*Groan* Another recipe feedback thread (milk stout)

I'm not going to offer a lot of criticism... but what's the purpose of that carapils? I would have chosen something like C60 for a little more flavor than just carapils. With extract and oatmeal, you won't be lacking any body anyway. Other than that, looks like a nice partial mash recipe.

I rehydrate dry yeast. Usually the directions are rehydrate in 95F water. Boil it, cool it, put the water in a sanitized flask or container, then add the yeast and mix. Let it cool to pitching temperature while you're brewing. Mix/shake frequently. One pack of yeast should do fine for that beer.

The hops seem light, but I am not sure what your aim is. What you have should come out quite sweet, especially with the high expected FG and the lactose.

 

Lactose isn't very sweet (More Milky/creamy), and dextrins are tasteless (taste some maltodextrin), so you can have a higher FG and have a beer not come out sweet.

OP, I don't think I'd use Chinook as the bittering hop, as it can be a bit harsh, replace it with something mild like EKG, Mount Hood, etc. I tend to just first wort hop mine just to get a smoother bitterness and tend to keep the IBUs around 20-30, depending on the amount of roast I'm using.

Don't think you'll need the carapils, you can ditch it and replace with more base malt. If you want the beer to be more complex, you can sub English Marris Otter, Optic, Pearl, etc. or Golden promise for the American Pale Malt.

I've never used amber malt extract, so can't really provide much comment there, when doing extract I tend to just use Golden Light or Marris Otter DME/LME and specialty malts (I have a much better understanding of whats going into my beer this way), but if you like the amber extract, go with it.

Also, if you want you can swap the US-05 for Windsor or S-04, as their more characterful (ester production) and less attenuative, and flocculate way better (My personal preference is for liquid WY1968/WLP002 or WY1469, but have had good luck with dry S-04 in milk stouts).

 

I've used 1469 with good results.

I've also used s-04 in stouts, also with good results.

And as barfdiggs says, you could use base malt instead of the c-60 or the carapils. You won't be lacking body either way.

 

Since you asked, why bother posting a thread if it makes you groan? Are you some sort of masochist who wants to have a "new one" ripped? Do you think we are just here to indulge your silly fetishes?

There. Do you have a new one? If not, there's more where that came from, Bucko!

And on to my thoughts on your stout:

• I like to rehydrate. Many don't bother. No one is going to win that argument today, but since it is a slight underpitch according to MrMalty, I would say rehydrating is going to be your friend on this one.

The rehydration advice is based on logic and assumptions. Assuming rehydration is important in maintaining viable cell counts, then to underpitch knowingly without rehydrating is to be doubly damned. But as I said, no one is going to win this argument today. The following pearls of wisdom are rooted in something way better than logic and assumption. They are my personal opinion!

• I would drop the carapils. You have lactose and oats, both of which should influence body. I don't think you need extra dextrins from the carapils.
• My last stout had 0.75 # of crystal malts in it (5.75 gallon batch). I personally like this level of sweetness and wouldn't seek more. Your mileage may vary.
• Consider cold steeping some or all of your roasted and chocolate malts to diminish acrid flavors. Again YMMV.
• Lower the gravity to 1.060 so it doesn't put me to sleep when you offer me the first pint. I'm a bit of a lightweight.

Edit: This was based on the first posted recipe.

 

I think you're on the right path with the new recipe. Depending on how much oat character you want, you could split the flaked oats between flaked oats and flaked barley. Just an option.

On the hops I think you're fine with EKG. You could use any neutral hop for bittering. You want around 20 IBUs in your bittering charge and another 5 or so in a flavor addition around 10 minutes. You're probably looking at 1.25oz at 60 and .75oz at 10. I don't have beersmith handy but that should be about right. You don't absolutely need the hop flavor but it's common to see a little hop flavor.

I am a S-04 user but beware that a lot of people don't like the English ester character you can get from that yeast. If you want it to ferment clean, aim for 60-64F. Mid 60s might give you a slight yeast character but once you hit 68F and above you'll start to get more character.

 

HBT users will tell you how to make your recipe taste like what they want to drink, not what you want to drink. That whole forum is 50% useless, 40% outright bad advice and 10% useful.

 

Touche. A well-place riposte below the belt! And your welcome! Good luck with the stout.

 

My last stout recipe was similar, I didn't like the "tannin" flavor I got from the roasted barley. I'd sub out .25lbs of the barley and up the crystal .25. But I love a sweet stout, so there ya go.

EDIT: I actuallt used .5 lbs of roasted barley, chocolate malt, and english brown malt as well as .5 lbs of rye and crystal 60. My attenuation was low, high mini mash temp along with low diastatic power. But the flavors were spot on.

 

My advice on cold steeping is another way to avoid the harsher roasted husk flavors. Another possibility is to sub in huskless roasted grains for all or part of the roasted grains in the recipe: Briess midnight wheat and Weyermann carafa specials are two I have used . My last stout could steeped about 50% of the chocolate and the roasted barley in the recipe. You get color, possibly a little more chocolate notes, but less acrid notes. And I'm currently sipping a black IPA made with about 11% midnight wheat: sliight chocolate, plenty darkness, and gentle on the palate.

 

I'll have to try that next time. What is your water to grain ratio? Do you add your cold extract to the wort, or into your mash? I am assuming these won't be adding fermentable materials to the wort...

 

I don't think the water to grist ratio is too important in this case. I don't have it written down, but I think I approximated that of the mash. I do it in a container in the fridge overnight, strain it with my French press coffee maker, and add it to the kettle. That probably doesn't matter though. I think the key is for the husk to not have extended contact time with mash temps. Some people add their roasted grain at the very end of the mash, right before sparging, to accomplish the same thing (I think).

 

Maybe next time I will try steeping the grains after sparging for 20 minutes instead of adding them to the mash. If thatdoesnt help I will be looking for a french press with a 2lb capacity...

 

I end up doing it in a pot and transferring stepwise to the french press, then the wort.

 

In my opinion a stout needs a hint of that acrid character to give it a little edge. Roasted barley is most commonly used for that effect. It is definitely easily overdone. If you're just looking for color you can accomplish that without the acrid character with dehusked carafa, chocolate wheat (although it will add more body than other options), or black patent malt, although black patent does have some astringency. Chocolate wheat has fantastic flavor and smoothness although as I said above it's not really the flavor profile I prefer in a stout. You can blend roasted barley and the other grains listed to keep some of that roasty/acrid character but tempered with a smoother dark grain without compromising color.

As others have said, you can also steep or cold steep the dark grains for a smoother effect.

I don't think C120 is necessarily the right path. It will give you color but it will also contribute sweetness as well as rummy and fruit flavors. May not necessarily be a bad beer but not common flavors in a milk stout.

 

As a follow up, I do have a Belgian stout recipe that uses a lot of C120 but that's because I wanted those particular flavors in my beer.

I also have a clone recipe for Left Hand's milk stout. The dark grains are 1lb roasted barley (300 SRM), 12oz chocolate malt, 12oz C60, 12oz munich (although not a dark grain it is there for flavor) and the rest is pale malt, flaked oats and flaked barley. Lactose too, of course.