3 replies to this topic

[robsauce]

Well, I've been trying to put together my first recipe and have based what I have here on some other stout recipes but made a few modifications to fit what ingredients are available to me. For those of you who are experts, can you make any comments or suggestions? This will be for a 6gallon batch, with a 60min partial(2-3 gallon) boil.Grains (steeped for ~50mins @ 155F):0.5 lbs. Caramel/Crystal Malt 120L1.0 lbs. Roasted Barley 300 SRM1.0lbs. Chocolate MaltExtract8 lbs. Light/Pale DME @ 60min4-8oz Cocoa powder @ 10minHops:1 oz. Target @ 60min1 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 30minYeast will most likely be an Irish Ale Yeast of some sort unless someone has a specific suggestion.

[DubbelEntendre]

Well, I've been trying to put together my first recipe and have based what I have here on some other stout recipes but made a few modifications to fit what ingredients are available to me. For those of you who are experts, can you make any comments or suggestions? This will be for a 6gallon batch, with a 60min partial(2-3 gallon) boil. Grains (steeped for ~50mins @ 155F): 0.5 lbs. Caramel/Crystal Malt 120L 1.0 lbs. Roasted Barley 300 SRM 1.0lbs. Chocolate Malt Extract 8 lbs. Light/Pale DME @ 60min 4-8oz Cocoa powder @ 10min Hops: 1 oz. Target @ 60min 1 oz. East Kent Goldings @ 30min Yeast will most likely be an Irish Ale Yeast of some sort unless someone has a specific suggestion.

1.0 Lbs of chocolate malt is a lot of chocolate malt. You might be surprised at the amount of roast flavor you will taste due to that large of a quantity of it. You might want to look into pale chocolate for half, if not all of it. Crystal 120 tends to lend more of a dark dried fruit profile, which would be masked by the amount of roast in this beer. But, I would consider changing that to Crystal 40 or 60, which is more toward the caramel end of the Crystals. Finally, to round out the Chocolate flavor (I'm not sure if you are going to pure Cocoa bar flavor or more of a Smooth Milk Chocolate Flavor, this suggestion is for the latter) you might want to consider adding some lactose or some vanilla (beans or extract) as that really helps smooth out the bitterness of the chocolate. And I'd stick with 4 oz. of Cocoa Powder to start, you can always add more if its not enough. At bottling or kegging time, you can just mix up more cocoa in hot water and adjust as you see fit.

[robsauce]

Thanks, thats exactly the comments I was looking for. I'll plan to add a vanilla bean or two based on your recommendation. In my experience, I've always added vanilla to the secondary when making Mead as fermentation will quite often strip away most of the vanilla flavor. Is this the same for beer?The only chocolate malt available to me is rated at 500L. Would it be advised to maybe lower that to .5lb? I love stouts with a creamy head and body. Is there anything I can add to increase the chances of achieving this? Up until now I've only ever made beer kits from a local brewery and most of the stouts/porters I make come out with a golden/brownish head that doesn't really last. Thanks again.

[DubbelEntendre]

Thanks, thats exactly the comments I was looking for. I'll plan to add a vanilla bean or two based on your recommendation. In my experience, I've always added vanilla to the secondary when making Mead as fermentation will quite often strip away most of the vanilla flavor. Is this the same for beer? The only chocolate malt available to me is rated at 500L. Would it be advised to maybe lower that to .5lb? I love stouts with a creamy head and body. Is there anything I can add to increase the chances of achieving this? Up until now I've only ever made beer kits from a local brewery and most of the stouts/porters I make come out with a golden/brownish head that doesn't really last. Thanks again.

I add my vanilla beans in at about 20 mins, and then carry them over to primary for my Vanilla Sweet Stout. I typically leave the primary for 3-4 weeks to get lots of contact time with the vanilla beans. I'm using 10 beans in that recipe and there is quite a bit a vanilla flavor in the finished beer. In my base recipe for my sweet stout, I only use 0.5 lbs of the Chocolate malt, and I think that the base recipe would lend itself well to a Cocoa Stout as well. So, that might be a good option. And, if you find that you want to tweak it later and bump that to 0.75 lbs, the worst that is going to happen is that you'll have more beer. It took me 4 attempts to dial in the lactose on my Sweet Stout. Trial and Error with the specialty grains can really give a beer your own personal touch. As far as body is concerned, you can up your quantities of crystal malt. As there are greater amounts of sugars that aren't easily fermented by brewers yeast, there will be more residual long chain sugars and dextrines which will contribute to the overall body of the beer. As far as head is concerned, make sure that if you wash your brewing equipment with soap, that you rinse it thoroughly. Same thing with drinking glasses. Give the carbonation time to settle in to its own. If you are bottle conditioning, cool down the bottles for 48 hours before drinking. If you are kegging, force carbonate it slowly over the course of a week or so. The smaller the bubbles, the less likely they are to pop when they get to the surface of the liquid, and they will support the head for a long time. Also, the longer you let the beer cold condition, more particles that are nucleation sites for bubbles will drop out of solution. The less particles you have, the better for head retention.