This post is one in a series following six brewers collaborating to each make a small adjustment to a single recipe in order to improve it, then pass it along to the next brewer. We hope to learn more about the art of recipe creation as we see how other brewers approach the same recipe. The rest of the series can be found here.
Author: M. Rasmussen
Brew Day
As a whole, this was one of the roughest brew days I’d had in a while. I struggled to hit some of my target numbers, something that I’m attributing to switching laptops and not having my equipment profile tuned in yet. There was also a lot going on that weekend, including dealing with a minor plumbing emergency during the brew. That being said, it was still successful. Beer is beer, right?
The brew started as all of mine do: with a trip to the LHBS to get the ingredients. Stouts are hands down my favorite type of grain bill to pick up because the bag smells so incredible every time. This grain bag was no different.
After collecting 8 gallons of tap water and treating it with some campden, gypsum, and lactic acid, it was time to get the burner rolling. I nailed my target mash-in temperature, and already the heavy roasted aroma started filling my garage.
The mash went pretty smoothly. Fifteen minutes into the rest, I pulled a small sample to check the pH and give everything a little stir. With twenty minutes left I noticed that the temperature had dropped a handful of degrees, so I added some heat for a few minutes while I kept the liquid moving.
When the sixty minutes of the mash were up, I raised the grain bag out of the kettle using a pulley system and started the propane burner back up. I rinsed the grains with about a gallon of sparge water and then squeezed as much liquid out as I could. At this point I added the dextrose to the kettle. Once I got all of the sweet wort mixed in, I took a pre-boil gravity sample.
I was 2 points shy of my target. I figured I could give the wort a little more vigorous of a boil than normal and hope to gain those 2 points back. Once the boil got started, I added the first charge of hops.
The boil went along swimmingly, especially for those beautiful hop pellets swimming around in the wort. When the time came, I added a whirlfloc tablet, my stainless steel immersion chiller, and the second hit of hops. Before I cut the heat and started chilling, I pulled a sample of wort to check my OG. Again, I was 2 points low. I continued battling my leaky kitchen faucet while the wort chilled down in near record time, thanks to the fact that it was about 45°F outside. I hooked up my transfer tubing to the spigot on my kettle and attached my wort aerator to the other end.
I carried the 5.5 gallons of wort downstairs and stashed it in my fermentation fridge. It only took about 30 minutes in the fridge to get down to my target pitching temp. I grabbed the smack pack of yeast that I had smacked about 5 hours prior. There was hardly any bulge to the pack, which I had repeatedly chastised it for throughout the afternoon. Upon opening the pack and pouring the liquid yeast into the carboy, I realized that I had failed to pop open the bubble of nutrient when I smacked it. One more facepalm for the day, and it was time to let the yeast do their job.
Fermentation kicked off pretty quickly, to my surprise. After about 6 days I raised the temperature in the fermentation fridge to encourage complete attenuation and allow the yeast to clean up after themselves. After 2 weeks, I transferred the beer to a keg using my gravity-fed technique. After realizing that I attached the wrong gas line to the new keg about 14 hours into my planned carbonating period, I fixed my mistake and quickly carbed up the stout. And, finally, it was time to see if all of those mishaps (and my recipe tweaks) could turn into a decent beer.
Recipe
Tasting notes from Iteration 11:
Appearance: Inky black. Moderate, dark tan head. Sticks to the glass. Lots of bubbles lining the bottom of the glass. Good carbonation. After a minute or two, carbonation settles into a pillowy blanket on top. Carbonation stays on top throughout drinking. Nice lacing down the glass. Lacing actually dissipates/drops pretty quickly, but the pillow on top stays.
Aroma: Dark stone fruits. Milk chocolate. Creamy. Plum. Dark cherry. More chocolate. Something odd that I can’t place.
Flavor: Dark chocolate. Roasted malt. milk chocolate on the back end. Little bit of the fruitiness. Dark roast coffee. Gets creamier as it warms up.
Mouthfeel: Good carbonation level. Moderate body. Leans on the lighter, thinner side of moderate. Carbonation sticks around.
Aftertaste: Bitter. Not hop bitter, but dark roasted malt bitter. Not my favorite finish for a stout. Maybe a slight hop flavor? Can’t tell.
Overall: Dry, chocolately, and a little rough around the edges. Smoother as it warms up, but it’s still too bitter/astringent for my taste. Has potential, but it seems unbalanced.
There were several things running through my mind when I sat down to think about how I wanted to adapt the recipe. The main goal was to add some balance to the beer. I wasn’t able to perceive any character from the hops or the yeast; all I got was dark, roasted malt. I briefly toyed with the idea of changing the yeast, but that was the change I made last time, and I wanted to take a swing at the grain bill.
