Stout number 1

[Major Arcana]

G'day Fellas,

As always thanks for all the advice, this site is effin awesome! :beerbang:

I am going to make up a stout next week and would love to get your thoughts, i have had a good read around the site and have a fair idea of what i want to get from it, seeing as this will only be my third home brew attempt i am still relatively new to it all. I am using basic kit and enhancer techniques at the moment.

Anybody tried Founders Breakfast Stout?? Effin Beautiful in my opinion, i know that is out of reach for me at the moment but i would love to get a nice coffee/chocolate/oatmeal hint happening in there if possible. I'm gonna be working with most of these ingredients plus im gonna go to the LHBS to get a few additions, what do you guys think?

1 x Black Rock Miners Stout
1x tin dark malt extract (this is out of date and was given to me free, i think i may turf it and get a new one)
1 x 500gm Dark DME
1 x 500gm Light DME
2 x saf 04 yeast
500gm lactose??
however much dextrose i need etc

How would i go about the coffee notes and perhaps an oatmeal and chocolate taste?

Way out of my league here, any advice would be greatly appreciated guys.

cheers,

Dan :icon_cheers:

 

[gsouth82]

I'd be looking at dropping the 500g of Dark DME and putting in 1kg of Light DME.
If you want to get some coffee/chocolate/oatmeal in there you'll have to do some steeping. Have you done that before?
I'd also be looking at add some dextrose. The yeast might struggle to get through all of that without the addition of some simple sugars to keep them going strong. If you added some dex to that recipe you'll be getting pretty high in alcohol.
Are you familiar with IanH's spreadsheet? Plug your recipe in there and see how its looking.

 

[Major Arcana]

I'd be looking at dropping the 500g of Dark DME and putting in 1kg of Light DME.
If you want to get some coffee/chocolate/oatmeal in there you'll have to do some steeping. Have you done that before?
I'd also be looking at add some dextrose. The yeast might struggle to get through all of that without the addition of some simple sugars to keep them going strong. If you added some dex to that recipe you'll be getting pretty high in alcohol.
Are you familiar with IanH's spreadsheet? Plug your recipe in there and see how its looking.

G'day gsouth,

i am definitely planning on putting some Dex mate was hoping to have something finishing around the 6.5-7.5%, in regards to the steeping i have never done this but am more then keen to give it a go, Ians spreadsheet i downloaded a few weeks ago have not used it as yet though so will have a sniff. Gotta look up some ifo on the whole steeping process etc.

cheers,

Dan

 

[gsouth82]

I just plugged the deets into the spreadsheet as follows:

1.7kg Miners Stout
1.5kg Dark LME
1kg Light DME
1kg Dex
250g Chocolate Malt (needs to be steeped)

You'll be looking at around 8.5%ABV in the bottle. Probably a little high.
Also, it looks like your bitterness is way to low. The balance could be a bit out of wack.

 

[Major Arcana]

I just plugged the deets into the spreadsheet as follows:

1.7kg Miners Stout
1.5kg Dark LME
1kg Light DME
1kg Dex
250g Chocolate Malt (needs to be steeped)

You'll be looking at around 8.5%ABV in the bottle. Probably a little high.
Also, it looks like your bitterness is way to low. The balance could be a bit out of wack.

Trying to get my head around IanH's spreadsheet arrghhh i will get there haha. Yes im obviously going to have to do some fine tuning, i dont want to make it to complicated for myself either. :unsure: maybe i should leave out the oats/ lactose and chocolate for my first attempt!

 

[brzt6060]

Trying to get my head around IanH's spreadsheet arrghhh i will get there haha. Yes im obviously going to have to do some fine tuning, i dont want to make it to complicated for myself either. :unsure: maybe i should leave out the oats/ lactose and chocolate for my first attempt!

[SIZE=9.5pt]Take a crack at it, I did my first grain steeping with some [/SIZE]Simpson Malt "Golden Naked Oats" a few days ago and was really surprised at how easy it was. So much so that I'm going to give BIAB a crack next time around.

[SIZE=9.5pt] [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9.5pt]You will need to do a boil after you steep your grains anyway so you can add some of your sugars then to bring the SG up to 1.04 (Ian’s spread sheet will tell you how much you need to add) and then do a few timed hop additions to bring the IBU up to where you want it.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=9.5pt] [/SIZE]
[SIZE=9.5pt]What issues are you having with the spread sheet, I think I have my head around it pretty well so I might be able to help out.[/SIZE]

 

[RobboMC]

When you start steeping just remember that you are only making beer, not sending a rocket to the moon.

