Scale milk stout recipe - sanity check

[DrFish]

All

As I said in the intro forum, my first BIAB beer should be ready for bottling next weekend and I'm about to order some supplies for a next beer (or more!).

Decided on the Milk Stout recipe from Greg Hughes book (I got an older edition). It quotes 4200g pale malt, 300g chocolate and crystal, 200g roasted barley flaked barley and Special B. That makes 23 litres/40 pints. I'm scaling back to the 4.5L litre I think I can ferment BIAB with the equipment I have so I reckon, with a bit of rounding up for good measure, 900g pale malt, 60g chocolate crystal, 40g each for the rest.

Just want to check I've got my sums right, feels sensible to me based on the weight of grain in my first kit.

Thanks all.

 

[moto748]

Sounds about right, but 4,5 litres seems tiny, that's only a saucepan's worth! Did you mean that small?

 

[DrFish]

Yep, makes about 9 bottles. It's a 5L bucket. Got starter kit from here - Home Brew Starter Kits - All Grain 1 Pot Craft Beer Kits

Its all stove top small scale, planning on sticking to that for several months until thinking about going bigger. Brewed a few 40 pint kits in the past and not struggled to drink all of it and often suffering tail end of going off beer. So wanted to stick to more manageable volumes to start with.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Cwrw666]

4.5 L is 1 gallon. 23 L is 5 gallons (which is why all our recipes are for 23L which otherwise would seem strange.)
So just divide all your recipe ingredients by 5.

 

[Tanglefoot]

If you want to take the guess work out try using the Brewfather app ( or similar software ).
There is a BIAB equipment setting, then add new recipe and change volume to whatever you require and add grains/hops to suit.
There is a table to show how changes you make affect OG/FG, tinseth, IBU etc.
It also means you have a record for future reference, I usually print a copy and add notes as I brew. This also helps you from missing anything out on brew day.

 

[moto748]

Yep, makes about 9 bottles. It's a 5L bucket. Got starter kit from here - Home Brew Starter Kits - All Grain 1 Pot Craft Beer Kits

Its all stove top small scale, planning on sticking to that for several months until thinking about going bigger. Brewed a few 40 pint kits in the past and not struggled to drink all of it and often suffering tail end of going off beer. So wanted to stick to more manageable volumes to start with.

Thanks for the reply.

If bottled, your beer shouldn't be 'going off; at the end of even a 40 pint kit, I wouldn't have thought, unless you drink *very* slowly!

As Tanglefoot says, it's a really good idea to keep a good record of what you do. There's various ways to do this. I have a slight antipathy towards apps and software in general, , so I use a couple of simple spreadsheets to proportion beer recipes, and to keep a database of my brews. If you have a basic understanding of Excel, it's quite straightforward, and you don't even need a licence for it, you can use Google sheets for free, which effectively keeps your info on a cloud. But that's just me. I think most here use some kind of software as Tanglefoot suggests.

 

[DrFish]

If bottled, your beer shouldn't be 'going off; at the end of even a 40 pint kit, I wouldn't have thought, unless you drink *very* slowly!

As Tanglefoot says, it's a really good idea to keep a good record of what you do. There's various ways to do this. I have a slight antipathy towards apps and software in general, , so I use a couple of simple spreadsheets to proportion beer recipes, and to keep a database of my brews. If you have a basic understanding of Excel, it's quite straightforward, and you don't even need a licence for it, you can use Google sheets for free, which effectively keeps your info on a cloud. But that's just me. I think most here use some kind of software as Tanglefoot suggests.

I wasn't bottling before, it was 40 pints in a plastic keg Tend to only have 5-10 beers a week but nice ones, hence going with quality over quantity.

 

[DrFish]

Next question yeast, do i scale the amount of yeast to, or do we just rely on the fact its going to multiply anyway! Just looking at Malt Miller and it will half or more of the total cost for a batch as yeast is that right? Excuse the new boy questions! First time trying to build a brew not from a kit.

