Description:

Based off of Hardywood's Gingerbread Stout, this is an imperial milk stout with ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, lactose, and honey. The end result is a 10% abv beer that closely approximates fresh gingerbread cookies with a side of milk at Christmas time. A good candidate for oak/ barrel aging with your favorite whiskey or brandy.

Taste Notes ~
Brewday: 9 Dec -Very sweet, loads of ginger, honey, vanilla, cinnamon isn't overwhelming, but that's probably a good thing. Malty chocolate backbone is there. Hops are a little agressive, but they'll probably subside as the beer settles. Dec 26: - Aroma is a nice combination of roasted coffee, chocolate, ginger, cinnamon, some licorice and dark fruit, a slight metalic smell. Taste is still fairly sweet overall, ginger and cinnamon are very strong in the aftertaste, creaminess from the lactose is nice and it has a nice thick body and mouthfeel to it. It coats the tongue well. Honey is definitely present in there, probably since its been the primary fermentable up to this point. Very decent at this time aside from a couple drawbacks. Jan 6: - (NOTE: poured into a glass with a bit of vanilla bean contents on a spoon) Nice roasted chocolate and espresso with lots of ginger and honey, creamy lactose as well, vanilla seeps in there as well. Hop bitterness and slightly boozy on the backend isn't all that pleasant, but hopefully that subsides. Overall, I'm looking forward to how this tastes after secondary with all the ginger, cinnamon and vanilla and then carbed. Jan 13: - Aroma is nice stout aroma with lots of ginger and some earthy, spicy breadiness to it. Flavor is a combination of everything I know is in there, honey takes a back seat to the spices, but ginger is not overwhelming yet, cinnamon and vanilla harmonize well. Earthy chocolate and expresso from the malts adds a nice stout base. Some tart notes are present, but I feel that's probably the GF grains. I will need to keep that in mind for future beers. The aftertaste has a bit much for hoppy bitterness, so I will dial back the hops in future iterations. Jan 20: - Aroma is loads of dark roasted notes, ginger, cinnamon, bready sweetness. Color is dark brown, pretty decent, though I would like it a hair (or more) darker. Nice chocolate bite to the beer, a bit of ginger is up front well, with some creamy vanilla on the backend (I wish there were more complexity, but some of the flavors may be overwhelming others). There is a bit of a twangy-tartness present, but it works with the dark nature of the beer. This may be from the grains, but it may also be a symptom of over hopping the beer. Mouthfeel is medium full with some decent fluffy creaminess, I would like to get more of the creaminess you get from oats. Maybe next time try to add some quinoa? Worked well with some bourbon last night.

Ingredients:

• 7.00 gal Balanced II Water
• 5.45 g Calcium Chloride (Mash 60 min) Misc
• 4.96 g Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 60 min) Misc
• 4.10 g Baking Soda (Mash 60 min) Misc
• 1.52 g Salt (Mash 60 min) Misc
• 1.05 g Chalk (Mash 60 min) Misc
• 2 lbs Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct
• 5 lbs Pale Millet Malt (1.3 SRM) Grain
• 3 lbs Pale Rice Malt (1.1 SRM) Grain
• 2 lbs Chocolate Roasted Millet Malt (140.0 SRM) Grain
• 2 lbs Organic Roasted Buckwheat Malt (8.0 SRM) Grain
• 2 lbs Roasted Cara Millet Malt (42.0 SRM) Grain
• 1 lbs Gas Hog Rice Malt (400.0 SRM) Grain
• 5.76 ml SEBflo TL (Mash 120 min) Misc
• 5.76 ml SEBstar HTL (Mash 120 min) Misc
• 0.60 oz Warrior [15.0%] - Boil 60 min Hops
• 0.80 oz Nugget [13.0%] - Boil 20 min Hops
• 4.00 oz Ginger Root (Boil 12 min) Misc
• 0.00 oz Rice Extract Syrup [Boil for 5 min] (7.0 SRM) Extract
• 0.75 oz Exp 5256 [17.5%] - Boil 5 min Hops
• 2.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 5 min) Misc
• 3.00 oz Cinnamon Stick (Boil 5 min) Misc
• 2 lbs Milk Sugar (Lactose) [Boil for 5 min] (0.0 SRM) Sugar
• 4.00 oz Maltodextrin [Boil for 5 min] (3.0 SRM) Sugar
• 1 pkgs Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast
• 3 lbs 5.00 oz Honey [Boil for 5 min] (1.0 SRM) Sugar
• 2.00 Vanilla Bean (Secondary 7 days) Misc

Additional Instructions

Primary Ferment: Boil Size: 7.16 gal

Beer Profile

Original Gravity: 1.101
Final Gravity: 1.023
Alcohol by Vol: 10.4%
Color SRM: 46.6
Bitterness IBU: 65.5
Recipe Type: all-grain
Yield: 4.2 Gallons

Procedure:

Source: Posted with permission of Matt S.