Deschutes Obsidian Stout : Can You Brew It (05/25)

[nathanm]

My thoughts are confirmed:

http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Produc ... stedBarley

[BrianL]

Thanks! My LHBS guy told me the same thing, but I wanted to be sure before i used a precious brewday on the recipe. I'm trying to track down unmalted black barley and will use roasted barley as a back up.

Good luck with the Porter!

[aquariumdrinker]

Im quite pleased with mine, there is a small fruitiness in the flavor that Im guessing is from not having proper fermentation temp control (now I do!)
I also used cali ale for this, unforunately I cannot get my hands on the real stuff, just have to think back to the NHC in June.....

thanks for the hard work JZ and crew!

[Martin2D]

I'm going to have to disagree with everyone saying that it is supposed to be Black barley. I was wondering the same thing and even inputted it as black barley in my software. However, when I couldn't find it, I went back to the show and it is clearly called "Black barley MALT." Black barley is not malted, so I went with Black (patent) MALT, as that is blacked malted barley. Hopefully it turns out okay as it is a lot of black patent.

[BrianL]

I had my LHBS order me unmalted black barley and they actually ordered black malt. So I decided to just go with all roasted barley since i'm brewing monday and am pretty much out of time.

Let me know how yours turns out, one of us might get close.

On the podcast, the brewer referred to it as black barley and Jamil referred to it as black barley malt. Very confusing.

[BDawg]

Thanks. I apologize for contributing bad advice on this in another thread.

[BrianL]

No problem. Jury is still out on what exactly is correct. Hopefully Jamil will read this thread and let us know what he used.

[nathanm]

I feel as if I'm about to stand corrected on my earlier proclamation that the 1.43lb addition was not black malt (black patent). After looking over the recipe and reading the stout section of Designing Great Beers (Ray Daniels), I think that it could indeed be black patent.

Daniels writes "For most brewers, roast barley is the focus of the stout grain bill" Then goes on to say that "When roast barley is excluded, black malt most often takes its place, usually with a portion of crystal malt as well"

The majority of the recipes he lists use roast barley and not black malt, though.

If it is black malt, then i'm confused why there is an addition of .11lb roast barley as it doesn't seem enough to add flavor over/against the large amount of black malt. Perhaps for gravity unit needs? On the other hand, I could say the same thing about black barley to roasted barley and why they would have such a small addition roasted barley vs black barley as the flavor is near identical and the roasted barley (300L) addition would make no difference against almost 10% black barley (500L).

Feel free to correct me.

Jamil, can we get some resolution to this problem?