Black Bess - my stout recipe.

[EportJake]

Chaps,
I'm making a stout next and I thought i'd have a crack at making a recipe. I've got the basic guidelines of making one and i've added some crystal. Am I right in thinking this will make it slightly sweeter than your typical irish dry stout (e.g. Guiness). That is my intention, anyway here it is:

Black Bess
OG est 1.050, FG est 1.013, Colour 62.9, Bitterness 55.8, est ABV 4.91%.

4275g Maris Otter
500g Roasted Barley
100g Black Malt
100g Crystal Malt

55g Northern brewer (90 min)

1.7L Thames Valley Ale (Wyeast)

Any comments recommendations welcome,
Jake.

[Dennis King]

Would have thought you would be better with an Irish Ale Yeast.

[Alton_Bee]

My understanding is for a stout you need a mix of Flaked and Roast barley. Also as you get the colour from the Roast Barley there is no need for the Black Malt.

Would suggest you try as follows:

4275g Maris Otter
500g FLAKED Barley
250g Roasted Barley
100g Crystal

Go with your hops listed

As Dennis says (If you can) switch to an Irish Yeast

[EportJake]

Cheers chaps. I'll change it to involve some flaked as you suggest, but i'm gonna stick with my english yeast; i'm not trying to make a genuine irish stout anyways and i've cultivated my 1.7L.

[BitterTed]

I think it looks great with or without the flaked barley! And the English yeast will be good too!

[maxashton]

My only concern is that much roasted barley is going to impart a lot of burnt flavours to the beer. I'm not sure quite how much, i've never used that much before, but it'll be pretty noticable.

Other than the flaked barley for head retention, that's fine.

[drsmurto]

I based my last stout on this recipe but used green bullet (a styrians sub) and 1187 ringwood yeast. i also upped the ABV to 5.2% and upped the IBUs to 45 to balance the extra malt.

Its on tap now and getting me thru winter. It has a lot more complexity than the typical 70/20/10 recipe that i used to make (guinness clone). The extra flavours you get from a good english yeast work really well in a stout IMHO. A very more-ish beer.

[EportJake]

Thanks for all the constructive criticism. I've tweaked my recipe. This looking better?

Black Bess
OG est 1.053, FG est 1.013, Colour 39.2, Bitterness 58.1, est ABV 5.19%.

4275g Maris Otter
550g Flaked Barley
300g Roasted Barley
100g Crystal Malt

55g Northern brewer (90 min)

1.7L Thames Valley Ale (Wyeast)

Any comments welcome,
Jake