Recipe help!

Hey guys, this is my first recipe that I put together my self. I'm going for a big stout with lots of chocolate and coffee taste with a bug mouth feel. Almost like a bigger Founders Breakfast Stout. I could use some advice and constructive criticism if anyone has some to offer.

Thanks!

Milk Chocolate Oatmeal Vanilla Coffee Stout recipe

Primary 2 weeks
Secondary 4 weeks
Bottle conditioning 2 weeks (but I'm kegging)

Sacch' rest 155 for 60 min

Mash out 170 for 30 min

5 malting company of Ireland stout malt
2.5 lbs rahr 2-row malt
2.5 English Maris otter
1.75 lbs flaked oats (toasted at 350 F till barley browned)
1 Briess caramel 120L
1 Belgian special b
.5 Franco-belges kiln coffee malt
.5 English chocolate malt
.5 fawcett pale chocolate malt
.5 English black malt
.25 breiss blackprinz malt

Boil time and additions

60 min .5lbs lactos sugar
60 min 1 oz nugget pellet hops
30 min .5 oz willamette pellet hops
0 min .5 oz willamette pellet hops
0 min .5 candy syrup
0 min 4 oz course ground coffee (peace organic French roast)

2 weeks before bottling add 4 oz cacao nibs
1 week before bottling urca vanilla bean blend ( how much should I use?)

You've got too many different types of malt/grain. Cut it down to 4 kinds total: 1 base malt (about 20% of grist), your oatmeal, 1 caramel malt and 1 dark/roasted malt. If you really insist, you can bump up to 5 grains with 2 roasted, e.g., pale chocolate plus some black.

I've made a stout with black malt, franco-belges coffee malt, and pale chocolate that came out really nice. I agree with Captain though you've got a heck of a lot going on there both with the grains and all the extra flavorings. Definitely wouldn't go with 2 lbs of dark crystal - that's like 12.5%. I'd choose one or the other.
Personally I'd consider brewing this without the extras first and then go from there. You can see the chocolate and coffee flavors you get just from the malts then go tinkering. Just my 2 cents, your beer of course.

Definitely too much crystal malt! I'd cut out the caramel 120, and leave the special B if you want that "toffee" sweet flavor.

I'd also leave out the candy sugar, and consider adding the lactose later, like a bottling, to taste.

I LOVE my grain bill for my oatmeal stout, which is coffee roasty and not roasty from roasted barley. I don't make sweet stouts (hate sweet tasting things) but you could definitely add lactose to it to make it sweeter and keep the coffee flavor.

Maris otter is a great base malt for a nice stout, so I'd consider using all MO for the base malt.

I like pale chocolate malt a lot, and my stout recipe uses both chocolate malt and pale chocolate, because I didn't have enough pale chocolate. It turns out that I love it that way, so I kept both in all the future batches.

Here's my oatmeal stout recipe:

7 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 63.64 %
1 lbs Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 9.09 %
12.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 6.82 %
10.0 oz Chocolate malt (pale) (200.0 SRM) Grain 5.68 %
8.0 oz Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
8.0 oz Black Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
2.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 1.14 %
2.00 oz Williamette [4.80 %] (60 min) Hops 31.6 IBU

1 Pkgs British Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1335)


The "black barley" is by Briess. If you can't get it, it's most similar to coffee malt, and NOT black patent!

If you want to sweeten up a recipe like mine, the special B would be great, and then lactose at bottling.

The candy sugar will thin the beer, and dry it out some, and I think it would be a mistake to use that. Use coffee in secondary, not in primary or in the boil. French press coffee is a good one to use.

This is exactly the type of info I'm looking for. I gotta tweak it before I'm off work so I can get my grain on the way home from work. And yeah, I was sort of thinking I might be going a little overboard. I tend to do that, haha. I welcome the feed back so don't be shy. Like I said this is my first receptive I've throw tougher my self and honestly I'm not really sure what I'm doing. I just mashed a bunch of recipes that sounded nice together. But I like this heavy stouts so that what I was going for. I'll probably hold the extras... You bring up a good point. Is good to know what the beer tastes like before I go adding other things like coffee and chocolate.

