Need expert help!

So, last night I brewed up a smoked breakfast stout for a competition whose due date is July 29th. However, I left out the 2 lbs of instant oatmeal in the mash. So, today is the first day of fermentation. I have a larger carboy I could rack the stout into on top of more fermentables to boost the ABV.

So, my question is, how could I still get the oats to convert so that I could rack the stout onto the "oat extract" for lack of a better term? Does what I'm asking even make sense? I really want the silky texture and sweetness that oats provide in a stout, not just the extra ABV.

Discuss!

I guess a clearer way to ask the question is...if I did a little minimash with the 2 lbs of oats to rack the wort on top of, how much milled 2-row would I need to add to get 2 lbs of oats to convert?

You don't need the oats to convert to be able to get the dextrins out of the oats that will add to the body of the beer. You can take a portion of the beer and heat it and steep the oats in it, or you can just steep the oats in hot water and add that to the beer as a oat extract. I did something similar with an extract oat stout where I steeped the oats and roasted barley, so that should add the body, but it won't add fermentables to it.

Edit: For a minimash I would expect you would need about 1lb of 2 row. I'm not completely sure how much diastic power is needed for oats, but 1lb of 2 row can convert about 3lbs of corn.

Nashbrewer said:

You don't need the oats to convert to be able to get the dextrins out of the oats that will add to the body of the beer. You can take a portion of the beer and heat it and steep the oats in it, or you can just steep the oats in hot water and add that to the beer as a oat extract. I did something similar with an extract oat stout where I steeped the oats and roasted barley, so that should add the body, but it won't add fermentables to it.

Edit: For a minimash I would expect you would need about 1lb of 2 row. I'm not completely sure how much diastic power is needed for oats, but 1lb of 2 row can convert about 3lbs of corn.

Click to expand...

That is exactly what I needed. Thanks!

Make sure you boil the minimash for a few minutes! To kill all that lacto.

Nashbrewer said:

You don't need the oats to convert to be able to get the dextrins out of the oats that will add to the body of the beer. You can take a portion of the beer and heat it and steep the oats in it, or you can just steep the oats in hot water and add that to the beer as a oat extract. I did something similar with an extract oat stout where I steeped the oats and roasted barley, so that should add the body, but it won't add fermentables to it.

Edit: For a minimash I would expect you would need about 1lb of 2 row. I'm not completely sure how much diastic power is needed for oats, but 1lb of 2 row can convert about 3lbs of corn.

Click to expand...

Not a good idea. Do not just steep the oats. You're gonna get all kinds of starch in the beer that will lead to stability problems. If I were you, I'd re-brew, but if you must, definitely mash, definitely boil for an hour. You could use a pound of 6-row, it has higher diastatic power. Especially because you're entering this to competition. Not boiling the extract for at least that hour could result in DMS in the finished beer.

+1 to rebrewing.....

By doing that, you get two good stouts, and you can directly compare the impact of the oats and learn something about what they add to a beer in a side-by-side test. Then you have two beers to enter in the comp. if you want as well.

If you mess around with trying to get the oats back in there - I think you have better than a 50/50 chance of ending up with a beer you don't like or that does not turn out. At that point, you have no beer for the comp, you have no idea what the original recipe could have really tasted like, and you probably won't even know exactly what the problem was that ruined your beer.

I would go with the rebrew if it is important to you and also learn something along the way.

Braufessor said:

By doing that, you get two good stouts, and you can directly compare the impact of the oats and learn something about what they add to a beer in a side-by-side test. Then you have two beers to enter in the comp. if you want as well.

Click to expand...

+1 that back.

Terrific idea.

Braufessor said:

+1 to rebrewing.....

By doing that, you get two good stouts, and you can directly compare the impact of the oats and learn something about what they add to a beer in a side-by-side test. Then you have two beers to enter in the comp. if you want as well.

If you mess around with trying to get the oats back in there - I think you have better than a 50/50 chance of ending up with a beer you don't like or that does not turn out. At that point, you have no beer for the comp, you have no idea what the original recipe could have really tasted like, and you probably won't even know exactly what the problem was that ruined your beer.

I would go with the rebrew if it is important to you and also learn something along the way.

Click to expand...

Thanks...initially I was going to do this, and I see the value in it, but money and lack of time for the 2nd beer to be ready for the deadline are both a factor. So I am leaning towards goining ahead with the minimash and full 60-min boil at this time. If it doesn't turn out for this competition, no problem, there will be other competitions. I feel like the beer needs the oats to be the breakfast stout concept I have in my head.

i can see that.... I would be curious how this works out for you - you are not the first person to forget something in the brew. Let us know in a month or two if it worked for you.

Braufessor said:

i can see that.... I would be curious how this works out for you - you are not the first person to forget something in the brew. Let us know in a month or two if it worked for you.

Click to expand...

Will do. I did the minimash last night; 1 lb of 2-row with 2 lbs of instant oats. The whole house smelled like breakfast at midnight! I sparged with like 6 cups of water and boiled it down for an hour. I didnt throw in any hops becuase my IBUS were calculated by beersmith with the oats included in the original stout.

All went well except I cracked my autosiphon near the bottom. Thankfully it still worked pretty good, just made a mess when I took it out of the wort/beer. I racked the stout on top of the oatmeal extract, and it seems like everything blended really well. We'll find out in around 2 months!

BTW, this beer will be entered in Taco Mac's homebrew competition sponsored by Red Hare Brewing in Marietta GA. The winner gets brewed in a 20BBL batch by Red Hare and served at all the metro-Atlanta Taco Mac locations.

Going to be an interesting recipe if you win. Make beer, minimash oats w/2-row, rack together after a day of fermenting...

DrunkleJon said:

Going to be an interesting recipe if you win. Make beer, minimash oats w/2-row, rack together after a day of fermenting...

Click to expand...

It will make for a good story if nothing else!

MonkHeDo said:

It will make for a good story if nothing else!

Click to expand...

My first all-grain beer was a pale ale. Forgot the flameout hops, wort was already chilled, but I didn't rack to the fermenter yet. Boiled a few cups of tap water, tossed the hops in and let them steep for a minute and dumped it in the kettle.

Awesome hop aroma. Took second place for category in my first competition, first all-grain beer.

Maybe it's a sign!

So the beer tastes great, but only fermented down to 1.035; should have been closer to 1.025. I pitched a pack of Notty last night to see if I could get it to drop some more before bottling. Crossing fingers!