Chocolate Oatmeal Stout

I'm in the process of finishing the following:

6.6 lbs muntons amber liq. estract
2 lbs briess 2 row pale ale malt
1lb briess 80L crystal malt
1/2 lb muntons chocolate malt
1/2 lb muntons roasted non-malted black barley
1 lb flaked oats
2 oz fuggles
8 oz by volume 4 oz by weight cocoa powder
8 oz lactose
8 oz malto dextrin

steeped all grains & oats @ 150-165 for 30 min
added lme and brought to boil
added cocoa powder and 1 oz fuggles @ 60 min
added .5 fuggles @ 30 min
added lactose and malto dextrin @ 15 min
added .5 fuggles @ 5 min

added 2 tblsp liq vanilla ext to primary

I'm currently waiting to add nottingham dry to brew currently @ 93 degrees.

I think 10 days in primary and 2 weeks in secondary before bottling should be ok.

This is my first adventure in a partial mash and was wondering if the addition of lacotse and malto dextrin was done at the right time. My receipe was created by reading several posts and is a combination of every one I've read. I was just wondering what those with experience thought. I'm a little worried about every step in the process, i.e. lactose & md at the right time, enough hoppieness (subtle was the goal), 1.061 sg, oats steeped long enough with enough additional grains etc.

Any input is appreciated. Official title is "Hairy Chocolate Oatmeal Cream Pie Stout"

"Chocolate Hair Pie" for short. HeHe

patent pending

I would have mashed the grains for an hour at about 154 degrees but you are probably just fine.
Have you thought about a way to sparge the grains to extract more sugars? I'm thinking your SG should have been in the 1.070 range so that's why I'm wondering.
Keep good notes on this brew. If you like the finished product then don't change a thing. If it's not quite what you wanted then think about my suggestions.

I was debating how long to mash, I had setteled on the grain for 30 min and the oats for 1 hour but then i couldnt fit all the grain in one bag and to put some with the oats. I had read that oats needed grain steeped w/ in order to do it's thing . I didn't know if that ment in the same pot or same bag I used 3 gal. in the pot then held the bags over the pot to drain and poured some cold water that was to be added to the primary over them to sparge.

I also took the gravity reading when the soup was & 95 degrees, does temperature affect an accurate reading in any way?

Thanks for your input, how about he timing of the lactose, MD and cocoa? Does it really even matter when?

It's bubbleing away...

This is similar to the choco/oatmeal/vanilla/milk stout that I made. If there ever was a beer that benefited from aging, it was this one. It improved a lot after a couple months of cold aging. There are a lot of different flavor aspects to this beer and I think the aging really helped them blend.

I agree with Nate that with porters aging is beneficial for the development of the beers character. I like to bottle my porters vs Keg so I can let some bottles age up to a year.

When you pored the water through the grain bag , you can use water that is 170ºF this acts as a more efficient way to get the stuck sugars out of the grain, but be careful not to squeeze the grain bag . I use to put the grain bag in a colander an pour the water through it slowly.

Try toasting the chocolate malt in the oven for a couple minutes. I do this in my porters it adds a nice flavor.