Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Double Chocolate Oatmeal Snout

so after a couple of months this thing is really tasty, great head (even used non fat-free cocoa). Its still thin (my fault), but delicious....packs one hell of a punch though

So, I love outmeal stouts and I'm about to brew my first all grain batch. Should I stay away from this receipe as it will be my first all grain batch?

Did anyone convert this to all grain yet?

Replace the extract with some 2 row and a little munich to get to the same OG and you should be fine. Seriously, the chocolate dominates this so much that you won't notice if it's not an exact replacement for the amber extract.

pola0502ds said:

So, I love outmeal stouts and I'm about to brew my first all grain batch. Should I stay away from this receipe as it will be my first all grain batch?

Did anyone convert this to all grain yet?

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There was an all-grain recipe much earlier in the thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/double-chocolate-oatmeal-snout-126638/#post1576320

That's the one I used, I just finished transferring it to the secondary on Monday. It should be okay, although I screwed up the sparge (it was my first all-grain ever, and the sparge water temperature was too low) so I didn't get as much extracted as I should have. Nonetheless, it tasted fine to me so I'm letting it go through to maturity.

(Side note: mine is more of a Mocha Stout: I added 16 ounces of cooled espresso to the secondary on top of the vanilla. The taste test was promising!)

So if i wanted a thicker body with a silky mouth feel how would you change the receipe and what would your mash temp be?

I'm about halfway through (drinking) a batch of this. Nothing new in saying this, but it's a really great recipe. Everyone who's tasted it has raved about it. My batch came through with a more subtle chocolate flavor and a lighter, dryer mouthfeel than I was expecting.

pola0502ds said:

So if i wanted a thicker body with a silky mouth feel how would you change the receipe and what would your mash temp be?

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I'd be sure to add a generous portion of lactose, and mash around 150. You might also use a less enthusiastically attenuating strain of yeast to leave more sweetness in the beer. I don't have any great suggestions there, every yeast I use seems to clean house pretty well.

Hope that helps.

ericdaryl said:

I'd be sure to add a generous portion of lactose, and mash around 150. You might also use a less enthusiastically attenuating strain of yeast to leave more sweetness in the beer. I don't have any great suggestions there, every yeast I use seems to clean house pretty well.

Hope that helps.

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What does sweetness have to do with it? He's asking about mouthfeel. If you dump in a bunch of lactose it's going to totally change the character of this beer.

I am ordering grain today and should brew saturday or the following weekend.

Can i switch out the flaked oats for some Thomas Fawcet Oat Malt? Is so, would I be able to use the same amount?

pola0502ds said:

Can i switch out the flaked oats for some Thomas Fawcet Oat Malt? Is so, would I be able to use the same amount?

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If you're going for making the same beer, I'd just stick to the oats rather than oat malt. I've never used it so I don't know how it might differ.

makes sense, I just sent you a PM on the same question, don't worry about it.

Thanks for this recipe! I brewed this a few months ago, and it keeps getting better in the bottle the longer I leave it. This was my first stout, and my first partial mash, and it turned out great.

How long has it been in the bottles?

pola0502ds said:

How long has it been in the bottles?

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I bottled first week in May, so about two months now. Mine definitely had a big difference from 1 month to 2 in how it tastes.

Try one after a couple years. I did last week. It's still fantastic.

This beer sounds so damned good. It's ruining my plans for brewing other beers.

I think I'm gonna have to do this next.

I'm glad I read this thread again. When I initially read the thread last week, I interpreted the cocoa bill as (6) 9 oz. Fortunately, I read the thread again before brewing and now realize that it says 6 oz. to 9 oz.....my preference. Had I worked from memory, I would have certainly made a bitter bomb!

Come on man, just try it! You might like it! =)

I am going to start on a version of this tomorrow. I am using an extract kit with steeping grains from my LHBS. It is an oatmeal milk stout. The biggest difference I see is I will be using DME. I will be adding cocoa and vanilla as your recipe calls for, but this will only be my 3rd brew. I am still a little nervous shopping for the ingredients separately, otherwise I would follow it exactly. Hopefully I get something similar to what you made because it sounds absolutely incredible.

ingredients purchased, now to get the time to make this!!!

I brewed a 2.5 gallon batch yesterday and used 3 oz. of cocoa. When I racked it to primary, it had a rich chocolate taste...not a bitter one. Should I expect it to become bitter or is this the extent of the chocolate flavor? If this is it, I may dry hop to tone down some of the sweetness/richness. Thoughts or comments?

You're getting a LOT more sweetness than you'll end up with after it ferments out. There's tons of sugar there that won't be there in a few weeks.

Thanks, ChshreCat. This is my first chocolate brew and have never drank one either, so not sure what to expect. I know the sugars will ferment out, but again, I just don't know what to expect in the end.

I drank an 8 oz glass of it as I was putting it in the primary. It was that good even though it was warm, flat, green, and had stuff in suspension!

I have been extract brewing for a few months, and want to try a partial mash. I've decided to use your recipe! I would have a difficult time boiling 3.5-4g of water without keeping a lid on it, so I was hoping to steep in around 3-3.25g of water. Think there would be much of a problem with this, or just a little less efficiency? Also, did you just get your water to the right temp, throw in your grains, then throw the whole pot in your oven?

