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I'm looking for some feedback. I usually do kit brews for now but I am looking to get into building my own recipes. This is my first go around on that. I want to do an oatmeal stout and I'd like to keep it creamy and chocolately and not bitter.

Just want to get some of your opinions? Where and I screwing up here? What would you do differently?

Any pro tips here to brewing/creating oatmeal stouts?

Thanks! ~ Tom

http://brewershub.com/recipes/toms-oatmeal-stout-2

Partial Mash Recipe

  • Batch size: 5.0 Gallons
  • Boil size: 3.0 Gallons
  • Original gravity: 1.059
  • Final gravity: 1.015
  • Abv: 5.8 %
  • Color: 40.0 SRM
  • Bitterness: 31.0 IBU
  • Steeping efficiency: 75.0

Ingredients:

  • 1.0 ounce Goldings Hops 60 min boil
  • 0.5 ounce Fuggle Hops 45 min boil
  • 1.0 pound Dry Malt Extract - Light
  • 3.15 pound Liquid Malt Extract - Dark
  • 0.75 pound Chocolate Malt
  • 0.5 pound Roasted Barley
  • 0.5 pound Biscuit Malt
  • 2.0 pound Flaked Oats
  • 2.0 pound Maris Otter Pale Malt
  • 1.0 packet Wyeast NB NeoBritannia (1945)
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  • Updated the recipe. Upped the MO to 2 lbs (see Denny's response below) and change the LME to dark (from amber) and the LME to light (from amber). Also, removed the crystal 60 grain. Changed the yeast from London Ale III to NeoBritannia which should hold up better with the stronger stouts (I believe).
    – tomcocca
    Dec 31, 2010 at 13:21
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    Tom, in the future I'd advise you to use only the lightest extract you can find and get color and flavor through the use of specialty malts. For one thing, when you use anything other than light extract, you have no idea what was used to make the extract. It could be ingredients you don't really want in your beer. For example, the dark extract could be dark because of black patent , which you don't want in a stout. Second, using light extract as a base and adding other grains mimics the way all grain brewing works, which gives you a leg up if you ever want to go to all grain.
    – Denny Conn
    Dec 31, 2010 at 15:28
  • Great to know, thanks Denny. I'll take that into consideration, really the only reason I wanted to use the dark was to get the color I was looking for, but it looks like if I use all light it wont affect it too much due to the amount of roasted barley and chocolate malt I'll be using. Thanks again.
    – tomcocca
    Dec 31, 2010 at 18:35

2 Answers 2

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You need to be aware that flaked oats (or any flaked grains) can't be steeped. They need to be mashed with a diastatic malt to convert the starches into fermentable sugar. Unfortunately, the 1/4 lb. of MO you have in there isn't enough to do that. with 2 lb. of flaked oats. I'd use at least 1.5 lb. of MO or a good domestic pale malt.

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  • Thanks Denny, this is great to know, I was planning on doing it as a "partial mash". Is this still an option? Mashing the specialty grains and increasing the MU to 1.5 - 2 lbs with the oats before adding the extracts? What is the best way to go about this. Before with kits that had specialty grains, they just required steeping. Now with the partial mash I was looking at some instructions like the following: northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/PM-OatmealStout.pdf
    – tomcocca
    Dec 30, 2010 at 19:36
  • actually these look like decent partial mash instructions I think without having to buy a ton of new equipment for it: breworganic.com/tips/Virtual_class/class__mash-extract.htm
    – tomcocca
    Dec 30, 2010 at 19:49
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    Tom, a mash is just a steep with a controlled amount of water at a controlled temp for a controlled time. If you use 2 qt. of water for each lb. of grain and hold the temp around 155 (anywhere from 148-160F is actually OK) for 60 min., you'll be doing a mash! If your oven goes that low, you can heat your water on the stovetop, add your grain, then put it in the oven for an hour to hold the temp. When it comes out, remove thre grain and rinse it with another qt. or 2 /lb. of 170-180F water to sparge and rinse out more sugar. Then add you extract and continue as usual.
    – Denny Conn
    Dec 30, 2010 at 20:00
  • If you take Zymurgy magazine, I'll have an article in the next issue detailing the process.
    – Denny Conn
    Dec 30, 2010 at 20:01
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The revised recipe after Denny's advice looks very good. If you want a really smooth oatmeal stout, you can leave out the biscuit malt and replace with flaked barley (1lb - this is more than the biscuit, so you're OG will be a touch higher), the flaked barley will round out and improve head retention. You may want to up the IBUs just a touch to 36-39 by adding 0.25oz more bittering hops, since the extracts leave residual sweetness that needs balancing out. I've not used NeoBritannia, but some report it finishes high, (another reason for using slightly more bittering hops) so try keep your mash temperature around 150F to make it more fermentable.

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