Recipe Question

[knightnorth]

I’m trying to create my own recipes and wanted to make sure things gelled before I went off and just tried it. How does the sound for a Cream Stout? My calculator says it will give me 9.22%/vol and IBU 50.

Bavarian Wheat DME 6#
Lactos 1.5#
Crystal 20L 1.50#
Flaked Maize 1#
Weyer ChocolateRyeMalt 1#
Northern Brewer 2oz
London Yeast 1028
Coca Nibs 1#
Honey 2.5#

I also have these left over ingredients. Can I splash these together to make a beer?

2 Row 5#
Briess Golden Light DME 1#
Briess Bavarian Wheat 1#
CaraVienna 12oz
American Crystal 10L 8oz
American Crystal 20L 8oz
Lactose 8oz
Williamette 1oz
Liberty 1oz
American Ale 1056
Bitter Orange Peel 1oz

Thanks for the advice

 

[smiller]

I would probably start by cutting the flaked corn and adding that back into the base malt. Also go with a darker Crystal, maybe 90L, and cut the amount to around 12 oz.

 

[chickypad]

Several things seem a little odd to me for a milk stout, like wheat as a base. I would think the large amount of honey would thin it out, not sure you want that. Flaked maize also seems out of place as was mentioned and not sure how the rye would go in a sweet stout. Personally I'd go with a little roasted barley plus regular chocolate malt for this.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Several things seem a little odd to me for a milk stout, like wheat as a base. I would think the large amount of honey would thin it out, not sure you want that. Flaked maize also seems out of place as was mentioned and not sure how the rye would go in a sweet stout. Personally I'd go with a little roasted barley plus regular chocolate malt for this.

Yeah, definitely ditch the wheat DME and flaked corn, neither has a place in a milk stout. Replace wheat DME with light or extra light DME, and skip the maize all together. Back off the weight of caramel malt, and use a darker caramel, like 80-120 lovibond. Also, some roasted barley or patent (black) malt would be needed, IMO, for a good stout. Keep Cara type malts below 8-10% and the total % of specialty grains below 17-20% of the entire bill.

 

[a6ladd]

If you end up swapping the 2-row for the wheat DME as the others have suggested you could make a pretty tasty wheat beer with the left overs, maybe something like this:

Wheat DME #6
CaraVienna 12oz
Williamette 1oz for 40min
Liberty 1oz for 15min
Orange peels 15min
Pitch 1056

Cheers!

 

[DPBISME]

Hell, I would go for it... as you experiment you will figure out the FEEL and TASTE of each grain...

Shucks,,, you might create a whole new style...

BUT Serously:::

It is not going to be a true Stout but

The wheat should give it a really good head and add some spice to it if you can taste it over the Dark Malt and RYE...

I think that is a lot of Honey and you will have to AGE this beer so the yeast can convert and condition it. (If you want to drink this in two months LEAVE IT OUT)

Replace the Honey with some Two row

BUT HEY everybody has an opinion...

 

[knightnorth]

All good advise. I got the inspiration for the stout after eating a moon pie. I choose the Rye/Wheat to try and stay in the lower 30's SRM but that wouldn't make sense if it didn't taste right. All points here make sense and I'll go with regular chocolate malt with munton's extra light and 80L. I think that still puts me in the 40 SRM range. Scratch the corn until I make a corona clone.

 

[billf2112]

Have you researched your ingredients? Simply google each one, that way you will understand how they taste, what they bring to the table and what the purpose is. Just throwing stuff into a boil, adding hops and fermenting with yeast will get you beer, but what kinda beer do you want. What makes Stout a Stout? Being dark with a nice thick head is part of it. Flavor, mouth feel are needed. Your recipe may come out awesone, but for what I see, it isn't a stout.

 

[Calder]

All good points from everyone. Ditch the maize, and change the wheat.

I would also reduce the lactose, if not eliminate it all together. I know you want it to help sweeten the beer, but coming in around 1.075 with an extract base, you are probably going to finish in the 1,015 to 1.020 range (even with the honey). Adding 1.5 lbs of lactose will add .010 to the final gravity since it is not fermentable, which will give you a very sweet beer ending up somewhere around 1.025 - 1.030.

I think you have something wrong if you believe this will get you a 9.22% beer. A couple of possibilities that could give you a bad number are: 1) Flaked Maize needs to be mashed with a base grain, you will get zero sugars from it. 2) when steeping crystal, you will probably only get about 50% of the sugars from it, your program may be set to 75% efficiency. 3) when steeping chocolate malt you will be lucky to get 33% of the sugars, chocolate contains a lot of starches that need to be converted by mashing to get the full benefit.

My estimate of the gravity of this beer is:

6# DME = 270 points, 2.5# Honey = 80 points, 1.5# X-tal = 27 points, 1# choc = 10 points. Total points = 387. In 5 gallons will give an OG of 1.077.

If you get 75% attenuation, FG will be 1.019. Giving an abv of ~7.5%. Very respectable.

If you add the Lactose, it will add about .010 to both the OG and FG, changing them to 1.087 and 1.029 respectively.

The honey will improve attenuation. You could probably expect 80%, so the numbers would be somewhere around OG=1.077, FG=1.015, and 8% abv (without the lactose).