Thinking of brewing this.

My first oatmeal stout.

6 lbs 2 American 2 row
2 lbs chocolate malt
1.5 lbs black patent
2 lbs biscuit malt
4 lbs flaked oats
1 oz chinook hops at 60 min
1 oz cascade hops at 30 min
.5 oz fuggle hops at 15 min
Us-04 safale

Mash at 154 for 60 min
Batch sparge with 7 gal at 170
Boil 7.25 for 90 min ending with about 5.5 gal
Any thoughts? Be nice, only my second all grain!

No expert but 1.5lbs of black patent seems a bit overkill, especially since you're already using 2lbs chocolate malt.

For the hop additions I'd probably go

1 oz chinook hops at 60 min
0.5 oz Fuggles at 20 min
1 oz cascade hops at 5 min

Or maybe even leave the Fuggles out as I don't think they're going to come through really with Chinook and Cascade to compete against.

1.5 lbs of black patent will most likely make thigns taste really astringent and bitter even without the hops. I don't think I have ever seen more than a lb. used in a 5 gallon batch and I am sure that is even pushing it.

I would drop the black patent to something like 4 oz. and the chocolate down to 1 lb. Then make up the difference with some more biscuity, toasty malts that aren't so dark.

As for the hops, A 60min and 30 min addition of a full ounce is probably going to give you too many IBUs. That bitterness will only be accentuated by the large portion of dark malts you are using. I would add maybe 0.5 oz. of chinook around 45min and then save the rest for the last 15 or so and maybe cut it back to a total of 2 ounces and 2 varieties during the boil. With all the malt flavor going on, confusing the hop profile with more than 2 hops won't help things.

That being said, nothing posted here will be the right way to do things. Homebrewing is an experiment and should be approached as such. Do what you want and try things out. If it doesn't work, brew something else.

Cheers!

I promise you anything near 1.5 lbs of black patent will taste like an ash tray. With 2lbs of chocolate you can drop black patent entirely. I can not urge you enough cut that back or out. If you need something to replace it for w.e reason color OG etc. maybe try and few ounces of caramel/crystal? I would hate to hear you had to pour this one down the drain after trying to let it age for a year and it still tasting burnt. Other then that, I just would head the other's warnings about the hops and it should be great. Ahhh I should warn you s-04 is a GREAT yeast but needs to be fermented in the lower 60s or can be very estery. Hope this helps.

dolupoluv said:

My first oatmeal stout.

6 lbs 2 American 2 row
2 lbs chocolate malt
1.5 lbs black patent
2 lbs biscuit malt
4 lbs flaked oats
1 oz chinook hops at 60 min
1 oz cascade hops at 30 min
.5 oz fuggle hops at 15 min
Us-04 safale

Mash at 154 for 60 min
Batch sparge with 7 gal at 170
Boil 7.25 for 90 min ending with about 5.5 gal
Any thoughts? Be nice, only my second all grain!

Click to expand...

IMO.. that much Black Patent will make that undrinkable.

A stout without roasted barley is like an IPA without hops. I would do
73.7 % 7.00 British Two-row Pale 39.9 3.5
10.5 % 1.00 Roasted Barley 4.4 90.0
10.5 % 1.00 Flaked oats 4.8 0.4
5.3 % 0.50 British Crystal 135-165L 2.5 15.0

If you try and mash 4lbs of oats you better have lots of rice hulls added or prepare for a realllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly slow run off

Ohhhh wow yeah I thought that was 4oz uh yeah I would drop that down to like 1 lbs +1 some roasted barley

Have you discovered the recipe section on HomeBrewTalk. I find that a very good area to browse through as I think about the recipe I want to create because I get to see what worked and avoid making mistakes like using too much of a dark grain.

Take a look at this one for example. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/yoopers-oatmeal-stout-210376/

The recipe is there followed by lots of comments on it.

I am starting to think this thread was started by a troll .

For a 5 gallon batch all those numbers are way out of whack. 7 gallon sparge???!?!

Maybe the OP needs to read up on some recipes and basic recipe creation in terms of beers before throwing this up on here for critique. I don't mind helping tweak a recipe but this thing needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.

Thanks for all the advice. Totally reworked the recipe after hitting LHBS.

10.5 lbs 2 row
1 lbs chocolate malt
.5 lbs black patent
.25 lbs honey malt
.25 lbs victory malt
.25 lbs crystal 20
2 lbs flaked oats

Brewing that on Sunday, should be a good time.

As far as sparging, how much water should I use?

dolupoluv said:

Thanks for all the advice. Totally reworked the recipe after hitting LHBS.

10.5 lbs 2 row
1 lbs chocolate malt
.5 lbs black patent
.25 lbs honey malt
.25 lbs victory malt
.25 lbs crystal 20
2 lbs flaked oats

Brewing that on Sunday, should be a good time.

As far as sparging, how much water should I use?

Click to expand...

Approximately 1.5 times as much water is generally used for sparging as for mashing. I got that info from John J. Palmer in How to Brew, which by the way you can read the whole book at howtobrew.com, it's a great book for beginners.

As far as sparge is concerned... I tend to sparge the difference between my first runnings and my final pre-boil volume. Calculate your absorption rate, .11-.15 gallons per lb if I remember correctly. So if you get 3 gallons from first runnings, then I would sparge 5. Boil for 75-90 minutes and get 5.5 gallons.