Sweet Stout Milk Stout

[ptran86]

I ferment around 68*. I have left it for several weeks in primary with no problems. I have never moved this beer to secondary. Even with the vanilla bean, I would do it in primary.

Thanks for the reply! I thinking of adding whole vanilla beans and ferment it for a month then rack to secondary where I'll add bourbon barrel cubes and let it sit in secondary until I get the right amount of bourbon flavor. For reference I'm hoping it will be similar to 4Hands Madagascar.

 

[phyllobeddo]

I worked up an imperial version of this recipe in Beersmith, but it's at home and I don't have access to it. The initial version just raised the MO and the hop amounts. Not sure if I'll tweak it any more or not. I'll post it up when I get a chance if any one cares for it. I think I'll call it Sweet Wasted Soul......

 

[ptran86]

I worked up an imperial version of this recipe in Beersmith, but it's at home and I don't have access to it. The initial version just raised the MO and the hop amounts. Not sure if I'll tweak it any more or not. I'll post it up when I get a chance if any one cares for it. I think I'll call it Sweet Wasted Soul......

I'll be interested in it. The place I got my ingredients from only have 10lbs bag of MO so I will be scalling everything up by 25%, for hops I'm rounding everything up to 1oz each. I will report back later, hope it turns out good!

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

I worked up an imperial version of this recipe in Beersmith, but it's at home and I don't have access to it. The initial version just raised the MO and the hop amounts. Not sure if I'll tweak it any more or not. I'll post it up when I get a chance if any one cares for it. I think I'll call it Sweet Wasted Soul......

I'd like to see a side-by-side comparison. I would be interested in making it an Imperial, but don't want to lose the greatness that is this beer, hence my suggestion of upping all grains and hops.

 

[phyllobeddo]

Milk Stout - 2.5 gallon batch

8 lb Maris Otter
8 oz de bittered black malt
6 oz flaked barley
6 oz roasted barley
4 oz flaked oats
4 oz cara pils
4 oz crystal 120
.5 lb Lactose (5 min)
17 g (.60 oz) Brewer's Gold (60 min) 19.7 IBUs
14 g (.50 oz) Fuggles (30 min) 6.7 IBUs
Expected OG - 1.112
Expected IBUs - 26.4
Estimated ABV - 11.4%
Total Efficiency - 72%

This just raises the base malt and hops. IBUs are two points higher than the original version. No special changes to the recipe, obviously. Just a shot at getting an imperial version. And this is not to bastardize the original version because it's great. I just wanted to take a stab at something imperial, so I chose this recipe to start with. Not sure when I might brew this, but my keg of the original is about to kick, which makes me sad that I don't have another in line.
Thoughts? Recommendations? Revisions?

 

[Jwin]

Thanks for the reply! I thinking of adding whole vanilla beans and ferment it for a month then rack to secondary where I'll add bourbon barrel cubes and let it sit in secondary until I get the right amount of bourbon flavor. For reference I'm hoping it will be similar to 4Hands Madagascar.

careful with the oak cubes, they can overpower if you use to much/leave in to long.
soak them in vodka for a couple days, then discard the vodka, in hopes that it takes some of the astringency with it. then ad the cubes.
if you are adding vanilla and bourbon, ive had great success soaking my split vanilla beans in makers for a month or so before hand. you can control the amount a lot better, and if u r kegging, even more so. just add the vanilla bourbon at bottling/kegging. 2-3oz goes a long way.

 

[ptran86]

careful with the oak cubes, they can overpower if you use to much/leave in to long.
soak them in vodka for a couple days, then discard the vodka, in hopes that it takes some of the astringency with it. then ad the cubes.
if you are adding vanilla and bourbon, ive had great success soaking my split vanilla beans in makers for a month or so before hand. you can control the amount a lot better, and if u r kegging, even more so. just add the vanilla bourbon at bottling/kegging. 2-3oz goes a long way.

I was thinking of soaking the 2-3 oz cubes in bourbon(Jim Beam) for a week then add it to the wort after fermentation. I'll check on it every week to see when the flavor is just right for me. As for vanilla beans, I was planning on boiling it for a couple minutes then adding them to the wort. Haven't decide if I will add them before or after fermentation.

 

[elatowski]

Making 10 gallons of this recipe right now. Going to age half with vanilla bean and half on 3lbs of toasted coconut. And then maybe blend a bit of it if they both turn out good.

