Is my dry stout too "simple"?

[Brew2Be]

Hi all.

I recently put together a keg setup and thus revived my beer brewing motivation for the first time in 3.5 years - great! I'm almost through the first keg and I'm looking to brew a quick turn around beer. I like roasty beers so the dry stout seemed like an obvious choice (roast to mask out young flavors and low alcohol). I have now put together the most basic one I could find to kind of get a "feel" for the style. I have brewed rather complex robust porters before but would like to experience a "bare bone" dry stout.

I was reading up on it and it seemed a basic dry stout consists of: base malt + flaked barley + roasted barley and some type of british hops (early addition to provide bitterness) + british yeast.

I have piece together this recipe:

Batch size
5 gallons

Grain bill
70% Maris Otter
20% Flaked Barley
10% Roasted Barley

Hops
Fuggles @ 60 mins - 24 AAU
Fuggles @ 25 mins - 8 AAU

Yeast
East Midlands Ale Yeast

Mash
65 celcius for 60 minutes

Stats
IBU: 32
SRM: 32
O.G: 1.042
Est. F.G: 1.010
Est. ABV: 4.5%

I have the following questions:
- Is my to simple? A basic dry stout seems deceptively simple..
- Approximately how fast will this turn around? Grain to glass?
- Will it be very black in color? I really like jet black beers
- Is the 10% roasted barley too much or too little? I would like it to have a very roasty flavor but not to the point of being acrid.

Thank you in advance for lending me your experience/expertise.

 

[thehaze]

At 32 SRM it will be black/dark enough, so no worries there. I think simple works wery well, so no issue there.

For a beer with so such a low ABV, you can probably enjoy that at 15-18 days from brewing.

Cheers.

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

I would move that 25 min hop addition to 10 at 25 minutes it will contribute more to bittering than anything else but that would be a personal preference I would also add a touch of chocolate malt 4 ounces or so (112 grams) but once again a personal preference you may love that recipe more than any other beer you ever had or maybe not there is only 1 way to find out

 

[cubalz]

I definitely would not add any more than 10% roasted barley. You would most likely get too much bitterness to the point of being acrid.

 

[Brew2Be]

Thanks for your reply. This was just what I was looking for in a recipe.

 

[Brew2Be]

At 32 SRM it will be black/dark enough, so no worries there. I think simple works wery well, so no issue there.

For a beer with so such a low ABV, you can probably enjoy that at 15-18 days from brewing.

Cheers.

Thanks for your reply. This was just what I was looking for in a recipe.

 

[Brew2Be]

I would move that 25 min hop addition to 10 at 25 minutes it will contribute more to bittering than anything else but that would be a personal preference I would also add a touch of chocolate malt 4 ounces or so (112 grams) but once again a personal preference you may love that recipe more than any other beer you ever had or maybe not there is only 1 way to find out

I put the hop additions like this because i was counting on the roasted barley adding some bitterness too. What do you mean "25 min hop addition to 10 at 25 minutes"?

I kept the chocolate and Crystal out of the recipe to keep it as basic as possible.

 

[Brew2Be]

I definitely would not add any more than 10% roasted barley. You would most likely get too much bitterness to the point of being acrid.

Are the 10% too much? Would say 7 or 8 percent be a better bet to avoid acridness but still have enough roast?

 

[cubalz]

Bump it down to 7% to be safe. It will still feature plenty of roastiness.

 

[Brew2Be]

Bump it down to 7% to be safe. It will still feature plenty of roastiness.

Thank you for the advice!

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

Just noticed gravity yes the roasted barley will be pronounced at 10% with a 1.042 OG. I would move the 25 minute hop addition to 10 minutes so it contributes to aroma and flavor more, using it at 25 minutes it will be a bittering hop addition mostly adding to your 60 minute addition, I like fuggles a lot so I would want them to contribute more to the beer than bittering but that's me.

 

[Brew2Be]

Just noticed gravity yes the roasted barley will be pronounced at 10% with a 1.042 OG. I would move the 25 minute hop addition to 10 minutes so it contributes to aroma and flavor more, using it at 25 minutes it will be a bittering hop addition mostly adding to your 60 minute addition, I like fuggles a lot so I would want them to contribute more to the beer than bittering but that's me.

