Dark and lactosey
Our sweet stout is English in character with eight and a quarter pounds of Maris Otter for the base. A big thirteen ounce dose of black patent turns things dark. Ten ounces of Caramel 80 and six ounces of pale chocolate add a bit of character. Thirteen ounces of unfermentable lactose added directly to the boil shifts it into the sweet category. The only hop addition was an ounce and a half of East Kent Goldings at the beginning of a sixty minute boil. Gravity was right on target at 1.058. The recipe called for an odd yeast: Wyeast #1099 Whitbread but fermentation was nonetheless uneventful completing at 1.10.
Very, very roasty to the point of almost smelling smoky – the nose also includes sweetness that comes across as vanilla. The initial taste is definitely on the sweeter side although not overly so. The finish gives way to a slight bitterness but no big burnt or coffee flavors. If there’s a smokiness in the taste as well it’s definitely very mild. The texture is thinner than I would like. The milk sugar and unfermentables ought to result in a fuller body. A little coffee would not be unwelcome, but the general mix of sweetness and mildly bitter barley seems appropriate.