HomebrewandBeer.com forum

Im looking at putting on a Milk Stout to supplement my Oatmeal and Choc Stout supplies for winter drinking. Im not sure wether to go extract or all grain on this one, this is a AG recipe I found, any comments welcome.

3kg English 2-row Pale Malt
0.4kg. English Chocolate Malt
0.5 kg American Caramel 80°L Malt
0.5 kg Roasted Barley
0.5 kg Lactose
28g. Northern Brewer Pellets boiled 60 min.
14g Fuggle Pellets boiled 15 min.
Yeast: White Labs WLP004 Irish Stout

Batch size 20litres
I plan to bottle this one instead of kegging

Looks good to me, although in in my milk stouts I boil 250 grams of flaked barley for 30 min. Would you mind giving your chocolate stout recipe and opinion of the result.
Cheers BB

What does boiling flaked barley do for you?

Hi db, the flaked barley helps head retention and creaminess. Works well for me.
Cheers BB

In the mash?

Can do but I do it separate, pouring directly into fermented though a sieve and then rinsing it with cold water.
Cheers BB

You need to mash flaked barley with enough malted barley to convert the starches to fermentable sugars.

You are correct Doc, as I do add it to the cracked barley during the boil. Sorry db.
Cheers BB

You won't convert any starches at boiling temps as the enzymes will be denatured. If anything you will just be adding tannins.

Oats on the other hand - http://www.themadfermentationist.com/20 ... t.html?m=1

Cracked grains being boiled?

Crystal malt?

No, steep the crystal malt. I'm trying to find the stout recipe I copied about boiling (actually simmering) the cracked barley for 60 mins then adding the flaked barley to it at the 30 min mark.
Cheers BB

Boiling any husked malt is asking for trouble.

Tannin extraction aside boiling denatures the enzymes so any possibility of converting starches to fermentable sugars is killed along with the enzymes.

Boiling flaked barley/oats by itself then adding it to a mash tun with the rest of your grist at mash temperature is common practice for those who don't just dump the flaked barley/oats straight into the mash tun.

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not arguing the point or disagreeing with respect to boiling/ simmering grains. I just needed to check I was not going mad with the recipe method. Well I found it on an ABC site-
I've done this recipe twice now and all whom have sampled love it. Perhaps the amount, 250gms isn't enough to " do damage ". Anyway interesting.
Cheers BB
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http://www.abc.net.au/tasmania/stories/s1371205.htm

Haha, those recipes appear to have been provided to the ABC by the proprietor of the same quirky HB shop discussed here: http://homebrewandbeer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=10773!

Instead of boiling the malt, try holding it at ~65C which can be achieved by pre warming a pot with boiling water, add the grain, mix 2 parts boiling water to 1 part tap water. Leave for 1 hour. Strain. Add another batch of water at 65C, stir and strain. Boil the resulting liquid for 15 mins.

EDIT - fixed a typo.

This is basically mashing, which you can do on a small scale with 250g of base malt and the same amount of flaked barley or oats. The only differences between this and AG are the scale and full volume boiling.

Thanks, will follow advice for future brews.
Cheers BB