Stout Feedback

152F for thick mouthfeel? Try 158F.
1.061 for thick mouthfeel? Try 1.100

 

If you're going for chewy, I'd up the mash temp quite a bit, as @NeroFiddled said. I'd also do an iodine test at 30 minutes, and from then on every 5-10 minutes, and once it shows negative for starch, mash out and add your dark grains.

 

I was gonna say the same. It's gonna be hard to get a lot of chewy mouthfeel at 5.5% ABV.
You need to take it at least to 1.080 and higher would be better.

 

If you want a dark beer with some decent viscosity, you're going to have to change a couple things.

I'd used a less attenuative yeast strain like Irish or Scottish Ale.

As people have said, mash higher. It doesn't matter when you add you highly kilned grains.

Your grainbill is schizophrenic, man. Use one base malt and one type of flaked grain. Half a pound of Victory isn't even going to show up in a beer like this and you're going to need more dark grains to get this black as night. I would suggest dropping the BP (because it's garbage) and adding at least a lb. of Carafa. I'd also think about adding more crystal type malt, whether it's something like carapils/dextrin or some darker crystal. Personally, I'd go with some 120L or darker.

Save the Cascade for an IPA or pale ale. You don't need it here.

 

New motor oil is light and thick, spent oil is very dark and not as thick.....can’t speak to the mouthfeel of either.

What is it about Black Patent that causes you to dismiss it?

 

It's obviously personal preference, but I greatly dislike the character that it imparts. GREATLY.

 

Was going to say where is the C120 or Special B? That is a personal thing for me and understand that a lot of people do a C60/C80 mix.

But yeah, mash higher and different yeast in my experience would be needed.

 

Jesus don't like charcoal taste/ ash that black patent imparts to him.
For me, can't do without it, no Carraffa for me. Whatever one likes.

 

100% agreed on this.

If you need something, if you absolutely need to have more color, at least go with a de-husked version like Briess' Black Prinz.

Chocolate malts vary greatly in color and I'm sure you can find one that works for you. Of course there's flavor too, so you've got to try them all, but hey," it's a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll"!

 

I've found the Fuller's strain (WLP002, Wyeast 1968) not to be very attenuative at all. I've really enjoyed it in porters and stouts, albeit nothing this big.

 

You know, I looked at the White Labs website when I posted this, just to make sure I was thinking correctly and both Irish Ale and Scottish Ale are supposed to be more attenuative than WLP002. That's not my experience, but that's what the websites says.

https://www.whitelabs.com/yeast-bank/wlp002-english-ale-yeast

https://www.whitelabs.com/yeast-bank/wlp004-irish-ale-yeast

https://www.whitelabs.com/yeast-bank/wlp028-edinburgh-scottish-ale-yeast

Chances are it depends highly on wort composition, but that's the case with all fermentations.

 

Yeah, I've never brewed with Scottish yeast and I've only used Irish yeast once or twice, and I never liked those beers very much. So I can't really say as a relative matter, but certainly Wyeast 1968 was not a big attenuator for me. What it is is a great flocculator, which I like because I bottle and it makes it easy to pour without getting a bunch of yeast in the glass.