First all grain cinnamon oatmeal stout, thoughts?

Hello all, first time poster here.

I have recently jumped into the all grain experience and am curious to see y'alls thoughts on my notes so far.

Recipe
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Base malt
8.0lb 2 Row pale malt

Specialty Malt
0.5lb 120L Crystal
0.5lb 60L Crystal
1.5lb Chocolate Malt
2.0lb roasted oats
(300*F for 15-30min based on color and aroma)

75 min boil
2.0oz Willamette (5.5%) 60min 25.7 hops ibu
1 whirlfloc tablet (last 15 min of boil)
1 tablet yeast fuel (last 15 min of boil)

Irish yeast 1084

15grams Cinnamon (added at boil)

primary 1-2wk (I am currently at the end of the second week and and debating a long primary vs. moving to a secondary)


NOTES

Brewed on 5/8/11
Mashed at 148*F (supposed to be at 155*F couldn't get that temp just right)
Sparged with water @ 160*F

Carbouy temp irregular.... first 12 hours at 78*F+ (whoops! haha i was not expecting temperature control to be as difficult as it was)

(had a blowout at this point so a had to macgyver an alternative airlock valve, possible contamination?)

Following 24hours brought down to 76*F

(went to lowe's at this point and invested in a large bucket to place the carbouy in and filled it w/cool water)

5/10/11
Holding at 72*F




5/11
maintaining at 72*F, fermentation has slowed but is steady.

5/14
bubbling is very low constant


at this point i'm worried about the off flavors that so many home brewers talk about because of my high initial fermentation temp. I have been perusing the forums and am now considering a long primary vs. a secondary to try and let the yeast clean itself up a bit. Thoughts?

I wouldn't freak about off-flavors.. let it ride out, and give us tasting notes when you start sampling it! It sounds delicious.

just bottled it last night and sampled a bit, tastes great! It's weird though, i'm tasting absolutely no cinnamon and very little oats. It honestly tastes like a sweet coffee (which isn't a bad thing to me, I like it) with a slightly dry aftertaste. I'm guessing the amount of chocolate malt I added covered up the oats and cinnamon (and here I was worried that I had added too much cinnamon haha). Maybe 1.5lb of chocolate malt was too much?

I would do the cinnamon in the last 10 minutes. That's what I do for my Pumpkin beers, I also add spices to the secondary and rack on top.
You are probably right about the chocolate covering up, but I don't think you get a whole lot of oat flavor - just mouth feel. But hey, if it tastes good no worries! Tweak it next time.

Cinnamon fragrance and flavor boils away quickly - next time try it at <= 10 minutes, or even at flameout. If you want some earlier, use cinnamon stick instead of ground, but I would still recommend some at the end.

thanks so much for the cinnamon tips. I didn't even think to look at pumpkin brew recipes to get an idea about the cinnamon.

Alright so I cracked open the bottles a couple of days ago, tastes fantastic. It reminds me of a sweetened coffee with a very slight cinnamon after taste (I was shocked that it came out). It has a very creamy texture to it, and i think my one critique so far is that it perhaps too much. Because it feels so thick it takes away from that thirst quenching 'aahhh' that i get from beers. I know stouts are perhaps less known for that (it's usually the ales and lagers that have a more crisp finish) but i might take out a little bit of the oats next time and see how that affects the taste.

Because I was a dummy and didn't take gravity checks i have no clue what the Alc. content is, but after 2 beers i am definitely feeling it a little bit. But for my first all grain I would say this is a monstrous 36 bottles of success.