I had mixed success with my attempt at an NA IPA. Came out at .7% abv, had decent body/mouthfeel, I just had way too many hops in the recipe and was impatient getting it into the keg so suspended hop matter created a harsh grassy bitterness. I think a stout would be doable but you'd have to get your water right or the dark grains could make it astringent and lower ph than you would want. You could certainly add a big dose of lactose and maltodextrin for body, and chocolate, coffee, or even a few bourbon soaked oak chips to get more of that big stout impression.
My IPA recipe had 1# Munich DME, 1/2# Maltodextrin, steeped 1# red wheat, 1/2# Abbey malt, 1/2# Carapils. 12oz of hop pellets between whirlpool and dry hop was just dumb, lol. A half a hop shot in the boil then using a small amount of whole hops or cryo for WP and DH might be the way to go. The yeast was The Yeast Bay Metschnikowia Reukaufi. It doesn't ferment maltose. I talked with Nick at TYB and he was very friendly and helpful. On his recommendation I made a starter with apple juice, a little DME, and Fermaid O. It was a little slow to show signs of activity in the fermenter but it did it's job, had a very clean white krausen.
One of my goals was to keep this experiment simple. From other threads and to Vale's point it seems that boil off is not necessarily reliable for removing alcohol, can change the character in unfavorable ways, and it's a lot of extra effort.
). Arrested fermentation makes beer that tastes nothing like the real deal. The best way to make decent NA beer is still alcohol removal post fermentation and that requires very expensive equipment.
