First all-grain stout

[RobbyBeers]

Hi all,

About to brew my first all-grain batch: a stout. I always formulate my own recipes, but given my lack of experience with this process, I'd like to get some feedback on my grain/hop bill.

This will be a 2.5-gallon test batch.


Grain
-----
7 lb. two-row malt
1 lb. dark crystal malt (120L)
5.5 oz. black patent malt
5.5 oz. roasted barley

Hops
-----
0.5 oz. galena (at 60 min.)
0.5 oz. willamette (at 7 min.)


What do you think? Am I in the ballpark?

 

[Shawn Hargreaves]

That strikes me as a lot of crystal and dark malt for a 2.5 gallon batch!

I normally use a pound of roast barley, plus a pound of crystal if I'm going for a sweet stout, in a 5 gallon batch. A full pound of crystal in a half batch could be overpowering.

Personally I'm not a fan of black patent in a stout - I like to keep it traditional and just use roast barley.

 

[RobbyBeers]

I thought it might be a bit high, but I was trying to go for a dark, sweetish stout around 8% abv. Still, I might consider cutting back the specialty a bit. Thanks.

 

[bbrim]

I just tapped into my first AG stout. Mine is a dry stout. The flavor is not at all overpowering, my friends who aren't fans of really robust stouts like it a lot, my friends who like a really robust one want more complexity and body. I did 10 gallons. I used
13 lbs pale 2 row
3 lbs flaked barley
1.75 lbs roast barley

hopped to 37 IBU, bittering only

Nottinham yeast.

I mashed at 150. My OG was 1.046 at 78% eff.

I think with as much malt as you're using you will have an OG that is in the Imperial Stout range for 2.5 gallons. I would probably cut the base malt to 4 or 5 pounds and drop the Crystal malt. If you're going for a sweet stout maybe leave in 1/4 lbs. 1 lbs of crystal will definitely be too much.
Keep the late hop addition to a minimum, its not typical of the style to have any but it's your beer not a judges. If it were me I would do the hop addition at 2 minutes to get more aroma and less flavor. Good choice of flavoring hop. Make sure your IBUs will be in the 35-50 range, I'm not sure Galenas AA% so I cant help you with that. Good luck

 

[RobbyBeers]

Good advice, especially on the hops. I'll try to post again when it's done. Cheers.