'Legendairy' Milk Stout

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RZH

RZH

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 27, 2015
Messages
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Location
Kidderminster, Worcestershire, UK
Here's the recipe:

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Thoughts please! :)

At the moment I'll probably use US-05 on this as I don't really want any yeastiness and even though it's a high attenuator it should still finish fairly high and retain sweetness.

However, I'll probably be brewing this one in the new year, which means I may have my stir plate built. My sister asked my what a wanted for Christmas and I handed her a parts list for a stir plate and sent her an eBay link to a 2l flask. If I get it built in time I'll be using liquid yeast for the first time - thinking WLP002 or WLP004.

Possible concerns for me:

  • *Too much crystal? I want it sweet and 'caramely' but don't know if this will be too much.
  • *Again, too much choc? Though I do want it nice and choccy.
  • *Too much flaked business? Will this cause issues with stuck sparges/gumminess. I do want it nice and creamy. I've read that 10% is a good amount.
  • *Not enough hops? Although I want no hop flavour, I'm aware a certain level of bitterness is required to balance the sweetness.

All thoughts welcome :)
 
Looks fine to me, crystal, oats, IBUs, yeast all OK.

My only comments would be about the dark roast grain make up. 6% choc, 2.7% midnight wheat and 1.3% roast barley. It'll work, but will be more like a porter, I think. Malty and chocolatey, maybe a little heavy. That may well be what you want. If you want more bitter dark roast, up the RB, or/and add black malt. If you want less heaviness, reduce or drop the Munich.
 
I definitely want the roasted characteristic, I could add an extra 200g roasted barley and drop the same amount in Munich? I do also have some black malt sitting around.
 
Yes that makes sense. Takes the roast barley to about 4%, still about half the percentage that Guinness has. But Guinness doesn't have chocolate - or crystal or Munich. I'm not really sure what to advise tbh, cos you are aiming for caramelly, chocolatey and roasty. It's about getting a balance that suits you. I have studied stout recipes to develop my own stout recipes. Checked out ingredients for stouts I've drunk.

Guinness is just pale malt with about 8% roast barley, I think, and flaked barley, and is easy to drink. What will big chunks of crystal, chocolate and Munich do to that? It will obviously be much more dense, and rich. Not a session beer. A heavy porter really. I've made rich malty beers I've really liked, like red ales with lots of crystal and Munich, and a little roast barley. But I've not added a lot of chocolate as well as those, so I'm not sure what that will be like. So I can't say yay or nay. I would think of a stout you want to base it on, and work from there. What is it about that stout you like, and what characteristics would you like to change?
 
I think the nearest I've got to your recipe is this

Maris Otter Malt (84.39%)
Crystal 80 (5.06%)
Chocolate (4.22%)
Roasted Barley (4.22%)
Black Malt (2.11%)

It was great. And it would have stood some Munich, it was pretty light bodied actually, the US05 attenuated pretty well.
 
Good idea, thanks.

Milk Stout by Left Hand brewing is probably my favourite stout, it comes in special 'Nitro' bottles so that obviously influences the drinking a lot. It's also extremely smooth and drinkable for its ABV.

As such, I found a clone recipe and I've built mine around that. A clone of a clone if you like! I've upped the dark malts significantly - 8% roasted barley now. Was just a bit scared of using too much and it dominating everything. Should be more than enough malty sweetness to balance it. I've binned the Midnight Wheat off as I don't think I'll need it.

Recipe now looks like:

Pale Malt, Maris Otter (62.3%)
Roasted Barley (8%)
Munich (5.0%)
Crystal 130 EBC (5.0%)
Chocolate Malt (5.0%)
Flaked Oats (4.0%)
Flaked Barley (4.0%)
Lactose (6.7%)

Not sure what will come out, but I think it'll be tasty. Recipe formulation is still something of a dark art to me!

Thanks for all of your continued help!
 
I can't make any accurate predictions either, I've not used lactose, but it's looking like an interesting recipe.
 

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