Oatmeal Stout recipe - Critique - my first recipe

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smee44

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HBT I want to make a super creamy, and velvety oatmeal stout.

I have done a dozen or so recipes and am taking a shot at creating my own. After looking through other recipes I have formulated this recipe. I am a PM brewer at the moment and 7 lbs of grain is about max for my system. I brew on a stove with two 4 gal pots. I BIAB so stuck sparges won't be a problem with the heavy flaked bill. I think the flakes will give me the feel I am looking for, maybe???

5.5 Gallon recipe

3.5 lbs 2-Row Malt
1.5 lbs Flaked Oats
0.5 lbs Flaked Barley
0.5 lbs 60°L Crystal
0.5 lbs roasted Barley
0.5 lbs Chocolate malt
3 lbs XL DME (late addition)

10 qt Single infusion Mash @ 150 for 75min
Mash out (added 2 qts boiling water) @ 158 for 15min
12 qt single sparge @ 168 for 15 min
added required water (4 qt) to get to pre boil volume (7 gal)

1.5 oz East Kent Goldings 5.3%AA 60 min

Pacman yeast

70% brewhouse eff.
OG 1.055
FG 1.015

bottle with 4oz corn sugar

Thanks for taking a look. Also I am just using some spreadsheets for calcs haven't jumped to a software yet. Probably should though.
Thanks for the input.
 
That's alot of oats, and flaked barley. 3 pounds of flaked grains seems like way too much to me.

I'd use a pound of oats, and lose the flaked barley, or at least reduce it quite a bit. I'd decrease the crystal by about half, also.

I'd increase the base malt to ensure conversion.
 
Edited mash temp to 152 and .5 crystal 60L(This was my original thought anyway).

I love oatmeal stouts and see many recipes with 2lbs in them. Should i be worried about conversion? Should go to 6-row to get there? Also I am a noob I read the flaked barley gives a creamy feel, right or wrong? More comments/thought.
 
If you want to convert all that, you'll probably need to up the amount of base malt (or go all-grain) or do a VERY long mash rest (2-3 hours).

If you're mashing in a tun, I recommend a LOT of rice hulls or a protein rest.
 
edit 2-row to 6-row

Okay after searching i found no calculator for diastatic power of a recipes grain bill. How much whould/should i need to complete conversion? I am thinking

3.5 lbs 6-Row Malt
1.5 lbs Flaked Oats
.5 lbs Flaked Barley
0.5 lbs 60°L Crystal
0.5 lbs roasted Barley
0.5 lbs Chocolate malt
3 lbs XL DME (late addition)

50% of grain bill is 6-row

Would this be a better grain bill?
 
I think that's a lot of flaked in the grain bill, 28%. 10% with oats is as high I care to go which would be a pound if this were all grain. I know these percentages reflect the grain bill and not total fermentables but hopefully you can see what I'm saying as a whole.

I understand using the 6-row for the diastic power but pale malt is better suited for the style. I figure that will limit your flaked to under a pound.

I feel where you coming from and I'm certainly not saying one way is better than the other, just my thoughts.
 
I do my oatmeal stout with 2.5 lb of oats (no flaked barley), it does get stuck when I do a 10 gallon batch (5 lb of oats) but the 5 gallon batches usually turn out fine, this is all-grain though.
 
I appreciate the input. I am rethinking the 6-row now, I think that 50% 2-row will be enough to convert. I will mash for 90 min to help also.

First post edited to current recipe. Any other thoughts
 
I use 1 1/2 lbs oats... I'd loose the flaked barley... have you done this yet?

How did it come out?

I have the ingredients and it is on my brew schedule for the first week of January, no brewing till after the holidays for me. I plan on updating this thread after brew day with actual number and experience. Then update again upon bottling and tasting. I am sticking to the updated recipe in post one.
 
I brewed this recipe this past weekend. I updated the recipe in the OP to reflect what I did. Only major change was the use of Pacman yeast. I figured I shouldn’t pass up the chance to pitch on top of a good yeast cake rather than just pitch dry Notty. I believe I should get similar results but the brown was my first beer with Pacman and obviously haven’t tasted it finish yet.

I ended up with ~5.75 gal of wort @ 1.56 so my eff. was better than expected and I had slightly less boil off. Fermenting very happily @ approx. 60 deg.

The OG reading was very tasty. I look forward to see how this turns out. I will continue to update the thread as it progresses.
 
Update:
I needed the Primary so this went in the secondary on 1/22/10. (I didn’t update because I took no hydro sample or taste) So it spent 21 days in the Primary. Then into a 5 gallon Glass carboy that was tiptop full. I gave it 11 days in the secondary then a slight cold crash and before bottling 2/2/10. Yielded 49-12oz and 2 bombers that will get aged at least a year.

FG = 1.013 with temp correction

Hydrometer tasted a little more roasty than expected but I hope this mellows some with age. It also seemed a little thin but this could be my perception of uncarbed beer. It had a smooth mouth feel for being un-carbed. Roast upfront then had an oat finish but was still somewhat covered with the roasty-ness. I think bottle ageing will help. Looks promising.

Sorry no pics of the hydro sample.
 
I use 1 lb 2 oz flaked oats in my Oatmeal Stout, just because that's a full can of Quaker Instant Oats. Have it on tap right now, other than the extra oats and flaked barley my recipe is very similar to yours (with Maris Otter being the pale base grain and no DME). Using Maris Otter (about half the DP of US 2-row) it converts fine but there's a lot more base grain since no DME is used.
 
To start and close the loop on this oatmeal stout recipe I have my notes from this weekend’s first bottle. I will try and remember to update again in a month or so.

The stout started very clean with a slightly “full” mouth feel and that Oat smoothness/silkiness that I was looking for. The roasted flavor is stronger from the mid to finish than I want. This will probably mellow some with age and I believe is from the use of Black roasted barley rather than just roasted barley. (AHS only had BRB) Excellent head retention and lacing, was creamy brown head. Overall a good beer.

Next batch I am planning on upping the Flaked Oats to 2 lbs and cutting the BRB to .375 lbs.

Very poor pictures from my phone.
0223101907a.jpg

0223101907b.jpg


Thanks for the input.
 
Nice looking stout! For my tastes I would agree with the changes for your next batch. I'd like to nail down my stout but I think I'm done with roasted beers until next fall :(
 
My recent stout came out a little roasty too. I wonder if some of the extract caramelized even though there weren't any signs of it...
 

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