Not so dark stout

[Fuzzywumpers]

I recently brewed a Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout recipe and just checked the gravity today and noticed its color in the test cylinder was like in the low 30's SRM. I drank a real sammy smith's last night for comparison and it is super dark like a stout should be. The taste in my beer was roasty and tasty like it should be. II'm just not sure why it is so much lighter in color. There are a couple of factors that could possibly explain this, but I was looking for some opinions of the more experienced brewers here.

Possibility #1-
The recipe was wrong. (Recipe is at bottom of this post)

Possibility #2-
After I was done with my 60 min. conversion I started collecting my first runnings. About a gallon in, I realized that I forgot to add hot water to come up to 168 degrees to stop the conversion. So I stopped collecting the wort and poured the wort I had collected back on top of the mash, brought the temperature up, then collected it again. During this step, I got a stuck sparge and cleared it by blowing back through the hose. Could this have diluted the color.

NOTE: OG was right on the money.

5 Gal. ALL GRAIN

Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.50 lb Maris Otter Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 81.7 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 5.4 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 5.4 %
0.50 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 5.4 %
0.18 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 2.0 %
2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.25%] (60 min) Hops 31.8 IBU
WLP Irish ale yeast (No Starter)



Any Thoughts would be awesome.

 

[storunner13]

The recipe as it is results in an SRM around 26 or 27. So it could be a problem with the recipe as far as color goes.

Did the beer taste similar too Samuel Smith's? If the real thing seemed roastier, perhaps you should add more roasted barley to make up for the flavor and the color. If they tasted similar, it's possible that Samuel Smith's adds all or more roasted barley at the end of the mash. That way (though you'll extract less sugar), you get a lot of the color of the grain, with much less roasted flavor.

 

[Fuzzywumpers]

The recipe as it is results in an SRM around 26 or 27. So it could be a problem with the recipe as far as color goes.

Did the beer taste similar too Samuel Smith's? If the real thing seemed roastier, perhaps you should add more roasted barley to make up for the flavor and the color. If they tasted similar, it's possible that Samuel Smith's adds all or more roasted barley at the end of the mash. That way (though you'll extract less sugar), you get a lot of the color of the grain, with much less roasted flavor.

Thanks Storunner. I was hoping someone could check the SRM of that recipe. My beer does taste a little "lighter" than the Sam Smith's, but is still really tasty. I am perfectly content with keeping it the way it is. Will adding some roasted barley at the end of the mash just add more color, or would the roasty flavor also come through? I just don't want to go from roasty to "burnt".

 

[storunner13]

I have personally never tried it, but I would guess it would add most of the color, but not all of the flavor as in a 60 minute mash. If you're interested in trying this method in the future, I think it would be good to start a thread asking those who have tried it.

You can check out hopville if you're interested in putting together recipes without buying brewing software. I use it often when setting up recipes to determine SRM, OG, and other things.

 

[bovineblitz]

If you wanna keep it exactly the same but make it darker, throw in 1/8-1/4 pound of debittered black patent. It adds a very small amount of roastiness but a LOT of color.

 

[storunner13]

That being said, the SRM calculator often seems to be off on hopville.

 

[davesrose]

Your current recipe yields a SRM of 23...you do need some dark malts in there to get it darker. I would proportionally up your dark malts....something like .75lb chocolate, .3 roasted barley, and .3 de-bittered black patent will get you 30.25

 

[jonmohno]

Yeah, im surprised there is no black in there. I just did my first stout today and was dissapointed how it was just a real dark brown. I felt like it was just another brown or porter that i had already done. I do partial extract and used dark dme for the first time.. and now i know, that its not all that dark.

 

[Fuzzywumpers]

I'm going to let this batch do its thing, then I'll probably make a few malt adjustments next time. Thanks for all of the tips.

 

[BigEd]

I recently brewed a Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout recipe and just checked the gravity today and noticed its color in the test cylinder was like in the low 30's SRM. I drank a real sammy smith's last night for comparison and it is super dark like a stout should be. The taste in my beer was roasty and tasty like it should be. II'm just not sure why it is so much lighter in color.

Possibility #1-
The recipe was wrong. (Recipe is at bottom of this post)

It is. There isn't enough dark roasted grain to bring it up to "stout" color.

5 Gal. ALL GRAIN

Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.50 lb Maris Otter Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 81.7 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 5.4 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 5.4 %
0.50 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 5.4 %
0.18 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 2.0 %
2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.25%] (60 min) Hops 31.8 IBU
WLP Irish ale yeast (No Starter)



Any Thoughts would be awesome.

You need the equivalent of ~10% roasted barley in the grain bill to yield a beer a similar color to Guinness, which is a handy reference. This being a sweeter, English style stout I would double the roasted barley to 4%, increase the Chocolate to 7.5% and add (1/4 lb)3% Black patent or preferably Carafa II to bring the color in line.