Chocolate Peanut Butter Milk Stout

[NewBrewer2025]

I am making my first stout! I'm going in head first with my favorite style - a peanut butter milk stout.

I am looking for something that is right in the area of a dessert stout. I like to say a "light dessert" style, as I want good mouthfeel and a more creamy texture, but not like I just had two pieces of cheesecake after a single glass either. Here is what I have as of right now:

I tried to adjust the water profile to get a little bit more of that creamy mouthfeel texture as well, though that is the area I am working to learn the most right now. I used the sweet stout profile within Brewfather and then made some slight changes, and it's still within the guidelines, but more "malty" now than "balanced," which I think is what I am looking for?

I've gone a bit back and forth on the yeasts, though this seems to work best with my temp control with also leaving that residual sweetness on it.

Any thoughts? Anything else I need to consider here? Especially in regards to water profile for this?

 

[sibelman]

Chocolate and peanut butter is a favorite combo of mine. What brand of extract will you use? Please post the results of this effort.

 

[NewBrewer2025]

Chocolate and peanut butter is a favorite combo of mine. What brand of extract will you use? Please post the results of this effort.

Brewer's Best was the plan. I already have some of that around.

 

[hilljack13]

Do stouts require high pH? I noticed you are adding baking soda.

 

[NewBrewer2025]

Do stouts require high pH? I noticed you are adding baking soda.

It was recommended to be since the darker malts release acids and lower the pH, so the baking soda is to offset that for softening acidity and raising pH.

 

[worlddivides]

Do stouts require high pH? I noticed you are adding baking soda.

Roasted grains are very acidic, so the more roasted grains you add to the mash, the lower the pH goes. For example, if I just used Pilsner malt and no pH adjustments, I'd have a pH around 5.5 or so, but if I did a typical stout grain bill with no pH adjustments, I'd have a pH of 5.2. So in my case, I often add lactic acid to pale ales, IPAs, saisons, and so on, but I add baking soda to stouts, porters, and sometimes even to brown ales.

Back on subject, peanut butter stouts, chocolate stouts, and milk stouts are some of my favorite styles, so mixing them to a peanut butter chocolate milk stout is great (though I know you don't have any chocolate in there in this recipe).

 

[G_robertus]

I'd say you mostly need something to get a chocolate sensation going on. You could use nibs/tinctures or extract if you find a good one. Pale chocolate gives some of it, but maybe not enough. I like chocolate/roasted rye a lot in that department. Chocolate wheat is a bit like that as well, but more tart. Carafa Special 2 is the most reminiscent of chocolate to me. Crystal can help with the sweetness/caramel you can expect in some milk chocolate. I like TF Red Crystal or other extra dark variants like Crisp. Phoenix hops also supposedly taste like cocoa, but I haven't had the chance to try it yet.
Yeast is up to you. Verdant is more creamy and I personally like WHC Pub/Bond a lot.

 

[NewBrewer2025]

I'd say you mostly need something to get a chocolate sensation going on. You could use nibs/tinctures or extract if you find a good one. Pale chocolate gives some of it, but maybe not enough. I like chocolate/roasted rye a lot in that department. Chocolate wheat is a bit like that as well, but more tart. Carafa Special 2 is the most reminiscent of chocolate to me. Crystal can help with the sweetness/caramel you can expect in some milk chocolate. I like TF Red Crystal or other extra dark variants like Crisp. Phoenix hops also supposedly taste like cocoa, but I haven't had the chance to try it yet.
Yeast is up to you. Verdant is more creamy and I personally like WHC Pub/Bond a lot.

Thanks for the heads up. So, let’s say I wanted to make that grain adjustment but keep the OG and FG fairly similar.. what would I do?

 

[sibelman]

keep the OG and FG fairly similar

Modest adjustments to your darker grains won't much affect gravity.

 

[G_robertus]

Thanks for the heads up. So, let’s say I wanted to make that grain adjustment but keep the OG and FG fairly similar.. what would I do?

I don't think adding or changing your grain bill will affect your OG that much either. However, if you feel like it does and it matters, just decrease the base malt a bit. Your predicted FG (depending on the software) might increase a bit if you add dark grains, but you could compensate by mashing slightly colder. I wouldn't worry too much though, because these are beers that can handle a lot of flavour and sweetness/body will usually help in this case. Playing around with this for future iterations is also a good idea. Same with bitterness, although I like to offset the sweetness with bitterness to increase drinkability.