Now I understand . Thanks for clarifying!

 

[blackelbow]

I'd say basic is the way to go to get a feel for a style. I've often started with a complex recipe initially, then simplified it later on and ended up with a better beer.

 

[mabrungard]

That recipe is what a dry stout should be. Three mash ingredients.

I'm not sure if the 10% Roast Barley is ideal, but its a starting point. As an aside, I swear that Guinness has recently reduced their roast amount since the pints I've had in the past year or so are much less roasty than I remember it being. I like it much more than I did. So I would suggest that lower roast content is a better place to start.

 

[BigEd]

I have piece together this recipe:

Batch size
5 gallons

Grain bill
70% Maris Otter
20% Flaked Barley
10% Roasted Barley

Hops
Fuggles @ 60 mins - 24 AAU
Fuggles @ 25 mins - 8 AAU

Yeast
East Midlands Ale Yeast

Mash
65 celcius for 60 minutes

Stats
IBU: 32
SRM: 32
O.G: 1.042
Est. F.G: 1.010
Est. ABV: 4.5%

I have the following questions:
- Is my to simple? A basic dry stout seems deceptively simple..
- Approximately how fast will this turn around? Grain to glass?
- Will it be very black in color? I really like jet black beers
- Is the 10% roasted barley too much or too little? I would like it to have a very roasty flavor but not to the point of being acrid.

Thank you in advance for lending me your experience/expertise.

Complex doesn't necessarily mean good. Simple is usually good. I'd say you're fine here. I like 80% pale and 10% each of flaked and roasted barley but what you have should be fine. There are way too many recipes IMO that add too many ingredients. At some point the long list of various grains just start getting in each other's way. AFAIK Guinness is 10% roasted barley so if you like that color you are good to go.

Some potential tweaks would be to reduce the roasted barley by a few percent and add 5% chocolate malt. 10% roasted barley will not make an "acrid" brew. My preference is for 80% pale malt and I also like a slightly higher mash temp 66-67C but your temp is OK.

 

[govner1]

This^^^- KISS is almost always better and results in fewer errors.
I would add some rice hulls. Same volume as the flaked barley.

 

[Jayjay1976]

Needs more cowbell

Sounds tasty to me!

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

At 32 SRM it will be black/dark enough, so no worries there.

It will only top 30 SRM if some Black Barley is used. Roast Barley alone will only hit around 24-25 SRM.

5% Roast Barley and 5% Black Barley should do it.

 

[Brew2Be]

Thanks for all the input so far. What about acidulated malt? I have previously made robust Porters with my water without issues. I don't know much about my water chemistry.

 

[Brew2Be]

It will only top 30 SRM if some Black Barley is used. Roast Barley alone will only hit around 24-25 SRM.

5% Roast Barley and 5% Black Barley should do it.

I got the 32 SRM number from my recipe formulator. Does this mean it miscalculated?

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I got the 32 SRM number from my recipe formulator. Does this mean it miscalculated?

It means that either your recipe formulator is right and I'm all wet here (which is highly possible), or visa-versa. Let's see if others will assist here to sort out who is correct.

To aid them:
roast barley = 300L
black barley = 500L

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

FWIW, by my calculations 6% roast barley and 4% black barley will hit ~30 SRM, and 5% of each will hit ~32 SRM.

Another option to hit 30 SRM would be to add the 10% roast barley as you originally planned and also toss in a few percent of Briess Midnight Wheat, which is 550L, and is not likely to alter the flavor or bitterness too much because it is probably the most de-bittered dark roasted malt available.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Acidulated malt is not something often seen or needed in a dry stout recipe. The roast barley and/or black barley should have plenty of acidity of their own. A small amount of baking soda may be a nice addition to counter the roast/black barley acidity, but don't consider adding baking soda unless you know your waters analyticals and you have a reasonable grasp of the impact of your combined water and grist upon mash pH. If your source water has sufficient alkalinity, then you will not need to consider baking soda at all.

