# Roasted Barley in my Milk Stout.



## yager (4/5/14)

Hi, 

Im a bit of a forum lurker and have only started brewing this year. I got a few books on homebrewing at xmas and after reading them decided all grain was where I was going to begin. I brew in a 50L esky and batch sparge.
I have brewed a porter that was quite good imo, although the Heineken drinking wife said it tasted like an ashtray! A terrible amber ale that turned out like a horribly muddled up IPA (dry hopping it destroyed it lol), dr smurto's golden ale and a Brown Ale that I bottled today.

I am working on my 5th all grain brew which is a milk stout.

226.80 g Rice Hulls (0.0 EBC) Adjunct 1 4.0 %
4082.33 g Pale Malt, Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 2 72.0 %
680.39 g Chocolate Malt (689.5 EBC) Grain 3 12.0 %
226.80 g Roasted Barley (591.0 EBC) Grain 4 4.0 %
453.59 g Milk Sugar (Lactose) (0.0 EBC) Sugar 5 8.0 %

As for the chocolate malt, i was thinking of using a Pale Chocolate Malt (Bairds) EBC 500 - 800 to match the EBC of the Chocolate Malt in the recipe.

The recipe calls for 4% "Roasted Barley" 591 EBC.

All I have found so far from my usual online grain supply store is: Barley Roasted - Unmalted (Bairds) EBC 1300 - 1500.

A bit of googling has me thinking i might be able to substitute the Roasted [email protected] 591EBC with a carafa 2 or 3 at the same percentage, but all I have found online is the "Special" type. 
If I use the carafa special at 4% should I get a taste of something similar just with less astringency? Or will I need more of it to substitute a roasted barley flavour in a milk stout?

If I were to use the Barley Roasted - Unmalted (Bairds) EBC 1300 - 1500 that I can source should I lower the percentage of it in the recipe to say 2%?

And finally, does anyone know where a roasted barley of 591 EBC or similar can be sourced in australia? (probably should have asked this first lol).

Sorry for so many questions, but im sure some of you who have experience with the grains will have the answers 

Thanks.


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## Lodan (4/5/14)

Welcome to the forum!

Can't say i've seen roast barley at lower EBC. BYO claims that it goes as low as 350L or 689.5EBC in our standard... which oddly enough is exactly your Choc EBC
591 EBC is exactly 300L. maybe i've had too many, are you converting this from different units and if so, do you have your choc's and roasts around the right way?

Myabe it's bed time
I recommend dropping the percentage, you will still get enough roast come through


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## NewtownClown (4/5/14)

I, too, have never encountered a Roasted Barley at a low EBC of 591 EBC. From where was the recipe sourced? perhaps it is a typo (BYO magazine has been known to make a number of boo-boos).
Looking at the recipe, it appears the has been some conversion from imperial to metric, perhaps the Roast colour was not converted from Lovibond to EBC.
Did the recipe include the resulting colour of the Stout?
Part of the style profile of Stouts is the "roasty" character. Go too far with the roast malts and, indeed, the beer will display distinct astringency. 

I have subbed Carafa special for roast barley in the past and the result was more like a robust porter.

If the recipe calls for 4% Roasted, I would use 4% and not be concerned about the color - black is black


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## JDW81 (4/5/14)

Welcome aboard mate!

I wouldn't lower the amount of roast barley at all. 10% is the theoretical maximum you can have in a brew before it goes a bit funky. FWIW my dry stout has just under 10% roast barley in it, and it is blood brilliant. I wouldn't swap it with the carafa specials either, as they are husk-less, so they will more colour than they will flavour. Roast barley is integral to just about every style of stout and you can't capture that burnt coffee like flavour without it. 

Where did you get the recipe from for the stout? Beersmith's EBC for number for roast barley (591 EBC) is quite low compared to what you get from most suppliers in Oz. It should sit between 1100-1500 EBC.

You can also drop the rice hulls from the recipe. They don't add any flavour and are there mainly to loosen the mash. Unless you're adding a huge amount of flaked barley or wheat you're wasting money and mash space. I don't even add them when I make 50% wheat beers and don't get stuck sparges.

JD

JD


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## Not For Horses (4/5/14)

I sometimes do a roast barley at 350L.
I think it's a UK style but I use it in heaps of stuff including my oatmeal stout. It's less harsh and kind of coffee/chocolatey.


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## yager (4/5/14)

Thanks for the welcome's and responses guys.

I found the recipe while searching the Beersmiths Cloud Database. Here it is http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/10856/milk-ostout

I will drop the rice hulls if they are not needed.

Last night I was planning on replacing the:

Chocolate Malt (689.5 EBC) with Chocolate Malt Pale (Bairds) (EBC 500 - 800)
Roasted Barley (591.0 EBC) with Carafa Special II (Weyermann) (817.5 EBC)

I suppose the fun of homebrewing is trial and error 
I imagine the recipe produces a sweet roasty chocolate flavour.

I might just try the roasted barley (EBC 1300 - 1500) at 4% and hope for the best. I was just worried it might blow the sweet balance out too much?


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## NewtownClown (4/5/14)

just looked at beersmith's list of ingredients, too. Briess (U.S) Roasted Barley is 591EBC. I had a quick search but haven't found it available in Australia, perhaps a deeper search will reveal an Australian stockist... Otherwise, stick with the Australian version, IMO


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