Northern Monk – From Bradford To The World Foreign Extra Stout

Inspired by perhaps the most famous of the style, and keen for our interpretation to do it justice, a lot of reading and discussion went into putting together this foreign extra stout recipe. Sitting in the middle strength-wise of a dry Irish stout, an imperial stout, and popular strong brews across Africa, the Caribbean and even central Europe, this recipe was all about getting the proportions and balance of roasted malts just right. The grist is led with a high portion of roast barley, which does exactly what it says on the tin! Backed up by a smaller percentage of chocolate malt, this combination gives a prominent toasted roasty flavour, with layers of bitter dark chocolate and coffee bean. From there, it was about how we could fill out the body and flavours underneath, we used flaked barley, the traditional adjunct malt of choice, to bulk out the body with proteins and complex sugars. Light and dark crystal malts bring sweet toffee, treacle, and dark, dried fruits to the mix for an additional dimension, and we complemented these fruity notes by fermenting with an old school English ale yeast which contributes esters of dark cherry and red apple.