beer TONY05 (stout help/homebrew self sufficiency)

cheezydemon

cheezydemon

Hey!

My first homebrew was a well recieved stout........

6 lbs dark dme
1 oz fuggles 45 min
WL irish ale

;)

It actually worked out well, but I have moved well beyond that, to formulating my own AG recipes.

I have never really returned to the stout (in 3.5 years or so).....Except once....

I made 1 with:

10 lbs 2 row pale
1 lb roasted
1 lb black patent

2 oz fuggles
WL irish ale

It tasted too much like Guiness (a fail in my estimations)

Do you have some advice on a good stout recipe?


Also, I am hoping to soon be completely homebrew...meaning never buying commercial beer at the store again.

I will try the occasional special brew, but I want to save money and drink less.;)
 
cheezydemon said:
Also, I am hoping to soon be completely homebrew...meaning never buying commercial beer at the store again.

I will try the occasional special brew, but I want to save money and drink less.;)
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I'm also trying to go completely homebrew. But i started homebrewing to save money and drink MORE! :cool:
 
imaguitargod said:
I know you were asking Tony....but there are other homebrewers here too :rolleyes: :lol:



Switch to English Ale yeast.


This concept does not compute......
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...How can I put this.....

I value your opinion but:

A. you are a homebrew noob ;)

B. you don't share your recipes, so how could you help?

C. I don't value your opinions........(;)) not serious.

There are a wealth of recipes on the net, I just wanted a fellow chilihead's opinion, especially if he has a lot of experience brewing.

(sorry I didn't put you in the title Steve, please chime in)
 
Hey Cheezy.

I will do my best mate ;) I use a process thats fairly simple to build a recipe for a beer style i want to brew.

First up...... you need to know what you want from the beer.

How do you want it to taste? What sort of mouth feel do you want? do you want it bitter or sweet? do you want it dry and roasty, dry and smooth...... full boddied and roasty, full boddied and smooth?

This will all effect the recipe, mash schedule, yeast used etc.

Have a think about what you wnat from your stout......... your only limited by your imagination :cool:

Let me know you wants and we will go from there.

I could give you a recipe..... but if its not what you want from your beer.... whats the point.

Slap me for asking a stupid question but do you know about the BJCP guidelines?
 
Yes, you probably want to start out with a commercial example of what you want in your homebrew. I detest dark malt extract, though, and I always prefer to get my dark color and flavor from steeping dark grains. I find that dark malt extract has a syrupy and almost licorice taste that is disagreeable in my opinion. You will always benefit from sticking with the lightest and best-quality extract that you can find, and getting any additional character from steeping the proper grains.
 
Just as an example, I will try to formulate an imperial stout for you after I get home from work. You could try making it, or you could post examples and I'll formulate something for you based on them, if you like.
 
tony05 said:
Hey Cheezy.

First up...... you need to know what you want from the beer.



Slap me for asking a stupid question but do you know about the BJCP guidelines?
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I want a fulll bodied, roasty stout. Not Guiness....

Yes, I am somewhat familiar with BJCP guidelines, but in my own brewing, I have cared little for what "style" a beer is, I just care whether or not I am pleased with the result.

Steve973 said:
I find that dark malt extract has a syrupy and almost licorice taste that is disagreeable in my opinion. You will always benefit from sticking with the lightest and best-quality extract that you can find, and getting any additional character from steeping the proper grains.
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I agree, and have long since given up the DME, but my last stout turned out to be GUINESS. I don't want to repeat that.;)

Thanks!
 
Ok full bodied roasty. That would be a Forein Extra stout

Next question and this is where it gets tricky.

What batch size do you make?
What alcahol content do you want?
What is the grain capacity of your mash tun?

also do you have brewing software? because we ausies work in the proper new metric system that works in 10's :P i work in liters and kilo's. what i can do is give you a recipe stated in percentages and you can then scale the grain bill to fit how strong you want it and how much grain your system can handle.

no point me giving you a recipe for 14 lbs of grain if you can only mash 12 max.


