13% Caramel Malt 60L, 3% Black Malt).



/1/ FWIW: Shorter brew days don't suspend the rules of cooking: it's customary to heat wort to ensure it's pasteurized (and we boil wort for other reasons as well).

/2/ Storing liquid malt extract properly when it arrives is a good way to avoid writing an "Welp! I stored my kit in a hot garage. Is my beer ruined?" topic. While we wait for a HomeBrewTalk sticky on storing ingredients, the /r/homebrewing wiki has a page with solid advice.

/3/ specialty extract comes and goes. Careful readers of the recipes in How To Brew, 4e will note the use of Munich DME and Vienna DME (which were available at the time the book was written, but apparently are no longer available).
 
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it was more just a thought, not necessarily to reduce brew time
I guess im more wondering, has anyone made an extract stout that you liked.
I appreciate grains will make it better most likely, but just like experimenting with different things...try new stuff... but I also learned after returning to brewing recently that extract brewing is cool/good again. So when it comes to lazy/easy methods, I like to hear about them, such as making a hop tea for a no boil or very short boil. It's fascinating is all.
 
@saucebag :

Building off of what @RM-MN mentioned in #3:
  • grain bills (in percentages) for many brands / styles of extracts are available.
  • include lactose, sugar(s), brewers crystals, and sinamar
  • you will need to find an 'educated guess' for Amber DME/LME
  • food coloring might be considered 'cheating' ;)

  • find an all-grain stout recipe that you like.
  • if necessary, convert the all-grain stout grain bill into percentages

  • attempt to blend the extracts to match the grain bill percentages

I suspect there is a combination of Pale Ale, Amber, Traditional Dark, and sinamar (color) that might be close. But it's been a while since I played with the numbers.
 
it was more just a thought, not necessarily to reduce brew time
I guess im more wondering, has anyone made an extract stout that you liked.
I appreciate grains will make it better most likely, but just like experimenting with different things...try new stuff... but I also learned after returning to brewing recently that extract brewing is cool/good again. So when it comes to lazy/easy methods, I like to hear about them, such as making a hop tea for a no boil or very short boil. It's fascinating is all.
Yes! Have you considered partial mash methodology? I have made several Porters, Stou
 
Yes! Have you considered partial mash methodology? I have made several Porters, Stouts with additions of oak, chocolate nibs, coffee with good to very good results. I have an Irish Stout in the fermenter as we speak
 
I've also made an extract stout that came out really good. I used a recipe kit that was 6lb breiss golden liquid malt extract, 1 pound of specialty grains (it didn't actually say what kind but I think it was all roast barely), 2oz bittering hops addition (I forget what kind), and a liquid Irish ale yeast (also forget which kind).

I'm going to start working out my own recipe for my next brew so I'm definitely interested to hear what you learn about this. I'm thinking a blend of crystal malt and roasted barely for the speciality grains will improve things but I'm not sure on the ratio yet.
 
I've also made an extract stout that came out really good. I used a recipe kit that was 6lb breiss golden liquid malt extract, 1 pound of specialty grains (it didn't actually say what kind but I think it was all roast barely), 2oz bittering hops addition (I forget what kind), and a liquid Irish ale yeast (also forget which kind).

I'm going to start working out my own recipe for my next brew so I'm definitely interested to hear what you learn about this. I'm thinking a blend of crystal malt and roasted barely for the speciality grains will improve things but I'm not sure on the ratio yet.
Depends on what you are after. You can make a perfectly fine stout without any crystal at all. Only pale malt and about 10% roasted barley can be really good.
 
Depends on what you are after. You can make a perfectly fine stout without any crystal at all. Only pale malt and about 10% roasted barley can be really good.
Yea for sure, the one I made last time didn't have any and I liked it a lot. I've already bought the crystal so I figure I'll give it a try anyway. Maybe I should use some of it for the base of a red ale instead.
 
Yea for sure, the one I made last time didn't have any and I liked it a lot. I've already bought the crystal so I figure I'll give it a try anyway. Maybe I should use some of it for the base of a red ale instead.
Depends on what you are after. You can make a perfectly fine red ale without any crystal at all. :p

:D

My current preference is just using red-x and nothing more for a red ale.

If you use crystal in a stout, about five percent is a good amount if you ask me.
 
Depends on what you are after. You can make a perfectly fine red ale without any crystal at all. :p

:D

My current preference is just using red-x and nothing more for a red ale.

If you use crystal in a stout, about five percent is a good amount if you ask me.
Lol I haven't heard of red-x before. I'll have to check that out. What's crystal malt normally good for then?
 
Lol I haven't heard of red-x before. I'll have to check that out. What's crystal malt normally good for then?
It brings a certain flavour. If you want that, that's were you use it. A side effect is the colour, but the main thing would be that flavour and also some sweetness, if used in quantities.

I rarely go beyond ten percent, mostly I stay with five percent of the grist, if I use it. Every crystal tastes different even when having the same colour.
 
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