Averagely Perfect American Stout - Poll #4 - Basic Grains

Some questions are better left unanswered.

I'm all for both roasted barley and black patent malt, BTW. I like the roasty/toasty/burnt/slightly acrid flavors of a good dark stout. Dryness is secondary if there's enough dark malts, IMO (think Deschutes Obsidian, not especially dry but nice and roasty, with tinges of burnt and acrid*).

*these flavor descriptions by me do not imply that these are in fact the official tasting notes for these malts. IANABJCP, so my descriptions may not be worth more than a bomber of Moby Dick's Great White Stout.

 

Looking ahead to the debate on crystal malt (there is always a debate on crystal malt), I perused the BJCP guidelines to figure out what's appropriate in an American Stout. I left a little confused by this line "Low to medium malt sweetness, often with rich chocolate or caramel flavors." My initial reaction is that low to medium malt sweetness and rich caramel flavors in contradictory. Other interpretations?

 

Good specialty malt flavor but finishes relatively dry.

 

I will be voting for both roasted barley and black patent when the time comes. The two play very well together in a stout.

 

Malt sweetness/ rich caramel flavors don't need to come from crystal malts. They can come from roasted malts combined with unfermentable dextrins from high(ish) mash temperatures.

 

None of that debittered crap either.

 

I haven't been around much lately, but when I do drop in, these are the posts I like to see. How are your home-brews coming along my friend?

 

It's the low-med sweetness / rich caramel part that leaves me nonplussed. I don't see how you can have low to moderate sweetness and rich caramel.

I wasn't necessarily commenting on the source of that sweetness and caramel, but I do have a tough time divorcing that flavor of caramel from crystal malt. Toasty, malty, biscuit, etc, I can get from other malts, but rich caramel, I'm just not sure.

 

I just noticed, I meant to vote for victory but it didn't apply my vote.

 

Cuba Libre

 

HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE!

 

I am not sure if I've ever used any de-bittered malts, not even completely sure I know which are which in that respect. Are we talking carafa III? I have four ounces of that just in case I need something funky for my little two gallon experimental extract brews.

I guess the use of de-bittered malts depends on your goals for the beer. To me, if I'm putting something that's jet black into my beer, I want roasty, toasty, coffee, chocolate, burnt, ash, and even astringent notes in my beer (obviously some flavors in higher quantities than others).

 

Carafa Special malts (I, II, and III) are debittered (huskless); Carafa I, I, and III all have husks - look for (or avoid) Carafa Special malts, depending on desired effect. Briess Blackprinz, also. Briess Midnight Wheat is huskless, and I imagine other chocolate wheat and rye deliver lower bitterness than similarly roasted barley for the same reason.Some Belgian debittered chocolate is out there, too. Debittered malts are the classic way to make a black IPA black, if anything about black IPA can be considered classic.