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Author Topic: Need help with 1st all grain stout  (Read 2135 times)

Offline sdfern4

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Need help with 1st all grain stout
« on: February 20, 2014, 04:31:41 pm »
So I have recently switch to all grain brewing  and designing my own recipes. I'm looking to make an all grain dry Irish stout  with a strong but not quite imperial level abv. I've been reading "designing great beers" and using the beer smith app and they are giving different recommendations on style guidelines. Basically I'm not sure about how much hops to add. But first here's the rough draft of the recipe.



12 lbs pale malt 2 row

1.5 lbs roasted barley

1 lbs flaked barley

1 oz Warrior hops AA 15%

Beer smith estimated OG 1.073 FG1.017 abv 7.34 IBU 43.4

Haven't decided on the yeast


Designing great beers recommends a BU:GU ratio of about 1 but that puts the IBUs way out of the range in the beer smith app. Not sure which to believe.


Any Ideas?


And oh, to complicate thing this is for my dad who wanted a stout, "only made with water, barley and hops. And warrior sounds like a good hop so use that."

Offline Stevie

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Re: Need help with 1st all grain stout
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2014, 04:38:19 pm »
I would use less roasted barley and maybe at a bit of chocolate malt or light chocolate malt. I personally mash my roast malts, but others seem to be very happy with adding the roast at the end of the mash or cold steeping.

Warrior is a clean bitterer.

Offline klickitat jim

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Re: Need help with 1st all grain stout
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2014, 06:03:50 pm »
Bu/Gu of 1, so if your gravity is 73 your IBU would be 73, but the recipe software is not recommending that high of a gravity, right? If it's based on the style guide then it's suggesting about 1.050 and 45 IBU at the top end. 1.073 is out of style and so is 73 IBU. Probably a great beer but the software might not like it.

Offline majorvices

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Re: Need help with 1st all grain stout
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2014, 06:17:53 pm »
Base your recipe on your intuition, not on the parameter guidelines in any program. Use those parameters, but use them as guidelines. Once it is brewed, if you don't like it as well, change it next time. Brewing a beer, figuring our what you don't like and do like and making those changes over a few (even several) recipes is what will really teach you how to design recipes.

Offline morticaixavier

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Re: Need help with 1st all grain stout
« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2014, 11:07:43 pm »
Base your recipe on your intuition, not on the parameter guidelines in any program. Use those parameters, but use them as guidelines. Once it is brewed, if you don't like it as well, change it next time. Brewing a beer, figuring our what you don't like and do like and making those changes over a few (even several) recipes is what will really teach you how to design recipes.

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Offline Jimmy K

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Re: Need help with 1st all grain stout
« Reply #5 on: February 21, 2014, 06:58:36 am »
If I were doing this, I'd mash at a low temp (maybe 147?) to get a more fermentable wort, so the FG would be closer to the normal dry stout range, but with more alcohol.  And Klicki Jim's right about increasing the bitterness to match the OG increase. Although, 1.5lbs of roasted barley will provide some roasty bitterness on its own.
 
As it is though, it should be a good beer, just maybe not as dry as you'd expect.
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Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Need help with 1st all grain stout
« Reply #6 on: February 21, 2014, 07:02:17 am »
+1 on the low mash temp to keep it dry. That level of roasted barley would enhance bitterness for sure.
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Offline erockrph

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Re: Need help with 1st all grain stout
« Reply #7 on: February 21, 2014, 09:35:01 am »
Maybe it's just my take on things, but I don't think a dry stout will work quite as well by imperializing it. It's intended to be a smooth, drinkable style. I think you would be better off doing something along the lines of a big American or Extra Stout if you want something that big.

If you do proceed as planned, I'd probably cut the roast barley to about a pound. I'd also probably shoot for something in the 60 IBU range - which would be splitting the difference between using a 1:1 BU:GU ratio versus the upper end of the style guidelines. That approach has worked for me in the past when Imperializing other non-hoppy styles to at least get in the right ballpark.
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