Planning and basic sweet stout.

[GrantH]

I want to make a basic, yet good, sweet stout that will allow me a solid base to build off of. I don't want a milk stout, so no lactose. I want the "needed" slight roasted barley flavor while allowing the sweetness of some caramel malt to come through. The caramel I'm not sure which to use exactly...but I will be looking into that today. So far I've got...

OG 1.050
FG 1.014
American WLP008

Pale 8.2#
Roasted .77#
Caramel .92#

East Kent Goldings 1oz. @ 60 min. / no aroma addition.

I want this to be a "small" beer but, I'm wondering..

-Is that enough roasted or if I should add some black malt to sub some of the pale.
-All of the recipes I have seen both lactose and chocolate malt...why? Can you not make a basic sweet stout without turning it into a milk stout? lol

 

[rjbank]

Milk stout and sweet stout are the same thing. I'd put some oats in too.

 

[MrManifesto]

Lactose is just there for mouthfeel, it's not really sweet sweet just kinda...creamy...

 

[GrantH]

Lactose is just there for mouthfeel, it's not really sweet sweet just kinda...creamy...

5 gallon batch for now, 1/2# oats and 1/2# lactose?

 

[rjbank]

Yes. I would do 1/2# oats flaked. 1/2-1# lactose. Put the lactose late in the boil. Good luck!!!

 

[SpeedYellow]

If you don't want to use lactose, just don't do it-- you can achieve sweetness other ways. Mash high, like 158-160F. And high crystal malt, of course. Don't forget to offset this with higher IBUs. And if it's not sweet enough, you can always add the lactose post-fermentation. I've done this and it worked fine, and allowed me to tweak it exactly how I wanted.

I'd add a bit of chocolate malt, but definitely no black patent malt. Oats help mouthfeel but can hurt head retention, so you may want some flaked barley.

 

[GrantH]

I don't necessarily want the chocolate taste in this one, I may want it on the second batch...but just going straight sweet stout this round.

With the malt bill and hop schedule the way it is now it has a BU:GU of .5, as recommended per style. I may up the hops an 1/8 ounce if adding a high crystal malt. Am I better at 60 or something like 120 Crystal?

Do I have enough roasted barley to give it a dark enough SRM?

Does it really leach in and darken things down THAT much?