My first AG brew (also my first brew ever) was an American stout with oatmeal. I won't go into specifics, but I'll give you an idea of the grain bill -

80% Maris Otter
10% Roasted Barley
5% Chocolate Malt
5% Quaker Oats
OG 1.074, FG 1.021

The flavor started with upfront roasted coffee flavor (due to the roasted barley) and finished chocolatey with a hint of hop. The oatmeal gave it awesome body, even at 5%, and I don't think you would need to go higher than 10, unless you want that a part of your flavor profile. If I were to do it next time, I might go 50/50 Roasted Barley/Chocolate. The beer was served on nitro and took about 5 minutes to pour one. Lacing stuck like chocholatey whipped cream. Delicious.

I'm a very amateur brewer at this point, but I'm echoing others - you don't have to put so much in there to get the flavors you want. Grains will give you more flavor than you think. I would skip the Special B and maybe even the crystal and focus on the chocolatey and coffee flavors (it seems that is what you're going for). Look up roasted barley and maybe consider 5%. Also, you only have about 45% base grains in there and you're mashing at 155, you may end up with a low ABV. If you don't care about that, then it's not a problem.

Cheers!

So after consult from you guys and some employees at the brew store this is what I came up with. It's milled and ready to go so there is really no going back at this point. I'm still interested in what you guys think and I'll let you know how it tuns out. I'll post pictures and OG by the end of the weekend.

Oatmeal Stout recipe

Sacch' rest 155 for 60 min

Mash out 170 for 30 min

1-2 weeks primary, 4 weeks secondary

11 English Maris otter

1.85 lbs flaked oats
1 Belgian special b
.85Franco-belges kiln coffee malt
1 English chocolate malt
.5 English black malt

Boil time and additions

60 min 1 oz nugget pellet hops
30 min .5 oz willamette pellet hops
0 min .5 oz willamette pellet hops

Primary 2 weeks
Secondary 4 weeks
Bottle conditioning 2 weeks

Looks great!

And one last question.... I'm shooting for a 5.5 gallon batch, how much water sold I use for the mash and sparge? I'll brewing outside and i live in Minnesota so it'll be cold. I have a 40 quart pot that is as a little wider then it is tall if that gives u a good idea of the size of my pot.

I use 1.3qt per lb grain. Which means you would mash with 5 gal.. But the amount of grain you're using is too much for 5 gallons.

Edit - just plugged into hopville, you'll prob hit right at 8% which isn't too bad, you'll be fine as long as the booze doesn't punch through. Just call it imperial.

Hey guys I'm mashing this beer right now. I have little over 16 lbs of grain. I used 6 gal of water for the mash. Any idea how much water I should use for the sparge? I'm shooting for about 6.5 gal for the boil. Thanks!

Ok..... Long night. Just got done brewing. It was worth it. Wort tastes good. Im not adding any extras like coffee chocolate or vanilla. I'll post final gravity and results when I get them. OG: 1.07


Goodnight folks

Looks good!

Not to hijack the thread but I was under the impression that toasted oats needed to be placed in a paper bag and set for a while before adding to a recipe. Heard this at:

http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=104114

And this is the final recipe I used:


Oatmeal Stout recipe

Sacch' rest 155 for 60 min

Mash out 170 for 30 min

1-2 weeks primary, 4 weeks secondary

11 English Maris otter
1.85 lbs flaked oats
1 Belgian special b
.85Franco-belges kiln coffee malt
1 English chocolate malt
.5 English black malt

Boil time and additions

60 min 1 oz nugget pellet hops
30 min .5 oz willamette pellet hops
0 min .5 oz willamette pellet hops

Primary 2 weeks
Secondary 4 weeks
Bottle conditioning 2 weeks

Nice job, you'll probably finish high, at maybe 24 points, cause of all the oats and roasted malt. Don't be alarmed. With that OG, your abv will probably hit just below 7 which is perfect. What yeast did you use? Estimated ibu?

I have no idea about the ibu. Not sure how to figure that out, im super amateur. I used neobritanna wyeast 1945. Ita a strain specific to northern brewer. Supposed to be good for stouts.

So how did this turn out?