I found the addition of corn sugar/dextrose in Iteration 10 very interesting. It was a change that I’d never think to make myself, and I thought it might be attributing to the lack of balance in the beer by drying out any sweetness or creaminess. I thought about removing the dextrose, but I decided to leave it be since this project is about learning new ingredients and processes. The next thing that came to mind was flaked oats. I’ve had success using oats to add a creaminess character to beer, especially stouts.
Upon seeing the previous recipe, I also wondered if the 61% of Marris Otter was helping to contribute to the lack of balance I was perceiving. Since Marris Otter is known to contribute nutty, toasted flavors to a beer, I figured that it was probably pushing the grain bill too far towards a complex, roasted character; and I didn’t think that a pound of flaked oats would be enough to balance out the heavy load of roasted and toasted malts in the bill. I didn’t want to completely undo the previous change, and I’m usually a big fan of Marris Otter, but I wanted to get back some of the lighter malt character that US 2-row offers. So I decided to adjust the base malt by adding a few pounds of 2-row back in to hopefully help add some balance that I thought was lacking from the beer.
Finally, as I was plugging in my changes to BeerSmith, I was struggling to hit the some of the numbers that I was going for while keeping all of the grain percentages the same as Iteration 11. I took a look back at the previous iterations to see how the others had handled additions to the grain bill. I realized that there’s really no way to make an addition without adjusting percentages, at least slightly, for most of the different malts. In order to hit the numbers I was aiming for (mainly OG and SRM), I decided to reduce the Roasted Barley by about 2%, again, hoping that the change would allow the Flaked Oats and 2-row to balance out the roasty bitterness even more. That left me with the following recipe:
- Mashed at 153°F for 60 minutes
- 37.6% Maris Otter
- 15.1% 2 Row
- 11.3% Victory
- 9.4% Flaked Oats
- 7.6% Flaked Barley
- 5.6% Roasted Barley
- 5.6% Pale Chocolate (300°L)
- 1.8% Chocolate Malt
- 6% Corn Sugar
- Boiled 60 minutes
- 1 oz. Nugget (60 min.) as 13.0% (43 IBUs)
- 1 oz. Centennial (5 min.) at 9.9% (6.7 IBUs)
- Pitched Wyeast 1450 Denny’s Favorite 50
- OG: 1.062
- FG: 1.016
- ABV: 6.1%
Tasting
Appearance: Black. Low/moderate carbonation. Thin, off-white head after pouring. Dissipates quickly. Head turns into thin ring around the glass. Slight lacing down the glass.
Aroma: Roasted malt. Chocolate. Dark and milk. Esters. Slight bit of alcohol. French roast. Bit of chocolate covered pretzel. Hints of stone fruit/plum. Crust of dark toast.
Flavor: Roasted malt. Creamy yeast esters. Reminds me of the esters in a Guinness. Little bit of hop flavor poking through at the front of the palate, very slight. Slight bitterness, but not off-putting. More like the bitterness of a good espresso.
Mouthfeel: Moderate, slightly thin body. Low carbonation. Feels like a fluffy pillow in the mouth.
Aftertaste: Dark chocolate. The creaminess, esteriness linger nicely. The dark roast flavor smooths out and leaves a pleasing bitterness on the tongue.
Overall: Dry, dark, and roasted are the highlights of this beer. It’s slightly thinner and less carbonated than I’d like. There’s also a creaminess to it that balances out the heavy roasted character.
I think this is the best stout that I’ve ever brewed (which has been about 6 of them). I’m a big Guinness fan (as I type this wearing my Guinness shirt that I picked up at the Storehouse in Dublin) and this beer is reminiscent of the world’s favorite stout. It’s dark, dry, balanced, and easily drinkable. As difficult as the brew day was, I’m extremely happy with the results.
As far as recipe changes go, I’m really not sure. There are several pieces in this recipe that I wouldn’t have gone with if I were creating it from scratch. The complex grain bill, dextrose addition, yeast choice, and even hop combination are all different from what I have done in the past when it comes to stout recipe creation. Yet, I’m so glad I participated in this project. Like I said, this is my favorite stout I’ve brewed and I will definitely be brewing it again.
