Tips for a Stout

[Beertard]

How many ways to skin a cat?!

I prefer a small cut on a leg and compressed air.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

How many ways to skin a cat?!

Dont know....stopped counting....

 

[Adr_0]

How many ways to skin a cat?!

That's exactly right. It's fair enough as people have different objectives, budgets, equipment availability etc. etc. but I think it's "missing out" if people do things a certain way due to lack of understanding, and create more work for themselves when there is a simple way that addresses the root cause.

Mind you, I guess people also do things with full understanding and still happily create more work for themselves.

 

[Danwood]

There is nothing to convert in xtals and darker malts.
You are better of steeping it in hot water over the same duration as your mash.
Taking mash water out early is going to lower your diastic power for the mash.

I know. I should say I BIAB in a 98L pot, so have almost full volume immediately, aside from a bit of sparge water.

It's just handy for me to take some from this.

Edit- Yes, I agree it would be better to use a separate water source to steep with if you use a dedicated mash tun. Or add them to the main mash later, as previously suggested.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

That's exactly right. It's fair enough as people have different objectives, budgets, equipment availability etc. etc. but I think it's "missing out" if people do things a certain way due to lack of understanding, and create more work for themselves when there is a simple way that addresses the root cause.

Mind you, I guess people also do things with full understanding and still happily create more work for themselves.

And a lack of experiance.

 

[jkhlt1210]

That info is very handy to know about dark roasted malts. I had never heard you're not supposed to mash them with everything

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Its actually OK to mash your darks grains.

There is no rule that says you cant.

Plenty of brewers mash dark grains and are still alive to talk of their exploits in the methods of of " **** it...im throwing all my grains in the tun "

 

[fattox]

I did a smoked stout for our local smoked malt mini comp this month, brewed it back in march:

38.8% Maris Otter
38.8% Smoked Malt
6.3% Rye
4.1% Carafa III
3.8% Caraaroma
1.5% Roasted Barley
6.7% Light Dry Extract (because I missed target gravity)

I think the trick personally with a stout or anything where that roasty flavour is supposed to shine is using a good quality liquid yeast rather than a dry yeast. My personal choice in the above beer was Wyeast 1318, but there are tons of other choices. Generally something Irish is a good starting point. If you were to do a non-smoked one, just dump the smoked malt for more Maris Otter. Hop to style IBU range with Fuggles or East Kent. My OG was about 1.095 (Imperial Stout) on this one, however target was 1.108 on a 10 litre batch (BIAB with a huge grain bill and high target/lowered efficiency)

 

[fattox]

Its actually OK to mash your darks grains.

There is no rule that says you cant.

Plenty of brewers mash dark grains and are still alive to talk of their exploits in the methods of of " **** it...im throwing all my grains in the tun "

I mashed the above stout for the best part of 2 hours. Came out fantastic! The smoke is forward but then it subdues to a more roasty/chocolatey finish.

 

[Bribie G]

Guinness add their black stuff as a syrup after the mash, this syrup is exported to all the other countries that do Draught Guinness under licence. I normally whack my black shyte such as RB and choc in 20 mins from the end of the mash then take to mashout.

Other spec malts such as Victory, Amber, etc I just put in with the main mash.

Good advice I got off Brewing Network re dry stouts is that if you just use pale malt and roasted barley it can come out thin and one dimensional and you should put in a fair amount of malt in the middle for character, nuttiness, choccyness whatever.

An interesting malt that goes spectacularly in a dry stout (especially if using something oily like oatmeal that can be a head killer) is to slip in a fair bit of Carapils - really creams up the head. I won several gongs and a good prize on the back of that stout.

 

[Adr_0]

That info is very handy to know about dark roasted malts. I had never heard you're not supposed to mash them with everything

See, with full respect to the other brewers that is absolute horse5hit. Roasted grains are fine to mash if your water is buffered according.

Some water out there will be perfectly fine without changing a thing for a porter or stout that isn't too dark, say 50-80Ebc.

If you're down at pH 4.7-4.8 or so from a RIS (say 120EBC with 15% roast), calcium carbonate can (and should) be added directly to the mash (rather than the water) and it will dissolve in a few minutes. You should probably use about 50% more (g/kg malt) than Kai's spreadsheet recommends.

If you have enough headroom in sodium - to make sure it doesn't go above 100-120ppm - sodium bicarbonate is awesome.

Both of these are very simple to use: just chuck it in when you dough in. No steeping separate grains, extra cleanup, and potentially low efficiency in the main mash from having a pH too high.

 

[manticle]

No-one said you can't throw them in the mash - adding late is one way to avoid CaCO3 and maintain a smooth finish. I've done both methods and I prefer the cold steep/late addition but that doesn't mean my beer was horrible just adding straight in.

Have a look at braukaiser for some interesting experiments on chalk affecting mash pH.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

With my Pillar of Stout I just mashed the whole lot. Didnt even worry about water chem or Ph and it turns out great everytime. Others have brewed it the same way with great success.

 

[mofox1]

Cheers guys. Plenty of tips to pick and choose from.

I'll balance out the choc and rb for a 10% total, maybe throw some midnight wheat in as sub for the black, but give the baking soda and/or overnight steep a miss for now. Figure I'll keep it simple as a benchmark, and play around with the rest later.

Mick