Milk stout water profile.

[barry44]

Hi all,

On my list of forthcoming brews is a milk stout as taken from the Greg Hughes book.

I've brewed a stout before using the following profile which was based on the black malty profile in bru n water.

Calcium - 100.6
Magnesium - 19.5
Sodium - 18.8
Sulphate - 81.6
Chloride - 165.2
Bicarbonate - 118.2

Cations - 7.4
Anions - 8.3

The stout I brewed was the maltmiller twisted stout and I'm not sure if using the same profile again will be suitable for the additional sweetness of the milk stout but I am not too knowledgeable about brewing stouts so I thought I would ask for some advice.

I am on the mobile at the moment so I will post the recipe once I get home.

I look forward to hearing from you all with your suggestions.

Thanks,

Barry

[Dave S]

Hi all,

On my list of forthcoming brews is a milk stout as taken from the Greg Hughes book.

I've brewed a stout before using the following profile which was based on the black malty profile in bru n water.

Calcium - 100.6
Magnesium - 19.5
Sodium - 18.8
Sulphate - 81.6
Chloride - 165.2
Bicarbonate - 118.2

Cations - 7.4
Anions - 8.3

The stout I brewed was the maltmiller twisted stout and I'm not sure if using the same profile again will be suitable for the additional sweetness of the milk stout but I am not too knowledgeable about brewing stouts so I thought I would ask for some advice.

I am on the mobile at the moment so I will post the recipe once I get home.

I look forward to hearing from you all with your suggestions.

Thanks,

Barry

That looks like a pretty good profile for a sweet stout to me.

[barry44]

That looks like a pretty good profile for a sweet stout to me.

Thanks Dave.

I don't have the knowledge to know the difference.

I bought a couple of milk stouts today with a view on trying them against my twisted stout to see of I can discern the difference.

[Eric]

Yes, you revealed that profile in the thread about that previous stout and I'd tend to think it was reasonably OK. However the ion imbalance suggests that water wouldn't exist without significantly more cations. How did you come to those amounts as if my memory serves me right your water has insignificant mineral content that such a profile is mainly achieved by mineral additions which should unerringly balance.

My preference would have more calcium, a little more magnesium and more chloride.

Dave and I have different preferences in the World of Stout.

[barry44]

Thanks Eric. You are correct in the fact that my water, Glasgow, is essentially distilled with little in the way of any minerals.

I recall that you assisted a lot with the previous water profile, thanks again, but I will need to look back over the previous thread to see how I arrived at the profile.

You say more calcium, Magnesium and chloride. Do you have levels for these to allow me to see if they are achievable?

Thanks again.

[barry44]

Eric,

I followed your instructions at that time to get the levels where they are.

You suggested more chloride so that is something I can have a look at.

Cheers,

Barry

[Eric]

My preference is always for more than 100ppm calcium in dark beers.
Too much magnesium isn't necessarily good for beer and any drinker not in need of its laxative effect, but it can add extra complexity to a strongly flavoured beer.
Chloride would seem to be denigrated by most, I suspect because most popular beers are hop forward and minimising malts assist that objective.

According to notes my last such beer had calcium 142ppm, magnesium 19, sulphate 97, chloride 217. The dark beer prior to that one had magnesium at 40ppm and a different sulphate:chloride ratio.
Good luck.

[barry44]

Thanks Eric for your notes. I'll have a play about and see what happens.

[Dave S]

Dave and I have different preferences in the World of Stout.

The next stout I do I will set the water more to your preference, Eric. You never know, it might make a convert out of me

[Matt12398]

I did a sweet stout last year using the black and malty profile in Bru'n Water as well and it was great.

Eric, I'd be interested to understand what your profile gives you in terms of finished flavour because I'd be interested in playing around with the same recipe with different water profiles to see if I could fine tune it.

[barry44]

Matt was that the straight profile or did you tweak it at all?

[Matt12398]

I went for the straight profile but obviously you're always working in a ball park and not absolutely the same.

[Eric]

I did a sweet stout last year using the black and malty profile in Bru'n Water as well and it was great.

Eric, I'd be interested to understand what your profile gives you in terms of finished flavour because I'd be interested in playing around with the same recipe with different water profiles to see if I could fine tune it.

Depth to a substantial range of flavours from roasted barley and malts kilned to various degrees. Hop flavour and aroma will accordingly be overpowered by malts but bitterness should mostly be retained provide you don't let the pH in the kettle drop too far and will be helped by that from roast barley. It can be hard to determine hops in such a complexity and there is little point in adding a modest amount of late hops and expecting them to be distinguished in the finished beer.

A high level of magnesium is only rarely welcome in beer, but I find sometimes in rich dark beers it can be used to good effect.

Good luck.

[Matt12398]

Thanks Eric. I'm due to brew the same recipe again soon so will try adjusting my water more in line with your profile to see what that does.

I avoid late hops in dark beers typically which is aligned to your recommendation.

[Eric]

Thanks Eric. I'm due to brew the same recipe again soon so will try adjusting my water more in line with your profile to see what that does.

I avoid late hops in dark beers typically which is aligned to your recommendation.

Water can have a major influence, but that is at the beginning and all can be undone later. If you want malty beers you should also choose your yeast with care. Strains like US05, WLP001, WLP008 and others can sometimes make you wonder why you bothered with water treatment in the first place.