First A/G brew, went smooth!!

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

JOHN51277

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2005
Messages
1,014
Reaction score
16
Location
Orlando, FL
I woke up on my day off a little earlier than I usually do and brewed my first A/G brew. It was a Breakfast Stout. I have been wanting to make a similar batch to Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout. I started with a nice A/G Oatmeal stout, and decided to build off if it. The Kit was ordered from AHS. Recipe is as follows. It is my first time posting one of these so be nice damnit!! Oh, and I started drinking homebrew at 8 AM. WooHooo!!

I wanted to get some feedback on my recipe and what everyone thought about it, and what can be done to maybe make it better???

Style - Oatmeal Stout
Pre-boil volume - 6.25 gallons
Batch Size - 5.1 gallons
IBU ???
OG - 1.057 temp corrected

Fermentables
9.5 lbs Maris Otter Malt
.5 lbs Chocolate Malt
.5 lbs Crystal 60L
.25 lbs Black Patent
.25 lbs Black Roasted Barley
1 lbs Flaked Oats

Hops
1 oz Nugget @ 60 mins

Adjuncts
2 oz Milk Chocolate chips @ 10 mins
2 oz Bitter Sweet Chocolate chips @ 10 mins
2 oz coarse ground Kona coffee beans added at secondary
.5 - 1.0 oz bourbon soaked light toasted american oak added at secondary

Yeast
London Wyeast 1028 pitched at 72 deg.
 
Personally .5 lbs of oak sounds like WAY to much. I just did a robust porter and added it to 1 oz of medium toast french oak. It will sit on there for anywhere from 1 week to 3 or 4 weeks to get the best flavor. I would be concerned that 8oz of oak would give it way to strong an oak character. Personally, i wouldnt soak the oak in bourbon either. You have a lot of other flavors going on in that beer and it may be better off w/o it. Remeber, sometimes less is more. Other than that, i think the recipe looks really tasty. You'll have to update on how it comes out!

Congrats on the first all grain brew!
 
Personally .5 lbs of oak sounds like WAY to much.

Now that I had a chance to look at the amount of wood that is, I believe it was a half oz I planned on doing. I will correct that and proceed with .5-1 oz.

And you wouldnt reccomend the bourbon huh? I figured it would add that "aged in bourbon barrels" flavor. Or do you guys think it is too much?
 
Now that I had a chance to look at the amount of wood that is, I believe it was a half oz I planned on doing. I will correct that and proceed with .5-1 oz.

And you wouldnt reccomend the bourbon huh? I figured it would add that "aged in bourbon barrels" flavor. Or do you guys think it is too much?

Have you ever listened to any of the podcasts from The Brewing Network? They have several shows about wood aging beers. They generally recommend around an oz of cubes and try it after 1 week. Then try every few days until you get to the flavor you want.

Also, in one of their podcasts they mentioned that the bourbon can easily be overdone and it can taste like bourbon with a little beer in it. I was going to do a bourbon beer and decided against it after hearing this. I'm sure there are lots of good bourbon beers out there, but if you are going for more of the wood aged character, i would stick with just the oak at first. Then if you decide that you want a little bourbon flavor to it, add some at bottling/kegging time to taste.
 
I had to take a few pics of the first A/G brew. I had my little brew buddy in the back of the truck to supervise everything I did.

Do NOT fear the foam!!!

P9290191.jpg




P9290186.jpg




P9290188.jpg




P9290184.jpg



P9290193.jpg
 
Bubbling already. Just got home from going out to dinner and the yeasties are eating away!!
 
Nice! I am planning on going AG soon, hopefully. What is that glass tube hooked up to the thermometer for?
 
It's a sight glass so you can see how delicious your beer looks without burning your face off with steam (although it can be quite exfoliating)
 
It's a sight glass so you can see how delicious your beer looks without burning your face off with steam (although it can be quite exfoliating)

Hell yeah. Once your smellers in your nose are steamed to death they dont work right for a few days either!!Chris. This A/G is easier than I thought. I was within .002 of my target gravity. We need to meet up one weekend and to a few brews and smoke a few gars dude!! I have a Oaked Arrogant Bastard clone recipe I'm brewing this Sunday!
 
Back
Top