Hoppy Oatmeal Stout Recipe Help

I'm about to brew a new batch of Oatmeal Stout, but I want to have some noticeable hop flavor and aroma, maybe more like an American Stout just with oats added. I've got an idea for a recipe laid out, but thought I would ask for some suggestions as this is the first recipe I've tried to formulate on my own.

Style: Oatmeal Stout
Type: Partial Mash
Yeast: Fermentis S-04

Batch Size: 5 gal
Boil Size: 3 gal
Boil Time: 60 minutes
Estimated OG: 1.060 – 1.070

Primary Fermentation: 14 days @ 68

0.50 lbs Chocolate Malt
0.50 lbs Black Roasted Barley
0.50 lbs Torrefied Wheat
0.50 lbs Flaked Oats
7.00 lbs Dark LME

1.00 oz Chinook Hops [14%] (60 min)
0.50 oz Chinook Hops [14%] (20 min)
1.00 oz Fuggle Hops [6%] (20 min)
0.50 oz Chinook Hops [14%] (7 min)
0.50 oz Fuggle Hops [6%] (7 min)

I want a medium to medium-high hop flavor and medium hop aroma, with a medium hop bitterness. This recipe is quite unlike others I have seen, but what I'm goin for is also kind of unique.

Any suggestion/comments/critiques I would really appreciate. Brew day is tomorrow or the next day!

From what I understand (and I maybe totally wrong on this) in order to get the benefit from the oats that you probably are looking for you have to mash them (But I'm probably re-kindling a huge debate).

Are you able to do a partial mash?

But, regardless...I'd do it. I'm a huge fan of brewing what you want. I'd drop the Chinook at 7 min (but that's just my personal opinions). And if you want some more aroma how about dry hopping this bad boy?

-Wally

Torrefied wheat and flaked oats do need to be mashed in order to convert their starches. Steeping only might lead to haze (wich isn't really apparent in a stout) due to the starches still being, well, starches.

I wouldn't use Dark LME. You don't know what went in there and in what quantities. If you want some crystal sweetness in there, steep some proper crystal malt and use plain old light LME.

Oatmeal stouts as a whole tend to have more oats than this. I'd add up to a pound or more.

Fuggles will probably get overwhelmed by Chinook. I wanted to do a Chinook/EKG combo in a beer and the general consensus over here is that unless Chinook was only used for bittering (no flavour or aroma addition), the EKG would practically disappear from the final product. I would drop the Chinook 20 and 7 minutes additions and stick to Fuggles for that earthy flavour. Maybe add half an ounce of Chinook at flameout if you want the aroma ?

I do think I'll leave the chinook out at the 20 and 7, I was questioning whether or not I should do that in the first place. I did think about dry hopping, but I'll only have a half ounce of fuggles left. Maybe I'll just use that extra half ounce at 7 for more aroma.

As far as the mash, I was planning on a partial mash from the start, but guess I didn't really know the difference from mashing and steeping. Basically, the adjuncts I'm using (half pound of torrefied wheat and half pound of flaked oats) need some malts in order to create the process of starch to sugar conversion, right? Will the half pound of chocolate malt and half pound of roasted barley do that for me?

If not, oh well... I guess I'll just be steeping, and this is just more knowledge for future batches. Maybe I won't get the fermentable sugars, but maybe I'll at least get some flavor.

I learn so much with every batch I brew!

It's my understanding that oatmeal is more for mouthfeel than flavor.

steevinhaze said:

As far as the mash, I was planning on a partial mash from the start, but guess I didn't really know the difference from mashing and steeping.

Click to expand...

Steeping just kind of releases some characteristics of the whatever into your wort. Mashing is the process of converting the starches to sugar. If you can partial mash (it's pretty simple) you can drop some of you malt extract, and change it to a base malt (I don't know the quantity off the top of my head), then you can add your oatmeal, and get the benefits you are looking for.

Yeah, you really should be mashing the oats and wheat.

And combining dark LME with another 1# of roasted grains might make for a pretty acridly roasty beer.

steevinhaze said:

I do think I'll leave the chinook out at the 20 and 7, I was questioning whether or not I should do that in the first place. I did think about dry hopping, but I'll only have a half ounce of fuggles left. Maybe I'll just use that extra half ounce at 7 for more aroma.

