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Howdy, I’d like to do this recipe,

https://www.diybeer.com/au/recipe/macho-macchiato-stout.html

however I don’t want 23lts of stout taking up realestate in the cupboard ageing. I love a stout as much as the next bloke but being in qld I rekon 30 tallies of the black stuff is a bit of over kill.

is there a way I can get this recipe down to an 11.5 litre batch without dumping half the can of Irish stout in the beginning ? 

Or if anyone has something similar up their sleeve ?

TIA

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I would like to help you, but for some reason that link won't work for me. When I click on it, it takes me to the US DIY website (maybe because I am in Canada), and that recipe is no where to be found: not in the stout section, the ale section, or the strong section. If you copy it into the thread, I can maybe help you. 

If you make the Stouter Stout recipe but swap the BE2 for 1kg light DME (or 1.5kg light LME), you would get 18L of very nice stout. 

Cheers,

Christina.

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I made that exact recipe pack up to 11l with all the ingredients and fermented with a big pitch of lager yeast to make an imperial Baltic milk porter (or something?)

Man it was so good! I got good attenuation (over 9% abv in the end) so it didn't come out sweet, just rich and nicely balanced, very smooth, with a bit of roast and a hint of maybe a rummy note. It drank well after a few months, but I also kept a few bottles for over a year and they were terrific.

I sent my Mum a 4-pack and she loved it. She's more of a wine drinker, so sent me back a message describing all the different flavours she was getting out of it.

Edit: it didn't taste overly bitter at all, because the roast wasn't over the top, the lactose balances the bitterness and the alcohol added balancing body and sweetness as well. 

Cheers, 

John 

Edited by porschemad911
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Can't remember now where I read it, but they say that if you want to store a brew long term, the ABV should be a minimum of 5.5%. 

How high do you want the ABV to be?  With Nottingham, which is what the recipe suggests, mixing to 17L will give you 5.5% ABV. Mixing to 15L will give you 6.1% ABV.  Personally I would not go higher, but to each their own.  

Cheers,

Christina.

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P.S. Be careful when buying your chocolate malt grains. It comes in a wide variety of roasts, depending on the maltster, and some have both light and dark versions. I would recommend sticking to the lighter end of the range, such as Joe White, or Thomas Fawcett Pale Chocolate. 

Good luck with the brew Mitch. I am curious what you will end up doing. 

Cheers,

Christina.

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6 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

chocolate malt

Unfortunately I'm not sure what was included in the ROTM pack, it was just labelled 'chocolate malt' with no specs or branding from memory (my memory is bad so perhaps @PB2 will chime in if there a in fact an EBC on there). 

If using Joe White choc malt you need to use a lot as it is very mild in my experience. If you can get Voyager choc malt it is really tasty compared to the Joe White!

Cheers, 

John 

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Thanks a lot for all the input guys

im thinking I’ll just stick to the original recipe size now. I guess between myself, my old man and some friends it will go to a good home eventually.

I picked up all ingredients bar the lactose which I’ll get before the weekend. 

The LHBS owner mentioned that amount of lactose (250g) might make it fairly sweet?

he also suggested some brown sugar if I wanted some molassesy/ caramel undertones.....

 

any thoughts on the lactose sweetness and or brown sugar addition?

@ChristinaS1

@porschemad911

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10 hours ago, MitchBastard said:

Thanks a lot for all the input guys

im thinking I’ll just stick to the original recipe size now. I guess between myself, my old man and some friends it will go to a good home eventually.

I picked up all ingredients bar the lactose which I’ll get before the weekend. 

The LHBS owner mentioned that amount of lactose (250g) might make it fairly sweet?

he also suggested some brown sugar if I wanted some molassesy/ caramel undertones.....

 

any thoughts on the lactose sweetness and or brown sugar addition?

@ChristinaS1

@porschemad911

Lactose isn't all that sweet actually, and 250gm is not an excessive amount in 23L. It is probably in there to take the edge off of all of the roasted malts in the recipe.  I would not leave it out. This recipe likely has more roasted malts than most stouts*, which is probably why they called it "Macho." 😄

Re: brown sugar. It is completely fermentable and will increase the ABV.  In 23L ~300-350gm would be about right.

Cheers,

Christina.

* The Irish Stout kit probably was made with about 10% roasted barley in the grist, and you are topping that up with 300gm chocolate malt, which is probably about 8-9%, so there is approximately 18-19% roasted malts in total. Most stouts run around 10-13%, and max out at 15%.

Edited by ChristinaS1
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14 hours ago, MitchBastard said:

Any thoughts on the lactose sweetness and or brown sugar addition?

My 11l batch with the 250g lactose wasn't overly sweet, probably due to the balance with the roasted malts.

Cheers, 

John 

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