 

[ptran86]

Brewed this yeasterday. Everything look and smells really good so far. Mash temp was off by 1.5 degrees (157.5), OG is 1.0785 it's a little higher because I scaled everything up and added a good amount of chocolate I had laying around. I also soaked 4 vanilla beans in Maker's Mark to add to the wort after it is done fermentation in approx 1 month. I will report back once I have the finish product. Thanks for the awesome receipe!

 

[Jwin]

Gently shake the makers every couple of days.
You split the beans, right?
Enjoy!
Let's us know how the chocolate vanilla and bourbon meshes

 

[ptran86]

Gently shake the makers every couple of days.
You split the beans, right?
Enjoy!
Let's us know how the chocolate vanilla and bourbon meshes

Yes, I split the vanilla beans then clean out the black goey stuff inside then I sliced the outside and inside a bit to rough it up.

I will post my progress here. Really exicited to see how this turns out!

 

[Rotule]

I brewed this but Used Safale S-04 and ended up with a F.G. of 1.030.

I'll call it (Sweet Milk Stout Session)

I decided to bottle it anyway since its been at 1.030 since two weeks.

Do you think this could be because I mashed a bit too high temp? I targeted 69C (156F) but my thermometer sucked... I bought a proper one now..(thermapen)

The fermentation was pretty vigorous for the first few days and the yeast cake was big and thick.

Edit: Just drank my first bottle yesterday! Damn it taste really good Thanks for sharing this gr8 recipe

 

[Rockindaddy]

What was the mash time & temperature? Also, when did you put the lactose in the boil? Thanks.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

I usually mash around 156F. This being said, for the next batch, i am going to drop the temp to 153-154F. I am going to see if i can get the FG to drop a little more, as my last couple batches have finished higher than i would have liked.

I add the lactose at 20 min. Unless i forget, in which case i add it at 15 with the irish moss.

 

[Rockindaddy]

Thanks. I was brewing it the day I asked the question, so I mashed at 154 and put the lactose in at 30 minutes. I'll keg it next weekend, since that will be 3 weeks in the fermentor. Looking forward to it!

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Sorry for the delayed response. Hope you enjoy it!

 

[Rockindaddy]

Well, my FG came out to 1.020 but I'm going to keg it anyway. Should be ready in time for the Superbowl which was my goal. I'll let you know how it came out.

 

[WillieP]

I'm pretty sure the higher FG's are do to the yeasties not being able to chew on the lactose. That's kinda the 'milk' part.
I've got the ingredients for a milk stout but have not brewed it yet. While I was researching recipes, higher FG's was a big question ask on the other posts.
This does sound tastie!
Cheers,
Willie P

 

[Brew_Bastard]

Hey

We brewed this and have it in fermenter going on 3 wks. You don't do a secondary fermenter?

Thanks
Jim

 

[ncsuwerewolf]

I have stopped adding my lactose to the boil as the milk sugar is non fermentable. I feel i have a better gauge on the beer being finished. Then i boil 2 cups of water with the pound of lactose forming a simple syrup. I add that to the botttom of a sanitized keg and rack the beer on top with great success.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Hey



We brewed this and have it in fermenter going on 3 wks. You don't do a secondary fermenter?



Thanks

Jim

I do not use a secondary for this beer.

I have stopped adding my lactose to the boil as the milk sugar is non fermentable. I feel i have a better gauge on the beer being finished. Then i boil 2 cups of water with the pound of lactose forming a simple syrup. I add that to the botttom of a sanitized keg and rack the beer on top with great success.

This is an interesting idea. Have you done a taste comparison of the original recipe vs your method?

 

[cgm]

I am planning on brewing 5.5 gallons of this recipe for a St. Paddy's Day party with my neighbors. This sounds like an awesome beer, and I brewed a great porter that is finally ready to serve, they all loved it! I am pretty new to all grain brewing, and this is the first time I have tried to create a recipe in Beersmith... So i created a new recipe using the ingredients in the first post of this thread and added details from the other posts... here is my question:

Beersmith said to mash in 18.75 quarts and steep at 155 for 75 min then fly sparge with 5.53 gallons at 168 degrees F... does that seem like a long time to steep the grains?

