Huge grain bill after visiting LHBS. Oatmeal stout. Suggestions pls.

Been lurking for a while and staring 4th all-grain with a Hopville recepie.

You folks have been a great help so far, but I need some help this time. Bought the grains and only realized how big the bill was during crushing.
The recepie lists a 6.5 batch, but the guys at the shop thought I was doing a 10 gal batch. Here goes:

# / OZ
10 10 American Two-row Pale
2 3 Flaked Oats
2 0 Roasted Barley
1 9 Crystal 135L
1 2 German Two-row Pils
1 0 American Chocolate
1 0 Black Patent Malt
---------------------------
Thats 19+ pounds!

Either the author intended a larger batch or a MASSIVE beer!
I tend to believe the measurements are off as the recepie only calls for 1.5 oz Phoenix hops and using 1 pack of Safale 04.

My question is should I attempt this single infusion at 155 for 75 min OR try a partigyle? Using a 10 gal beverage cooler with SS sink supply line.

Link to hopville page:
hopville . "Oatmeal Stout" Oatmeal Stout Recipe

Thanks again as this forum has been a great resource so far.

Beersmith puts this at 1.077OG at 75% efficiency. That's huge for an oatmeal stout. It;s in style for an imperial stout but not nearly enough hops. Personally I think the recipe was written wrong.

Thanks for the quick reply. I've been hitting appx 70% eff and it's still huge.
My thoughts were in lines with yours in regards to a big imperial and I have extra hops to try it.

I've even thought about splitting the grain bill and doing 2 batches as I only have the 7.5 turkey fryer.

I've never attempted to partigye into a big/small dual batch, but may give that a try as well. Either way, my MLT is gonna be full!

The bill seems to match the intended numbers. Its definitely an imperial (oatmeal) stout. But 2lbs of roasted, 1lbs of chocolate, and 1lbs of black patent in a 5 gallon batch???

jay4e said:

The bill seems to match the intended numbers. Its definitely an imperial (oatmeal) stout. But 2lbs of roasted, 1lbs of chocolate, and 1lbs of black patent in a 5 gallon batch???

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Yeah, I'm with ya on the specialty grains... but would you split this giant bag into 2 batches? Or go with a "crude oil" + extra hops strategy?

I would just cut back a bit on the specialty grains, especially the roasted, up the hops and brew that baby. Or were your grains combined during the crush?

waterse said:

I would just cut back a bit on the specialty grains, especially the roasted, up the hops and brew that baby. Or were your grains combined during the crush?

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Combined during the crush, hence my dilemma... More hops to balance the malty overload may be a solution, but I'm looking for other opinions before i monster mash tomorrow.

Two beers VIA partigyle OR split the grain bill for two 5 gallon batches?

All suggestions welcome as I have very limited experience (and luck) with my first 3 all-grain batches so far.

I threw caution to the wind with this recipe and need a shovel to dig myself out of this one!

If you like your cofee black I say brew it up. Since your kegging you can always mix it down later with some strait base malt brew.

If your not into black I'd throw in another 10lbs (?) of 2 row and make two batches.

jay4e said:

But 2lbs of roasted, 1lbs of chocolate, and 1lbs of black patent in a 5 gallon batch???

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+1. That's quite a lot of dark grains for a 5 gallon batch.

From "How To Brew"

Black Patent Malt 580L This is the blackest of the black. It must be used sparingly, generally less than a half pound per 5 gallons. It contributes a roasted charcoal flavor that can actually be quite unpleasant if used in excess. It is useful for contributing color and/or setting a "limit" on the sweetness of other beer styles using a lot of caramel malt; one or two ounces is useful for this purpose.

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Looks like 10 gallon batch numbers to me.

Yup, get some more base malt, 10 gals it is.

waterse said:

Yup, get some more base malt, 10 gals it is.

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Took your advice waterse, got 4 extra pounds of 2-row and mixed it up real good.
Added more hops and now have 2 five gallon batches to work on.

Since it was a goatFü¢k recipe, It's now a goatmeal stout!

Outstanding, do I get some?

If you have had marginal success with AG, I would recommend starting with some quality recipes. I love the Clonebrews books. They are recipes to emulate commercial brews so you can know what your beer is supposed to taste like before you start, and the recipes are easy to follow. I recomment the Samuel Smith Oatmeal stout clone.