improve a OATMEAL STOUT kit from Mr. BEER?

Hi a friend gave me a kit form mr beer to make oatmeal stout is a premium kit includded 2 hopped malt extract ready to do 2 gallons of oatmeal stout i´m thinking improved with steeping grains with:
0.5 lb roasted barley
0.5 lb Crystal 80L
0.5 lb Chocolate
0.75 lb oat rolled

You think that that can improve the kit?
any suggestion?

Beware all the dark color you are adding to the predetermined kit. It will change the overall brew color (many stouts aren't really black).

Additionally all that roast will add lots of flavor, possibly out of balance with the recipe. I assume they already have that accounted for.

Try the kit as it was intended, then see if it's lacking. You may not want to change it at all.

The stout kit from MB is a decent brew on its own. I wouldn't mess with it too much, especially with so much grain. If you cut each of those quantities in half it might be a nice added touch, but the amount you're doing would put it over the top I think.

Instead, if I was brewing the kit, I'd do the MB kit as is and make a brew just using pale LME and steeping grains for a side by side comparison. My first 5 gallon/first steeping grains batch was a stout, and it's getting great reviews by the friends who have had some. It's just so much more fun to start with a blank slate if you're building a beer, rather than messing with a kit, especially if you haven't had the kit to know what needs improved upon.

Also, sometimes it's a nice break to do a straight up can brew. I was just watching the guy on youtube who usually does AG, and he made a video doing a Coopers can batch. He said he wanted to do something really quick to fill out his pipline, and without having a long brew day.

Anyway, it sort of blew my mind, but all he did was bring the water to a boil in his pot, then shut the fire, pour the water into his primary, mix in all the can extract (he also used DME), topped up with very cold water, pitched, and was done. (personally, I'd add the extract to the water while still in the pot, then chill before the other steps).

I didn't realize you could basically skip the entire boil with those cans. So yeah, maybe just use it as a nice break from the long brew days to get some extra beer in your pipeline.

HAH! Go for it, You know what I like about stouts... the fact that it's one of the few beers you can chew. I would add about .25oz bittering hops to the boil to account for the extra malt. If you wanted a dry stout try out .5 to 1lb of torrified barley, otherwise that crystal will be perfect.

I make my stouts in the 60+ color range, essentially... it's like staring into the void and the void staring back at you. In fact, that is the name for my stout "The void". Your recipe will not do that, but it will be darker and more flavorful. Basically, it's so flexible that you can't really do wrong with it. I think the correct way of adding the grain is by a tea steep but I am not 100% sure on this. There must be something on the forums about adding grains to a kit.

darkmastiff said:

Hi a friend gave me a kit form mr beer to make oatmeal stout is a premium kit includded 2 hopped malt extract ready to do 2 gallons of oatmeal stout i´m thinking improved with steeping grains with:
0.5 lb roasted barley
0.5 lb Crystal 80L
0.5 lb Chocolate
0.75 lb oat rolled

You think that that can improve the kit?
any suggestion?

Click to expand...

Your specialty grains there are more in line with what you would use for doing a 5 gallon batch with nothing else but pale malt instead of steeping grains in a 2 gallon batch. If you're really set on altering the kit, maybe choose one of those grains to add .25 lbs of instead of all of them.