 

[Brew2Be]

Thanks for all the great input. I have revised my recipe:

Batch size
5 gallons

Grain bill
68% Maris Otter
20% Flaked Barley
7% Roasted Barley
5% Chocolate Malt

Hops
Fuggles @ 60 mins - 24 AAU
Fuggles @ 25 mins - 8 AAU

Yeast
East Midlands Ale Yeast

Mash
66 celsius for 60 minutes

Stats
IBU: 32
SRM: 33
O.G: 1.042
Est. F.G: 1.010
Est. ABV: 4.4%


I decided to keep the hop additions as they are for now.. I reduced roasted barley and added five percent chocolate malt and upped the mash . I will give the hop additions some thought before I brew it though.. A quick question.. A lot of people are brewing stout with U.S hops as far as I can see. What are your opinions on this? I have brewed a porter with U.S. hops before but a part of me wants to keep this entirely british (and not deviate from my idea of a bare bone dry stout), yet I find myself wondering whether I will be missing out on something.

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

UK Fuggles are a solid choice and your grain bill is much better now in my humble opinion

 

[tennesseean_87]

Re: Black vs. Roast Barley, I think that distinction varies by manufacturer. I know Briess is 300L for RB, but Simpsons is 500L (I think most are this dark, but not positive).

I did a recipe years ago like what you've settled on with 7% RB (500L) and 5% Chocolate (450L--these will vary in color fomr 200-600). I split my 20% flaked grains 12-8% between Oats and Barley (I think I didn't have enough left over FB).

The main difference is I used no late hops and bittered mine to 38 with an OG of 1.041. I seem to recall that a 1:1 BU:GU ratio is traditional. I remember that I liked how mine came out, but I think that's an important tweak. I've found that bittering levels impact the roast malt perception: more bitterness tend to emphasize the dark roast character, whereas less less the nutier notes shine through.

 

[Brew2Be]

Hi all. Just figured I would update the post with results. I messed up and ended up just doing a single hop addition @ 45 minutes. The beer is very drinkable and smooth. Resembles Guinness draft and I tthink it was a definite success. I used Safale S-04 for the yeast. The result is attached to this post. Thanks for all the input to get me started in this style. It worked out great!

 

[Jayjay1976]

Hi all. Just figured I would update the post with results. I messed up and ended up just doing a single hop addition @ 45 minutes. The beer is very drinkable and smooth. Resembles Guinness draft and I tthink it was a definite success. I used Safale S-04 for the yeast. The result is attached to this post. Thanks for all the input to get me started in this style. It worked out great!View attachment 606601View attachment 606602

Gorgeous beer!!! Congratulations, I think I'll borrow the recipe!

 

[505-Brewer]

Yum!

 

[Soulshine2]

Hi all.

I recently put together a keg setup and thus revived my beer brewing motivation for the first time in 3.5 years - great! I'm almost through the first keg and I'm looking to brew a quick turn around beer. I like roasty beers so the dry stout seemed like an obvious choice (roast to mask out young flavors and low alcohol). I have now put together the most basic one I could find to kind of get a "feel" for the style. I have brewed rather complex robust porters before but would like to experience a "bare bone" dry stout.

I was reading up on it and it seemed a basic dry stout consists of: base malt + flaked barley + roasted barley and some type of british hops (early addition to provide bitterness) + british yeast.

I have piece together this recipe:

Batch size
5 gallons

Grain bill
70% Maris Otter
20% Flaked Barley
10% Roasted Barley

Hops
Fuggles @ 60 mins - 24 AAU
Fuggles @ 25 mins - 8 AAU

Yeast
East Midlands Ale Yeast

Mash
65 celcius for 60 minutes

Stats
IBU: 32
SRM: 32
O.G: 1.042
Est. F.G: 1.010
Est. ABV: 4.5%

I have the following questions:
- Is my to simple? A basic dry stout seems deceptively simple..
- Approximately how fast will this turn around? Grain to glass?
- Will it be very black in color? I really like jet black beers
- Is the 10% roasted barley too much or too little? I would like it to have a very roasty flavor but not to the point of being acrid.

Thank you in advance for lending me your experience/expertise.

I'd add a pound of flaked oats ,but thats just my tastes