Stout Recipe Question

[LoveTrain]

So its a little late to be asking this question as I'm brewing the batch right now, but I'm taking my first stab at a stout:

5 lbs light DME
1 lb roasted barley
1 lb chocolate malt
1 lb crystal 80
0.5 lb steel cut oats

1oz chinook 60 min
.5 oz fuggles 20 min
.5 oz fuggles 5 min

my question is do you think I went a little heavy on the roasted barley, chocolate, and crystal malts? I mean I know I went a little heavier than usual for this type of beer, but will it have too strong of a flavor from these grains?

 

[TheBaconator]

my question is do you think I went a little heavy on the roasted barley, chocolate, and crystal malts?

No on the crystal, but I think yes on the chocolate and roasted barley. I did this on my first stout with chocolate and in my case black patent. It was exceedingly bitter. I'm partial to sweeter stouts anywho, but I've since scaled back to about a quarter pound of each in a stout and gradually increasing in batches until i find the balance i'm looking for. A quarter pound of each in a 5 gallon batch gave me noticeable flavor and aroma without being overpowering.

In your case, I'm assuming you're also making a 5 gallon batch, that's only about 4% alcohol, so you would've want too much bitterness anyway. Just my 2 cents.

FYI I drank every last drop of my bitter bitter stout. So it wasn't undrinkable it just didn't come out how I had hoped.

Good luck and I hope your experience is better than mine!

 

[LoveTrain]

Thanks for your input. Glad to hear you still enjoyed it though, thats encouraging. Hopefully the lactose and the oats will balance out the bitter a little bit but I'll have to cut back a bit next time.

In regards to the 4% alcohol, my OG was 1.070, so as long as it ferments reasonably dry wouldn't the ABV be a little higher? Or is it that the specialty grains don't add many fermentable sugars to solution?

 

[McGarnigle]

1.070 absolutely should be more than 4%. But how is this 1.070? That can't be right.

And I was inclined to say too much crystal. I think combined, that much chocolate and roasted barley is too much.

 

[TheBaconator]

Assuming you're brewing a 5 gallon batch. I just plugged your recipe into brewmate and that's what I got. Chocolate malt doesn't contribute many fermentables, roasted barley isn't malted at all, so I think you just get flavor/texture from that one.

http://www.brewmate.net/

Now that you mention it I'm not sure what efficiency I selected, if you have a spare minute though it's free and easy to use. It'll help you calculate abv and og based just on your recipe.

 

[TheBaconator]

Assuming you're brewing a 5 gallon batch. I just plugged your recipe into brewmate and that's what I got. Chocolate malt doesn't contribute many fermentables, roasted barley isn't malted at all, so I think you just get flavor/texture from that one.

http://www.brewmate.net/

Now that you mention it I'm not sure what efficiency I selected, if you have a spare minute though it's free and easy to use. It'll help you calculate abv and og based just on your recipe.

 

[TheBaconator]

Sorry for the double post, having browser problems.

 

[LoveTrain]

Hmm now that you mention if 1.070 does seem high... maybe there were some suspended solids in my sample or maybe i just screwed up the reading. Thanks for the brewmate link, that should be pretty useful