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Rlawlyes

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Hey everyone new brewer here and I would like to get some advice on a recipe I'm working on. I'm looking to brew my first imperial chocolate coffee stout. I will add cacao nibs and coffee beans to the secondary. So far I am planning on the following ingredients for a 5 gallon batch:

3lb Amber DME
6lb Dark DME
2lb Flaked Oats
12oz Roasted Barley
8oz Chocolate Malt
4oz Black Malt
4oz Maple Syrup (added during boil)
1pk WLP099 Super High Gravity Yeast
1oz Northern Brewer hops (45 min boil)
2oz Williamette hops (5 min boil)

Does this sound like a decent recipe? I'd love to hear opinions/ ideas to improve on this.

Thanks in advance!

Ryan
 
I can't offer any advice on your recipe, but welcome to the forum.

KT
 
Thanks Kenny, there is a ton of good info here. I look forward to learning from everyone!
 
That's gonna make a dark dark beer! Ha! If it were me I'd drop the black malt to 2 or 3 oz and the roaster barley down to 8-10. I've never used that yeast but it may need a starter for this beer. Also, do you have a way to oxygenate your wort? A big imperial stout would really benefit from a shot of O2. Just a thought. Good luck!
 
So, not to poke at you or insult your intelligence, I'm just trying to be constructive here...

With your specialty grain bill, I'd recommend swapping out the dark DME for light or amber DME. Dark LME has Crystal and other roasted malts in it. Also, if you're gonna do flaked oats on an extract recipe, you should probably steep your specialty grains for at least 1/2 an hour at around 150 or so before the boil. That way you get a good conversion from the oats. Maybe bump your hops a bit. Also, you probably don't need that super high tolerance yeast...That's usually used for distilling. Two packets of Safale S-04 or maybe a starter with Wyeast 1098 would probably do a great job.

If I were to tweak it, maybe something like this:
7 lbs Extra Light DME
3 lbs Amber DME
1 lbs Flaked Oats
10 oz. Chocolate Malt
6 oz. Crystal/Caramel 120L
6 oz. Roasted Barley
6 oz. Black Malt
4 oz. Maple Syrup

2 oz. Northern Brewer @ 60 min.
2 oz. Wiliamette @ 5 min/knockout.
 
That much extract may well give you an overly high FG.
You might want to think about adding 10% cane sugar(or soft brown) to ensure a finished beer that is not too cloying
 
Thank you everyone, I really appreciate the advice. This is my first formulation of a recipe, so I wanted to get some opinions from people who are a bit more experienced. I think I am going to drop the dark extract and switch it out for something a bit lighter. Also I will drop the barley down a bit. I do have a pure O2 shot that I will hit the wort with prior to fermentation.
 
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