Just in time for winter, CHAOS is holding its Sixth Club-Only Competition featuring the big, dark and sweet Tropical Stout! Sponsored by Lo-Rez Brewing, the gold-medal winning brewer will have the opportunity to brew their beer at Lo-Rez and have it served at their taproom.
Important Dates:
- Calibration Tasting - Thursday September 27, 6 pm Lo-Rez Brewing
- Online Entry Deadline - Thursday November 1st
- Entry Bottles due by Tuesday November 27 at the CHAOS Brewhouse
- Competition Date - Friday November 30, awards announcement at 8 pm
- Medal Winning Beers featured at Stout & Chili Night Saturday January 26, 2019
All the rules, entry and style info, and online registration can be found here.
Because the Tropical Stout style isn't widely available commercially, Lo-Rez is hosting a calibration tasting on Thursday 9/27. We'll explore the style, taste a couple of commercial examples as well as some comparable styles, such as the Foreign Extra Stout. There will be some food, details TBD.
Questions, suggestions or concerns? Competition Coordinators are Patty McGuire and Jim Vondracek.
Can anyone suggest how to tweak our current stout recipe to a tropical? I was told it is about a Jamaican tropical stout. I also appreciate any links to further readings about tropical stouts. Thanks in advance!
5Gal Batch Stout R1:
11lb Marris Otter
1 lb Flaked Oat
.5 Roasted Barley
.5 Crystal 120
.5 Chocolate Malt
.5 Honey Malt
.5 Carabrown
Williamette hop additions
Please let me know what you feel is best!
-Bill George, FG52
I think we're all just winging it here when it comes to this style. But, from the commercial example I tried and my own results from attempting the style:
- Loose the C120 and Carabrown. I don't think you'll get much from them.
- This beer is supposed to be really sweet, so I would add lactose.
- Only do a bittering hop addition, any additional hop character would be out of style.
- For the yeast, I had success (in my opinion, at least) with Irish ale yeast. That being said, I actually recommend using lager yeast and fermenting at ale temperatures, as this is how the style is actually feremented. If you have access to American lager yeast, roll with that.
Hi Bill. If you read through the link above, it includes a pretty good description of the style, and compares it to other more common stout styles. Here's a link to a pretty good recipe for it on Homebrewtalk
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/whats-that-jamaican.656584/
While it's too late to enter this club only competition, we've got the spring competition already set and will announce it after this competition - stay tuned!
www.singingboysbrewing.com
Thank you Jeff and Jim, for the insight.
Originally this is base stout we are playing around with and use the C120 for ABV, flavor and color, but the Carabrown from my understanding gives a "bread crust" and "biscuit" flavor we were hoping to pull that pastry aspect.
I like the idea of lactose for increased sweetness.
The bittering hop addition out of style note is most important. As furthermore with the yeast, the whole thing is very interesting about the lager at ale temps, but again it makes sense to the style.
The whole steeping of the dark malts is interesting too from that link.
It is fun reading about this style, and I look forward to brewing it up!
Thanks again Jeff and Jim!
I would drop the oats....I think the chewiness will be a detractor honestly for the style
Thank you team, so we did two 5 gallon batches. We switched the yeasts, reduced the hops and added lactose on the second one. We put fermented version 1 in a glass carboy and BIAB; while the second was pot/cooler and in a conical. The black patent, chocolate and roasted barley were cold steeped for 24 hours in 1 gallon water.
Tropical Stout Version 1
11# Marris Otter
1 # Black Patent
.5 # Crystal 120 L
.5 # Chocolate Malt
.5 # Roasted Barley
.5 # Special B Malt
.5 oz Motueka
.5 oz Pacific Jade
.5 oz Motueka
.5 oz Pacific Jade
California Lager (Wyeast labs) – first yeast packed was lame so re-pitched another 5 days later.
Tropical Stout V1 Revision 2
11 # Marris Otter
1 # Black Patent
.5 # Crystal 120 L
.5 # Chocolate Malt
.5 # Roasted Barley
.5 # Special B Malt
1 # Lactose
.25 oz Motueka
.25 oz Pacific Jade
.25 oz Motueka
.25 oz Pacific Jade
Irish Ale Yeast (White Labs)
Food Pairing was BBQ Jerk seasoned pork and chicken thighs and music was Israel Vibration