Smoothest Stout ever

Yeah, this is a question, and not a solution. I am making a stout a little later from extract plus steaping grains. I don't have the recipe in front of me, but there is a lot more steeping grains than I've done before. I am adding oatmeal for the flavor and smoothness. My question is what adjustments can I make to make this oatmeal stout as smooth as possible? The two smoothest stouts I know of are Guiness Draught and Young's Double Chocolate. They both use the nitrogen widgets. I'm sure that has something to do with it. Would steeping the oatmeal longer and the grains less do it.

The more specialty roast grains you steep, the longer the beer will require for a mellowed taste.

One trick to smoothing out a homebrewed stout is to give it a nice aggressive pour to knock out a lot of the CO2. That's what a stout faucet does. It also helps to let the bottle warm a bit and not serve a stout ice cold.

A good stout is a balance between a roasted flavor, and smoothness. Getting both is really something that only time will help happen.

The two beers you mention have nitro widgets as you say, which produces smaller bubbles and makes for a smoother beer. You won't be able to duplicate it, but you can smoothify your version by adding maltodextrin powder to the boil. Depending on the OG, you can use up to 8 or 10 oz. Maltodextrin is a complex (long-chain) unfermentable carbohydrate. It will add body and smoother mothfeel without the sweetness that its cousin, lactose, can result in. Also, you can add straight-up unsweetened baker's chocolate to the last 15 mins of the boil. The oils will hurt your head retention, but at the end of the day, it adds a creaminess that is unrivaled. I'd add an 8oz bar.

Yeah... serving temperature really effects the smoothness. The warmer it is the smoother it tastes. Some beers like IPA's I enjoy a little colder... a little more refreshing. Stouts are great warm! Lol... BMC tells people colder is better, but only cause their beer tastes like **** warm.

Maltodextrin sounds interesting. I've never heard of anyone using it. Can it be purchased at a supermarket and can it adveresly affect my beer. I thought about making the stout chocolate. If it really helps with the smoothness then I'm all for it. If it just adds flavor then I don't care so much. I like the way oatmeal stout tastes. I just want to mellow it out a little. And yes guinness is right about one thing. Serve chilled not cold. Is it the amount of specialty grains or the steep time that will most effectively mellow out the stout?

BWRIGHT said:

Maltodextrin sounds interesting. I've never heard of anyone using it. Can it be purchased at a supermarket and can it adveresly affect my beer. I thought about making the stout chocolate. If it really helps with the smoothness then I'm all for it. If it just adds flavor then I don't care so much. I like the way oatmeal stout tastes. I just want to mellow it out a little. And yes guinness is right about one thing. Serve chilled not cold. Is it the amount of specialty grains or the steep time that will most effectively mellow out the stout?

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Dunno if you can find it at a grocery store, but GNC or Vitamin Shoppe might have some. The homebrew supply shops often sell it, but they charge way more for it as a brewing ingredient than the fitness places sell it as a health supplement (since it's a complex carb, it takes longer to digest and is better for you than simple carbs). I use it in my smoothies & shakes in addition to my beer.

The only thing I can think of in terms of adverse effects is that it can make your final product TOO thick if you add too much. But if you stay at 10oz or less, you'll be fine.

Here's where I get mine. Cheap...7lb for $13, or $0.12/oz. AustinHomeBrew, on the other hand, sells the same thing for $0.25/oz.

ooOoo... the body builder

sirsloop said:

ooOoo... the body builder

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uhhh??

The oatmeal will go a long way to creating a nice smooth mouthfeel. Combine it with flaked barley and you can create a very chewy stout.

Normally, I add my steeping grains into the water at the beginning. I let them steep while the water is coming to temp, then let go 15 mins at about 150F-160F. Would not adding the grains in until the water is up to temp help my cause at all? Maybe 20mins at 160F?

To cut back on the bitterness, you can replace some of the chocholate malt with special-b, and skip the black patent. Then sub some of the base with wheat DME and oatmeal. Finish with a bit of lactose, and it makes for a very smooth stout.

I've heard that Guinness adds a small amount of sour mash to offset the bitterness, and make it smoother.

nick

Any other ideas for the World's Smoothest Stout before I get started?

