Help choosing/modifying oatmeal stout

Atrus · 10-26-2006, 01:39 AM

OK, so I want to do a java-oatmeal stout, unless someone has a reason why I shouldn't (i.e, stick to a standard stout?). Also, I'd like to make this one a little higher ABV (7%-8%?) if I can keep the flavor good. So, please veterans, help out!

I've seen three recipes for oatmeal stouts on here, all interest me. I plan on taking one of these and adding in the coffee flavor (reading up on hwo to do that also). Problem is, I have 3.5 batches under my belt, so I can't analyze the ingredients to determine what each does to the taste, and which would be good for the application. The recipes are as follows:

Number 1
6 lbs. amber, dry malt extract
1 lb. crystal malt, 60¡ Lovibond
1.5 lb. American six-row pale ale malt
18 oz. oatmeal (quick)
0.5 lb. chocolate malt
0.5 lb. roasted barley
[EDIT] .25~ lb of Rice Hulls (because there are so many grains in the bag)
1/2 tsp. Irish moss, for 15 min.
2 oz. Fuggles hop pellets (4.2% alpha acid), for 45 min.
Wyeast 1084, Irish ale yeast

Number 2
6 lbs. dark malt extract
1 lb. oatmeal
1 lb. Six-row pale malt
1/2 lb. Roast unmalted barley
1/4 lb. Black Patent Malt
1/2 lb. medium crystal malt
1 oz. Target or Northdown hops (bittering)
1/2 oz. Willamettes hops (flavoring)
1/2 oz. Willamettes hops (finishing)
Safale yeast S 04.

Number 3
7 lb. John Bull Amber Malt Extract
1 lb. M & F Amber Dry Malt
½ lb. M & F Roasted Barley Malt 675° L
½ lb. M & F Black Patent Malt 471° L
½ lb. M & F Chocolate Malt 338° L
1 lb. Flaked Oats (Quaker Quick Oats Can Be Substituted)
1oz. Yakima Magnum Hops (Bittering)
1 oz. Fuggles Hops (Finishing)
Wyeast # 1099XL Whitbread Ale Yeast

Which would you think would be best for a higher-alcohol java stout and why? With whichever you think is the best fit, can you help me alter ingredients to account for the higher alcohol percentage? I know I'd need to add more hops...do I do this proportionally? Do I need to increase grain amounts? How much corn sugar/honey/lme/dme (please tell me what you'd use and why) would I add to get to my 7%-8% (if taste is good, if it'll taste like arse, please let me know what you'd put it at for best taste/alcohol balance. If 6% would taste much better, let me know and base your answer on that).

I know this is a large order to ask of you guys, but I am hoping your explanations and recommendations will help turn on a light bulb over my head. If you explain why (and please give guidance as you are all more experienced than I) I think I could learn a lot from this brew. Trying to get myself away from kits and be a little more individualistic!

Thanks so much!

debtman7 · 10-26-2006, 01:37 PM

#1 and #2 would require a partial mash for the 6-row malts. #3 could just be steeped. Otherwise they're similar, but would probably have slightly different characteristics.

Honestly if you want to reformulate for more alcohol and balance out the hops, your best bet is to get some brewing software or a brew spreadsheet or something. It's by far the easiest way to play with malt amounts to get your ABV, and figure out the IBU's of hops to balance it out. You can also check various yeast attenuations to try to determine how dry/sweet it is, etc. Doing this gives you a better idea of how modifications to a recipe will work out since you can look at all the stats like FG, OG, alcohol, bitterness, etc and you can more easily tailor it to your desires.

I punched #3 into beer alchemy since I assume you don't want to do a partial mash. It comes out at 5.8% ABV, 33 IBU's bitterness and 35 color (pretty dark). I used 8lbs light liquid malt instead of Amber LME+DME since it should do the job just fine. This is based on a 3 gallon boil.

Ok you want to bump up the alcohol, up it to 11 lbs of light LME. I've done my oatmeals stout trying to keep the oatmeal about 10% of the grist, so I'd up the oats to 1.5 lbs. I would think that the roasted malts would still be enough to keep up with this, but if you like your stouts with a lot of roasted characterisitcs, you might want to up the roasted barley to .75 lbs. Personally I think 1/2 lbs of 3 different roasted malts is enough for this recipe. If you want it really black though, upping some of the roasted malts will make it black black.

Upping the malts takes your bitterness down to 23 IBU. If you want to keep it around 33, bump up the magnum hops to 1.5 ounces.

Yeast wise, using the Whitbread Ale yeast you get 8.0% ABV. If you use Irish Ale yeast, you'd get 8.3% ABV. I would guess the whitbread ale would get you a slightly sweeter stout whereas the Irish Ale would give a bit more of a dry stout, especially if you ferment it on the cool side.

Atrus · 10-26-2006, 09:03 PM

Thanks Debtman. I appreciate the input, and you're correct, I'd rather not mash.

I'll give it a shot and see how it comes out. I really appreciate the explanations and help. Hopefully be brewing this on Sat!

Brewiz · 10-27-2006, 11:27 PM

If you are still planning on using coffee, make sure you cold brew it so you don't get the bitterness and oils in the coffee.