Liquorice flavour

[Adam's Apples]

I just made my first stout, which is my 8th brew so far and probably my most ambitious brew in terms of ingredients. Recipe is below:

Amount Item %

2.2lb Dark DME 17.76
3.2kg Light LME (late addition 15 mins boil) 56.84
454g Black treacle 7.99
500g Roasted barley 8.88
230g Chocolate malt 4.09
150g Crystal malt (60L) 2.66
100g Black patent malt 1.78
1.25oz Northern Brewer hops at 60mins
Batch size = 6 gallons
1x11.5g SafAle 05 yeast

It's tasted lovely throughout primary, secondary (hydrometer samples) and today, when I kegged it (plastic keg with priming sugar).

It has the nice roasted flavours I would hoping for in a stout, but the flavour is dominated by a liquorice flavour, which is nice and I'm guessing is coming from the black treacle, but this comes through more than I anticipated. It is an experimental brew and I did seek some recommendations recipe wise on this forum first.

Do you guys thing that the liquorice flavour will smooth as the stout ages? Also, I have assumed that it's been imparted from the treacle, do you agree?

Do any of you have any experience of using black treacle in a brew?

I am still very excited about this one, it tastes good now and should only get better. However I would hope that the liquorice fades slightly and the flavour gets more rounded, but I don't know what will happen as treacle is a first, ingredient wise, for me.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers

 

[david_42]

It has when I've used stick liquorice. I suspect the same for your brew.

 

[sirsloop]

It will absolutely smooth out. I use Anise often which definitely needs a few months to mellow. I realize that licorice and anise are not exactly the same, but they are very very similar in flavor.

 

[Adam's Apples]

Thanks guys.

I thought that I should be thinking in moths rather than weeks for the ageing of this. I have never used this much grain before, but am quite excited about how this will turn out.

It's got a working name of Liquorice Stout. I think it's definately a winner. If it doesn't smooth out as much as I hope, I will repeat with half the treacle.

Cheers