Stout Fail

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beretta

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Howdy, Extract Brewers!

I passed along a Irish Stout recipe to my brother, and extract/partial grain brewer who reports that this recipe failed:

6 lb. Amber DME
1 lb dark roasted barley
1/2 lb flaked barley
Yeast + Hops (kent golding)

In his words: "My stout from the recipe you gave me over the phone is okay but not very dark? It has some barley flavor but not overwhelming. It is a decent drink just not what I would call a stout."

I've brewed this recipe many times with good results ( I usually would add about 2 lb of flakey barley, but he can't convert his grains), but as I do all-grain, I'm at a loss over where I led him astray. Any thoughts?

Beretta
 
Maybe you enjoy a stout that is a bit lighter than your brother. Do you guys end up with the same gravity? What else is the same when the brew is done? Steep time and temps are the same?
 
I'd use LIGHT extract over amber. If you are using steeping grains, using the amber/dark DME is pointless.

Anyways, with a whole pound of roasted barley in there, and he is saying it isn't very dark, did he crush the grains? I don't have beersmith on this computer but I imagine a whole pound of roasted barley will give you something like 300 SRM in a 5 gallon batch.
 
Maybe you enjoy a stout that is a bit lighter than your brother. Do you guys end up with the same gravity? What else is the same when the brew is done? Steep time and temps are the same?

I'm not sure about his gravity, but mine's usually in the 1.040's. I imagine his would have to be similar with 6 lbs of extract. This is a 5 gal batch lengh, btw. I'm thinking the problem must be his "dark roasted barley" isn't as dark as mine. Mine's usually very black (like patent) on the outside and a dark brown inside the kernel. Can not doing a full mash affect things?
 
yeah not mashing can do something but the fact that you do all grain and have your grain crushed and hes just doing steep means that he is not having his grain crushed. Therefor hes not extracting all the color out of that barley as possible. 1# of roasted will make anything dark as night,
 
yeah not mashing can do something but the fact that you do all grain and have your grain crushed and hes just doing steep means that he is not having his grain crushed. Therefor hes not extracting all the color out of that barley as possible. 1# of roasted will make anything dark as night,

That's what I was thinking... maybe the grain wasn't cracked. He reported to me that he steeped his grains for 20 minutes... as much as I do when all-graining. I've never done a partial extract brew, so I'm not sure what went wrong. the only problems I can think of is:

(1) using uncracked malt (or in this case, dark roasted barley)
(2) you get more flavor/color when doing a full mash vs. partial.

I fear I've ruined his "St. Paddy's" Stout. :(
 
The grain would have to be uncrushed or he used light roasted barley. 1# of roasted barley is about right for a stout. I used a pound of 550 SRM and 4 ounces of 300 SRM(had it on hand) in my last stout and it was very dark, software said 43 SRM. Stouts don't traditionally have any black patent in them. I wouldn't think you would need malto (to be honest I don't think I would ever use malto in anything) since malt extract doesn't generally have a problem finishing dry, especially amber malt extract. Also, unless you want to flirt with high FG's I would always use light malt extract not amber and certainly not dark but I do AG and haven't used extract in years.
 
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