Low Gravity in an Oatmeal Stout.

I just racked my third batch to it's secondary and when I took the hydrometer reading it read 1.014. Not bad I figured, except for the fact that the OG was approx. (I forgot to write the exact number down) 1.040. My first two batches had higher OG's and turned out to be around 7% ABV when they were bottled but what it a suppose to be a heavier beer will likely turn out to be a puny 4.0-4.5 ABV at best. I don't get it, I steeped the grains for 30+ minutes at 155 in approx. 4 gallons of water in a provided muslin bag. What did I do in order to get such a low OG for such a heavy beer?

i have yet to make an oatmeal stout but some grains including oats(other than instant) need to be heated to geletanize the starches and make them available for yeast during fermentation. Is this the same recipe as the previous 2?

Hi. A beer with an OG of 1.040 is a moderate to lighter sized beer. To give you any specific feedback or help, folks will need your recipe and info on your process.

If you brewed an extract beer, 1.014 seems like a reasonable FG, especially if you used a dark extract. To brew a higher abv beer, you'll need to start with more extract and a higher OG.

Cheers!

In response to scinerds question I did use the same recipe as the other two brew's and they all came in extract kits from Midwest Brewery (http://www.midwestsupplies.com/). As to what kind of oats they used in their kits I have to assume they are instant (they seem to be pretty good at making sure there kits are well stocked).

As far as what I did, as I said I steeped the grains at 155 degrees for approx. 35 mins, removed them, and squeezed out any excess fluids. Next I brought the wort to a boil and then added my half gallon jug of liquid malt extract while simultaneously stirring. After the extract was fully dissolved I brought the wort back to a boil and added an ounce of Fuggle hop pellets and let them boil for about an hour. I didn't have any issues with boil overs or anything and when the hour was up I put in the wort chiller in the kettle, took it outside set the kettle in the snow and hooked up the wort chiller to the spigot for the hose, all in all it cooled pretty damn fast (I live in MN where on that particular day the temperature was in the teens and I had the ice cold water from the house running into the wort as well while it was sitting on snow). After that I started my yeast, waited for some signs of activity (20 mins) and while waiting aerated my wort by stirring and pouring back in forth between bucket and kettle. When the yeast was ready I pitched it into the fermentation bucket set the lid and bubbler and that was that.

I mean as far as I can tell I did everything right on the brewing end I'm just surprised that the OG was so low, maybe a bad kit?

What kit and where did you get it?

If it was an extract kit, most of the fermentable sugars come from the extract, not the specialty grains. Usually specialty grains are for color and subtle flavors more than adding to the gravity.

Per pound, most specialty grains will add about 0.005 to the gravity compare to LME's .006 - .008 and DME's ~0.01. In extract kits you usually have 1-2 pounds of grain, so it's only affecting your OG by about 0.005 - 0.01. So if it is an extract kit, with an OG of 1.04, it's likely it either didn't have enough malt extract or you didn't adjust your measurement for temperature. For instance, if you measured the wort at 130F, your OG was actually 1.05 rather than 1.04.

According to the BJCP Style Guidelines, an Oatmeal stout should have an OG between 1.048 and 1.065, so the temperature adjustment would put you right in that range. Otherwise there just wasn't enough extract and you've made a lighter stout

If I were you, I would be glad the yeast attenuated so well. My first beer was an extract oatmeal stout kit with an OG of 1.042; the problem is that the FG was 1.020 which resulted in a watery, undrinkable beer. I wish I could have squeezed 4% ABV out of the beer to make it passable.

These cheap oatmeal stout kits with OG of 1.042 just aren't good recipes. Be thankful that yours will be drinkable--I had to dump mine.

EDIT: I just went back and read that yours was a Midwest kit.... big surprise, that's what mine was. I was lured in by the $25 price tag and got what I paid for.

My first beer is in secondary right now, and it's an oatmeal stout extract kit from Midwest. I got exactly the same numbers: 1.040 OG, racked it to secondary at 1.014 after 2 weeks in primary. From my understanding, the yeast did its job fine but the OG could stand to be a little higher on these kits. Tastes good at least!

mrmekon said:

My first beer is in secondary right now, and it's an oatmeal stout extract kit from Midwest. I got exactly the same numbers: 1.040 OG, racked it to secondary at 1.014 after 2 weeks in primary. From my understanding, the yeast did its job fine but the OG could stand to be a little higher on these kits. Tastes good at least!

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See, but that's still just 3.4% ABV. I wish they would charge a bit more and get that OG up to 1.050.

Thanks for all the responses! I did do my hydrometer readings at room temp so I don't think that was it but from what I can tell from the responses it's probably a weak extract in Midwest's kit.

Collal said:

Thanks for all the responses! I did do my hydrometer readings at room temp so I don't think that was it but from what I can tell from the responses it's probably a weak extract in Midwest's kit.

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I don't think so. From the Midwest website, it says that kit should have an OG of around 1.042 and a final gravity of around 1.012. Since you're not sure what your original gravity was, but think it was around 1.040, I would say that your beer turned out pretty close to the way it was intended.