Recipe Progression
| Iteration 1 | Iteration 2 | Iteration 3 | Iteration 4 | Iteration 5 | |
| Base Malt 1 | 80% 2-row | 80% 2-row | 80% 2-row | 72.5% 2-row | 69.2% 2-row |
| Base Malt 2 | None | None | None | None | None |
| Specialty Malt 1 | 10% Victory | 10% Victory | 5% Victory | 10.8% Victory | 10.8% Victory |
| Specialty Malt 2 | 5% Roasted Barley | 5% Roasted Barley | 10% Roasted Barley | 4.4% Roasted Barley | 7.8% Roasted Barley |
| Specialty Malt 3 | 5% Carafa III | 5% Chocolate Malt | 5 % Chocolate Malt | 4.4% Chocolate Malt | 4.4% Chocolate Malt |
| Specialty Malt 4 | None | None | None | 7.8% Flaked Barley | 7.8% Flaked Barley |
| Specialty Malt 5 | None | None | None | None | None |
| Specialty Malt 6 | None | None | None | None | None |
| Sugar | None | None | None | None | None |
| 60 min. hop | Nugget: 47.7 IBUs | Nugget: 42.5 IBUs | Nugget: 47.7 IBUs | Nugget: 41.2 IBUs | Nugget: 41.5 IBUs |
| 5 min. hop | Willamette: 3.6 IBUs | Willamette: 3.3 IBUs | Willamette: 2.9 IBUs | Willamette: 3 IBUs | Willamette: 3 IBUs |
| Yeast | US-05 | US-05 | US-05 | US-05 | US-05 |
| OG | 1.054 | 1.060 | 1.045 | 1.065 | 1.064 |
| FG | 1.010 | 1.016 | 1.005 | 10.20 | 1.020 |
| ABV | 5.8% | 5.8% | 5.25% | 5.9% | 5.8% |
| Iteration 6 | Iteration 7 | Iteration 8 | Iteration 9 | Iteration 10 | |
| Base Malt | 69.2% 2-row | 69.2% 2-row | 68% 2-row | 68% 2-row | 60.8% 2-row |
| Base Malt 2 | None | None | None | None | None |
| Specialty Malt 1 | 10.8% Victory | 10.8% Victory | 10.2% Victory | 10.2% Victory | 10.6% Victory |
| Specialty Malt 2 | 7.8% Roasted Barley | 7.8% Roasted Barley | 7.5% Roasted Barley | 7.5% Roasted Barley | 7.8% Roasted Barley |
| Specialty Malt 3 | 4.4% Chocolate Malt | 4.4% Chocolate Malt | 1.7% Chocolate Malt | 1.7% Chocolate Malt | 1.8% Chocolate Malt |
| Specialty Malt 4 | 7.8% Flaked Barley | 7.8% Flaked Barley | 7.5% Flaked Barley | 7.5% Flaked Barley | 7.8% Flaked Barley |
| Specialty Malt 5 | None | None | 5.1% Pale Chocolate | 5.1% Pale Chocolate | 5.3% Pale Chocolate |
| Specialty Malt 6 | None | None | None | None | None |
| Sugar | None | None | None | None | 6% Corn Sugar |
| 60 min. hop | Nugget: 45 IBUs | Nugget: 44.3 IBUs | Nugget: 44.3 IBUs | Nugget: 43.2 IBUs | Nugget: 42.9 IBUs |
| 5 min. hop | Willamette: 3.6 IBUs | Centennial: 6.2 IBUs | Centennial: 6.8 IBUs | Centennial: 6.7 IBUs | Centennial: 6.7 IBUs |
| Yeast | White Labs Irish Ale Yeast (WLP004) | White Labs Irish Ale Yeast (WLP004) | White Labs Irish Ale Yeast (WLP004) | WYeast 1450 Denny’s Favorite 50 | WYeast 1450 Denny’s Favorite 50 |
| OG | 1.065 | 1.064 | 1.075 | 1.065 | 1.064 |
| FG | 1.018 | 1.021 | 1.012 | 1.023 | 1.018 |
| ABV | 6.2% | 5.6% | 8.3% | 5.5% | 6.1% |
| Iteration 11 | Iteration 12 | |
| Base Malt | 60.8% Maris Otter | 37.6% Maris Otter |
| Base Malt 2 | None | 15.1% 2-row |
| Specialty Malt 1 | 10.6% Victory | 11.3% Victory |
| Specialty Malt 2 | 7.8% Roasted Barley | 5.6% Roasted Barley |
| Specialty Malt 3 | 1.8% Chocolate Malt | 1.8% Chocolate Malt |
| Specialty Malt 4 | 7.8% Flaked Barley | 7.6% Flaked Barley |
| Specialty Malt 5 | 5.3% Pale Chocolate | 5.6% Pale Chocolate |
| Specialty Malt 6 | None | 9.4% Flaked Oats |
| Sugar | 6% Corn Sugar | 6% Corn Sugar |
| 60 min. hop | Nugget: 42.9 IBUs | 43 IBUs |
| 5 min. hop | Centennial: 6.7 IBUs | 6.7 IBUs |
| Yeast | WYeast 1450 Denny’s Favorite 50 | WYeast 1450 Denny’s Favorite 50 |
| OG | 1.064 | 1.062 |
| FG | 1.021 | 1.016 |
| ABV | 5.8% | 6.1% |