How Much Roasted Barley?

[MarkA]

I'm trying to use up all my leftover malts so, seeing as I haven't made one for ages, I thought I'd make a stout. Unfortunately, my old laptop died recently, taking all my recipes with it so I have no reference points to go by!

I've read different schools of thought on the percentage of roasted barley, some say no more than 5%, others up to 15% or more. Will 12.4% give too much astringency or be fine?

5kg Pale Malt (83%)
280g Crystal Malt (4.6%)
750g Roasted Barley (12.4%)

Mash at 66*C for 60 mins

40g Challenger @60 mins
50g Northdown @60 mins
25g Northdown @30 mins
60 IBU

NBS Ale Yeast - Ferment at 20*C

5.8% ABV

[drjim]

My stout recipes all seem to be about 10%, latest was 9.1 and apart from the fact it has zero head it also doesn't taste roasty enough so next time I might aim for a 15% to see how it goes.

[Cobnut]

Bitterness seems a little high in that recipe.

[drjim]

Would work for a stronger brew though - that's supposedly at 5.8%. I normally get 40ish in my stouts - according to the calculating software, who knows what it really is! My Imperial mad strength (really nice coffee laced) stout was nominally 83IBU from chinook and first gold, so bitter can be good in stout so far as I am concerned.

But then I'm just a keen amateur!

[Cobnut]

Yes, agreed. It’s all about balance.

The roast barley will contribute some bitter notes and then adding 60IBU of hop bitterness on top would - in my view - unbalance the beer.

If you lifted the ABV to 8%, 60 IBUs would be more appropriate.

As DrJim says, around 40 IBU would seem more the mark.

But at the end of the day, it’s your beer and you have to drink it!

[drjim]

I tend to add the roasties in the mash tun but been contemplating chucking it in later or even in the kettle which supposedly adds less bitterness....

[MarkA]

Cheers, I'll leave the roasted barley as it is but lower the bitterness to 40 IBU.

Is there much benefit to the 30 min addition for flavour, or should I bung them all in at the start?

[drjim]

I usually just do the bittering hops in stout - it's about the roasty taste not hops. I've sampled a few so called "craft" ale stouts recently that were cherry flavoured or had loads of american hop flavour at the end - not nice at all. Your northdown/challenger concept is entirely inoffensive though. Go for it!

[MarkA]

I will, thanks!

[MarkA]

I finally got round to brewing this a couple of days ago, it's bubbling away and smelling pretty good!

I took out the 30 minute Northdown additon and I only had 30g of Challenger left (must have been sloppy with my record keeping!) which took the bitterness down to 45 IBUs. I'm unconvinved I could tell the difference between 40 and 45 IBUs, plus I'm hoping to keep some for a while to mature, so some bitterness should fade.