Imperial s'mores stout

[Rob2010SS]

As the title says, looking to do an imperial s'mores stout. My goals with this beer are as follows...
- Very mild roast flavors. My last impy used 5% roasted barley, 4% chocolate, and 2% carafa II. The roast was almost non-existent, which is what I wanted. This time, I want the roast a little bit more than that.
- Mild smoke flavor. My LHBS has peated malt and briess smoked malt. I'm not a huge fan of the peat flavor so I'm choosing to go with briess. Hoping 10% gets me a slight smoke flavor.
- In general, looking for flavors that will enhance any of the s'more flavors.

Grainbill as follows...

49% Pale 2 Row
7% Roasted Barley
10% Smoked Malt
5% Chocolate Malt
4% Midnight Wheat
10% Honey Malt
15% Munich 2/10L

I do plan on a couple of extra additions of actual marshmallows, graham crackers, and cocoa nibs at some point in the process of making this beer. Still working on timing of those.

What are some thoughts on the grainbill? Do we think that it will achieve my goals?

Thanks.

 

[Rob2010SS]

Changed it already after doing some more research...

54% Maris Otter
7% Roasted Barley
10% Smoked Malt
5% Chocolate Malt
4% Midnight Wheat
10% Honey Malt
10% Biscuit Malt

Changed the base malt to maris otter and swapped the Munich to Biscuit. While I do plan on adding graham crackers to this, trying to get the grain bill to enhance the grahams.

 

[bleme]

A friend of mine did a smores beer as his very first beer, 8 years ago. Unfortuntely, he misread the recipe and added the graham in the boil instead of the mash. He had a terrible time trying to filter it out and most of it went in the fermentor. Even fermenting didn't get it to settle out. He still has a few bottles of it left and it has finally settled out, leaving almost an inch of trub in each bottle.

 

[Kickass]

The thing that stands out most is only 54% base malt. Unless the smoked malt is a smoked base malt, not sure.

Please take this as nothing more than advice from a rando online, but...
I don’t like the biscuit and honey. I’d go back to Munich or add that 10% into MO. Then remove the honey malt and put that 10% back into MO.

74% MO
10% smoked malt
7% RB
5% chocolate
4% Midnight Wheat.

 

[Rob2010SS]

The thing that stands out most is only 54% base malt. Unless the smoked malt is a smoked base malt, not sure.

Please take this as nothing more than advice from a rando online, but...
I don’t like the biscuit and honey. I’d go back to Munich or add that 10% into MO. Then remove the honey malt and put that 10% back into MO.

74% MO
10% smoked malt
7% RB
5% chocolate
4% Midnight Wheat.

Yes, the smoked malt is a smoked base malt, in answer to your question. Can I ask the reason for your suggested changes?

And no worries man. That's why I posted here, for thoughts and advice.

 

[Rob2010SS]

A friend of mine did a smores beer as his very first beer, 8 years ago. Unfortuntely, he misread the recipe and added the graham in the boil instead of the mash. He had a terrible time trying to filter it out and most of it went in the fermentor. Even fermenting didn't get it to settle out. He still has a few bottles of it left and it has finally settled out, leaving almost an inch of trub in each bottle.

Ha, yeah don't want to do that. No, the grahams are for sure going into the mash. May even do a graham flour in secondary if the graham crackers don't do enough.

 

[Kickass]

The first reason, granted I don’t have beersmith open, is the possible lack of diastatic power associated with a lower base malt percentage. The second, and probably more influential, is that it comes off really busy, possibly muddled, and maybe unnecessary if you’re going to ultimately add other things to make it a s’mores. That said, I don’t think what you have would be bad, just not necessary.

Coming from experience, I think that sometimes the search for complexity is overdone.

 

[Rob2010SS]

Alright, here we go. I took one of your recommendations @Kickass and removed the honey malt. I did, however, keep the biscuit. My hope in doing so is to help enhance the graham cracker flavor. I know that biscuit doesn't actually taste like graham cracker, but combining it with the actual graham crackers seems to make sense, in my head anyway. Here's the recipe that I put together. I'm still open to thoughts, comments, advice, abuse for wanting to make this, etc. We'll see how this comes out! I love my sweet stouts so wish me luck.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 8 gal, ending kettle volume
Boil Size: 10 gal
Estimated OG: 1.123 SG
Estimated Color: 50 SRM
Estimated IBU: 111.11 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Mash Temp:151F
Mash Time: 90 minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
23.10 lb Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 64 %
3.84 lb Roasted Barley (500.0 SRM) Grain 7 %
3.71 lb Smoked Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 10 %
2.94 lb Chocolate Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 6 %
2.08 lb Midnight Wheat (350.0 SRM) Grain 5 %
3.05 lb Biscuit Malt (200.0 SRM) Grain 8 %
4 boxes Honey Graham Crackers

3.00 oz Warrior [16.00 %] (60 min) Hops 80.14 IBU
3.00 oz Williamette [4.50 %] (30 min) Hops 17.32 IBU
3.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (20 min) Hops 13.65 IBU
2 bags of jumbo marshmallows, toasted (10 min) <-- On the fence with this, as I know most of this will probably ferment out. May move this to tertiary fermenter.
3 Pkgs Safale (Fermentis #US-05) Yeast-Ale

Secondary Fermentation:
--------------
Transfer to whiskey barrel for 3 weeks and to condition on 4oz of toasted cocoa nibs.


Tertiary Fermenter
---------------
Transfer to 3rd vessel to condition on 2 vanilla beans soaked in marshmallow vodka
- May add toasted marshmallow fluff to this to enhance flavor, but will be game time decision.
- May add graham flour to this to enhance flavor, but will be game time decision.

 

[Kickass]

I’d be more inclined to brew this version with a slimmed down grain bill.

A couple of things to note: if you don’t brew big beers often, read up on yeast management. You’re asking a lot out of them. Also, not really a big deal just something to note, if you get 70% brewhouse efficiency in norm batches, then you’ll likely get much lower on a big grain bill.

Good luck, have fun and let us know how it goes!

 

[Rob2010SS]

I’d be more inclined to brew this version with a slimmed down grain bill.

A couple of things to note: if you don’t brew big beers often, read up on yeast management. You’re asking a lot out of them. Also, not really a big deal just something to note, if you get 70% brewhouse efficiency in norm batches, then you’ll likely get much lower on a big grain bill.

Good luck, have fun and let us know how it goes!

Yep ive done a couple of these. Im using dry yeast so im planning on a few packs of yeast. I'll be doing the extra aeration step to make sure the yeast have all they need. On my previous brew setup using beverage coolers, I ended up with 64% efficiency when I typically got 75% efficiency. On my new spike system ive been getting about 82% efficiency so I'm planning on 70%. That may be a low number to plan on but I'd rather have it that way than the other way around

 

[Kickass]

Shoot, you’re set!