Also, have you ever thought of throwing in a few cocoa nibs with your vanilla bean in secondary? I love Southern Tier's Choklat, so I sort of want a chocolate overload (plus I love dark chocolate).

bobz32 said:

I have been extract brewing for a few months, and want to try a partial mash. I've decided to use your recipe! I would have a difficult time boiling 3.5-4g of water without keeping a lid on it, so I was hoping to steep in around 3-3.25g of water. Think there would be much of a problem with this, or just a little less efficiency? Also, did you just get your water to the right temp, throw in your grains, then throw the whole pot in your oven?

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That's pretty much it. Just run the oven for a few minutes first so it gets warm and then turn it off when you put the pot in. It's the residual heat you want that makes the pot cool down much more slowly.

bobz32 said:

Also, have you ever thought of throwing in a few cocoa nibs with your vanilla bean in secondary? I love Southern Tier's Choklat, so I sort of want a chocolate overload (plus I love dark chocolate).

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I've thought of using cocoa nibs with other brews, but not with this one. It's already chocolate overload. I doubt you'd notice any difference.

ChshreCat said:

That's pretty much it. Just run the oven for a few minutes first so it gets warm and then turn it off when you put the pot in. It's the residual heat you want that makes the pot cool down much more slowly.



I've thought of using cocoa nibs with other brews, but not with this one. It's already chocolate overload. I doubt you'd notice any difference.

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Sounds good. I just purchased the ingredients, and hope to make it this Saturday. It will be my first partial mash. The Belgian Strong extract I made last month will be coming out of secondary shortly, just in time to hold this tasty brew. I will let you know how it goes!

Sounds like a very interesting recipe. I am a beginner and this will be my second brew. I did a partial mash as my first one, still in the primary...
I want to do this recipe this week-end but I have a few beginner question:

1) We are doing a partial mash, can I do it in 3 Gal of water, continue with my boil and at the end, after the chill, add the water necessary to get to the 5 Gal of the total batch?

2) Do we need to crush the grain before the steep?

Thanks a lot, and I will let you know how everything will go.

Yes it is fine to top it off at the end of boil i find the only affect that is notable is the IBUs will be less but not to noticeable.
Yes crush the grains.

Yep. Uncrushed grains will do nothing for you. Partial boil batches are always topped up with water to get your final volume.

I've brewed this recipe, but couldn't find the cocoa that Cat used. I tried Here's and it was too bitter. I used 8oz of cacao nibs the second time and it was fantastic. 8oz is a lot, but the taste was amazing. Love this brew. Thanks Cat

Jtd6628 said:

Yes it is fine to top it off at the end of boil i find the only affect that is notable is the IBUs will be less but not to noticeable.
Yes crush the grains.

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Interesting. I was just reading about the effect of hops utilization in a denser wort. In fact, I've just found and play with the equation that evaluate the IBU considering boiling time and density of the boil. It is in the John Palmer's book. Thanks a lot for your enlightening comments. My guess is that in this recipe, the quantity of hops is for a smaller boil, may be 2.5 or even 3 gal, and the IBU is evaluated with this consideration in mind.

ChshreCat said:

Yep. Uncrushed grains will do nothing for you. Partial boil batches are always topped up with water to get your final volume.

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Thanks a lot, now everything is clearer for me. This recipe will be very interesting to do. Thanks a lot for posting it. One more thing: I lived in south florida. For the primary fermentation, I can use a big tub with ice bottle to keep the temperature around 68-70. After the first week of active fermentation, do you think I could keep the primary fermenter at room temperature for the additional 2 weeks? In my home-office, the A/C keep the temp at 72F. Should be fine, no?

Yeah I do the same thing in eastern NC just water bath with frozen bottles of water for like the first 10 days of fermentation at 65 degrees then I take it out and let it stay at room room temp which for me is around 78 ( i am a poor 24 year old so 78 is as much as i can spend on ac from july to september) until I hit 3 week mark then I bottle. I have made good beer this way. Other people might have other opinions though but just try it once and if you like it do the same way again if you dont change the method.

I usually just wrap a wet towel around my carboy and that helps keep the temp around 70-72 with no problem.

Tub of water and ice bottles works wonders. I kept a beer in the 60's with it was triple digits with no ac.

Brewed this recipe today! First time doing a partial mash, think it went pretty well. Ended up with an OG of 1.073 ish. I eyeballed the last pound of LME, so I may have added a little more. I probably didn't have the most consistent mash temp, so if it ends up with less fermentables and a slightly higher FG, I am fine.

Used 8oz of cocoa powder. Couldn't find any non-fat in time, though. Oh well!

Also, I used the Northern Brewer's NeoBritania Wyeast instead. Should be some good stuff, thanks!

I brewed this today. It was all-grain and I also used 8 oz cocoa. Damn that's chocolatey. It's for a good friends wedding. He requested a chocolate stout. I hope it's not too much. I came in at 1.080. Haven't figured it yet, but that's really good eff. ,specially being rushed. I had a birthday party to go to. Pulled it off in just over 3.5 hours. I'm siked. Thanks for the base recipe. Anybody adding cream at bottling/kegging? What kind,how much and where to get it?? Thanks.

Cream stouts don't actually have cream in them. You use lactose and you can get it at your LHBS.

ChshreCat said:

Cream stouts don't actually have cream in them. You use lactose and you can get it at your LHBS.

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I knew that but I saw recipe somewhere on the recipe database that listed Cream.