Black Malt instead of Debittered Black Malt

I do not think the beer will taste like an ash tray with .5 lbs of black malt added. It will be more bitter and have more of a roast flavor, but not ashtray

 

If it's malt, it's not Black/Roast Barley...Roast Barley is unmalted...you probably got Black Patent (which is kind of ashy). Don't mill much or cold/late steep to simulate Carafa Special. Cheers

 

You already got 9% roasted malt
I think that is enough

 

but you got very little cara malt,
maybe you should substitute it with some dark crystal malt

 

I use 1/4 lb. of Black Patent Malt when I brew my Oatmeal Stouts (OG = 1.048). I personally do not pick up a flavor of "ashy" in that beer. I would think that 1/2 lb. in a higher gravity beer should be OK. If you are very concerned maybe just use 1/4 lb. in your beer?

Cheers!

 

What people seem to be missing is that the black malt is already milled and mixed in with his other grains (if I'm reading correctly). In this situation, I would simply brew with the malts that you have, even though the recipe may indeed end up a little more bitter than you would like. Another approach, if you brew often, would be to buy the same grain bill again, but without any black malt, mix it thoroughly with your existing grain bill, and then split it in half again. That way you're only adding 3 oz of black malt per batch, which should have less impact on the beer. Of course then you have to make the recipe twice.

 

Ah, I misunderstood, then. Replacing the specialty grains is a lot cheaper than replacing the entire grain bill, and I would strongly consider that if I were you. By the way, you don't need to pay a homebrew store $2/lb or whatever for the flaked oats—rolled oats (not steel-cut) from the grocery store will work just fine.

But yeah, I guess if the grains are not really mixed in the bag, you could remove the majority of the black malt. If you go that route, I would weigh the grains that you remove. That way if the beer ends up being delicious, you'll know exactly how much black malt to use next time.

 

just let it ride

 

You could try cold steeping. It may help extract less astringency from the husk. I don't use a lot of black malt in my homebrew, and when I have, I cold steeped and have not experienced ashy flavors. Maybe this technique needs the Brulosophy treatment (probably already been done)..

 

I like a little bit of Black Patent in a stout, I think you would have to be above 5% or so to start getting "ashy"

FWIW Sierra Nevada uses Chocolate Malt, Roasted Barley and Black Malt in their stout, I never thought that was ashy http://www.sierranevada.com/beer/year-round/stout

 

You can't look at one malt on their own
3% is not to much, but in combination with the other
I agree Black malt is no more harsh that Roasted Barley

 

Let it ride. It'll still be good. If you have an extra 1/4 of C60 laying around I'd toss it in. It depends on which way you want to see this go. Too sweet or too dry? Either way I'd stop by for a pint of it.

 

Yeah, I'll be by as well

 

My oatmeal stouts have Roast Barley, Chocolate , and black patent. Everybody in my family loves it and nobody has ever complained about it being too ashy/bitter/roasty. My dark grains come out to around 12% of the grain bill(hard to pin it down since I don't actually weigh grains)

 

I use Maris Otter as my base malt and a combination of English Chocolate Malt and English Black Patent Malt as the specialty grains for my Oatmeal Stout.

I wonder if this alleged aspect of "ashy" is Malting Company specific?

Cheers!