 

[moto748]

You certainly wouldn't 'scale' yeast in the same way you do grains and hops. I know nothing of kits and how much yeast they supply, but generally speaking I'd either use a whole packet of dried yeast (typically 11 g) for any 'normal' batch size, say 15 to 25 litres. And for a small batch like yours, half a packet. I just brewed a stove-top parsnip stout thus afternoon. It's really the only stove-top brew I do these days. It's a nominal 7.5 litre batch size (I start with 9 litres of water). For this I find half a pack of dried yeast is plenty, and yours is even smaller.

 

[DrFish]

Thanks moto. Recipe says to use London III Ale 1318, which I can only find in liquid packs, that seems to suggest there is enough for 23L brews. Obviously mine is a lot smaller. Found a Verdant dried yeast I think, was assuming I could do what is just use half for the next 2 brews as they will both need similar yeast anyway.

Been trying to figure out if I can buy the liquid one and keep half of it alive until another brew or if its best just to use the dried one even if it isn't exactly the Greg recommends in the book.

 

[UKSkydiver]

I brew 11-ish litre batches and have regularly pitched half a packet of dried yeast.
Assuming you're using dry, if I were you I would not fanny around trying to get 1/5, I would just pitch half a packet.
I've not used liquid yeast yet, and it sounds in your current situation that it might be difficult to manage. For now, see if you can find a dry alternative, use that and pitch half.
Good luck.

 

[moto748]

I'm sure Verdant will be fine. I use it myself in bitters increasingly these days.

 

[DrFish]

Thanks all. Found a yeast substitution table in Greg's book that gives an alternative as well. Just going to get the a dried pack abs pitch half.

 

[matt76]

You certainly wouldn't 'scale' yeast in the same way you do grains and hops.

Why do you think this? Pitching rates are based on X number grams per volume, usually given in g/hL.

@DrFish I suggest pitching ¼-⅓ pack for your 4.5L batch (I normally pitch ½ pack dry ale yeast into my 10-12L batches). Put a clip on what's left over and keep it in the fridge for next time.

Recipe says to use London III Ale 1318, which I can only find in liquid packs

That's a proprietary Wyeast name so you won't find an exact dry yeast alternative.

Found a Verdant dried yeast

Lallemand Verdant IPA I assume? Yes, use that - it's said to be derived from London Ale III anyway so as close as you'll get, and I've had a positive experience of it so far.

Found a yeast substitution table in Greg's book that gives an alternative as well

I'd ignore that table. Certainly in the edition of that book that I have the liquid/dry alternatives are questionable at best, and ignore more recently released strains.

 

[Cwrw666]

I wouldn't worry too much about getting an exact yeast substitute. Any flavours from the yeast are going to be totally overwhelmed in a milk stout.
And yes scale your yeast on a more or less basis - you should be able to guess at 1/4 of a packet close enough.

 

[matt76]

I wouldn't worry too much about getting an exact yeast substitute. Any flavours from the yeast are going to be totally overwhelmed in a milk stout.
And yes scale your yeast on a more or less basis - you should be able to guess at 1/4 of a packet close enough.

I dunno about that mate. I haven't tried any back to backs with stout but last year I did a split batch of my porter with MJ M36 vs. WY1318 - given that both are reasonable choices for an English ale strain I was amazed just how different the two beers turned out to be. Which one was better turned out to be subjective, but they were certainly distinct from one another.

But yeah, certainly I would agree for a milk stout there are lots of dry and liquid yeasts to choose from, none of which would be a bad choice

 

[DrFish]

Thanks again for all the advice. Just placed the order with Malt Miller. Gone for the Verdant yeast. Got a recipe for a bitter I'll brew after the stout, so can use the rest of the yeast for that.

 

[DrFish]

Nearly at the end of the boil for the milk stout. Went 10% in the lactose as Mrs loves sweet stouts. So far things more smoothly than first brew 2 weeks ago.

 

[mcscruff]

Nearly at the end of the boil for the milk stout. Went 10% in the lactose as Mrs loves sweet stouts. So far things more smoothly than first brew 2 weeks ago.

how did this turn out?