Pastry Stout Deluxe

I’ve sold my soul to the devil. You heard me: I’m going to brew the pastriest pastry stout imaginable. Coconut? Yeah! Chocolate? You bet! Tom & Jerry biscuits..? Fuck it, why not. This one’s not for me, it’s for all my beloved readers who will be attending the championships in Gothenburg this year. Mark your calendars, because you don’t want to miss this.

A pastry stout should have a heavy body with a lot of sweetness, and, you guessed it flavors reminiscent of pastries. Imagine relaxing in a cozy café as the rain smatters against the windows, biting into a moist piece of chocolate cake as a waft of coffee tickles your nose. That’s what a good pastry stout should taste like.

The base of the beer will be pilsner malt, roasted barley, chocolate malt, caramel malt, lactose and malt extract.  Hops will be a simple bittering charge of magnum, and my yeast of choice will be Nottingham Ale. I’ll also be adding a variety of specialty ingredients; roasted coconut, cocoa nibs, vanilla beans, biscuits and finally, a dash of love.

Gothenburg Noir

Aroma: potent dark chocolate, coffee, roasted malts and a hint of vanilla. Pleasant and inviting.

Flavor: the flavor follows suit with a heavy roasted malt presence, dark chocolate (think 90% cocoa), coffee, grainy malts and a sharp bitterness with notes of vegetables.

Mouthfeel: Heavy and sweet, but the high bitterness keeps the residual sweetness in check. Easier to drink than most pastry stouts, and likely too bitter to truly qualify as one but I just couldn't bear to keep the bitterness that low.

Thoughts: I enjoy the balance of bitter and sweet in this beer, and I feel the cocoa and coffee are just about right but I'd like a bit more vanilla. I'm bothered by the vegetative flavors from the hops, but those are likely to age out. Next time I'll use real vanilla beans and a higher quality coffee. I'd also like to lower the bitterness a bit, and I feel it would benefit from a more exciting base malt than pilsner.

Recipe details

• OG 1,102
• FG ~1,040
• ABV ~9%
• SRM 80
• IBU 80

Malts and sugars

• 45% pilsner malt
• 23% light malt extract
• 9% roasted barley
• 9% chocolate malt
• 9% caramel malt (50 EBC)
• 5% lactose

Mash temperature: 64 c for one hour.

Hops

• 80 IBU Magnum at 60 minutes

Yeast

Nottingham Ale added at 18 c, then raised to 20 c after three days until fermentation is complete.

Water

• 2 tsp baking soda (in the mash)
• 2 tsp calcium chloride (in the boil)
• 1 tsp calcium sulfate (in the boil)

Other

• Cocoa nibs
• Bourbon vanilla beans
• Roasted coconut
• Coffee
• Tom & Jerry biscuits
• Love (one dash)

Notes:

26/01/20: Fermentation has stopped. FG = 1,042. Cold crash at -1 degrees.
27/01/20: Added one bottle (25 ml) of vanilla extract, 50 g whole, dark roasted coffee beans and a chocolate tincture made with 25 g cocoa nibs and a bit of vodka. I'll skip the coconuts this time, too messy.
02/02/20: First sample. Pretty decent!