I’m tweaking my stout recipe and I see that I have usually used 1lb of roasted barley and 1/4 lb of flaked. I’m considering adding more flaked but also considering going half and half. What would more flaked bring to the party?
I wouldn’t change your roasted barley amount. That’s what gives stout its character. Adding more flaked barley may being a little silkiness to the mouthfeel and could increase head retention some.
What is the rest of your grist? This is for a 5 gal batch I’m assuming. In reality you could go up to 20% flaked, and in my last batch I used 25%. May be a little much. Definately move up to 10-15% if you like. I’m assuming that the 1 lb of roast is about 8-10%? Last batch I used %8 roast and added 2% chocolate and liked the addition, but that is up to you. Anyway, no need to change the roast, but more flaked is never a bad choice. 1-1.5 lb seems fair enough - again don’t know your total weight.
The classic dry stout formula is 70% pale, 20% flaked, 10% roasted.
My original recipe was:
9 lb. Marris Otter – 82%
1 lb. Roasted barley – 9%
.75 lb. Chocolate malt – 6.8%
.25 lb. flaked barley – 2.2%
1 oz. EKG - 60 min
WY1056
In other iterations I’ve tried adding biscuit and a smidge of black patent and, while good, they were kind of one note (roasty). In my original version it had a nice progression of roast, coffee and chocolate. This time around I’m looking to try to add some more body and/or mouthfeel with more flaked as well as I’m going to mash lower (like 150) instead of hot like I have done in the past (around 157-158).
If you like the roastiness of the beer keep it where it is. Myself I would tend to use %10 total of roasted malts combined.
More flaked barley will get you what you are looking for as far as mouth feel and head retention. As Denny suggested, %20 is pretty common, but depending on how much you have available, anything above %10 is going to make a huge difference.
Not sure I would lower the mash temp too much. I usually go between 66-68C for my stouts. Not sure what that is in F off hand.
