Home of the BrewNosers

I was reading an article that suggested there was some debate over the inclusion of unmalted barley in the grain bill of a dry stout, with one camp claiming it was needed for mouthfeel/texture while the other camp claimed the "big boys" only add unmalted barley at around 20% to save money compared to 100% malt.

Obviously if the latter is true then it makes no sense for me as a homebrewer to add unmalted barley because buying it in flaked form it actually costs me more than Maris Otter... Can I seriously get away with a dry stout with nothing in it but MO and roasted barley for grain? The last one I made turned out ok but it had 2 pounds of flaked barley as well (which made up a not insignificant portion of the batch cost since it had no real hops to speak of and the rest of the grain bill was bought in bulk)... I kinda want to try it without the flaked barley but I thought I'd check if anyone else had any experience here. I have a friend visiting from toronto who basically only drinks stout in a few weeks so I'd prefer not to gamble too hard on this batch.

Even if they're just adding it to save money, I would guess that it would still add some extra proteins that would contribute to mouth feel without adding sweetness. You can use other roasted grains in a dry stout too, rather than just roast barley.

The flaked barley also helps with head retention which is super important in a low carbonation beer since it isn't going to kick up as much foam without help.

Blegh, was hoping to get away with not spending 5 bucks on unmalted barley. Ah well, c'est la vie.

I realize a lot of stouts go more complex with their roasties, but every recipe I'm finding for a classic dry stout suggests nothing but roasted (unmalted) barley, which I have a ton of (I also have a ton of chocolate and pale chocolate malt, but I think that will wait for a porter/baltic porter/RIS/sweet stout/oatmeal stout or something)

you could brew one with what you have on hand and see if you like it. We get really good head retention on the homebrew scale so the flaked barley might be fixing an issue we don't have.

Well, my LHBS didn't have the two pounds of it I needed so I'm stuck subbing it anyway... The only question is whether I sub it with more base malt, flaked/torrified wheat (have half a bag of that coming tomorrow), or malted rye (should contribute plenty of protein and perhaps an interesting variant)

Rye could be very interesting in a roasty stout