Stout grain bill advice

[jamow]

Hello!
Trying to put together a stout from the malts I have in stock.
I'm thinking of :

Maris Otter 78.6%
Flaked Barley 8.7%
Melanoiden 4.4%
Unmalted Roasted Barley 3.1%
Special X 3.1%
Caragold 2.2%

This will give roughly 54 EBC colour
Bittering to 37 IBU

Trying to avoid any harsh roast bitterness but want to brew something as close to black as possible.
Aiming for a smooth, thick texture.
If I up the flaked barley will I be heading into stuck spare territory? I do have some oat husks.

Any thoughts from you folks would be appreciated!

 

[Neil Whittaker]

I am not expert on stouts, just done my first one. I was worried about a stuck mash / sparge with my recipe using 5% flaked barley and 5% Wheat Malt. However, with the right crush, rice/oat husks & underletting, all was fine.

If you have some darker malts, use them in the last 10 minute of the mash, by just adding them to the top. This is supposed to get most of the benefits from the grain, without the harshness that follows.

 

[jamow]

Thanks.
Yeah, thats a good idea about adding the dark grain later.

 

[HarryFlatters]

I'm hopefully doing one tomorrow that's 70% Maris Otter, 20% flaked barley, 5% roasted barley and 5% black patent.

I do a full volume mash so I'm not worried about a sticky sparge or anything like that.

 

[jamow]

Do you recommend upping the flaked barley %, Harry?

 

[Slid]

20% Flaked Barley is as per the GW Guinness recipe, with 70% Pale and 10% RB.
I have used 10% with no issues in the GF system, which does not react well to sticky stuff in the mash cylinder.

Hope this helps!

 

[jamow]

Thanks
Brewed the stout today, more or less as above.
Seemed to go ok.
Just need to transfer to fermenters and pitch yeast.
My Irish Ale Wyeast starter seems a bit lacklustre.

 

[BeerCat]

Thanks
Brewed the stout today, more or less as above.
Seemed to go ok.
Just need to transfer to fermenters and pitch yeast.
My Irish Ale Wyeast starter seems a bit lacklustre.

My 1084 is the same, hardly any krausen but the beer it makes is great.

 

[jamow]

One has omega Yeast Belgian A.
Other one has the 1084.
Fingers crossed

 

[jamow]

24 hours later.....

 

[Neil Whittaker]

Oh good going!!!! You will have to update the thread when you taste the end result to see if you did indeed avoid any harsh roast bitterness.

 

[jamow]

I cold steeped the dark grains and added to the kettle. The Belgian A pooped the fermenter lid a couple of days ago. The 1084 is behaving itself

 

[jamow]

*popped

 

[jamow]

Both fermented down to 1.010.
The Irish ale tasted more chocolatey.
That typical belgian estery-ness in the other.
Both kegged now.
Irish ale one has gone on to nitrogen/CO2.

 

[jamow]

Left is the Irish ale
Right is 50:50 Irish/Belge

 

[jamow]

The Irish ale Stout on nitro.
Anyone used the Wyeast Irish ale strain in a pale ale?