Brewing stout with dessert

[Brewer #190208]

Hi,
I'm planning to brew milk stout and I want the flavors will be similar to some desert I like with biscuits/cookies and meringue.
Anyone had any experience with this kind of brew? How can I get the flavors?
I thought to use biscuit malts, but I think chocolate malts will overpower it.
I prefer to do it on a secondary.

Looking up for some advice for meringue and biscuits/cookies..

Thanks!
Cheers!

 

[Mark Farrall]

As you say, the balance between the roasted flavours and the malts giving biscuit will be hard. Do the biscuits you're thinking of have some ingredients that may tirgger the associations.

Not sure what will work for the meringue as well. Actual meringue will dissappear as soon as the yeast get it, so you could try adding that tiny amount of vinegar and the vanilla to trigger the taste memories.

Or maybe start with a style that doesn't need the roasted malts like a Scotch ale or white stout?

 

[Brewer #190208]

As you say, the balance between the roasted flavours and the malts giving biscuit will be hard. Do the biscuits you're thinking of have some ingredients that may tirgger the associations.

Not sure what will work for the meringue as well. Actual meringue will dissappear as soon as the yeast get it, so you could try adding that tiny amount of vinegar and the vanilla to trigger the taste memories.

Or maybe start with a style that doesn't need the roasted malts like a Scotch ale or white stout?

Thanks!
Thought maybe replace meringue with marshmallow.

Do you think it will be ok if I'll add biscuits/cookies as dryhop in some like hop bag?

 

[Mark Farrall]

Thanks!
Thought maybe replace meringue with marshmallow.

Do you think it will be ok if I'll add biscuits/cookies as dryhop in some like hop bag?

Marshmallow can definitely make it through the brewing process. Though it always reminds me of marshmallow, not meringue, But I generally like the stouts with marshmallow if they avoid the super sweetness.

Complete derail, but I was listening to the brewer from Buxton talk about a contract batch he brewed for Mikkeller. He'd been sent the recipe, looked at the volumes and thought it was going to be fine, but when he got to near the end of the mash he had to add the marshmallows. He then discovered that the mash tun didn't have the volume to fit all the marshmallows in. They then had a nightmare steaming themselves while adding the marshmallows chunk by chunk, waiting for the previous marshmallows to dissolve.

The challenge with adding the biscuits is introducing all their microbes. Killing them will be a challenge. Freezing does kill a bunch, but there may still be some left that could send you in a sour direction. Boiling/steaming is the safest, but it's going to give you a biscuit mush. You could also just gamble that there's not going to be anything robust enough to outcompete the sacch yeast in a beer with the ABV you'll probably have. I've done it before. Or maybe a vodka tincture of the biscuits and add that to the beer at packaging? The tincture is probably the safest.

 

[Brewer #190208]

Thanks!
Thought about it again.
Few days ago I've tried Imperial Stout with halvah, liked it a lot.
So I'm thinking to brew some with sesame seeds or tahini. But a bit confused when to add it to the brew. I want the tastes and aromas of halvah , and there's a bit a problem with sesame seeds because of fat/oil levels. Maybe to toast the seeds? or maybe use the tahini paste?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Mark Farrall]

Tahini is probably worse than the sesame seeds. Heaps of oil added when they make the paste. If you're talking halva I think the chances of a source of infection surviving in the sugar in the halva and then in the imperial stout are pretty low. But then I've infected a big stout before, so maybe I'm not the best judge.

I'd probably wait for primary fermentation to finish. Then add the halva until you've got the taste you're after (possibly in secondary depending on your primary vessel) then wait a while as the halva will undoubtedly cause a secondary fermentation. Once that's done hopefully the taste is still there and you can package.

That said, if you can get it to work I can see Halva being a beautiful finish for some stouts.

If not the halva/tahini approach, you could try roasted sesame seeds, lactose and a walnut/vodka tincture.