cooked up a stout today

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One Eye Ross

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Made a new stout today. Went with

6 lbs 14 oz 2 Row malt
2 oz Acidulated malt
2 lbs Flaked Barley
1 lbs Roasted Barley

Was expecting about 1.044 on the OG, it came in at 1.042 so all in all, not bad.

(I was hoping to get a bit of the tang with the acidulated malt - will see how it goes when it gets done).

Waiting for it to cool to pitch the yeast (using a Safale S-04)....

(finally healed up from surgery and can lug around 5 gal buckets & stuff).
 
2oz of acid malt is an extremely small amount and probably too little to get any acid character in the beer. That said, you'll probably end up with a delicious stout anyway.
 
I was going to go slow on my use of the acid malt....figured I would move up by 2 ounces every time I brew and see how it goes.

(I can drink more than 5 gals of stout a month with no problems....)
 
With the darker malts you should hit your mash pH fine without the acidulated. Since you want the acid for flavor not pH correction you could add it later in the mash maybe near the end.
 
Made a new stout today. Went with

6 lbs 14 oz 2 Row malt
2 oz Acidulated malt
2 lbs Flaked Barley
1 lbs Roasted Barley

Was expecting about 1.044 on the OG, it came in at 1.042 so all in all, not bad.

(I was hoping to get a bit of the tang with the acidulated malt - will see how it goes when it gets done).

Waiting for it to cool to pitch the yeast (using a Safale S-04)....

(finally healed up from surgery and can lug around 5 gal buckets & stuff).
I plan to brew a stout tomorrow with basically that exact recipe minus the acidulated malt. I’ve been on a quest for quite some time now to clone Guinness Draught and have always fallen short.
I regularly see comments about that much roasted barley being way too much, but all my research about Guinness and all its variants say about 1 lb/ 5 gallons for homebrewers. The recipe I keep finding gives a rough estimate for the grain bill at 70/20/10 for 2-row/flaked barley/roasted barley. It’s a very simple recipe but the way to achieve that special Guinness flavor seems to be a controversial mystery. I have 24 oz of soured stout that I plan to add at the end of the boil to see if that will work. Do you bottle or keg? I serve mine with 75/25 beer gas with a stout faucet and that part of my quest is very close. Did you mash the roasted with the rest of the grains and what did you use for a water profile? Good luck with your brew and I’ll be interested to hear how yours turns out.
 
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Camonick, I use distilled water (can't use my well water, too much iron) so I add some bicarbonate...I keg, and have tried using beer gas (nitrogen mix) but am having difficulty balancing the gas - seems to be over carbonated. When I use CO2 and a picnic tap, seems to be fine....(just me needing to make the correct tweak). And yes, I mash the roasted with the malted and flaked barley....
 
I was going to go slow on my use of the acid malt....figured I would move up by 2 ounces every time I brew and see how it goes.

It does not seem like a good idea. I have a feeling that you would need to get close to 12 oz or more to get any impact, and with a stout adding acid is likely causing pH issues. I mostly use Phosphoric Acid to adjust my beer now, but I could not tell any flavor impacts of adding 6 oz of Acidulated Malt to a Pale Ale or IPA.

I have found that S-04 gives a slight sour flavor that I enjoy in roasty dark stouts.
 
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