Stout Recipe

[captaineriv]

I'm looking at an Irish dry stout recipe package from Northern Brewer that includes (in addition to hops and yeast):

Specialty Grains:
1 lb. Crisp Roasted Barley

Fermentables:
6 lbs. Gold Malt Syrup

Would anyone recommend, in addition to the 1 lb. of roasted barley, crystal malt (maybe around 40-L?) and/or black patent malt? If so, in what quantities? Also, if I do add grain variety, should I reduce the 1 lb. of roasted barley originally called for to around .25-.50 lbs? Please lend me your opinions. I thought I might tweek the recipe a little.

captaineriv

 

[Walker]

I think adding a few more grains would be a great idea. I try to keep my specialty grains in the ballpark of 1lb to 2.5 lbs, but that's just a personal preference and quasi-attempt at keeping myself under control. Too much specialty grain can be overpowering (based on personal experience with my Walker's Way-Too-Roasted Stout... circa 2001.)

Crystal malt can leave some sweetness, just keep that in mind so you don't oversweeten your stout, but wow... that seems like a lot of roasted barley in there! You can probabyl sweeten it a bit and make it better.

Speciality grains all depend on YOUR taste, so you will get a lot of different answers here.

Charlie Papazian's book has some guidelines for grain additions based on style. For a dry stout, he recommends:

3/4 lb crystal
1/3 lb black roasted malt
1/3 lb roasted barley

In the end, you should do what you want. Keep good notes, so that you can tweak the recipe if you decide that you had too much/little of something in it after it's done and you are drinking it.

-walker

 

[Walker]

Oh.. and if you add the black patent (no more that 0.25 lbs.. black patent is normally only used for darkening the color of a beer and not really for flavoring), I would suggest cutting down the roasted barley. Else, your beer might taste like charcoal with all that roasted flavor in there.

to pull numbers out of thin air with no real justification:

1/2 to 3/4 lb crystal
1/4 lb black patent
1/4 to 1/2 lb roasted barley

-walker

 

[captaineriv]

Thanks Walker. I thought that the package included a lot of roasted barley too. Guess they figured it was there if the customer wanted it. Whether the recipe actually called for all of it, I don't know. Either way, the package seemed like an overall good package but seemed to lack a bit of variety in the grain department.

captaineriv

 

[JillC25]

I just made an oatmeal stout w/

1 lb. Belgian CaraMunich
1 lb. Belgian chocolate
.5 lb. Roasted barley

going with the theme of this thread: did I over-kill on the grains I got the recipe from the beer recipator.

 

[Walker]

this is the exact reason I gave up on kits recently. When I want a new recipe now, I look at some kit contents for rough guidelines, and then I refer to Papazian's guidelines in The Complete Joy of Home Brewing, and then I just gather my own ingredients at the LHBS with my own flare added.

My style is really just as easy as kits, but I am not forced into someone else's mold. I am a much more satisfied brewer now, and feel more in control over my final product (not as much control as an all grain guy, but I simply don't have the time to invest in AG brewing right now.)

-walker

 

[captaineriv]

Within the next few months, I'd definitely like to try AG a few times just to convince myself that I can do it. But I agree about doing AG exclusively, especially with my level beer-tasting skills (lack thereof rather). For my taste, I can probably do an extract/specialty grain brew and be equally satisfied with the taste as I would if it were AG, and spend half the time brewing it.

captaineriv

 

[Walker]

I just made an oatmeal stout w/

1 lb. Belgian CaraMunich
1 lb. Belgian chocolate
.5 lb. Roasted barley

going with the theme of this thread: did I over-kill on the grains I got the recipe from the beer recipator.

nah.. you are probably fine. chocolate malt is one of the least roasted of the roasted malts. it will definately be roastey though with 1 lb of choc and .5 lb of roasted barley. Teh caramunich is supposed to be rich and sweet, so it will probably balance the roasted taste well.

Note: never used caramunich and am just going by what I have read about it.

-walker

 

[joeyuwp]

I just made an oatmeal stout w/

1 lb. Belgian CaraMunich
1 lb. Belgian chocolate
.5 lb. Roasted barley

going with the theme of this thread: did I over-kill on the grains I got the recipe from the beer recipator.

Just want to throw in my $0.02 that I just bottled an oatmeal stout using brown sugar for priming and I couldn't believe how great it tasted even before carbonation. Seemed to give it a little extra something special. But I don't think I would do it with every dark beer since it did sort of dominate the flavor at the time

 

[Walker]

yeah... that's the molasses in the brown sugar that probably gave it that extra something. One of the best stouts I ever made contained a few oz of molasses. Gooooooood stuff, but I agree that it's definately not something you'd want to use all the time.

-walker

 

[captaineriv]

Still tweaking this recipe and appears it's straying toward a sweet stout. Found a kit that includes these specialty grains:
0.5 lbs. Dingemans Debitter Black malt
0.5 lbs. Beeston's Chocolate malt
It didn't mention anything about crystal malt or roasted barley but it seems that both might be good, to some extent. I know it's preference, but for a sweet stout, does anyone have suggestions as far as the use/portions of crystal malt, roasted barley, black malt, and chocolate malt, as well as any others? The kit also includes the obvious 1 lb. of lactose. Finally, I was reading some sweet stout recipes that include 10-12 oz. molasses. I might add some of that too.

captaineriv

 

[captaineriv]

I'm thinking something along the lines of this in addition to the LME and other ingredients:

.5 lbs. black
.5 lbs. chocolate
.25 lbs. roasted barley
1 lb. crystal (around 80-L)

Let me know your opinions of any increases/reductions/exclusions of the above.

captaineriv

 

[sudsmonkey]

Quick stupid question: When priming with brown sugar, what amount do you use for a standard 5 gal batch ? Is it the same as corn sugar or DME ?

 

[joeyuwp]

Quick stupid question: When priming with brown sugar, what amount do you use for a standard 5 gal batch ? Is it the same as corn sugar or DME ?

I used about 7/8 cup. I had seen on here to use about 15% more than you would with corn sugar.

 

[Walker]

Quick stupid question: When priming with brown sugar, what amount do you use for a standard 5 gal batch ? Is it the same as corn sugar or DME ?

If you have a reference handy, you can just treat brown sugar as you would cane sugar (sucrose). White table sugar is brown sugar that has had the molasses stripped away.

-walker