Advice about irish dry stout I just brewed

[kujo]

Hi guys,

I've been brewing all-grain for several years, but a couple of weeks ago, I brewed my first stout (I mostly brew ales: pale ales, bitters, red ales, hefe, porter... but never a stout).

Anyway, my numbers are all pretty good - happy about that, but when I was transferring to the keg, I took a little sample for myself, and MAN WAS IT ROASTY.

This beer was in a fermenter for two weeks, and readings indicated it was done. I have no doubts about any of that -- temps were great, readings were as expected, fermentation was checked several times a day and things were good, and I don't think roasted barley is gonna really give anything for the yeast to munch on -- I expected roastiness. But this is nuts.

So my questions are:

1. Will I see the roastiness mellow as it ages? Is this just "green beer"?
2. What's the normal aging time for a stout?

For reference, my recipe is very close to the irish dry stout recipe in "Brewing Classic Styles". 7lbs British Pale to 1lb Roasted barley.

Thanks for any input on stouts in general, and my questions in particular.

[Mill Rat]

With a full pound of RB, you're gonna have a roasty beer. It will mellow some, but not a lot. Stout is really much like any other Irish or English ale, it will follow the 1-2-3 rule, and be ready six weeks after brewing, it just has a little RB in it, that's all. Relax, it'll be fine.

[River]

might be a nooba AG question but what is a 1.2.3 rule brew bottle drink ????

[Mill Rat]

Yep, Noob question, but since the search feature on this site is compromised, here it is:

For a fairly mild- to mid-strength ale (< 1.060 OG)

1 week in primary
2 weeks in secondary
3 weeks to bottle condition.

[JayShaw91]

Kujo, I'll back that up. You're going to get a pretty roasty beer. A quick lesson I learned is that any time you're messing with a darker grain, go small at first and tweak up things in your recipes as you go. Dark grains can make your beer something entirely different than what you expect.

River, to further confuse you, if you're kegging a light colored beer, 1-2-1 works fine if you're carbonating in the keg. Hefe's, wits, blondes, and other light colored, not super hoppy beers can be had in a month. Another reason to keg.

Anything dark or hoppy I'd recommend more patience for keggers. 1 week in primary, 2 in secondary, 1 in a pressurized keg at room temp, and 2 in the keg carbonating/cold aging. I'm sure 3 weeks of cold aging wouldn't really hurt, though, if you're trying to save space.

[River]

3 weeks bottle conditioning lol ... only about half of all brews in my house make it past that skirmish line ... i like to think of it as reasearch and development

actually i live with 7 people in my house and we all have lots of friends (accept for me im the hermit) thats why i always have at least 3 fermenters working for me at all times ... its a good arangement my house mates like to drink and i like to brew ...
i think i might like brewing almost as much as drinking the brew ... hmmm perhaps on second thoughts...

although now that im converting to AG brewing im going to have to make a heck of alot time in my lifestyle to acomadate for longer brewing sessions.

i just finnished my first AG ( no longer a AG virgin, hee hee ) and it took me over 6 hrs from prep to pitch ...