Stout recipe help please

[pilgrimhudd]

Hiya, planning to do an American Stout tomorrow, I have the hops planned out, Cascade, Centennial and Chinook but the malt bill i'm not sure about.

Initially my thoughts are (for 20l)

Pale Malt 3.5 kg
Munich 600g
Dark Crystal 450g
Carafa 2 340g
Roasted Barley 200g

Possibly 50g Black Malt (for colour)

But I have some dark munich and special B i thought about adding.... planning to mash high to get as much body as I can.

What do you think?

 

[samale]

Personally I like special B and it would play well in an American stout.

 

[matt76]

Have a look at the recipes for my NPS Stout and my Hurricane Porter to get an idea of what and how much.

To be honest I think there's an awful lot of room for manoeuvre with these beers... Dark Munich, I don't see why not, Special B I've definitely used it in a version of my Porter so I reckon it'll go well in a Stout. I use various dark crystals in both too.

I don't think that much of Carafa 1, 2, 3 - when I used it in a version of my Black IPA both you and I thought it was a bit "meh". Nowadays I prefer chocolate or chocolate rye malts, but if it's what you have on hand... And you definitely want some roasted barley in there to get that roast flavour.

Have fun with it, good luck dude

 

[samale]

That's my stout I brewed last week
5kg Maris otter
500g chocolate
300g Cara Munich 2
200g special B
200g black malt

30 min boil
30g Magnum@FWH
30g EKG@5mins

Yeast CML Beoir

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Cheers both, yes I'll have a look at your two @matt76 , I'd forgotten that we both thought carafa was meh, I have plenty of choc too so not a problem to swap that... I actually think I might have some chocolate rye hanging around somewhere.

I'll take another look at what I have and recipe builder when I get down fro putting the little one to bed.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

That's my stout I brewed last week
5kg Maris otter
500g chocolate
300g Cara Munich 2
200g special B
200g black malt

30 min boil
30g Magnum@FWH
30g EKG@5mins

Yeast CML Beoir

Like the look of that, nice and simple.

 

[Oneflewover]

The American stout in 'the bible' is
3kg pale
2kg Munich
500g black
500g crystal
Very simple indeed!

I quite fancy a hoppy, smoky recipe (a To øl clone) in the Euan Ferguson book:
57% pils
9.5% roasted
8% smoked
7% flaked oats
6% chocolate
5% caramunich
3% brown
4.5% Demerara sugar

It's a 7%ABV beer, and hopped with Simcoe, centennial and cascade (I know you have hops sorted).

 

[pilgrimhudd]

I hadn't thought of looking in the bible!

Yep that Euan Ferguson recipe looks good, is that a decent book?

 

[Oneflewover]

I hadn't thought of looking in the bible!

Yep that Euan Ferguson recipe looks good, is that a decent book?

Yeah I like it. Done a few recipes. The citra saison (Brew By Numbers), export porter (The Kernel) and Kipling (Thornbridge) are a few that stood out.

 

[The Baron]

If its a American stout I would put in some Special B and dark Munich as previously suggested

 

[The Biochemist]

Possibly 50g Black Malt (for colour)

Sounds tasty! I doubt you’ll need the black malt though - you should be pretty inky with just the carafa and roasted barley.

Talking of which, you may want to cold steep your darker grains. It will cut out a lot of the harshness that they can bring to the party (especially in a hot mash), which in turn will work better with your hops selection.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Sounds tasty! I doubt you’ll need the black malt though - you should be pretty inky with just the carafa and roasted barley.

Talking of which, you may want to cold steep your darker grains. It will cut out a lot of the harshness that they can bring to the party (especially in a hot mash), which in turn will work better with your hops selection.

I have been reading mixed comments about cold steeping, lots saying that it's not worth it. I had thought about it, and maybe will in the future but not this time.

 

[Davekh1969]

Another recipe to try , I added 250g lactose at 10 mins for a more creaminess, my go to beer

 

[pilgrimhudd]

So it's been a good morning for getting rid of a few bags of opened malt.

In the end I went for

3.2kg pale
250g dark munich
350 munich
250 medium crystal
250 dark crystal
100 special b
200g roast
350 choc rye
100g black

Seems a lot but the the crystal and Munich are doubled up and I had less special b than I thought I had so I just chucked it in, I won't notice it. As I didnt have the full amount of dark crystal/munich I added more black as theres nothing worse than a stout that's not properly black.

 

[Oneflewover]

So it's been a good morning for getting rid of a few bags of opened malt.

In the end I went for

3.2kg pale
250g dark munich
350 munich
250 medium crystal
250 dark crystal
100 special b
200g roast
350 choc rye
100g black

Seems a lot but the the crystal and Munich are doubled up and I had less special b than I thought I had so I just chucked it in, I won't notice it. As I didnt have the full amount of dark crystal/munich I added more black as theres nothing worse than a stout that's not properly black.

Nice, looks good. What is the batch size and what is the hopping schedule?

 

[Sadfield]

Brew it. It looks OK to me.

I'm a big believer in, if you've formulated a recipe, get on and brew it. I find it's easier to get a handle on what things do, when you've gone through the thought process yourself, rather than following anothers recipe without knowing why they're made the choices they've made.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Nice, looks good. What is the batch size and what is the hopping schedule?

20l, chinook to bitter, cascade and centennial additions @10 and a hopsteep of all 3, I think (I'm out at the mo) ibu of about 50...

Abv according to beersmith 6% but I reckon with my efficiency itll be around 5.5%

 

[Oneflewover]

20l, chinook to bitter, cascade and centennial additions @10 and a hopsteep of all 3, I think (I'm out at the mo) ibu of about 50...

Abv according to beersmith 6% but I reckon with my efficiency itll be around 5.5%

Yeah that deffo looks good to my untrained eye!

 

[samale]

So it's been a good morning for getting rid of a few bags of opened malt.

In the end I went for

3.2kg pale
250g dark munich
350 munich
250 medium crystal
250 dark crystal
100 special b
200g roast
350 choc rye
100g black

Seems a lot but the the crystal and Munich are doubled up and I had less special b than I thought I had so I just chucked it in, I won't notice it. As I didnt have the full amount of dark crystal/munich I added more black as theres nothing worse than a stout that's not properly black.

Looks good

 

[Donegal john]

Big bold roasty flavours from all that. Needs a big bittering addition to cut the harsh roast flavours. Nothing nicer than an American stout that makes your eyes water