 

[Jwin]

I am planning on brewing 5.5 gallons of this recipe for a St. Paddy's Day party with my neighbors. This sounds like an awesome beer, and I brewed a great porter that is finally ready to serve, they all loved it! I am pretty new to all grain brewing, and this is the first time I have tried to create a recipe in Beersmith... So i created a new recipe using the ingredients in the first post of this thread and added details from the other posts... here is my question:

Beersmith said to mash in 18.75 quarts and steep at 155 for 75 min then fly sparge with 5.53 gallons at 168 degrees F... does that seem like a long time to steep the grains?

Could be. I'm more concerned about how thick that mash might be. Have you set your equipment profile up in beersmith?
Also, I would be cautious not to mash over 155. If you hit any higher you could have a damn sweet beer. But that is a personal taste thing...

 

[cgm]

Could be. I'm more concerned about how thick that mash might be. Have you set your equipment profile up in beersmith?
Also, I would be cautious not to mash over 155. If you hit any higher you could have a damn sweet beer. But that is a personal taste thing...

Yes, I set up my equipment profile... I will double check to make sure that I am using it.

By to thick of a mash, do you mean that there is not enough water?

As for mean temp, I am just going left what is suggested in this thread. I think op mashed at 156 but was excitement with cooler mashes. I am learning as I go... I thought more sugars would get fermented so more sugars=higher abv. Does that mean that some of the sugars in this recipe are not fermentable (besides the lactose) of fire that mean that there will be more sugars than the headdy will be able to consume during fermentation?

 

[Jwin]

Yes, I set up my equipment profile... I will double check to make sure that I am using it.

By to thick of a mash, do you mean that there is not enough water?

As for mean temp, I am just going left what is suggested in this thread. I think op mashed at 156 but was excitement with cooler mashes. I am learning as I go... I thought more sugars would get fermented so more sugars=higher abv. Does that mean that some of the sugars in this recipe are not fermentable (besides the lactose) of fire that mean that there will be more sugars than the headdy will be able to consume during fermentation?

In the simplest terms, higher mash Temps produce longer chains of sugars, which are non fermentable. 155 is not a problem, but the higher you go the sweeter and thinner end product you will have. Also, the same goes if you use a yeast with low attenuation. Combine a high mash temp and under attenuation(which can be caused by several factors) and a high mash temp and you could have a very high FG.

Doing the math it doesn't look unreal. You could probably do a double batch sparge with that amount, unless you are fly sparging. Sorry, shouldn't be to thick. I've been on high gravity 11g batches and partygyling so when I see 18qt, I inherently go What?

Anyway, plan ahead, sanitize twice and have a great brew day!

 

[cgm]

In the simplest terms, higher mash Temps produce longer chains of sugars, which are non fermentable. 155 is not a problem, but the higher you go the sweeter and thinner end product you will have. Also, the same goes if you use a yeast with low attenuation. Combine a high mash temp and under attenuation(which can be caused by several factors) and a high mash temp and you could have a very high FG.

Doing the math it doesn't look unreal. You could probably do a double batch sparge with that amount, unless you are fly sparging. Sorry, shouldn't be to thick. I've been on high gravity 11g batches and partygyling so when I see 18qt, I inherently go What?

Anyway, plan ahead, sanitize twice and have a great brew day!

Thanks for the explanation! I am going to follow WildGingerBrewing's recipe as much as I can and see what shakes out... I think I need to take a better look at my equipment profile, because it is recommending I use a little less than 2 qt per pound of grain.

Is everyone doing 90 min boil times, but waiting 30 min to add the first hops... or did i read this thread wrong?

What does everyone think about this? I might brew today... this would rule out the possibility of a yeast starter. If not, i will get the supplies today and brew mid week.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Good answers, jwin. As to the boil question, a 60 min boil is all that is needed for this beer. 90 min would be a waste of time, and a loss of beer. Enjoy!

 

[cgm]

Good answers, jwin. As to the boil question, a 60 min boil is all that is needed for this beer. 90 min would be a waste of time, and a loss of beer. Enjoy!

Thanks! I'm looking forward to brewing this soon.

 

[cgm]

Thanks for the recipe! I brewed it today...


Yup... there is some sugar in there to ferment! It tasted pretty sweet, I imagine that it will still be a little sweet after fermentation because the lactose will not ferment. it was a bit more bitter than I expected, we will see how it tastes in a few weeks!

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Awesome!