Old stout recipe

[Down2Die]

Hey I have an old book here by Brian Leverett called homebrewing. A lot of the information seems outdated these days but I would like to try the stout recipes at the back. heres one

Black malt 225g
pale malt crushed 1.8kg
dark malt crushed 450g
crystal malt crushed 450g
northern brewer or bullion hops 75g
dark brown sugar 450g
citric acid 1/2 tsp
lactose (optional) 100g
water 18l

Im not sure what dark malt would be any ideas?
also says black malt is not milled and should be left whole and a extended mashing period of 2-3 hours is essential???

also does anyone think its a goer? there's others for a milk and oatmeal stout too. all look nice.

cheers

[orlando]

He might be referring to brown malt (usually used in Porter recipes) but roasted barley is more usually associated with stout so I would substitute that, might be a bit OTT at 450g in 18 litres though. I would stick the recipe through some brewing software to see how it looks first. Don't see the point of citric acid, maybe someone else can help with that. Lactose is a non fermentable so I think is optional in that it allows you to go for a "milk" stout style, being a sweeter version. You don't mention a yeast but any of the London or Irish yeasts would suffice.Otherwise looks OK to me.

[Down2Die]

Thanks for the reply. on the opposite recipe for the milk stout he lists dark malt (dried) 450grams. has me confused?
Yes the lactose is just there if you like your stout sweet it says. not sure about mashing it for 2-3 hours?

[orlando]

Now that is a bit more of a clue, I think he means dark malt extract in its dried form, makes sense. As for mashing for 2-3 hours I agree no need. Maybe when the book was written there weren't the well modified grains available to day or there just wasn't the same understanding of enzyme activity we have now.

[Down2Die]

thanks for that .That makes sense obviously a typo then. don't have dme to hand could I up the dark sugar to 1kg then or perhaps up the base malt.

[orlando]

Of course. I would go for base malt though rather than sugar as that can thin and dry out a beer too much, unless of course that's what you want. Sugar is often used by commercial brewers because it's cheap, we don't have to worry about that.