Beer Forum

I am thinking of brewing the Dry Stout recipe in brewing Classic styles. I know lots of you have brewed this recipe, what is the consensus? Any good? I am looking for a nice low alcohol beer to have on tap at the house through the holidays and winter. Any feedback would be awesome! Thanks!

I've liked every Jamil recipe I've tried but the chocolate hazlenut porter. I've had that 2 or 3 times and don't dig it. I know a guy who had a low-hop-flavor american brown on tap and he blended that back intot he CHP and made a fantastic beer out of it though.

I made it and it was OK except that it was a bit harsh and tart. I had a pro brewer taste it and review the recipe and give recommendations to add chalk to the mash to increase the final PH or split the roasted grains and add half at sparge to prevent the reduction of PH in the mash and make a mellower roast character.
I made it again with the corrections and it turned out much better. I added the half the roasted grains late and a bit of chalk to the mash. It turned out less tart and roasty, more mellow and drinkable.

LukeD23 wrote:I am thinking of brewing the Dry Stout recipe in brewing Classic styles. I know lots of you have brewed this recipe, what is the consensus? Any good? I am looking for a nice low alcohol beer to have on tap at the house through the holidays and winter. Any feedback would be awesome! Thanks!

calpyro wrote:I made it and it was OK except that it was a bit harsh and tart. I had a pro brewer taste it and review the recipe and give recommendations to add chalk to the mash to increase the final PH or split the roasted grains and add half at sparge to prevent the reduction of PH in the mash and make a mellower roast character.
I made it again with the corrections and it turned out much better. I added the half the roasted grains late and a bit of chalk to the mash. It turned out less tart and roasty, more mellow and drinkable.

Thanks, great advice...how much chalk did you use?

The chalk you need depends on your water.

Another point of interest--IIRC jamil says to put the roast barley in a coffee grinder. you always get a lot of superfine particles in your beer when you use roasted malt, and this will exacerbate it. It'll take some time for these particles to settle out. So give the beer some time to condition and it will be a lot better.

Yes, I bottled a bit too soon and got lots of fine particles settling out as it conditioned, but quite tasty.

I made this recipe a year or so ago- I remember it was good. I also remember it was my first and only stuck sparge. I was doing a 10 gallon. You may want some rice hulls on hand just in case. Do it- Brew it!

1 TBS per twelve gallons

LukeD23 wrote:

calpyro wrote:I made it and it was OK except that it was a bit harsh and tart. I had a pro brewer taste it and review the recipe and give recommendations to add chalk to the mash to increase the final PH or split the roasted grains and add half at sparge to prevent the reduction of PH in the mash and make a mellower roast character.
I made it again with the corrections and it turned out much better. I added the half the roasted grains late and a bit of chalk to the mash. It turned out less tart and roasty, more mellow and drinkable.

Thanks, great advice...how much chalk did you use?