I've been chasing creating my own dark, toasty and delicious beers for years. I've brewed many established recipes (KBS clone, Deception Cream Stout), commercial brewery recipes from CB&B, clones that I've created myself, and even received a few medals over time. Over my brewing experiences, I've definitely brewed a few crappy and astringent beers, from which I've learned a great deal.
These is no one factor that decides whether you make a delicious stout or a roasty bomb that is pretty much undrikable. Balanced stouts are a harmony of a number of factors, these three are what I would call pillars of making a great stout:
If you ever try to scale a 12% stout and brew a 5% version of it, it's going to be incredibly acrid and far too roasty. You need to make sure that you balance your malts to your ABV. There are usually three types of malt that make up the Stout Grist:
1. Base Malts
2. Crystal/Caramel Malts
3. Roasted Malts
Roasted malts include Roasted Barley, Black Malt and Chocolate malt in most instances. There are also several debittered malts from Weyermann named Carafa I, II and III, in addition to Briess' Midnight Wheat. These don't add much roast, instead they contribute complimentary chocolate notes and color.
The trick is to use less roasted malts in lower ABV beers, and higher amount in higher ABV beers. You don't want to have Roasted Barley comprise 12% of the grain bill in a 5% stout. Guinness is probably the roastier stout for that level, and it uses around 8% roasted barley and no other roasted malts. I wouldn't go any higher than this.
Well, we are making a stout rather than an old ale, so we do want to include them. Roasted malts can actually be quite tasty and complementary when used in reasonable amounts and balanced by the residual sweetness (final gravity).
Roast level of a stout is a function of percentage of roasted malts plus residual sweetness (% roasted malts + residual gravity). Higher the FG, the more roasted malts you can add to a beer without having the beer come out astringent.
When brewing a 6% stout without lactose or high mash temps, I would stick to around 3-6% roasted malts. Yeast choice is also important as it helps you find that perfect Final Gravity for your brew. I like British Ale yeasts as they attenuate lower, allowing for some higher finishes (1.015 - 1.020 FG). This adds more body and a slight sweetness to balance that roast.
When brewing a 11%+ stout, you can be much more heavy handed with the roasted malts. Goose Island's Bourbon County Stout uses around 11% roasted malts and ~1.034 FG. The higher FG helps offset the roast level, and bring balance between the two.
Warning about debittered malts in high ABV beers
Debittered/huskless malts are great. However, you do need some regular roasted malts in higher ABV beers just to balance the sweetness. Without them, beers with 1.035+ FG will become very sweet to most drinkers and it'll be hard to drink more than 4-8oz.
This is a list of my personal beers that I felt hit the perfect balance of roasted malts to ABV. Roasted malts were definitely present, but they were always balanced by the residual gravity, sweetness, and body of the beer.Nobody likes a thin stout. These beers are known to be smooth and creamy, which is why they are so popular on Nitro. Two big factors that balance the body are water chemistry and final gravity.
pH is King. Naturally, roasted malts bring pH down moreso than any other malt. What rookie brewers end up with is pH that is too low for any beer, and extract astringency out of these malts in the mash. To help remedy this, get a brewing software like Brewfather and keep your pH between 5.2-5.4 using Baking Soda (to increase pH) or Lactic Acid (to lower pH).
Calcium Chloride is your friend. I love to use CaCl in stouts. It accentuates maltiness and adds body, making the beer creamy and full-bodied. This is a very desirable trait in stouts. Go easy on Sulfate (SO4) as it accentuates bitterness and dries out the beer. Here's my preferred water profile for my favorite Chocolate Stout:
| Ca | Mg | Na | Cl | SO4 | pH | |
| ppm | 151 | 22 | 43 | 200 | 65 | 5.33 |
In addition to Calcium Chloride, Final Gravity plays a huge role in making a bigger, thicker stout. This adds sweetness that can easily overpower the roasted malt character, which is why a higher level of roast is preferred in these beers.
Many commercial pastry stout brewers have stouts that finish at 1.060, 1.070 and even 1.080 in some cases. Some of these can be excessively sweet, so tread carefully. I have found that a final gravity of 1.040 will make a fantastic and balanced Russian Imperial Stout. For example, Bourbon County Stout finishes at around 1.035, while having around 11% roasted malt profile.
First of all, RDWHAHB (Relax, Don't Worry, Have A HomeBrew). Roastiness usually fades with time, especially with big beers, and it also acts as a preservative, so your stouts will likely survive in bottles for years. In worst case scenario, you can add lactose to balance out the roast level.
Many milk stouts have a higher roasted malt content due to the higher FG that is added by lactose. I've personally had really good experience adding lactose to increase FG and balance the roast a bit. Alternatively, you can use maltodextrin if you are lactose-intolerant.
Professional breweries don't have a way or the means to do this, and they still crank out some fantastic beers. I've tried cold steeping roasted malts a few times when I started brewing and I still wasn't as happy with my beers in the end. I would rather use less roasted malts, more debittered malts to achieve the desired result, rather than go through the trouble of cold steeping things overnight.
Ultimately, everyone has their own equilibrium and preferences in how they like their stouts. This article is to help you make sure that you know what all of the factors are that affect your stout's flavors, and how to balance them.
PS. Picture from the header is my Chocolate Stout recipe with Amoretti's Smores flavoring. Came out fantastic.
Happy brewing!
