Sweet Stout

[stitch]

I'm thinking of brewing a stout for my second AG brew this weekend. The water round here is supposed to be very good for it.

For yeast I have WLP002 (Fuller's London Ale) which has low attenuation, so if I use that it'll have to be a sweet stout according to the "style guide" (there's no other way to get >4% ABV with it). That would be nice - one of the local breweries does a nice range of stouts, some of which are quite sweet. I also have Windsor dry yeast, so that's an option too (and Notty, but I don't think that would be suitable.)

What do people think of this recipe? Particularly the malts - it's not getting too complicated is it? Do I need the torrified wheat if the flaked barley will provide body & head?

For the hops, is there any point using a low alpha "noble" hop for a full 90 minute boil or is it just throwing money down drain ?

Does anyone have any thoughts on yeast choice?

• Volume At Pitching: 23.00 l
  Expected OG: 1.047 SG
  Expected FG: 1.015 SG
  Expected ABV: 4.2 %
  Expected IBU (using Tinseth): 39.3
  Expected Color: 63.3 EBC
  
  Fermentables
  UK Pale Ale Malt 3.435 kg (72.0 %) In Mash/Steeped
  UK Medium Crystal 0.382 kg (8.0 %) In Mash/Steeped
  UK Flaked Barley 0.382 kg (8.0 %) In Mash/Steeped
  UK Roasted Barley 0.191 kg (4.0 %) In Mash/Steeped
  UK Chocolate Malt 0.191 kg (4.0 %) In Mash/Steeped
  UK Torrified Wheat 0.191 kg (4.0 %) In Mash/Steeped
  
  Hops
  UK Fuggle (4.5 % alpha) 29 g Loose Whole Hops used All Of Boil
  UK Northdown (8.0 % alpha) 29 g Loose Whole Hops used All Of Boil
  
  Yeast: White Labs WLP002-English Ale (or Windsor)
  
  Mash Schedule
  Step: Rest at 68 degC for 90 mins
  Step: Raise to and Mash out at 77 degC for 10 mins

Thanks for looking

stitch

[floydmeddler]

Hey Stitch. Looks good man. I do reckon, however, that it will prob end up at around 1.012. Did you brew it yet?

[stitch]

Yeah, I brewed it on Saturday - AG#2. I did mess around with the recipe a bit - I removed the torry and upped the flaked barley. It came out of the mash lovely and creamy and smooth. I also reduced the Crystal and added some Amber malt. This is only my second AG brew so I was excited to put some AG-only malts in there, the amber malt smelled nice in the packet - like sweet creamy coffee. We'll see what the end product is like however.

UK Pale Ale Malt 4.074 kg 67.3 %
UK Flaked Barley 0.720 kg 11.9 %
UK Amber Malt 0.360 kg 5.9 %
UK Medium Crystal 0.360 kg 5.9 %
UK Chocolate Malt 0.300 kg 5.0 %
UK Roasted Barley 0.240 kg 4.0 %

Also, seeing as using the amount of pale malt the recipe said I should would have left me with 300g knocking around in a plastic bag, I just finished the bag off and upped everything else proportionally. (Thinking back I should have upped the volumes too, never mind!)

The one problem was that I only got 23L out of the MT (@1.049), giving me an efficiency of 60%. I don't mind that too much as what did come out was good. But I guess it was the large amount of flaked barley gumming it all up. I did increase the temperature of the second batch of sparge water so I guess it would have been even worse if I hadn't.

I did remove the Fuggles and go with just the Northdown - couldn't see the point of opening the second packet just for bitterness.

And I had just about stepped up my new packet of WLP002 to ~500 billion cells, so I chucked a couple of bil in there. My first liquid yeast! And it went like clappers! And there's more in the fridge!

Oh yeah, the reason I thought it would end with a high FG is because the computer says WLP002 only attenuates by 68%. But if you reckon the FG may get down to 1.012 that would be better. I'll do the proper end-of-fermentation checks before I bottle anyway.

Cheers!

[stitch]

Here's a photo of some hens munching on spent stout grains:



Yum!