End of the World Milk Stout vs Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro

Beer Recipes
1

A friend of mine asked me if I was ever going to do a milk stout. He said he just loved the Left Hand Milk Stout at Old Chicago. So I thought why not give it a shot. I went to the Left Hand website and they listed the ingredients but not the portions. So I ordered one and tasted it and guestimated the proportions of the ingredients. This is what I came up with:

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: End of the World Milk Stout
Brewer: Roger
Asst Brewer: Ralph the Wonderdog
Style: Sweet Stout
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications

Boil Size: 5.70 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.20 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal 
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.059 SG
Estimated Color: 54.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 22.1 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:

Amt                  Name                                    Type          #        %/IBU       
5 lbs                Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)          Grain        1        44.4 %       
2 lbs                Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)            Grain        2        17.8 %       
1 lbs                Roasted Barley (Simpsons) (550.0 SRM)    Grain        3        8.9 %       
8.0 oz                Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM)                Grain        4        4.4 %       
8.0 oz                Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)    Grain        5        4.4 %       
8.0 oz                Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM)              Grain        6        4.4 %       
8.0 oz                Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM)                  Grain        7        4.4 %       
4.0 oz                Black Malt - 2-Row (Briess) (500.0 SRM)  Grain        8        2.2 %       
1.00 oz              Fuggles [5.40 %] - First Wort 60.0 min  Hop          9        22.1 IBUs   
1 lbs                Milk Sugar (Lactose) [Boil for 60 min](0 Sugar        10      8.9 %       
1.0 pkg              SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) Yeast        11      -

Trying them side by side the left hand was definitely sweeter where mine had a bit of a bitter bite. Not drastically but detectable. I am thinking this will condition out over time. Also when tasted side by side I could definitely detect more 2 row in mine. The bubbles are finer in the left hand giving it a “nitro” feel even out of the bottle. I have no idea how they do that. Other than that there were no discernible differences in flavor.

I was surprised at the hop bitterness when I only used an ounce of relatively low alpha hops. If I take another stab at this sometime I will FWH half an ounce and add the other half at around 45 minutes to tone that down.  Also I will back off the 2 row by half a pound.

2

Could that full pound of roast barley maybe be the culprit in that “bitter bite” ?

3

I think that it is the combination of dark grains (roasted barley, chocolate, and black) clocking in at 16% of your grain bill.  If you think about these in that they provide the color and, like the hops, provide a balancing effect to the malt and lactose sweetness.

You can also elect to cold steep the dark malts, or add them at the end of your mash process, but I don’t speak from great experience as I don’t bother with this process…I like to go all in at mash time.  I have found that I have been halving my dark grain usage on older recipes now that I have a slightly more efficient mash tun for much improved and distinctive (rather than muddy) dark beer flavors.

4

oh, and I have had some success with switching to pale chocolate malt as well…but I usually just use whichever I have and adjust the grain bill according to what I am trying to achieve.

5

The bitterness has conditioned out of this stuff. Now it is extremely close to Left Hand Milk Nitro when drank side by side.