I have been looking at stout recipes for quite a while and decided to try my own. I had a few issues that I'll go through at the end, but all in all this beer turned out really good. I would like to make some minor tweaks to it next time, but will definitely be brewing this again. The following recipe was brewed 10-31-2009.
Batch size: 6.5 Gallons
Boil size: 8.6 Gallons
Boil time: 60 minutes
Efficiency: ~68%
OG 1.054
FG didn't measure... tasted OK, so kegged. ~1.015
Color (est) 37.0L
Grain bill
2 Row Base malt 11 pounds
Chocolate malt 1.5 pounds
Crystal 120L 1 pound
Flaked oats 1 pound
Roasted Barley .25 pounds
Hops
1 oz Columbus FWH (12.6%, whole leaf)
1 oz Columbus 60 min (12.6%, whole leaf)
1 oz Ahtanum 10 min (6%, whole leaf)
Yeast
Wyeast 1056
Fermented 8 days and kegged on 11-9-2009
Forced carbonated for 5 days and enjoying now!
The beer tastes great. It has a nice roasted and a slight hop scent. The head is thick and light brown as you can see from the pictures. The oats really bring out a thick and full mouth feel. It has a deep bitter chocolate taste and finishes with coffee fading into a hoppy bitterness.
I had some issues in the brewing process. I'm working on getting my efficincy up over 70%, so I really slowed down my sparge. I sparged with 5.5 gallons for 50 min and I think that it helped remove a lot of the sugars I was leaving behind in the past. The issue is that I left my brew calculator at 6.5 gallons when I wrote the recipe for 5.5 gallons. I was shooting for OG of 1.07, but the final result was good by my OG was low, which makes my efficiency look bad, and worst of all I had to toss about a gallon of wort.
Here are a couple things I may change next time I brew this beer.
- I will have my calculator set correctly so my final volume is correct.
- I would either add lactose to change to a milk stout, or add cocoa somewhere in the boil to bring out more of a chocolate flavor.
- I definitely would move the final hop addition to 20 min to reduce the hop finish and may reduce the AAU's of the final addition. It's good, but I don't think it fits the style very well.
I hope you enjoy the recipe. Feel free to brew this and comment with any thoughts, suggestions, or questions.