A good starting point would be:

75% 2 row ale malt (English marius Otter is great)
10% flaked Barley (rolled gelatinised unmalted barley adds body)
7% Roasted Barley
5% Medium Crystal malt (will add some body and the sweetness will ballance the beer).
3% black malt

I would aim for 1.060 and around 45IBU with what ever hops you like.
Boil it for 90 minutes and add your hops to the boil with 60 min to go.
Mash at around 150 to 152 deg for a fuller beer but not to heavy.
yeast..... the irish strain is great for stout!

hope this helps a bit.

If you want i can put it into weights for you but i will need the info i asked for above.

cheers

Edit: another thing that works well in a stout is roasted wheat. It has a very dry ashy quality and really lifts a stout. Replace the balck malt with this if you can get it.
 
Thanks Tony!

I guess I can mash 14 lbs no problem, 18 lbs, a little cramped.

I can convert the above % no problem, I guess I was shooting for 9%ABV.

Really, I think I have what I need with the percentages, I can adjust the OG with software to where I want it.

I plan to brew oct 2nd, and let it age until december before cracking one.


The info on the flaked barley and black malt is exactly what I was looking for.

:cheers:
 
Tony and I have a great working relationship........He works hard to make it, and I work hard to put up with him while i'm drinking it...:D
 
moyboy said:
Tony and I have a great working relationship........He works hard to make it, and I work hard to put up with him while i'm drinking it...:D
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Well someday you can repay him by smoking some meat while he puts up with you, eh?;)

Good food and good beer, you all won't get much else done.
 
It wont happen. I will have to build my own if i want that!

I will have to brew the beer, make the nice food and put up with him :)

Not to mention his endless foul bowl movements while im trying to brew in the garage........ driving me from the room while he laughs hystericly.

Ahhhh you can pick your friends.........
 
Lol.

Sorry Moyboy! Thought my dig was subtle, but it still came back to a UDS roast.

Sorry!;)

I think I have settled on a recipe.

12lbs 2 row pale
1.5 lbs flaked barley
1 lb roasted
.75 lb crystal 60L
.5 lb black malt

1 oz Fuggles 45 minutes

WL irish ale
 
Looks like a good one, cheezy. I might use flaked rye or oats instead of the flaked barley, though. And I might also put a quarter or a half pound of chocolate malt in there to round things off a bit on the back end. What IBU value does one ounce of fuggles give you at 45 minutes? I would think something more along the lines of Northern Brewer here.
 
Ok, as promised, I formulated a recipe for you based on what you mentioned. I went with the "American Stout (13E)" category.

6 lbs pale
4 lbs munich
1/2 lb each of dark chocolate, roasted barley, black patent, and 60L crystal
1 lb flaked oats
1.5 oz Northern Brewer (8% Alpha) @ 60 minutes
Irish stout yeast should be fine.

This should roughly provide:
OG 1.066
FG 1.016
Color 32 SRM
ABV 6.5%
Bitterness 45 IBU

I don't mean to cast any doubt on what you've already decided but I wanted to deliver on what I promised. Oh, and I think it would be awesome to sour a bit of the grains before brewing!
 
Steve973 said:
Ok, as promised, I formulated a recipe for you based on what you mentioned. I went with the "American Stout (13E)" category.

6 lbs pale
4 lbs munich
1/2 lb each of dark chocolate, roasted barley, black patent, and 60L crystal
1 lb flaked oats
1.5 oz Northern Brewer (8% Alpha) @ 60 minutes
Irish stout yeast should be fine.

This should roughly provide:
OG 1.066
FG 1.016
Color 32 SRM
ABV 6.5%
Bitterness 45 IBU

I don't mean to cast any doubt on what you've already decided but I wanted to deliver on what I promised. Oh, and I think it would be awesome to sour a bit of the grains before brewing!
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Thank you steve!

I am now tempted to brew 2 to see the differences.

Souring is one thing that sounds so simple, but I've never done it before.

Just set some pale malt out in a bowl of water until it gets sour?
 
Got the ingredients today!

And enough to do a respectable IPA after (rather than a 2nd stout).

Went with the flaked oats.;)

Thanks, both of you!
 
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