Stout with a shed load of Flaked Barley

[Portreath]

I thought I'd experiment with a bag of flaked barley I had in the brew box. So I'm trying on a stout style brew. I've now got the wort in the FV and it smells really rich and sweet. The grain bill looks like:
3500g Pale Malt
500g Flaked Barley
350g Black Malt
250g Brown malt
150g Chocolate Malt
100g Brown sugar

With 38g Fuggles @90 mins
and 30g EKG @10 mins

As I say, the wort smells great, but I've no idea how this will turn out. One thing for sure it's very dark....now there's a funny thing

 

[Dutto]

I generally "quarter the number I first thought of" when deciding how much Chocolate Malt to use in a brew.

I used 40g of Chocolate Malt to make up 1% of the Grain Bill on an English Mild; and I still reckon I could have used less.

With 150g (>3% of the Grain Bill) of Chocolate Malt it may be a bit "chocolaty"; but on the other hand, the 38g of Fuggles and 30g of EKG may give enough bitterness to overcome the taste of chocolate to produce a great stout.

Looking forward to the verdict!

Enjoy!

 

[Portreath]

Thanks @Dutto, the ratios are really useful so I'll make notes of these. As it's my first year brewing AG I'm still very much a novice, so just experimenting. I've got to say those that my favorite brews to make are stouts, porter and mild. I will post results as soon as it's ready for a taste. This one's going in a barrel for Xmas. I got the OG to almost bang on the expected 1.055.5, so should come out about 5.6%.

Cheers

 

[Gerryjo]

A lot of chocolate malt in there and could certainly be rich and dark but I see you are missing roast barley which would certainly have given a more roasted note and bittering.How many litres did you brew as there is no indication and I'm assuming the extended boil was to increase the IBU's.

 

[LeeH]

No stuck sparge issues?

 

[Portreath]

Hi @Gerryjo yes the plan/hope was to make it as full and rich as possible. I've not come across roasted barley before so did some reading on this and it looks like I've over looked a very important aspect of making good quality stouts

(In dry stout, the focus of flavor is roasted barley. It is rumored, for example, that the Guinness (James Gate) brewery uses a combination of pale ale malt, flaked barley (30%) and roasted barley (10%) to achieve its legendary flavor. Simplicity is bliss!

A more balanced, dark malt attack should be used when making porter. Mix black patent and chocolate with your roasted barley. If the recipe calls for 9% dark malts, 3% chocolate, 3% black patent and 3% roasted barley will give you a good starting point for flavor comparison.)
https://byo.com/article/using-roasted-barley-tips-from-the-pros/

So thank you for pointing me in the right direction, after a nights reading on this I understand a little more what goes in to making good stouts and porters.
@LeeH This was the brew that saw my thermometer have a melt down, hence ending up with too much water in the tun and the longer boil. I came out with 18l and the OG was only .5 off, so happy so far.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi @Portreath
While you are in research mode, you may want to read up on cold steeping roast barley. It is supposed to give a smoother stout.

 

[Brewed_Force]

I recently read a recipe for Young's London Stout from 2006 (see: 'Shut Up About Barclay Perkins') and they used a lot more chocolate malt than you:

Pale malt 87%
Chocolate malt 5.2% (you use 3.1%)
Flaked oats 3.8%
Invert no.2 3.8%
and a tiny bit of actual chocolate too....

I'm toying with brewing a stout without roasted barley, not a big fan of Irish stout.

 

[foxy]

I recently read a recipe for Young's London Stout from 2006 (see: 'Shut Up About Barclay Perkins') and they used a lot more chocolate malt than you:

Pale malt 87%
Chocolate malt 5.2% (you use 3.1%)
Flaked oats 3.8%
Invert no.2 3.8%
and a tiny bit of actual chocolate too....

I'm toying with brewing a stout without roasted barley, not a big fan of Irish stout.

You don't have to use roasted barley This is an excellent recipe without using roast barley.
https://byo.com/wp-content/uploads/woocommerce_uploads/Irish-Extra-Stout.pdf