Too much roasted malts in stout

I do not have specific experience here but if the bitter aspect you are perceiving is from excess tannins, aging this beer should soften this aspect. Tannins will precipitate out over time.

If the bitter aspect is from some other compound then I have no input here.

Cheers!

 

I made one for Christmas that had nearly 40% roasted malts, which most people I asked said was probably too much. I also used some very potent magnum hops which added a pungency I didn't want (all this was from a recipe I found online). It was a 2.5 gallon batch that boiled down to less than two and had an ABV of about 10%. I added a vanilla bean, cocoa nibs and bourbon to the fermenter.

The first one I tried was a bit rough, but I am happy to report it mellowed beautifully. About a month later it was nice and smooth. Can't wait to try the two I have cellared for next year.

 

As you've probably figured out, higher gravity stouts can get very roasty unless you dial back the amount of roasted malts. i.e. simply scaling up a lower gravity stout recipe (not saying that's what you did) may not work very well.

I've never noticed the bite from roasted malts to fade with time. But lactose can make it more palatable, so that's probably a good call.

 

18%! Sit on it for 10 years, and report back

 

Big stouts can be a bit harsh early on. While I never made a 18% beer without freezing, I'd say wait at least 6 months then sample.
I bet you will see a huge difference.
What was the grain bill?

 

I think he's saying 18% of the malt bill is roasted grains, not that it's an 18% ABV beer. As VikeMan pointed out, if you scale roasted malts linearly, you will make a very roasty beer at higher gravities. As a result, stout recipes shouldn't really be stated in flat percentages. At low gravities, a higher percentage of the malt bill will be roasted malts, and then at the other end of the spectrum the percentage will be lower (even though the absolute amount of roasted malt might be a bit higher). (As an aside, Gordon Strong covers this in his book Brewing Better Beer.)

This isn't intuitive to people because linear scaling works for a lot of ingredients and so percentages work fine. If you want to add a little gravity to your hefeweizen recipe, you can scale up the pilsner malt and wheat malt linearly - same percentages, just more of both. The difference with roasted malts is that they're not really contributing much gravity, they're contributing flavor, and just because you want twice as much gravity doesn't mean you want twice as much roastiness.

 

Interesting, I scale down the roast for a smaller beer with good results.

 

Agree with most of this, but one clarification... Dark roasted grains (like black patent and roasted barley) contribute, on average, maybe 65-70% as much gravity (OG) as an average base malt, which is certainly less. But they also contribute very little that's actually fermentable, so their FG contribution is actually higher (pound for pound) than a base malt's FG contribution. This phenomenon has been responsible for the hundreds (thousands?) of "My stout fermentation is stuck" posts on this forum and others.

 

Was there an effort to utilize Baking Soda or Calcium Hydroxide whereby to neutralize the acidity of the 18% roasted malts, plus any added caramel/crystal malts, to a pH of ~5.5 during the mash?

 

OP, can you provide the recipe and process you used? |That may help us determine where the bitterness is coming from. It could be from the grain, or hops, or possibly somewhere else. |Is the beer finished and carbed? or is this tasting from the fermenter?

 

18% holy fuck that’s gotta be a tongue peeler.

 

No it can't. I only add up your roasted malts to be 14% of the grist. My Stouts are routinely more robust than that.

 

Lautering 8-12 times over is imperative... also keep an eye on acidity levels and make sure you adjust properly. Also, next time you consider using debittered chocolate malts and maybe 2/3 of the roasted barley. Give this some time though, this might be mature in a year.

 

Well, it is the largest amount of the roasted malt so perhaps?

But this is so young (3 weeks). I personally would be reticent to fully characterize this beer at such a young age. I recognize that you are asking for ways to 'fix' this beer but it is indeed possible that this beer will mature into something you would enjoy drinking.

You are at a crossroads here:

• Finish up this beer as is, let it mellow with time, and hope you enjoy drinking it.
• Put 'stuff' in it with the notion this extra 'stuff' is needed to fix this batch.

Personally I would go with bullet one above but this is ultimately your beer: you are the head brewer and you get to decide.

Since I (or none of the other BAs) have sampled your beer and there really is not way to know with certainty how this beer will evolve with aging there is no way to really know for certain how best to proceed here.

Follow your heart?

Cheers!

 

If you don't like what u got, you can always brew another blender beer I would go malty/cara80 forward and blend with dark malt for color and blend the 2.... if your technique is good then there's no such thing as a bad brew, just outta balance. So comp.

 

For my tastes that is not a lot of roasted malt/ specialty malts in a brew. I'd let it condition awhile before you think it's bad.

As you can tell , everyone has a different view of what is best for a brew. It's what makes homebrewing great!

 

LoL. You have a lot of culprits. Looks like the recipe i made when i first started. Read about each one because some of them will do nothing.