Stout season is upon us. What do you think of this recipe?

[hoppypleasures]

So summer days are almost gone, and although I still can enjoy a tropical IPA in a cold day, there is nothing better than a hearty chocolatey Stout to warm my insides.

After looking up for recipes and tweaking it on BeerSmith this is what i came up with:

0.5 Kg (10 lbs) Pale Malt (5-7EBC)
0.9 Kg (2 lbs) Flaked Oats
0.5 Kg (1.1 lbs) Caramunich 1 (80-100EBC)
0.5 Kg (1.1 lbs) Carafa 1 (800-1000EBC)

25 g (0.8 oz) EKG (60 min)
25 g (0.8 oz) Northern Brewer (60 min)
25 g (0.5 oz) EKG (5 min)

S-04 as Yeast.

My local Homebrew shop carries mostly Weyermann grain.

Any thoughs on this recipe?

Thanks!

 

[McKnuckle]

I'm not sure about this one. It should be smooth and have a nice oaty aroma with 14% oats, and the level of crystal is okay, but I wonder if there is not enough roast character. You could easily replace the Carafa I entirely with roasted barley. If you're not too sure about that, then split the difference between those two grains.

Can't tell what IBU you're going for, but aim for a BU/GU ratio in the 0.6 range.

 

[hoppypleasures]

I was aiming for something more on the chocolate side (maybe even add some cocoa nibs to the fermenter), but splitting between Carafa and roasted barley might be a good idea.

Beersmith gives me an IBU of 41, that should give a ratio of 0.57.

 

[BrewMan13]

I usually like a nice roasty bite in my stouts, but I dialed it back for my last one. Went with 7% pale chocolate, and 3.5% roasted barley, amongst other specialty grains. Multiple people have said it has a bit of a chocolately character, without me planting the suggestion in their head.

 

[TheMadKing]

Agree that you need at least SOME roasted barley in there to call it a stout. If you want chocolate flavor, I recommend medium chocolate malt too (350 SRM) or Pale Chocolate Malt (225 SRM), or you can add actual chocolate.

If you don't want a super roasty bite, you can cold soak your crushed roasted barley in about 2 quarts of water for 24 hours, and then add that to the end of your mash. It makes a nice smooth roast flavor without the acidic bite or ashey taste

 

[hoppypleasures]

Alright, you guys convinced me to add some roasted barley.

Unfortunaly my LHBS doesn't have any medium chocolate malt, only Carafa 1 and others with higher SRM.

So I was thinking of adding 0,10 Kg (0,2 lbs) of Roasted Barley (1200 EBC) and lowering the Carafa 1 to 0,40 kg (0,8 lbs).

Would that be enough to add a bit of roasty bite? I didn't want to lower much of the Carafa 1 and adding the roasted barley increases my beer EBC's a lot.

 

[Sailingeric]

Do they carry black patent or Special B?

 

[Sadu]

I wouldn't worry about what the EBC comes out as. Its going to be black.
Weyermann make a product called chocolate wheat which is like roast barley but with wheat. It adds a very nice smooth roast flavour that sits nicely in a stout. If that is available, 3-6% is a great addition. Depending what other roast malts you have of course.

 

[JKaranka]

Maybe 1/2kg Cara and 1/2kg Brown malt in addition to the carafa. Would be quite malty and smooth.