A few noob questions about my Breakfast Stout clone. And sorry for the lengthy post: Last weekend, I took a hydro sample and noticed the color wasn't nearly dark enough. At that point, gravity was at 1.018. I steeped 1/2 lb of dark malts for 30 and boiled the tea. After adding it to the primary, the gravity went up to 1.022. On Monday, I racked it to secondary. At that time I noted that it tasted very bitter. Yesterday, I took another sample and it was darker, but still not as dark as I would like .I was drinking a SA Cream Stout at the time and compared them held up to the light. They looked to be about the same SRM. My recipe is supposed to be 60 SRM and SA Cream Stout is advertised at 80 SRM (couldn't find any info on actual SRM for FBS) Also, my gravity is now at 1.015. (Right at 8.3%abv) The taste has improved immensely, lots of chocolate, but not enough coffee and not quite enough residual sweetness. . Now on to the questions...... Since this has attentuated even further, is this going to make it too dry? I'm thinking about adding some lactose to improve the mouthfeel and bring back some residual sweetness. Maybe by pulling a measured sample and adding small amounts of lactose until the sweetness is where I want it and scaling up from there. Is this a good plan? I also want to add more coffee flavor and aroma without adding liquid volume; am I safe/alcohol stable enough to add ground coffee in a muslin sack without risk of infection? I'm also considering adding some Madagascar Vanilla extract. What's a good starting point? I don't want it to be cloying(creme brulee). Thanks for taking the time to read and respond.
FBS clone: https://byo.com/bock/item/1857-founder’s-brewings-breakfast-stout-clone If you think you need more sweetness, you can add a few packets of Splenda to taste at bottling time. If you use lactose, you will need more than 8oz to increase sweetness slightly. Lactose isn't very sweet. For coffee, you can use whole beans for 3-4 days. Ground coffee will be more of a pain during transfer. If you are using good vanilla extract, you can add it in the range of 1-2oz, assuming you have no vanilla in the beer already.
Splenda? Hell no I wouldn't. I could pick it up in an instant, I'm highly sensitive to artificial sweeteners. Maybe it would blend into beer, but I doubt it. I guess if you're someone who uses it regularly or drinks diet soda, but otherwise bad move, in my very uninformed, inexperienced home brewing opinion.
This is what I did for my FBS clone that turned out amazing. Final pH was pretty much spot on and the gravity was right where it should be. The coffee was much stronger then what you would find in FBS, but personally I and a few other people liked it more that way.
I'm a little confused. You put splenda in your stout? Or did you mean the lactose? Please clarify....Thanks
I think you're quoting the wrong person. I didn't up either. I hate lactose and would never put splenda in my beer.
So i'm guessing you put coffee in your stout. What method did you you use? I steeped 5 oz (1/2 pure Kona and 1/2 Sumatra) of freshly ground beans at flame out for 10 minutes with the lid on the brew kettle. I think it did very little on the flavor and aroma aspect.
I added roughly 4 ounces of whole bean Guatemalan coffee to my keg in a bag for about 36 hours. Tasted it after 24 and felt it needed more time. Big coffee aroma in the end