HP_Lovecraft said:

To cut back on the bitterness, you can replace some of the chocholate malt with special-b, and skip the black patent. Then sub some of the base with wheat DME and oatmeal. Finish with a bit of lactose, and it makes for a very smooth stout.

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If you add lactose, you'll get a sweet stout, I'm not sure if that's what you're going for.

Keep the chocolate, don't add special-b (it'll give it a belgian flavor/raisins). Take all your dark grains (chocolate, roasted barley and black patent) and cold-steep them. Search cold steeping, but basically you steep all your dark grains in cold water for 18-24 hours in advance and pour the liquid from that into the boil pot at the very end of the boil (either knockout or last few minutes). This keeps you from getting the astrigencies you often get with dark grains and high temperatures.

Or, use carafa (I, II, or III). These are roasted grains that are dehusked.

Someone mentioned adding oatmeal - can you actually do that when extract brewing? What kind do you use, and would you just steep it like other specialty grains?

nfo said:

Someone mentioned adding oatmeal - can you actually do that when extract brewing? What kind do you use, and would you just steep it like other specialty grains?

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If you buy quick oats (or flaked oats as they're called at LHBS) you can just steep them with any other specialty grains. If you buy whole oats you'll need to cook them first (make oatmeal basically) and then you can steep them.

In extract brewing you won't get any fermentables out of them but you'll get the nice oat flavour and that creamy texture that makes oatmeal stout so great.

so I just called the LHBS about the chocolate. They said to add cocoa powder to the last 10 mins of boil. They also said to reduce the amount of bittering hops since the cocoa powder will add bitterness. I want to make the stout as little bitter as possible. Should I just scrap the cocoa and stick with the oatmeal. Anyone have any suggestions. (I've got my water heating up now.)

bradsul said:

If you buy quick oats (or flaked oats as they're called at LHBS) you can just steep them with any other specialty grains. If you buy whole oats you'll need to cook them first (make oatmeal basically) and then you can steep them.

In extract brewing you won't get any fermentables out of them but you'll get the nice oat flavour and that creamy texture that makes oatmeal stout so great.

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Wait, so I can grab the oatmeal in my pantry, cook some up (maybe a big bowl so I have some breakfast too), and add it to the boil?? Sounds good.

I assume you can't use as much this way, or else you'll end up underattenuating by too much. Maybe this is a good candidate to experiment with partial mashing.

If it were me I would ditch the cocoa and go with the oatmeal.

nfo said:

Wait, so I can grab the oatmeal in my pantry, cook some up (maybe a big bowl so I have some breakfast too), and add it to the boil?? Sounds good.

I assume you can't use as much this way, or else you'll end up underattenuating by too much. Maybe this is a good candidate to experiment with partial mashing.

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Yup, once it's cooked (if necessary) you just steep like any other grain. If you want to get some fermentables from it as well you can partial mash with a couple pounds of 2-row. If you decide to partial mash you still need to cook any whole oats, that process is to gelatinize any starches so the enzymes can convert them.

BWRIGHT said:

so I just called the LHBS about the chocolate. They said to add cocoa powder to the last 10 mins of boil. They also said to reduce the amount of bittering hops since the cocoa powder will add bitterness. I want to make the stout as little bitter as possible. Should I just scrap the cocoa and stick with the oatmeal. Anyone have any suggestions. (I've got my water heating up now.)

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I wouldn't fool with the cocoa if I were you. Unless you've used it before and know what to do, I wouldn't mess with it. I've read that it adds a lot of oils which kills body and head retention.

I'm telling you, you get the bad bitterness (astringency) from the dark grains. It comes from the husks, when it reacts with the high temp of the mash and boil.

Keep your steeping temp to about 150F and steep in a smaller volume, say about 1 gal.
Some lactose will give you a sweet stout similar to Youngs. Some malto-dextrine will give you a little more body.
I like chocolate malt and some dark crystal like 120l or Special B in a smooth stout. Keep the total roasted grains below 1.5# and use more chocolate malt and roasted barley at around 300l instead of black malt or barley at 450l-500l.
The Oatmeal stout in my signature came out really smooth but some of that was from my high mash temps.
Craig