I’m getting ready for fall brewing. Starting off with my old school centennial/cascade Pale. But what to put in the chest next to it? I’ve got some lactose hanging around. I’m not worried about hitting a guideline or entering it in a comp. Just something for early fall drinking. Low on the roasty burnt flavors. Malty with enough hops to keep it interesting. European malt and hop character, but cleaner fermentation profile. Drinkable. Smooth. Full bodied.Any thoughts on this?
~5% abv
~30 ibu
~20 arm
5 lbs Golden Promise
5 lbs Best Dark Munich
1 lb Pale Chocolate
3 oz Midnight Wheat
Mash~ 156° 5.2ph with a little CaCl
1 lb lactose in the boil
1/2oz magnum at 60
1 oz (maybe 2) EKG 170° whirlpool for 30
What do you think? I wonder if the pale chocolate might make it too nutty. I’ve got regular chocolate too, but thought that might make it too roasty.
If you’re going to use a pound of lactose, then mashing hot at 156 F is overkill. Mash normal around 152 F. Either that, or mash hot but only use 3/4 lb lactose.
Not sure, but that seems like a lot of chocolate malt. I might take that down a hair, maybe 3/4 lb.
I was thinking similarly on the chocolate, Dave. I would likely go with 1/2 lb. of the midnight wheat and call it good if you’re looking for “low on the roasty/burnt flavors”. I think that a pound of even pale chocolate would be fairly sharp.
Different schools of thought on the cream stout/cream porter. I like to balance the sweet character in a cream stout with a decent level of roast, to keep the beer from seeming too sweet. I checked my notes on the last cream stout I did which IMO was excellent - FWIW I used 8 oz of black patent and 8 oz pale chocolate for the roast components. Balanced really nicely with the sweetness.
EDIT - The malts were all mashed together on this one, targeting a pH of 5.55
Ok, a few said yummy as is. I’ll follow taytay’s advice and lower my mash temp. And I’ll follow your advice and split the difference with pale and regular chocolate