As far as the mash, I was planning on a partial mash from the start, but guess I didn't really know the difference from mashing and steeping. Basically, the adjuncts I'm using (half pound of torrefied wheat and half pound of flaked oats) need some malts in order to create the process of starch to sugar conversion, right? Will the half pound of chocolate malt and half pound of roasted barley do that for me?

If not, oh well... I guess I'll just be steeping, and this is just more knowledge for future batches. Maybe I won't get the fermentable sugars, but maybe I'll at least get some flavor.

I learn so much with every batch I brew!

Click to expand...

If you are planning on doing small partial mashes, just keep 10 pounds of 2-row around. Usually, 2-row will convert itself and 50-100% of other stuff. Highly kilned malts (chocolate, black patent) and flaked adjuncts do not have enzymes that allow them to convert themselves.

You can always buy amilaze enzymes at your local HBS or at a health store. I would just buy cheap canadian 2-row and be done with it.

I may be able to get my hands on some malts for this batch. How much base malt should I add to this recipe, and how much dark LME should I take out? I don't really know how to figure out how much base malt I need in order to mash the half pound of chocolate malt and half pound of torrefied wheat. Is there some equation?

I've read that the general rule is 1 pound of base malts to 1 pound of non-enzymatic grains. So in order to mash my half pound of oats and half pound of torrefied wheat, I'll need a pound of base malt.

If I add a pound of base malt to the mash, how much of my LME should I take out of my recipe? I know that a pound of grain is equal to about .75 pounds of LME, so is that the amount I should take out?

In other words, my recipe would look more like this:

0.50 lbs Flaked oats
0.50 lbs Chocolate malt
0.50 lbs Torrefied wheat
0.50 lbs Black roasted barley
1.00 lbs 2-Row
6.25 lbs Dark LME

I've also read that highly kilned or roasted malts have little or no enzymes. Does this mean I also need to add another pound of base malt for my chocolate malt and black roasted barley? So all together 2 pounds of 2-row? And then take out another .75 pounds of LME? So to further tweak my recipe, it would look like this:

0.50 lbs Flaked oats
0.50 lbs Chocolate malt
0.50 lbs Torrefied wheat
0.50 lbs Black roasted barley
2.00 lbs 2-Row
5.50 lbs Dark LME

That's a fine rule to go by with the 1# base per 1# specialty... may not be perfect but close enough. And you're right that the darker malts don't have any enzymes.

As for equivalency, it depends on the efficiency of your mash. I'd say for this partial mash, you can say that you'll get at least 65% efficiency. So here's the math:

-1# two row adds about 36 gravity points when dissolved into 1 gallon (at 100% efficiency, which is impossible)
-65% of 36points is 23.4 points.
-1# of LME is about 36 points as well.
- 23.4/36=.65

So if you can achieve at least 65% efficiency in your mash, then each pound of two row will reduce the amount of LME needed by .65#

All in all, when you're talking about a difference of a tenth of a pound, you're not going to notice a huge impact.

steevinhaze said:

I've also read that highly kilned or roasted malts have little or no enzymes. Does this mean I also need to add another pound of base malt for my chocolate malt and black roasted barley?

Click to expand...

No you don't have to mash the chocolate malt or black roasted barley. I don't exactly remember how much you need to mash (I haven't had to do it in a long time), if someone doesn't pipe up, I'll go look it up.

I've been trying to get more into partial mashes myself, and just brewed up something last weekend that was very similar to this. I can't remember where I found it (probably from somewhere on this site), but there's a very handy .pdf out there that explains converting extract to grain and vice versa, what needs mashing and what doesn't/shouldn't be mashed. I did a quick search and found it here: Converting All-Grain to Extract

1 lb of base malt should be able to convert at least 1 lb of non-enzymatic grains. I've done a Wit with 1 lb of 2-row and 2 lbs of other non-enzymatic grains and it came out great.

Also, depending on how you're going to be mashing (i am doing brew in a bag method), your effeciency might not end up all that great, so since we're only talking about mashing 1-2 pounds of grains, I'd just leave the amount of LME alone and shoot for a higher gravity if you can get it - you can always water it down if you really feel you need a weaker brew. (or to make it even easier, just go with 2 cans of LME, which would be 6.6 pounds - pretty close to your original recipie of 7 lbs).