My first attempts at all grain recipes...suggestions welcome

Beer Recipe Design
1

I am brewing three one gallon stouts for my first attempts at all grain and with the help of brewpal I have some pretty basic recipes that seem to be on track.

My goal is to get the basic recipe for the style down and venture off, due to trial and error and suggestion, to get the flavors I am seeking.
I do have a few questions but any suggestions are appreciated

Breakfast Stout

1.8 lb 2-row
3.2 oz crystal 120
1.2 oz Black Patent
1.2 oz Chocolate malt
1 oz roasted barley
.4 oz flaked oats

3.2 oz Lactose (60 min boil)
.3 oz unsweetened bakers chocolate (15 min boil)
.4 oz columbian coffee (5 min boil)
??? cinnamon sticks (15 min boil)

.13 oz Nugget (60 min boil)

Nottingham Ale yeast

Potato Milk Stout

1.8 lb 2-row
3.2 oz crystal 120
1.2 oz black patent
1.2 oz chocolate malt

3.2 oz Lactose (60 min boil)
??? potato starch (???)

.13 oz nugget (60 min boil)

Nottingham Ale yeast

Vanilla Porter

2 lb 2-row
3.2 oz chocolate malt
3.2 oz crystal 120

??? vanilla beans (???)

.4 oz Willamette (60 min boil)

Nottingham Ale yeast

Questions

Was thinking half to a full cinnamon stick in my breakfast stout but how to my coffee and chocolate additions look?

I know nothing about potato starch so I have no clue how to begin on that.

How many vanilla beans and for how long am I looking to boil them in the porter?

Again, these are pretty basic recipes but I figure I need to keep it that way before I really start to change up anything.

Thanks for the look!

2

[quote=“TheNerdyGnome”]I am brewing three one gallon stouts for my first attempts at all grain and with the help of brewpal I have some pretty basic recipes that seem to be on track.

My goal is to get the basic recipe for the style down and venture off, due to trial and error and suggestion, to get the flavors I am seeking.
I do have a few questions but any suggestions are appreciated

Breakfast Stout

1.8 lb 2-row
3.2 oz crystal 120
1.2 oz Black Patent
1.2 oz Chocolate malt
1 oz roasted barley
.4 oz flaked oats

3.2 oz Lactose (60 min boil)
.3 oz unsweetened bakers chocolate (15 min boil)
.4 oz columbian coffee (5 min boil)
??? cinnamon sticks (15 min boil)

.13 oz Nugget (60 min boil)

Nottingham Ale yeast

Potato Milk Stout

1.8 lb 2-row
3.2 oz crystal 120
1.2 oz black patent
1.2 oz chocolate malt

3.2 oz Lactose (60 min boil)
??? potato starch (???)

.13 oz nugget (60 min boil)

Nottingham Ale yeast

Vanilla Porter

2 lb 2-row
3.2 oz chocolate malt
3.2 oz crystal 120

??? vanilla beans (???)

.4 oz Willamette (60 min boil)

Nottingham Ale yeast

Questions

Was thinking half to a full cinnamon stick in my breakfast stout but how to my coffee and chocolate additions look?

I know nothing about potato starch so I have no clue how to begin on that.

How many vanilla beans and for how long am I looking to boil them in the porter?

Again, these are pretty basic recipes but I figure I need to keep it that way before I really start to change up anything.

Thanks for the look![/quote]

I’m brewing a breakfast stout this week based on the Founders Breakfast stout clone recipe. It uses baker’s chocolate as well as cacao nibs and coffee during the boil as well as a coffee addition in the secondary. Google founders breakfast stout and you’ll see a couple different versions of the recipe for 5 gal batches. Just reduce the amounts and see how they compare to yours.

3

One vanilla bean, don’t boil it, add it post fermentation

4

recipes don’t look bad off the top of my head. Although it is easier, in the future, to post ingredients with percentages because people like me suck at math and that’s an easier way to see if something is way out of line than just looking at it. Especially in weird one gallon amounts.

On to the questions:
I personally like building recipes slowly. So I would start with your breakfast stout grain bill and see if I like that. If I did, then I would add coffee and chocolate on round two and if I liked that I would add cinnamon on round three. If you get all crazy right off the bat it’s gonna be real tough to tell what to change next time if you don’t like it. Just my thought, so I guess at the least I would skip the cinnamon this time. Again this is just me, if you feel ballsier go for it but this pretty much applies to all your beers IMO. You’ve always got more time to brew, especially with one gallon batches.

I know nothing about potato starch.

You don’t want to boil vanilla beans. Add them to the secondary, cut them open the long way first. I’d just use one for this small of a batch and taste frequently because they can get over powering fast!

5

One more thing, and I know this from eyeballing one gallon test batches. It’s just hard to do sometimes because the amounts are so small. So how is your scale? The difference between a percent here and there of a high alpha hop can be noticeable in a one gallon batch. Especially if your high on the hops and get worse efficiency than projected leaving you with a overly bitter, lower gravity beer than you planned.

6

Building the stout then adding flavors is pretty sound advice. Moving slowly is the way I want to approach making recipes so I think I will heed warnings.

I researched stouts and porters and they get all pretty complex with the grain bill but I am shooting for basics before I change up recipes.

Potato starch is been a thorn. I know I can just use potatoes but thinking starch will add more to the overall body of the beer.
All I can do is build the stout I like and then add starch during the boil and test test test.

Thank god for small batches.

I invested in an accurate scale so I can measure pretty precisely since I am only doing one gallon batches.

Here are percentages:

Breakfast Stout

1.8 lb (80.4%) 2-row
3.2 oz (8.9%) crystal 120
1.2 oz (3.4%) Black Patent
1.2 oz (3.4%) Chocolate malt
1 oz (2.8%) roasted barley
0.4 oz (1.1%) Flaked Oats
2.24 lb total

Potato Milk Stout

1.8 lb (83.7%) 2-row
3.2 oz (9.3%) crystal 120
1.2 oz (3.5%) black patent
1.2 oz (3.5%) chocolate malt
2.15 lb total

Vanilla Porter

2 lb (83.3%) 2-row
3.2 oz (8.3%) chocolate malt
3.2 oz (8.3%) crystal 120
2.4 lb total

7

What do you expect the potato starch to bring to the beer?

8

Not 100% sure but from what I had it brings a very creamy body to the beer. My guess would be it acts like lactose but more pronouced.