About This Course

This course includes 68+ minutes of video

In this 68-minute video course packed with useful tips, Montgomery opens the books on their approach to designing and brewing these indulgent yet easily drinkable stouts. Along the way, he covers:

  • planning a recipe depending on target flavors
  • using the building blocks of malt to hit that target
  • using flaked wheat and oats for body, mouthfeel, and head retention
  • specific malt types and percentages to achieve different effects
  • why chocolate rye and chocolate wheat are the secret weapons
  • adjusting the malt base to account for flavor additions
  • keeping lactose in balance with the rest of the beer
  • adjusting roast malts as the mellow with age
  • using dry malt extract to maintain body in imperial stouts
  • adding maltodextrin to support a high finishing gravity
  • accounting for the perceived bitterness of roast malts and cocoa nibs
  • selecting spices for pumpkin stouts, chai stouts, and more
  • making a spice slurry to help ensure consistent flavor
  • sourcing freshly roasted cocoa nibs for chocolate stouts
  • using vanilla extract to boost milk chocolate flavor
  • adding fresh beans and cold-brew extract to coffee stouts
  • adjusting recipe and process for different equipment
  • lengthening the boil to account for additions of lactose, maltodextrin, and malt extract
  • water profile, pH, and mash temps for milk and imperial stouts
  • using Fermcap to manage big stout fermentations
  • adding pumpkin-pie spices to both whirlpool and brite tank for deeper flavor
  • pitching big yeast slurries to ferment imperial stouts
  • processes for adding various flavor adjuncts on the cold side
  • using the “Flavor Blaster 2000” to add extra flavor when needed
  • considerations for barrel aging


Instructor

Third Eye Brewing in suburban Cincinnati has enjoyed a remarkable run of success with their milk and sweet stouts—often enhanced by chocolate, coffee, or spices, sometimes imperial-strength or barrel-aged, but always rich and flavorful yet balanced. On the watch of co-owner and head brewer Kelly Montgomery—the “milk stout whisperer”—Third Eye since 2021 has won five medals for stouts at the Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup; three of those medals were golds. (Before that, from 2018 to 2020, Montgomery’s milk stouts also won three straight GABF golds for nearby Brink Brewing.)

Kelly Montgomery

Co-owner and head brewer, Third Eye Brewing

Course Curriculum

  • 01

    Introduction

    Show Content

    • Welcome to the Course, and an Overview
  • 02

    Planning the Recipe

    Show Content

    • Malt’s Building Blocks

    • Adjusting the Malt Base for Added Flavors and Higher Gravities

    • Flavor Additions: Selecting Spices, Cocoa Nibs, Vanilla, Coffee, and More
  • 03

    The Brewing Process

    Show Content

    • Tips on Brewing and Fermentation

    • Adding Flavors on the Cold Side

    • Considerations for Barrel Aging
  • 04

    Parting Thoughts

    Show Content

    • Thank You, Now Go Make Some Great Stout
  • 05

    Bonus Tracks

    Show Content

    • The Milk Stout Whisperer

    • Recipe: Third Eye Astral Chocolate Stout

    • Recipe: Third Eye Higher Purpose Milk Stout

    • Recipe: Third Eye Lil Astral Chocolate Oatmeal Stout

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