Oatmeal Stout Aging Question

pacebrew · 11-03-2009, 04:12 AM

Brewed JZ's oatmeal stout a week ago. Well, we miscalculated the water and ended up with a high OG, and a low volume. Funny how after all this time we cant get the volume levels right! lol

After fermentation, it does smell a bit boozy. We run a tight ship and generally ferment for 7 days, go into secondary for 7-10 days, and then straight into kegs for a week of co2.

Do you think it will taste overly boozy? Im hoping that its mellowed out some by then. Let me know what yall think! i mean i hear so much about aging, but, lol, i just cant wait.

we actually did a belgian that was close to 11% and it tasted fine outa the keg and it wasnt aged. so im not real worried.

**SporkD2** · 11-03-2009, 06:05 AM

first off, 7 days in primary is just nuts esp. if thats your "tight ship" most beers arent even done fully fermenting in 7 days, secondary should be for conditioning, not fermenting

but to your questions, the only thing that will mellow out that alcohol bite is aging, and no 2 weeks wont do much for it if the ABV is way up there

**bradsul** · 11-03-2009, 02:16 PM

I give my oatmeal stouts 3 months to age normally. Let your beers age and you'll be surprised how much better they taste. Just brew more so it doesn't feel like you're waiting.

**petep1980** · 11-03-2009, 02:52 PM

The one I am currently drinking, probably my best beer to date smelled horribly boozy when bottling which I did after close to 2 weeks. It's been about a month in the keg which I stored cold after priming for 1 week and the beer is mellow, smooth and sweet with enough of an intimidating bite to scare away sissies.

Mainebrew · 11-03-2009, 04:29 PM

+1 on aging, 3 months for that stout will bring it from a good beer to a great beer. I normally let anything that has roasted in it age at least 3 months.

jlpred55 · 11-03-2009, 07:34 PM

I don't. I start to drink my JZ stout pretty early. 1 month primary, then to bottles, let conditon for 3 weeks and then I start drinking them. It mellows with age, like anything, but the full flavor of the beer is there at 7 weeks and it is roasty but in a good way. I've never had the boozy flavor in the beer but then again I have never overshot my numbers with it either. My suggestion, let it bulk age a little in primary, to me there is no need to secondary this stout, you can't see through the thing anyway...LOL.

oswegan · 11-03-2009, 07:39 PM

I just aged one in the keg for 10 months. Man is it good. I can't keep my paws off of it now that it is on tap. So complex - all of the notes of vanilla, chocolate and coffee are there. I'm not saying people should wait that long, but if you have the patience, it is well worth the wait.

pacebrew · 11-03-2009, 08:12 PM

Spork. We hit our fg at 7 days.No reason to keep it in primary longer. Plus even if our fg is slightly of I'd rather it be on the sweet side to mellow out the booze.

**SporkD2** · 11-03-2009, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pacebrew

Spork. We hit our fg at 7 days.No reason to keep it in primary longer. Plus even if our fg is slightly of I'd rather it be on the sweet side to mellow out the booze.

Do a search and get back to me.

There are lots of benefits to leaving your beer in primary for 3-4 weeks.

pacebrew · 11-04-2009, 02:04 AM

i know what your saying, but we just dont have enough fermenters to age all our brews for that long. This may get conditioned in my keg, well see, it all depends on how it tastes, if its good, screw it, im drinkin it as soon as possible. if i decide to brew a batch of barley wine or an impy stout and we formulate many different flavors in the recipe, then we will def let it age to bring it out. but at this point we are on a roll brewing all the time.