Tropical Stout What's That Jamaican?

[TheMadKing]

Recipe Type

All Grain

Yeast

Saflager 34/70

Yeast Starter

No

Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter

No

Batch Size (Gallons)

5.5

Original Gravity

1.071

Final Gravity

1.020

Boiling Time (Minutes)

60

IBU

40.7

Color

47.4

Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)

10 day @ 63F

Tasting Notes

Very smooth roast, subtle aroma, warming alcohol, dried fruit character, and extremely drinkable

This took home a silver medal at the Athens Homebrew Classic with a score of 43

9lbs Maris Otter (3 SRM)
1lb Black Patent Malt (crushed and cold steeped in 1.5 quarts of water for 24 hours, and added to the last 5 minutes of the mash)
1lb flaked barley
12oz Crystal 60
6oz Special B
1lb Belgian Candi Sugar (extra dark 275 SRM)

1.4 oz East Kent Golding @ First Wort
1 oz East Kent Golding @ 30 mins

As per tradition I fermented with a lager yeast (Saflager 34/70) at ale temperatures (63F) until fully attenuated (~7-10 days). I didn't really notice any distinctive esters from the warm fermentation. Any fruitiness I could taste I associated with the special B and candi sugar.

I kegged and conditioned it for 3 weeks before calling it done - but it had been kegged for 8 weeks prior to bottling for the competition

I will definitely be keeping this beer in my rotation, it came out fantastic!

 

[AkTom]

Sounds great.

 

[SanPancho]

So i have to ask. How is this a “tropical” stout?

 

[BeerChemistWhiskey]

So i have to ask. How is this a “tropical” stout?

http://www.bjcp.org/style/2015/16/16C/tropical-stout/

Seems like it would fit the guidelines. You'd have to brew it to judge for yourself!

 

[SanPancho]

In San Francisco, sure. In jamaica or anywhere else its hot enough to be “tropical” you couldn’t pay me to drink a stout, much less a sweet one.
But apparently they sold enough for it to be a thing. Crazy.

 

[shoreman]

So i have to ask. How is this a “tropical” stout?

Take a look at Dragon Stout which brewed in Jamaica, I've been eying the recipe which is in Clone Brews book for a couple years, might have to brew it this year. It is fermented with a lager yeast as well. I really enjoy drinking porters and stouts in the summer.

 

[shoreman]

Can you post a photo of the beer? Sounds interesting.

 

[SanPancho]

Take a look at Dragon Stout which brewed in Jamaica, I've been eying the recipe which is in Clone Brews book for a couple years, might have to brew it this year. It is fermented with a lager yeast as well. I really enjoy drinking porters and stouts in the summer.

i dont understand you at all.

but i will say that at our place in baja, stouts/porters/blacks sell year round. even when its 80F outside. seems crazy to me, but sales dont lie.

you are not alone.

 

[Pappers_]

i dont understand you at all.

but i will say that at our place in baja, stouts/porters/blacks sell year round. even when its 80F outside. seems crazy to me, but sales dont lie.

you are not alone.

The whole Tropical Stout thing is that its stouts brewed by people in tropical locations. South Asian, the Caribbean, and Africa, basically. The roast is very smooth, there is significant sweetness and fruitiness. An important balance for this beer is less malt/bitter, its sweetness/roast.

@TheMadKing thanks for sharing this recipe and congrats on the medal, that is outstanding!

Adjusted this recipe a little for my own purposes, and am brewing it on Saturday. Some things we're doing differently - added some Caramel 120L, added some Black Prinz and replaced the Black Malt with Roasted Barley, but at a low level and just added to the mash as we normally do. Also, my plan is to split the batch in half and ferment one portion with the dry lager yeast at 65F and the other portion with Omega's new Kviek Norwegian yeast which is supposed to add a lot of fruit.

I'll let you know how this all turns out.

 

[SanPancho]

I just might have to take a swing at this. Like i said, you couldn’t pay me to drink one in the heat, but if it sells then it sells. And folks down there sure drink alot of dark stuff.

