Recipe Advice Thread

[denimglen]

Thought it might be handy to have a thread for some of the more advanced brewers to give some advice on recipes.

Let's see how it goes eh...

[Sam DT]

Agreed - would be a good addition to BS and you wouldn't think it'd be that hard to implement...

Good article on stands and whirlpools here FYI: https://byo.com/component/k2/item/2808-hop-stands

[David R]

I'm determined not to miss the boat (again!) so I want to brew a couple of dark/stouts now so they have a bit of time in the bottle before winter comes along. I've done plenty of AG brews, but mostly PA/IPA-type beers, this will be my first AG dark beer. I'd really like to brew a milk stout around 6% abv and add some espresso to it, but I'm a little overwhelmed with the number of recipes out there, not familiar enough with the dark grains to formulate my own, and I haven't even got a favourite example of this style to use as a starting point!

I know this goes a little beyond "recipe advice", but does anyone have a good recipe I can use as a astarting point for a milk stout??

[Crusader-Rob]

Have you got Brewing Classic Styles?
The milk stout in there might be a good start? If you need to increase gravity, just increase your base malt?

[Barry]

If you don't have Brewing Classic Styles, check out The Jamil Show episode podcast for a good start:

http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/The-Jamil-Show/Sweet-Stout-The-J...

[David R]

 I haven't got the book, but I'll download the podcast and listen to it while on nightshift next week. One beer I've really loved recently is Garage Projects Cereal Milk Stout. I'd like to aim for something like that, except with coffee instead of cornflakes!

So if I find a recipe for an oatmeal stout around the 5-6% ABV with some chocolate malt, then add some lactose and coffee (either cold-steeped or add the grinds to the mash?) I should be heading in the right direction?

[David R]

On the right track???

  

Est Original Gravity: 1.055 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.9 %
Bitterness: 21.4 IBUs
Est Color: 39.1 SRM

  

Batch Size: 20.00 l
Boil Time: 60 min
Efficiency: 65.00 %

  

Amt	Name	Type	#	%/IBU
3.65 kg	Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)	Grain	1	56.7 %
0.51 kg	Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM)	Grain	2	7.9 %
0.40 kg	Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)	Grain	3	6.2 %
0.40 kg	Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)	Grain	4	6.2 %
0.40 kg	Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)	Grain	5	6.2 %
0.32 kg	Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM)	Grain	6	5.0 %
0.26 kg	Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM)	Grain	7	4.0 %
0.50 kg	Milk Sugar (Lactose) (0.0 SRM)	Sugar	8	7.8 %
9.00 g	Columbus (Tomahawk) [15.20 %] - Boil 60.0 min	Hop	9	15.6 IBUs
28.00 g	East Kent Goldings (EKG) [5.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min	Hop	10	5.8 IBUs
1.0 pkg	Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml]	Yeast	11	-

[Crusader-Rob]

expect a considerably higher gravity, lactose is unfermentable. try a min of 1.020. if you want a bigger beer, increase to 1.065

[David R]

1.055 OG is without the lactose, according to beersmith, I'm not sure why the software considered it fermentable but I reduced the yield to zero, it has still included it in the percentages for some reason though.

TBH I'm happy with somewhere between 5-6%ABV for this beer, don't really want it to be a boozer. If it goes well I'll to a similar strength robust porter, then have a crack at an imperial stout later on if I'm happy with both of them. I love drinking the darks, not really sure why it's taken so long for me to venture into brewing them!

[Crusader-Rob]

Fair enough.

Heres a recipe From a guy who blogs online. Some of his recipes are great. Might be a good start point?

http://www.bertusbrewery.com/2013/11/milk-chocolate-stout.html 

[David R]

Looks good, will go with that and see how it turns out. Doing some research on how to add the coffee, Stone do it by putting the ground bean in with the grain for the mash so they get a long steep at a warm [not hot] temperature. Sounds like a good idea to me, now how much to add....

[Sam DT]

I brewed a Coffee Stout around three months back - the recipe called for half a litre of espresso post primary fermentation. It's still ageing (although should be coming good around now) the early bottle I had a month or so wasn't overpoweringly coffee flavoured.

I also had a look around at the time at when to add and as you say there's a range of opinions on when and how to add and probably largely depends on what you're looking for out the other end but I'd imagine impacts would be largely analogous to hop additions.

If you boil the coffee for too long you'll probably boil off some of the aromatics in the coffee & end up with more bitterness coming through and less in your face coffee flavour. If you're after a more smooth aromatic contribution I'd imagine you'd be better adding brewed coffee post fermentation. As above I went for the latter but that's not to say it's the best way to go...

[Cain Harland]

I fermented 40L on 200g of coffee grounds, worked out pretty well