Big Milk Stout Recipes?

[ColoradoXJ13]

I am going to have a WLP004 Irish Ale yeast cake this weekend to dump a beer onto...thinking of making a milk stout, but making it a little higher octane and throwing in some chocolate and maybe some raspberries...anyone have a decent base recipe for something like this with an OG in the 1.070-1.080 range? All-grain of course:D

[_CJ]

Take a look here....

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipes?group=17

[ColoradoXJ13]

I took a few recipes and merged some...

Ok, here is what I am thinking

9lb 2-row
2lb wheat malt
1lb Carafa Malt
1lb CaraFoam or CaraPils (whatever HBS has)
1lb Crystal 80L
0.5lb Flaked Oats
0.5lb Roasted Barley
0.25lb Black Patent

mash about an hour or so at 158*F, add barley, oats, and black patent for last 15 min of mash.

1oz Perle 60 min

~0.5lb Bakers chocolate in last 15 min of boil
1lb Lactose in last 15 min

24oz frozen raspberries in secondary

may substitute marris otter for the 2-row...

[Jeepindog]

What hops are you using? EKG? Fuggles?

[ColoradoXJ13]

Perle...

[Jeepindog]

Perle...


Really? Interesting...

[ColoradoXJ13]

seemed like several of the stout recipes I saw use Perle, I used it last weekend in a brew I did which was sort of a cross between an Irish Red and a Pale Ale, going to be super malty and I think that the fruitiness of the Perle will match it well....I am not a huge fan of the earthier hops like Goldings/Fuggles...

[Hammer]

How did this Milk Stout turn out? I recently made a Cherry Milk Stout and made a Chocolate Milk Stout yesterday. I am still only doing a partial mash, and am curious how the perle hops worked, particularly only using one ounce . . . in contrast to the chocolate.

[ColoradoXJ13]

Here was how my notes look
4/8/07
Raspberry Chocolate Milk Stout

5lb Rahr 2-Row
4lb Marris Otter Floor Malt
2lb Wheat Malt
1lb Cara Malt
1lb Carafoam
1lb Crystal 80L
0.5lb Flaked Oats
0.5lb Flaked Barley
0.25lb Black Patent
0.25lb Belgian Chocolate
0.25lb German Black


1oz Perle Hops (60?)
1lb Lactose (add at 45?)
0.5lb Bakers Cocoa (did 2 additions, half at start, half at 15?)

Re-pitched on WLP004 Irish Ale yeast cake from Irish Ale (69-74% Attenuation)

Protein Rest at 122*F for 0:30 (3 gallons of dough in at 137*F)
Mash at 156*F for 1:30 (2.9 gallons at 200*F)
Sparged with 2 x ~2 gallons, total volume at boil start ~7 gallons

O.G. 1.080

Ended up with more than 5.5 gallons, probably closer to 6.5. Put ~5.5 gallons in fermenter on yeast cake, boiled rest and bottled, after 24 hours, put unfermented wort in another carboy and added same volume from other primary. Everything fermented fine and quickly (24 hours)

4/14/07 Racked all of it into a 6-gallon carboy and added 32oz raspberries (frozen organic and steeped at 160*F for 20?).

4/17/07 SG 1.020 (75% attenuation), pronounced bitter raspberry flavor, background chocolate notes, not much mouthy lactose feel as I would expect.

5/2/07 Bottled in 12oz bottles w/ ? cup corn sugar. FG 1.020 8% ABV



I have had a few of the beers now, they are nicely carbed, great chocolate stout flavor, the raspberry is a little overpowering and bitter, but over the few weeks I have drank about 3 or four of these and it is mellowing nicely. I think in a couple months this will be absolutely delicious. Next time, less raspberries, more cocoa and lactose. I can't really detect much hoppiness, which is what I wanted, this, to me, is a dessert beer.

[Hammer]

Wow - thanks for the notes! I was thinking mine would be a dessert beer too. I am also concerned about the lactose content, as well as a lack of sweetness as I was going for Stout Chocolate Milk . . .

[ColoradoXJ13]

Wow - thanks for the notes! I was thinking mine would be a dessert beer too. I am also concerned about the lactose content, as well as a lack of sweetness as I was going for Stout Chocolate Milk . . .

I would bump the lactose to 2lbs and up the cocoa by about 40%

[Jeepindog]

Add cocoa nibs to the secondary for a sincerely unreal flavor.

[Hammer]

I used 1lb of Ghirardelli 100% Cacao, slowly melted the chocolate over steam, blending in wort while stirring and added it to the overall boil at 5 minutes.

I bottled Sunday and it tastes like Hershey's special dark candy bar. Cannot even taste the yeast. Talk about a dessert beer! Next time I am using less and different chocolate and bumping up the lactose like ColoradoXJ13 said.

[ColoradoXJ13]

I'd use cocoa powder and not a chocolate bar, it has a lot of oils and fats that kill head retention.

[jwjeep1]

I'd use cocoa powder and not a chocolate bar, it has a lot of oils and fats that kill head retention.
Ditto. I've used Cocoa in the past with excellent results. You could get away with chocolate syrup as well, since it's usually just cocoa powder, sugar, and water. Then you get the unknown quantity and type of sugar though, so I'd just stick with the powder. Throw it in with the last of the boil and you should be good to go. Of course, the syrup would be easier to mix in. Maybe you could make a syrup with the powder and water to make it mix in easier. I think I'll try that next time I brew something like this.

EDIT: I would also stay away from adding more than a pound of Lactose. Lactose is not for sweetening! Next time you get some, taste it. It really isn't sweet, it adds body and mouthfeel, not sweetness. If you want a sweeter beer, mash at a higher temp. You could also do a decoction mash, or just boil the first runnings down to carmelize some sugars. If it's a partial mash or extract recipe, just use Laglander instead of the regular extract. That will leave more residual sweetness. You could also cut out the 2-row from the recipe above and just use all Maris Otter as a base. That'll give you more maltiness too.