Looking for advice on an Oatmeal Stout recipe.

I recently made and am now enjoying Northern Brewers Oatmeal Stout. I love how this beer has such a rich chocolate aroma with a slight roast. I however feel that it is somewhat low on gravity and is not as creamy as I would like. I am trying to step up the recipe a bit and get a stronger and more creamy oatmeal stout while retaining the rich chocolate/light roast flavor and aroma. Here is what I have put together so far. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!!!


Oatmeal Stout
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Original Gravity: 1.058 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.7 %
Bitterness: 26.0 IBUs
Est Color: 40.1 SRM


Ingredients:
7 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 59.6 %
2 lbs Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 2 17.0 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3 8.5 %
1 lbs Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 4 8.5 %
12.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 5 6.4 %
1.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 26.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) [23.66 ml] Yeast 7 -

Sounds pretty dang good to me. Rice hulls are your friend when using oats and other adjuncts.

Good luck

It looks pretty good! I don't know what you intend to mash at, but I understand that a lower temp (150ish) improves mouthfeel.

I made a dumbed down version (no DME) of Alesmith's Speedway stout. It is bottle conditioning ATM. I used this grain bill, but added 1 lb. of Quaker Oats: http://chris.norrick.com/norrickenbier/23.html

The bottling sample tasted great. Just waiting for carbonation and conditioning...

masskrug said:

It looks pretty good! I don't know what you intend to mash at, but I understand that a lower temp (150ish) improves mouthfeel

Click to expand...

Higher temps (154-158) improve mouthfeel; lower temps (145-150) increase fermentability. Certain yeasts can leave more mouthfeel than their FG would suggest, mainly through glycerol production.

Doubling the oats will certainly improve the mouthfeel, as would flaked barley or any kind of rye or wheat. Mashing at a higher temp for a little less time will help as well. To get the beer to a higher gravity, I would just increase the base malt until you get the desired gravity. Upping the chocolate malts and roasted barley will make the beer much roastier. Not a bad thing, necessarily, but it will result in a very different beer.

Looks pretty good to me. I recently made an oatmeal stout that is pretty similar to yours, just slightly less crystal and roasted, and I'm sure yours will be quite tasty. You have plenty of oats and specialty grains for a rich, creamy consistency, assuming that you mash high enough. I used WLP013 for my stout, but if I were using US05 I'd mash at 156 or so, otherwise it'll rip right through all that malt.

Thanks for your input everyone. After taking everything into consideration I have changed my recipe a bit. Added a 15 minute hop addition to bring up the ibu's. Let me know what you guys think, it would be very much appreciated!

Oatmeal Stout
Batch Size: 5.50
Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Original Gravity: 1.061
Est Final Gravity: 1.017
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.8 %
Bitterness: 29.5 IBUs
Est Color: 36.9 SRM

Mash @ 155 for 60 minutes.

Ingredients
8.0 oz Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 1 3.9 %
8 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 2 62.7 %
2 lbs Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 3 15.7 %
1 lbs Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 4 7.8 %
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 5 5.9 %
8.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 6 3.9 %
1.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 25.3 IBUs
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.80 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 8 4.2 IBUs
1.0 pkg SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) [23.66 ml] Yeast 9 -

I think it'll be fine if you want a little hop flavor in there. I usually just do a 60 min addition with stouts so the malt gets all the attention, but a 15 min addition certainly can't hurt.

Yeah, if you don't want too much hop flavor/aroma I'd recommend moving the new addition to 45 minutes and make it around 0.25oz.

Thanks for the input, I decided to just get rid of the 15 minute addition. This leaves the ibu's at 25 which is at the very beginning of the range for the style. Is that ok for an oatmeal stout on the higher end of the gravity/abv range?

Generally, with a higher gravity you want more IBUs, although you also have to take into consideration how dry it finishes, how much bitterness you get from roasted grains, etc... Assuming you have your hops in 1oz increments, I'd just toss 2oz in for the whole 60 minutes.

do you guys think that if i used american 2-row instead of marris otter as the base for this recipe, that there would be much of a difference? I have a big bag of american 2-row and would ideally like to use that for financial reasons but dont want to sacrifice for quality.

For a stout, American 2-row will be fine. For a paler style, you'd want real MO.

thanks a lot for your continued input kingwood-kid! After everyones suggestions, I have made a few changes and plan to brew this recipe in a few days. Let me know what you think:



Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
4.0 oz Rice Hulls (0.0 SRM) Adjunct 1 1.9 %
9 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 66.7 %
2 lbs Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 3 14.8 %
1 lbs Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 4 7.4 %
12.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 5 5.6 %
8.0 oz Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 6 3.7 %
2.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.80 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 7 32.9 IBUs
1.0 pkg SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) [23.66 ml] Yeast 8 -

Mash @ 155 for 60 minutes

Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.064
Est Final Gravity: 1.018
Est Alcohol by Vol: 6.1 %
Bitterness: 32.9 IBUs
Est Color: 36.7 SRM

I'm planning an oatmeal stout as my next batch too. My wife loves 'em! Anyone know what the oatmeal does to head retention? I was thinking of throwing in some wheat in a similar grain bill as Bisco Ben. Maybe just one pound of oatmeal and one pound of wheat. I really want a down to the last sip kind of head on this one... Advice?