Stout Help Required :)

[Deep End]

I have a friend who has asked me to brew him a "milk liquorice stout", I'm a kit n kilo type of brewer as far as beer is concerned. Does anyone have a recipe, idea etc that they could enlighten me with?

I dont have a clue about how to use milk or liquorice in beers, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

 

[Truman42]

milk stouts don't have milk in them they have lactose powder in them, usually added towards the end of the boil. Likewise you wouldn't add real licorice but a licorice extract.

I've just finished brewing a milk stout and it tastes fantastic. The lactose powder is un-fermentable so it adds a sweetness to the beer and a fuller mouthfeel. But it was an all grain recipe so I cant help you with doing an extract.

But perhaps if you just used your favourite brand of extract stout like Coopers and added around 500 grams of lactose powder (20 litre batch) and some licorice extract and see how that turns out.

 

[cremmerson]

Do a search for milk stouts and kit - that should throw up some options. As for the liquorice, you got me there. Perhaps steep it for 20 mins and pour in the liquid? I'd be a bit wary of throwing liquorice in there - so much sugar, you might face a few issues and need to cut your other fermentables.

Looking forward to the purveyors of wisdom on this one.

 

[The Village Idiot]

I would do something along the lines suggested by Truman. Coopers Stout is a good one and would work very well. Maybe a better yeast S04?

 

[Deep End]

Cheers, for the input, my google searching would have me making a coopers stout and chucking in a few hundred grams of chopped up liquorice with the hot water, which apparently the yeasties would eat up. I like the sound of Truman's suggestion, sounds a little more "technical" than throwing in a bag of liquorice all sorts and hoping for the best LOL

 

[bradsbrew]

Never brewed a Milk Licorice stout and I am no longer a kit and kilo brewer, but this is what I would do if I was

1 can of stout
250g lactose
500g of soft licorice
500g dry malt extract
20g of EKG or styrian hops

Put everything except the ckitcan and the hops in a 5L+ sauce pan and add water until its about an inch from the top.
Bring it to a boil then let it simmer for 30 minutes, topping the water up as it evaporates.
Then after the 30 minutes is up put the hops in, turn the hotplate off, give it a stir and put the lid on.

Then get the fermenter ready and put the kitcan in and then the saucepan.
Rinse the saucepan as you would the kitcan.
Top up to 22L.
When at around 20 degree pitch a good yeast.
When fermentation is complete add some licorice extract and give a gentle stir.
Cold condition for a tleast 2 days at 1 degree.

Could add some steeped grains to the recipe if you were keen.

Cheers Brad

 

[petesbrew]

You could also try some star anise? Haven't used it myself, so I'm just suggesting a possible option here.

 

[Sam England]

Maybe try making a tea with licorice root and adding it like a dry hop towards the end of primary fermentation? I think you'd track it down at most Asian grocery store in dried form. Could be barking up the wrong tree, but you've got me thinking with stout season on us. I AG, so can't really help you with the rest of it and others have already covered the lactose.
Let us know what way you go and how the beer turns out.
Cheers,
BB

 

[Deep End]

Thanks again, should be able to work something out with all the input from you guys.
Cheers

 

[Adr_0]

Craftbrewer sells cocoa/cacao seeds and licorice that you add at the end of the boil:

http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=2902

I have never used it myself, but made a note for next time I do a stout.


If you are going to use it, "add in the last few minutes of the boil". For extract, if you boil the whole lot that's easy, otherwise perhaps dissolve some DME + lactose in a saucepan and boil that for 5 minutes. I don't know that boil gravity would make too much difference - like with hop utilisation - but I don't see any harm in chucking a bit in.

A very important thing is to write this stuff down... so next time you go to try it, you have a really good reference point - with tasting notes - to use.

Gotta try these things. Good luck.

 

[peterlonz]

The use of Liquorice is to my mind likely to end you up with an inappropriate taste.
It all depends on exactly what is meant by Liquorice, do "they" mean liquorice extract, soft liquorice, hard liquorice - God knows there are all sorts of options & if you attempt to use even a small potion of a hard liquorice stick you will end up with a liquorice drink with a stout flavour.
I know because when I first started brewing (50 years ago) using English recipes ( they turned out to be worthless), liquorice was a common theme with the darker beers. I soon learned to give liquorice a wide berth.

Of course there may well be a well defined way to obtain a controlled flavour addition using Liquorice, but until you can pin down that procedure please be very wary. The fact that that you have a recipe which does not precisely specify the type of liquorice would set warning bells off for me.

 

[Adr_0]

The use of Liquorice is to my mind likely to end you up with an inappropriate taste.
It all depends on exactly what is meant by Liquorice, do "they" mean liquorice extract, soft liquorice, hard liquorice - God knows there are all sorts of options & if you attempt to use even a small potion of a hard liquorice stick you will end up with a liquorice drink with a stout flavour.
I know because when I first started brewing (50 years ago) using English recipes ( they turned out to be worthless), liquorice was a common theme with the darker beers. I soon learned to give liquorice a wide berth.

Of course there may well be a well defined way to obtain a controlled flavour addition using Liquorice, but until you can pin down that procedure please be very wary. The fact that that you have a recipe which does not precisely specify the type of liquorice would set warning bells off for me.

Damn. I hate finding out the answer before I even get to try it.

I've added spices to my beers once or twice a long time ago. I don't remember 'absolutely undrinkable' but definitely remember things like 'too much', 'not desired effect' and also something along the lines of 'should have filtered'.

You definitely have to be careful, as I think more cases than not it takes away rather than adds... and in zero cases does it turn a poor beer into a great beer.

But you definitely have to try... and take notes. Revisit it a few brews later and adjust.