It really doesn't matter if your first efforts are slightly off target, just make sure you do NOT boil the grains.

Let them stand in hot water that you heat in your kitchen kettle to about the same temperature as what comes from your hot tap,
but don't use water that's been through your household water heater as they are usually full of awful nasties.

5 degrees, 10 degrees, even 15 degrees too hot or cold really doesn't kill your entire brew,
as long as the water is too hot to put your fingers into it will get something good out of the grain.

Also, learn to give the grains a second rinse., called sparging in AG brewing.
When you remove the grain bag a lot of nice wort gets caught between the grains. A rinse
with hot ( not boiling ) water will wash out a good amount of it, giving you more flavour for your efforts.

As you move onwards you will get a thermometer from somewhere and get improve and learn each time.
Once you start steeping grain your taste buds will never let you turn back!

When you get some chocolate grain perhaps get some black grain as well, but use this IN VERY SMALL AMOUNTS.
Even 50g steeped into a tea cup for 5 minutes produces some great flavours.

The site sponsors will send freshly cracked grains of great variety by post and are a great place to start.

 

[Grott]

Have a go at steeping, start simple and just do the chocolate malt. Think about this recipe -
1.7kg miners stout
1kg LME
500 gms brown sugar
250gms chocolate malt.
This should give you SG 1050, FG 1011 and 5.7% alcohol.
Cheers

 

[brzt6060]

I was thinking.

1.7kg miners stout
1.5kg Black Rock Unhopped Dark or similar.

400 g of Dark DME
Malted Oats 0.5 to 0.7 kg
Chocolate Malt 0.2 to 0.4 kg


Kent Golding 10 g 60 Mins
Fuggles 10 g 20 Mins



Predicted
OG 1.056
FG 1.014
IBU 32.6

 

[Major Arcana]

Thanks heaps for the info fellas think im heading in the direction as to what brzt6060 has mentioned, hope she turns out alright for newbs first attempt, :unsure:

cheers ,

Dan

 

[Grott]

Now that looks like a good drop, brzt6060, might try that myself.

 

[Grott]

It wil be all ok Dan, remember stouts are very forgiving and do "hide" some over sights quite well, where lagers will tell everything not quite right.
Cheers

 

[Major Arcana]

It wil be all ok Dan, remember stouts are very forgiving and do "hide" some over sights quite well, where lagers will tell everything not quite right.
Cheers

grott, thanks for the peace of mind mate, looking forward to trying her out will keep you guys updated with my progress etc not starting her off for another week!

 

[TheBigD]

My Stout # 1 I recently kegged for Xmass below. I've already gone through the extra 6 bottles i usually do for testers and it was awesome after only 4 weeks

1 x coopers original stout.
1kg Dark brown sugar.
1 kg of Dark DME.
200g choc grain steeped 30mins.
300grams of light crystal steeped.
20 grams of fuggles at 15mins.
20 grams of fuggles at 5 mins.
topped up to 23l pitched one pack of us05 at 18 degrees

I think your tin may have less IBUs though

 

[Major Arcana]

G'day TheBigD,

sounds like an awesome recipie mate, what throws me is boiling of the hops etc like 20g at 15 mins of this then 15g at 5mins of that etc,

also do you guys think i should throw out the tin of expired dark LME that i have and grab a new one? im thinking that is a definite.

cheers,

Dan

 

[Grott]

Major, don't throw the tin out, use it, not much goes off in a tin. The hop boil times are about the imput the hops will have re flavour, aroma, bitterness etc. I don't have the site handy but look hop usage in beer on the internet and you should find a chart about times/ temperature and the effect of the hops.
Cheers

 

[TheBigD]

I steeped the grains in 4 litres of water at 70 degrees.
I don't use a grain bag so i use a stainless steel strainer to separate the grain from the wort into another pot.
I then add additional DME to bring the OG up to 1040 i think it was about 300g .
bring it to a rolling boil using my iPhone start a count down timer set to 15mins and add the first 20 grams of hops.
Then add the other 20grams when the timer is at 5 mins, take it of when its at 0 mins and strain it into your FV I then add pre chilled water to cool it down straight away.
I also do a separate boil for all the other DME to dissolve it properly before adding to the FV.

 

[Major Arcana]

Awesome!! just the information i was after fellas, thanks heaps!! :icon_cheers:

Dan

 

[brzt6060]

Now that looks like a good drop, brzt6060, might try that myself.

Hmmm maybe all three of us should brew it and then compare notes...

 

[Grott]

Why not, having a few of current stout stocks, will put this one down at the end of the month.