 

[SanPancho]

So just a bit of clarification- should the sweet and fruity be froM the yeast or from dark malts like the raisin, toffee, prune, etc you get in a dark crystal?

 

[Pappers_]

So just a bit of clarification- should the sweet and fruity be froM the yeast or from dark malts like the raisin, toffee, prune, etc you get in a dark crystal?

Both, I think. A challenge is to get the good fruity esters from yeast/fermentation and not the bad, not let it run out of control. If you want to try a commercial example, Dragon Stout from Jamaica is distributed in the US.

 

[NitrogenWidget]

How do you think a Kolsch yeast would do with this?
I already have some of that.

 

[TheMadKing]

So just a bit of clarification- should the sweet and fruity be froM the yeast or from dark malts like the raisin, toffee, prune, etc you get in a dark crystal?

All Thanks for the great discussion!

I know drinking a stout in hot weather seems odd but this one was really hitting the spot next to some Jerk Chicken.

It's not overly sweet, the sweetness is subtle and comes across more as dried fruit. It needs to taste sweet at the front, and then have a pretty dry finish (highly fermentable wort.

The smooth roastiness is the real key to this style I think. There should be some very slight alcohol warmth but not enough to feel heavy and thick. The body should also be on the thinner side compared to an irish stout or a foreign extra stout which adds to its drinkability.

I killed this keg in a very short amount of time because it was so easy to drink. If I was going to change 1 thing, I would add about 6 oz of roasted barley to the last 20 minutes of the mash to increase the roast slightly. My roast was definitely there, but so mellow you almost couldn't smell it.

The end result of this beer should be smooth smooth smooth!

Cheers everyone who is brewing this, thanks again for the great conversation

 

[TheMadKing]

How do you think a Kolsch yeast would do with this?
I already have some of that.

I think it would do very well - The guy that took gold in the competition fermented with a scottish ale yeast, which isn't true to style technically, but I have to assume the flavors were there. I think any english yeast would work since they tend to be on the estery side, but kolsch also has esters so I don't see it being an issue.

This really isn't a yeast driven style IMO, the yeast flavors are very subtle if noticeable at all

 

[TheMadKing]

Take a look at Dragon Stout which brewed in Jamaica, I've been eying the recipe which is in Clone Brews book for a couple years, might have to brew it this year. It is fermented with a lager yeast as well. I really enjoy drinking porters and stouts in the summer.

Dragon stout is a great commercial example, and is slightly more roasty and has a little more alcohol warmth than this recipe (just for comparison), but I think my dried fruit character came out a little better

 

[SanPancho]

@TheMadKing So im curious to what you meant by “traditional” in reference to yeast. Are you saying these beers typically get lager yeast?

 

[TheMadKing]

@TheMadKing So im curious to what you meant by “traditional” in reference to yeast. Are you saying these beers typically get lager yeast?

Yes the style guidelines define this style as typically being made with a warm fermented lager yeast. So by "traditional" I mean, strictly true to the style as it originally developed.

 

[SanPancho]

thats even more weird. ok. well i gotta knock one or two other brews out but i'll be on this one later.

but i am curious- is it possible that they were referring to the lager yeasts that can handle ale/warm temps? like 3470 and 189? or even cal common?

very interesting.

 

[JimRausch]

I've been playing around with a tropical stout recipe for years- trying to get something close to Lion Stout. Looking at your recipe, mine is waaaay too complicated. I've gradually cut back the complexity, but need to keep working on it. Thanks for the post Madking!

 

[TheMadKing]

thats even more weird. ok. well i gotta knock one or two other brews out but i'll be on this one later.

but i am curious- is it possible that they were referring to the lager yeasts that can handle ale/warm temps? like 3470 and 189? or even cal common?

very interesting.

It is very possible, I'm not sure what strain is used to make beers like Red Stripe lager and other similar tropically brewed lagers. I used 34/70 with good results but it was pretty clean actually, but experimentation might lead to a nice ester profile