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Video Tip: Getting the Most from Your Adjuncts in Flavored Stouts

From ball bearings to infusion tanks, Maplewood founder Adam Cieslak and special projects lead Adam Smith offer technical advice on how to best extract the flavors from ingredients such as coconut and coffee.

Adam Cieslak , Adam Smith Mar 8, 2023 - 2 min read

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Chicago’s Maplewood Brewery & Distillery has earned a strong reputation among its peers for all its beers, including IPAs and lagers, but perhaps especially for its award-winning stout program. Whether it’s the mid-strength core beer Fat Pug, a milk stout of 5.9 percent ABV, or a higher-gravity entry in the Cuppa series—adjuncted and/or barrel-aged—Maplewood has a knack for building in loads of flavor without losing balance.

In the 98-minute video course, Maplewood’s founding brewer and CEO Adam Cieslak joins head brewer Roger Cuzelis and special projects lead Adam Smith to detail their approach to building these stouts, including:

  • desiging grists for stouts of varying strengths
  • different base malts for smaller or barrel-aged stouts
  • dialing in water and mash pH to buffer the acidity of dark malts
  • mash temperatures that balance big body with fermentability
  • long boils for stouts small and large
  • layering flavors into smaller stouts
  • balancing higher-gravity and barrel-aged stouts
  • adjusting base stout recipes to balance flavor adjuncts
  • aiming for very high starting gravities and getting more from a massive mash
  • adding malt extracts and sugars for even more gravity
  • managing fermentation to ensure adequate attenuation in big stouts
  • barrel-aging, from sourcing barrels to adjusting recipes to aging and blending
  • considerations for coffee, vanilla, and various other flavor adjuncts
  • ensuring flavor extraction from adjuncts

And more.

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