Building the Most Hearty Beer Possible

The Kaiser's post yesterday about Ash Wednesday and living off Doppelbocks for lent got me thinking about making an incredibly hearty, filling beer.

What ingredients and techniques would you use to make the most filling beer possible?

The first things that pop into my head are 1) using oatmeal and 2) mashing hot to get a lot of unfermentable sugars, although I don't even know if I'm on track with the latter idea.

Anyway, I just wanted to see what ideas you guys had. Ultimately I'd like to brew this up and live off it for a weekend and see how it goes.

I make an oatmeal stout that is 25% flaked barley and 10% flaked oats. It's very chewy.

Mashed at 156F

Yes, Mash high and maybe do a single decoction.
Use some crystal and carapils

Oyster stout!
never had it, but the "nourishing period" of stouts is an interesting piece of history.

Would adding flaked wheat also help the thickness or would that somehow contrast poorly with the flaked barley and oats?

I guess I have a sweet stout or porter in mind for this recipe and haven't seen wheat used much in those styles. Is there a reason for that?

Germey said:

Oyster stout!
never had it, but the "nourishing period" of stouts is an interesting piece of history.

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That's pretty interesting. For some reason oysters hadn't crossed my mind. You could call it the Surf 'n Turf Stout.

Besides dopplebocks, they don't get much bigger than Russian Imperial Stouts and Barleywines. Problem is, it's very easy to veer off from "hearty and filling and chewey" and into "cloying and undrinkable".

the_bird said:

Besides dopplebocks, they don't get much bigger than Russian Imperial Stouts and Barleywines. Problem is, it's very easy to veer off from "hearty and filling and chewey" and into "cloying and undrinkable".

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Yeah if I'm going to be living off this stuff for a few days, I don't want it to be overpowering, either in flavor or alcohol content.

Do a wholly underattenuated beer. The best way would be to crash cool it and force carb it with a kegging system.

Salvator (the original doppelbock) was originally brewed to be underattenuated, about 50-60% apparent attenuation. If you want to know more about the style, "Designing great beers" by Ray Daniels.

the_bird said:

Besides dopplebocks, they don't get much bigger than Russian Imperial Stouts and Barleywines. Problem is, it's very easy to veer off from "hearty and filling and chewey" and into "cloying and undrinkable".

Click to expand...

Isn't it more like "cloyshing 'n' unf.. undrrnk. un-oh #@&$ it!"

mrfocus said:

Do a wholly underattenuated beer. The best way would be to crash cool it and force carb it with a kegging system.

Salvator (the original doppelbock) was originally brewed to be underattenuated, about 50-60% apparent attenuation. If you want to know more about the style, "Designing great beers" by Ray Daniels.

Click to expand...

That's a good idea Mr. Focus. I hadn't thought of that. I'll make sure to use a yeast that responds well (or poorly as it may be) to crash cooling.

What's a good ABV% to shoot for? 4-5%?