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Craft Beer & Brewing
Fun and Flavorful Pastry Stouts with Great Notion

Craft Beer & Brewing Course

Fun and Flavorful Pastry Stouts with Great Notion

Join Lara Hargrave, lead brewer at Great Notion in Portland, Oregon, as she takes us on a journey through the brewery’s method of producing whimsical, indulgent, childhood-nostalgia-inducing sweet stouts.

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In this 39-minute video course, lead brewer Lara Hargrave walks us through each step of Great Notion’s production of dessert-driven stouts—beers such as Double Stack, their imperial breakfast stout with coffee and maple syrup. Along the way, she discusses: 

  • recipe development, from grist to adjuncts
  • selecting dark malts that support and balance flavor adjuncts without clashing
  • how to ensure a smooth lauter
  • long boils, dark sugars, and malt extracts for flavor and body
  • using slaked lime to balance acidic ingredients
  • managing fermentation in a hostile environment for yeast
  • using an adjunct tank for ingredients such as coconut and peanuts
  • tips on working with coffee, nuts, marshmallow, coconut, and more
  • the careful use of flavor extracts
  • experimenting with different flavor adjuncts
  • adding flavor adjuncts to barrel-aged stouts
  • oily ingredients, volatile aromas, and other pitfalls

And more.


Course contents

5 chapters, 21 lessons, 39m of video

Chapter 2

Mashing and Brewing Pastry Stouts

  • Developing the Malt Bill and Mashing6:32
  • Long Boils and Flavorful Sugars1:47
  • Managing Bitterness, Balance, and Acidity1:27

Chapter 3

The Cold Side and Flavor Adjuncts

  • Promoting Healthy Fermentation in a Hostile Environment7:25
  • Adding Flavor Adjuncts to Pastry Stouts6:18
  • Selecting and Working with Flavor Adjuncts3:55
  • Flavor Extracts, Spices, and Toasting Nuts2:32
  • Fruit Purees in Stouts0:27
  • Watching Acidity with Adjuncts0:43

Chapter 4

Experimentation

  • Experimenting with Different Flavors1:01
  • Adding Flavor Adjuncts to Barrel-Aged Stouts0:50
  • Tasting, Blending, and Flavoring Barrel-Aged Stouts0:46
  • Oils, Volatile Aromas, and Other Pitfalls2:26
  • Finishing, Carbonating, and Packaging1:21

Chapter 5

Parting Thoughts, Further Reading, Listening & Recipes

  • Thank You, and Keep Beer Fun!0:22
  • Recipe: Great Notion Pastry Stout Base
  • Randy Mosher on Pastry Stouts as Liquid Nostalgia
  • Breakout Brewer Profile on Great Notion (2017)
  • Podcast Episode 40: Great Notion’s Andy Miller: The Only Brewing Technique Constant is Change (2018)
  • Podcast Episode 250: Breakside’s Ben Edmunds, Great Notion’s James Dugan, and Von Ebert’s Sam Pecoraro Dissect Trendy Beers and Innovation