10 gallon hat stout

[JacktheMac]

Made this one yesterday (sorry no photographs, had a minor flood and was using new kit so slightly frantic):

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 50.00 L
Boil Size: 56.88 L
Estimated OG: 1.068 SG
Estimated Color: 71.4 EBC
Estimated IBU: 55.5 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
10.00 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC) Grain 62.5 %
2.00 kg Barley, Flaked (3.3 EBC) Grain 12.5 %
1.00 kg Amber Malt (43.3 EBC) Grain 6.3 %
1.00 kg Roasted Barley (591.0 EBC) Grain 6.3 %
0.75 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (118.2 EBCGrain 4.7 %
0.50 kg Chocolate Malt (886.5 EBC) Grain 3.1 %
0.25 kg Smoked Malt (17.7 EBC) Grain 1.6 %
115.00 gm Northdown [7.50%] (75 min) Hops 34.1 IBU
120.00 gm Fuggles [4.50%] (75 min) Hops 21.4 IBU
0.50 kg Invert Sugar (0.0 EBC) Sugar 3.1 %
2 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale


This is a first time for the Amber and Smoked Malt in my usual stout. I wonder if I have overdone the Amber a bit.
Has anyone here tried souring stout to get that Guinness Foreign Extra tang?

[mysterio]

6% Amber sounds fine to me, I used 10% 100EBC amber in a recent beer and it was great.

I think it's Brettanomyces wild yeast which is used in Guinness FES. I think this would be a fairly hard yeast to isolate although you can buy it from Wyeast.

[oblivious]

what about the addation of a little acid malt?

[JacktheMac]

6% Amber sounds fine to me, I used 10% 100EBC amber in a recent beer and it was great.

I think it's Brettanomyces wild yeast which is used in Guinness FES. I think this would be a fairly hard yeast to isolate although you can buy it from Wyeast.

Good news about the Amber, then, thanks mysterio. I thought that given the strong flavours in stout it would be okay but had read comments about 'using sparingly'. I have some left so it's going in my next bitter too. The Brett thing seems like mad microbiological experimentation. I've read some stuff on US brewing boards where they suggest culturing Lactobacillus using 'sourdough' cultures (is that something we have in UK?) which sounds interesting.I've even seen yoghurt mentioned as a source of Lactobacillus! I suppose the easy way of doing this is adding a small amount of Lactic acid to the finished beer?

what about the addation of a little acid malt?

I have some acid malt - is it worth a try? I use it in lagers mainly. Next batch of stout I might slip a few hundred grams in, though the pH might suffer in a stout mash I'd imagine.

[DRB]

How about adding the kitchen sink to that recipe, just as well go the full hog .
Seriously though hope it comes out tidy.

[JacktheMac]

Just had a sip of this from the 2ndary - fantastic, alcoholic chocolate dessert with smokey bitter aftertaste. FG=1.013, c. 7.7% abv.