Experimental Cold Steeped Dry Stout

[mashani]

So I'm trying to make a very smooth but still dry (not milk or chocolate stout - one that still tastes more like coffee) for a friend. It's a tradeoff, they would prefer I made a milk stout, but I don't really want something that sweet, but I'll end up drinking a lot of this. So I'm trying to smooth out the dry stout and make something we both might like. I'm making it a bit heavier then I normally make a regular dry stout so it's "not quite as dry" but still, not like a sweet stout.

So I went with this as a partial mash with a cold steep for a 3 gallon batch in my "Mini Cooper".

24 Hour Cold Steep of 3/4# of Roasted Barley. I used more then I would normally have used since I'm cold steeping. To get as much of the coffee/nutty/etc. flavor I can without the astringent stuff. I also did a "cold sparge" and re-steep for an hour each time of this grain 2x before I called it done. 1st "sparge" gave me a nice dark liquor. 2nd "sparge" was light brown, so I called it "done" at that point. This gave me about 3/4ths of a gallon of "wort" as such.

PM of:

1.5# Maris Otter
1/3# Flaked Barley

To that I added 3# of MoreBeer Extra Light LME (this doesn't ferment out quite as dry as some of their other extracts, so it will add some body and a touch of sweetness as if I had "mashed" at a higher temp)

60 minute boil - I added the cold steeped stuff at 10 minutes. I adjusted boil volume to account for this addition, which I had measured out (so my boil off would bring me about 3/4ths of a a gallon short of where I wanted to end up).

1/4oz Magnum (12%) @60
1/2oz East Kent Goldings (5.7%) @45
1/2oz East Kent Goldings (5.7%) @1

OG was 1.051

I went with S-04 yeast in this

This concept of cold steep + late addition is based on a technique that Gordon Strong talks about in one of his books. (brewing better beer I think).

Will it work? We shall see. It looks like it's going to turn out dark but not black - so in the light it may have nice ruby red highlights. It should have a totally white head, since it's all roasted barley. But it might end up more like a porter of some sort then a stout. Who knows.

Either way it's beer.

EDIT: If this works in a way that I like I might brew up another "Belgian Stout" this summer and do it this way. I just finished off the last of the "Belgian Stout" I made last year. I liked it a lot, but it wasn't really "Belgian Enough" for me to really call "Belgian Stout". I would like to find a balance between it and the Dupont "Monks Stout" which tastes too much like charcoal for my liking.

[MadBrewer]

I have a couple of those style books. I have one for Stout & Porters. Reading through that and Gordon Strong's new recipe book apparently there is a lot you can do with a Dry Stout and still have it be a Dry Stout. Guinness, although it's the most well known of the style, most dry stouts out there follow a different path. I made one last year where I had the standard Pale Malt, Flaked Barley and Roast Barley but to that I added in some Munich and Crystal. I like Guinness Extra Stout and that's what I was looking to have something more like. I would say it worked out nice and I would do it again.

I hear a lot a bout the cold steeping technique. I'm curious how you like it.

[mashani]

I've cold steeped smaller amounts (2-3oz) for use in beers I wanted to darken, but without much noticeable roast or any bitter/astringent flavors added. That worked well every time.

But I've never tried it with stout levels of roasted barley though. And I've never tried it as the late addition either, I always threw it into the full boil. So we shall see. I do want some roast here, I just wanted it toned down/mellowed. But it is possible this will turn out too much mellowed. I don't think it will turn out too strong.

I might have used some Munich in this if I wasn't using the MoreBeer Extra Light LME. But my experience with that stuff is that it finishes a bit more malty/sweet then their other extracts, and I didn't want to over do it, especially due to the "I'm not sure" factor of the results of the cold steep.

I've used small amounts of English dark crystal and/or Special B in stouts before and liked the result. But I was kind of afraid doing something like that in this would quickly turn this into more into a "Baltic porter" kind of flavor profile and I wanted this to resemble a dry stout more.

[mashani]

Bottled at 1.013.

It tasted very much like a Dry Irish Stout, and seemed quite smooth. I think it will be quite good.

[Gymrat]

What was the temperature of your water for the cold steep?

[mashani]

Room temperature, I used my camden treated water right out of a 1 gallon jug. I also "sparged" it with the same room temperature water. "sparge" = after I poured off 24 our steep into really big measuring bowl, I covered the steeped grain with more water, gave it a good stir, let it sit around an hour or so, poured that off into the pot (this was almost as dark and flavorful as the original steep), and then did that again 1 more time, which resulted in a lighter brown liquid so I called it done. Since I then knew the volume, I knew how much I was going to top up the batch with and adjusted the rest of my recipe volume so after boil off when I added the steeped liquid it was like a "top up to intended volume" kind of thing.

Hope that made sense, I don't know how to explain what I did any better then that?

EDIT: I gave my full initial cold steep a few stirs too btw, just whenever I happened to walk past it and remembered.

[mashani]

So, this is 18 days in the bottle. Not even 3 weeks. And I popped my tester just to see if it was good yet. Because sometimes you know stouts need some age for everything to really blend and for the rough edges to mellow, but I was curious if the cold steep changed that.

Well, nope, it's not rough edged at all. I could have been drinking this at 2 weeks I bet. I'm calling it done, and it's in my rotation now. If you kegged it you could be drinking this in 1 week I'm sure. It's delicious. If you like Murphy's Draught, you would like this. It's a lot like that. Smooth, mellow roast, nice mouth feel.

I would do a similar cold steep for the stout anytime, I think every time if it results in such a drinkable stout at 2 weeks of age. The amount of roasted barley I used I consider spot on flavor wise - so that is 50% more then if I had hot steeped. It has just the right amount of roast for me for a nice low abv stout.

Obligatory Crappy Picture - it is not quite as dark as the picture makes it look, if you hold it up to the light you can some dark mahogany hues mixed in. But that's ok with me.

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[BigPapaG]

Looks great Dave, congrats!

Are you gonna cellar a few bottles by chance?

I'ld be curious to see how they fare with some age on 'em too...

[mashani]

Yeah, I will probably stick some in a box and see how they do with some age.

[BigPapaG]

Yeah, I will probably stick some in a box and see how they do with some age.

Cool beans!

Keep us posted please..

[mashani]

If you wander through OH sometime, you may try some yourself

[BigPapaG]

If you wander through OH sometime, you may try some yourself

You are too kind sir!

[Dawg LB Steve]

If you wander through OH sometime, you may try some yourself

You are too kind sir!

If you wander thru Ohio anytime, be sure to let me know too, I am about 15-20 minutes from Dave.

[mashani]

Looks great Dave, congrats!

Are you gonna cellar a few bottles by chance?

I'ld be curious to see how they fare with some age on 'em too...

Hey, FYI I popped open a bottle of this to see what it's doing and it hasn't lost anything. Cold steep isn't keeping it from aging well. It's still nice. I think I would recommend this technique to anyone.

I think a cold steeped "Belgian Stout" is in order soon.

[BigPapaG]

Looks great Dave, congrats!

Are you gonna cellar a few bottles by chance?

I'ld be curious to see how they fare with some age on 'em too...

Hey, FYI I popped open a bottle of this to see what it's doing and it hasn't lost anything. Cold steep isn't keeping it from aging well. It's still nice. I think I would recommend this technique to anyone.

I think a cold steeped "Belgian Stout" is in order soon.

Nice, thanks for the update!