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...

[MrC]

How about substituting rolled oats for the flaked barley. If the purpose of the flaked barley is to give that silky, full mouthfeel then rolled oats will perform a similar role (Oatmeal stout).

Other than that you could maybe just add some carapils or mash at a higher temp (68-69c) to increase the dextrins and give a fuller mouthfeel. It wouldn't be the same but if you have to compromise then it's better than nothing.

[Patrick]

Sounds good - would I still use oats for 20% of the grain bill?

[MrC]

I think 20% might be a bit high for rolled oats. The good oatmeal stout recipes that I've seen have between 8 & 10% rolled oats. I'd go 10% at most.

Have you considered posting your full recipe for the more experienced stout brewers to comment on?

[Patrick]

Pretty basic really, it was going to be
4.5kg Maris Otter
1.3kg Flaked Barley (subbing for 500g rolled oats)
.65kg roasted barley

~40IBU of UK Goldings at 60 minutes.

US05 yeast.

I am going to pick up the MO and roasted barley tomorrow and will look into chucking 500g of rolled oats in there, I will cook them first then add them to the mash.

Will .65kg roasted barley make it dark enough do you think?

[JoKing]

Hmmmmmmmmm let me think for a second....

..... yes.

Very dark - and very very very roasty!

[MrC]

Will .65kg roasted barley make it dark enough do you think?
Hell yeah! Definately!

[Patrick]

Cool - I like it roasty.

[Tony]

I would say thats a little too much roasted, Patrick. You probably want to go for a max of 10% or 500g. That will still be really roasty (I am not sure what you are trying to achieve?). Colour will be black or dark chocolate. I would think around 200-300 g might be a good start. Porters generally use around 7-8%, Brown ales 2-4%. You do the math.

[Patrick]

Do I not count the flaked barley in the total grain bill? Total amount of grain is 4.5 + 1.3 + .65 = 6.45kgs so I thought 10% of that = 650g?

I am just trying for a good basic dry stout, I like Guinness (in dublin anyway) and Beamish stout, and I like coffee/roasty aftertaste and thick mouthfeel. I really like the mouthfeel of cascade stout (gives me fierce hangovers though). I wonder if they are using flaked barley or something else to achieve that.

I want to showcase the malt rather than the hops, hence bittering only. I will do some more research and revise, thanks for all the input everyone.

[JackoNZ]

Yeah your figures look fine, I just put them in beersmith and you have 10% roast, all good. If you like Beamish you could also add wheat to get some mouthfeel, I once did a kits and bits brew like that which came out great. I'm loving the smoothness that the flaked barley adds though.

[Patrick]

All brewed, boiled and chilled, just waiting for the whirlpool to settle things down and then I will siphon into the fermenter.

Ended up using 500g of rolled oats, I cooked the first and added them into the mash. Mashed at around 68-69 degrees so hopefully end up with good mouthfeel.

Certainly came out pretty dark, looking forward to trying it.

Had my first boilover - as soon as I added the hops, didn't lose much wort and it cleaned off the garage ffloor OK, I think the outside of the kettle will take some scrubbing.

[Patrick]

All done - got 23L at 1050.