Thoughts on this Oatmeal Stout Recipe?

[hommebru]

Trying out a nice chocolately oatmeal stout and have come up with this recipe, i'd like to know your thoughts as i've not used brown and amber malts extensively as of yet.

Malt---------------Weight in KG---% of Grain Bill

Marris Otter________ 4.500 = 73
Flaked Oats_________.500 = 8
Pale Chocolate______.300 = 5
Brown _____________.250 = 4
Amber_____________.250 = 4
Crystal_____________.250 = 4
Roasted Barley______.100 = 2
Torrified Wheat_____.050 = 1

I know it's a lot of ingredients in weight and number (the wheat is just getting thrown in as i've got it left lying about) but i'm unsure on how this will come out . I'm after a sweeter stout, not dry like Guinness, but i'm concerned that the amber/brown malt will dry it out/there is not enough crystal to sweeten it up, although will the oatmeal do this for me?
and according to my beer calc, this recipe only equates to an EBC of 51 which isn't that dark at all for a stout

help

[Manx Guy]

Hi!

Looks like it should make a good beer, but it does seem overly complex.
Also 8% flaked oats is quite alot, especialy as you are adding torre and unmalted barley - may turn out quite 'heavy'...

My oatmeal stout looks abit like this (and is 53 EBC):
Pale malt 84%
Oats 4.7%
Crystal 4.7%
Choc malt 4.7%
Roast barely 1%
Balck Malt 1%

of course you could add a little more black malt to get you to the colour you want.

Hope that helps!

Guy

[hommebru]

Thanks manxguy, i am thinking it might be too complex. think i might tone drop the amber malt addition and maybe up the crystal to 350.
haven't got any black patent sadly and i'm brewing tomorrow. but if i could i would.
i'll have a look into using oats in that percentage some more.

[jimp2003]

Hi hommebru!

Just as a comparison this is my Oatmeal Stout recipe:

Sam Smiths Oatmeal Stout (Oatmeal Stout)

Original Gravity (OG): 1.054 (°P): 13.3
Final Gravity (FG): 1.014 (°P): 3.6
Alcohol (ABV): 5.31 %
Colour (SRM): 27.4 (EBC): 53.9
Bitterness (IBU): 36.1 (Tinseth)

4500g 83.57% Maris Otter Malt
280g 5.2% Chocolate
220g 4.09% Flaked Oats
200g 3.71% Crystal
140g 1.95% Roasted Wheat
100g 1.49% Extra Dark Crystal

70g East Kent Golding (5.2% Alpha) @ 90 Minutes (Boil)


Single step Infusion at 66°C for 90 Minutes. Boil for 90 Minutes

Fermented at 20°C with

I toasted the oats lightly in the oven first to give them a cookie flavour. I don't think I would do that with the amount of oats you have in your recipe - I would probably only toast half if I had your grain bill to work with.

As you can see the software says my beer was 54 EBC and in the glass it was black as bumholes so at 51 EBC I would not worry.

I think that if you go with 500g of oats the body and silkiness they will add will combat the dryness from the other grains and the crystal upped to 350g will help there as well and make it nicely balanced. But as you say you are after a sweter brew so maybe dropping the amber might help towards this.

Go with your instincts, take good notes on brewday and be ready to adjust the recipe next time to get towards your perfect oatmeal stout..

Good luck on brewday and let us know how it turns out..

Cheers!

Jim

[CestrIan]

I think you should go for your recipe! Looks good to me!! This is one of the few styles that you can throw the kitchen sink at and it will come up smelling of fuggles. Don't be affraid of adding a bit of everythin IMO. A good slice of munich works well. Amber is perfect in this style so don't back off on that. Think of it as a pale choc malt. 500g of oats is not excessive and I wouldn't bother with 50g of wheat, but won't do any harm! Sorry Manx guy but there's no unmalted barley in the recipe and 1% patent malt wont make any difference. More crystal will balance the beer better IMO, but it's a matter of taste!

This is my oatmeal stout. I've tried it with the oats toasted and straight up - It makes no difference in the final beer!

Pale Malt 3600 grams
Munich Malt 700 grams
Oats 400 grams
Amber Malt 300 grams
Crystal Malt, Dark 300 grams
Crystal Malt 250 grams
Roasted Barley 200 grams
Chocolate Malt 200 grams

Your choice of hops 40IBU

[hommebru]

all brewed up

made the changes of leaving the amber out and adding 250g more crystal
cold steeped the pale chocolate and roasted barley to (hopefully) avoid any astringent taste.

all looks good atm, came out well at around 1.062 at 20 litres
only thing is, it's not dark enough at all. looks more like a deep deep brown rather than black. fermentation is underway, but is there any chance i could further steep some chocolate malt (150g) - bring it to the boil for 15mins, let cool down to 20 degrees and then add to the fermenter?

i'm thinking that as long as fermentation is in full swing (next 3 days) and i boil it thoroughly and cool it quickly and hygienically it should be alright to do.

thoughts?

[PieOPah]

I don't see any reason why you couldn't do this.

This will have an impact on your gravity readings though so you would need to take that into account (if you care about that kind of thing that is).

Personally, whenever I have added anything afterwards, I've never been too bothered about the impact it will make.

[hommebru]

thanks for the reassurance PieOPah.
adding the extra wort should reduce the OG to 1.055 which will still give me a 5-5.5% beer which is more than enough.
i think i'll cold that chocolate malt for 24 hours and then add after a boil.

[seymour]

SO MANY GOOD RECIPES IN THIS THREAD!

[CestrIan]

cold steeped the pale chocolate and roasted barley to (hopefully) avoid any astringent taste.

Don't be affraid of the dark malts hommebru! They are not astringent they are roasty and they are meant to be the flavours you get in a stout. You can cold steep dark malts in Cascadian ales or Black IPAs when you want the colour but not the roasty flavours that will overpower or conflict with the strong hop flavours in these styles.

is there any chance i could further steep some chocolate malt (150g) - bring it to the boil for 15mins, let cool down to 20 degrees and then add to the fermenter?

I don't understand why you would cold steep grains for a stout but if it's colour your after and not flavour then go for it, but it sounds like you're gong to boil the chocolate malt which could give you the astringent flavours your trying to avoid!

[hommebru]

i'm cold steeping because when i've hot steeped in the past with dark grains i've had a really bad astringent taste, I think it's my water profile that's the issue tbh.
hopefully cold steeping will allow me to get around this yet still produce a dark roasty beer.
i won\t be boiling the chocolate malt, just the liquor.