First Recipe - Critiques Welcomed!

[TumulousErmine]

Hi everyone-
Like so many others, I've lurked on this forum for quite some time. I'm making the transition to AG brewing and to constructing my own recipes. Since this will be the first fusion of the two, I'd appreciate any thoughts.

American Stout

Wort Volume Before Boil: 3.00 US gals Wort Volume After Boil: 2.00 US gals
Volume Transferred: 2.00 US gals Water Added To Fermenter: 0.00 US gals
Volume At Pitching: 2.00 US gals Volume Of Finished Beer: 1.75 US gals
Expected Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.029 SG Expected OG: 1.065 SG
Expected FG: 1.016 SG Apparent Attenuation: 75.0 %
Expected ABV: 6.6 % Expected ABW: 5.2 %
Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 54.6 IBU Expected Color (using Mosher): 36.6 SRM

US 2-Row Malt 2lb 14oz 57.5 % 2.6 In Mash/Steeped
US Caramel 120L Malt 4.50 oz 5.6 % 16.9 In Mash/Steeped
US Chocolate Malt 4.00 oz 5.0 % 43.8 In Mash/Steeped
US Roasted Barley 3.50 oz 4.4 % 32.8 In Mash/Steeped
Belgian Caramel Munich Malt 60 3.00 oz 3.8 % 5.6 In Mash/Steeped
US Caramel 35L Malt 3.00 oz 3.8 % 3.3 In Mash/Steeped
Extract - Light Dried Malt Extract 1lb 0oz 20.0 % 1.5 End Of Boil

US Chinook 10.5 % 0.40 oz 40.3 Bagged Pellet Hops 45 Min From End
US Nugget 13.0 % 0.10 oz 9.4 Bagged Pellet Hops 25 Min From End
US Nugget 13.0 % 0.10 oz 4.9 Bagged Pellet Hops 10 Min From End

Yeast: Wyeast 1056, 1272, or 1332 (selection at LHBS dependent)
Mash at 151.

It's a two gallon batch; I'm starting small, as I don't have the ability at the moment to do a 5 gallon batch with full boil. Come August/September, however... but I want to get some recipes nailed down in smaller batches before I break into the large ones anyway.

Any help or comments are appreciated!

TE

 

[Calder]

US 2-Row Malt 2lb 14oz 57.5 % 2.6 In Mash/Steeped
US Caramel 120L Malt 4.50 oz 5.6 % 16.9 In Mash/Steeped
US Chocolate Malt 4.00 oz 5.0 % 43.8 In Mash/Steeped
US Roasted Barley 3.50 oz 4.4 % 32.8 In Mash/Steeped
Belgian Caramel Munich Malt 60 3.00 oz 3.8 % 5.6 In Mash/Steeped
US Caramel 35L Malt 3.00 oz 3.8 % 3.3 In Mash/Steeped
Extract - Light Dried Malt Extract 1lb 0oz 20.0 % 1.5

This is a 2 gallon batch. So if this was a 5 gallon batch we would have:

11 ozs Crystal 120
8 ozs Crystal 35
8 ozs CaraMunich
10 ozs Chocolate Malt
9 ozs Roasted Barley

7 lbs 2-row
2.5 lbs DME

That's a lot of crystal.

 

[jonmohno]

I make this size batch myself,with a 2 gallon fermenter you can just third 5 gallon batches with some differneces like amount of boil off. I used almost this amount of crystal malt in a porter i just did,with your mash of 151 and ibu's i think it would be fine. You may want to get it down to 1/2 pound total but ive went over half a pound often and they havent been cloying or anything. If you have a less attenuating yeast that you choose you may want to cut the crystal malts down below 1/2 #.Depending on what you are going for. I was just tallying up the amount today i used earlier in my Porter and i used 10 oz of various crystal malts,like golden naked oats,carawheat(from my experience with carawheat-it seems more like a toasted malt-really),and a few others. Im not exactly shure if a 1.5 # crystal malts is typically used in stouts/porters or not for a 5 gallon batch,though. And chocolate malt is definatly not sweet too.

 

[TumulousErmine]

Thank you both for the advice- I really appreciate it. I was somewhat worried about the crystal percentage (it's running at ~20% of the grain bill), but thought it looked comparable to other stout recipes I had seen. I also was hoping to get a fairly thick bodied beer without having to add oats or the like- I'm working with the counter top partial mash system detailed in BYO (Brew Your Own: The How-To Homebrew Beer Magazine - Countertop Partial Mashing - Issues), so my conversion power is somewhat limited and I didn't want to risk a stuck mash (if that's possible with this setup). Do you think that mashing at 149 would help alleviate concerns about an overly cloying beer? If not, would you recommend cutting the crystal malts fairly uniformly, or is there one that I should pull more from?

 

[dcp27]

I'd cut back on the crystal and up the dark malts, pretty much flip the amounts (i.e. 10.5oz RB/choc and 7.5oz crystal). can you really not fit in the extra 2lbs of 2-row to get rid of the extract?

 

[jonmohno]

@dcp27 that seems like a lot of chocolate,thats abouyt 2# for a 5 gallon batch.Thats twice as much that i just seen in a Robust Porter for a 5 gallon batch.

I just did a BIAB- mashed an Organic Bastard that had 4# of malt got a dead on 1.074.Great Western base malt has a good yeild. Considering alot of other base malts ive used 3# of it plus up to 1/2#a few oz of crystal malts/toasted or whatever gives me a roughly a 1.06 gravity.

 

[TumulousErmine]

So, it seems like the consensus is to cut the crystal malts somewhat. So, a total grain bill of something along the lines of ~80% 2-row (or DME), 10% Crystals (currently ~12%), 10% roasted grains, keeping the mash at 151 and keeping the IBUs where they are (or possibly increasing). Does this sound more balanced? Thank you all for your help here- I truly appreciate it.

@dcp27 - Unfortunately, I can't easily pack more grain in without doing a thicker mash than I'm comfortable with at this point (I've done one AG batch so far- a Bastard clone of my own). I'm working with a 2 gallon cooler at the moment, which gives me ~4# grain at 1.375 qts/lb. With a batch sparge, it gives me about 3 gallons to work with. I plan to upgrade to a better AG system (saving up and all), but space is at a premium at the moment.

 

[dcp27]

@dcp27 that seems like a lot of chocolate,thats abouyt 2# for a 5 gallon batch.

didn't say all chocolate. I meant to split it between roasted barley & chocolate. I'd go 2:1

@dcp27 - Unfortunately, I can't easily pack more grain in without doing a thicker mash than I'm comfortable with at this point

oh ya, i guess you can't, thats unfortunate. 10:10:80 would be a good bill.

 

[jonmohno]

@dcp27-woops didnt recognize theRB until now,my bad. makes sense.