Experimental Beer Oatmeal Cookie Brown Ale

This was originally a "kitchen sink" ale of sorts in that I had a bunch of milled malts laying around from previous batches that I needed to use up, and decided to try an oatmeal cookie ale as a kind of holiday season experiment.

9.00# Maris Otter
0.50# Crystal 80
0.25# Crystal 60
0.50# Flaked Oats (toasted at 350F until golden colored)
0.25# Chocolate Malt
0.10# Black patent malt (just trying to up color a tad)
0.50# Dark brown sugar (added at beginning of boil)

1oz EK Goldings (60min)
1 cup raisons (30min)
1oz EK Goldings (25min)
1oz Willamette (5min)
1 Cinnamon stick (5min)

I was surprised at how well this turned out! The raisons and cinnamon are subtle but definitely present in what seems to be the perfect amount. Not too much not too little. If I were to brew this again (and I think I will end up making it an annual thanksgiving/christmas beer) I would probably add some biscuit or victory malt to give it a bit more bread character, and maybe bump the flaked oats up to 1lb. Other than that I was very pleased.

Not sure about what other yeast I would try. I think the clean US05 ferment really lets the raisons, cinnamon, brown sugar and toasted oats shine. Not sure I would want to mask those flavors up too much with english ale esters, but I may give an english yeast a whirl in the future.

Let me know what you guys think!

Cheers.

Forgot to add, a vanilla bean or two would have been really nice too!

Looks pretty good! There's a similar recipe in Randy Mosher's book Radical Brewing that I saved away for next year's holiday ale. For mine I plan to puree the raisins with 2 cups of wort then add them back into the boil.

Was this for a 5 gallon batch? I have only done ciders and wines to date but have several beer recipes i'd like to try over the winter months. Any way you could turn this into "recipe form" for a beer newb? Sounds mighty tasty!

I clicked on this thinking "I need to reccomend this dude to toast his oats in the oven if he wants an oatmela cookie flavor..." then I smiled when I saw "Toasted at 350F." well done sir

I always keep 1-2lbs of toasted oats on hand just because I love what they can bring to a beer

HawleyFarms said:

Was this for a 5 gallon batch? I have only done ciders and wines to date but have several beer recipes i'd like to try over the winter months. Any way you could turn this into "recipe form" for a beer newb? Sounds mighty tasty!

Click to expand...

This is in "recipe form", are you looking to convert it to extract?

Yeah toasted oats are definately the way to go. This was a five gallon batch.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Seven, what does pureeing the raisins do? Help to release more flavor? That's interesting you say that because the raisins did just kinda plump up back into grapes with the skin in tact. I bet breaking them open would release a lot more flavor and aroma. I will have to try that on the next round


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

somerandomguy said:

Seven, what does pureeing the raisins do? Help to release more flavor? That's interesting you say that because the raisins did just kinda plump up back into grapes with the skin in tact. I bet breaking them open would release a lot more flavor and aroma. I will have to try that on the next round


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Click to expand...

The only time I used raisins, I dumped a pound into a pan with a few cups of wort from the boil. Blackened those suckers, and used more wort to deglaze the pan and added everything back in. This was for a dark belgian though

somerandomguy said:

Seven, what does pureeing the raisins do? Help to release more flavor? That's interesting you say that because the raisins did just kinda plump up back into grapes with the skin in tact. I bet breaking them open would release a lot more flavor and aroma. I will have to try that on the next round

Click to expand...

I got the pureed raisins idea from a recipe for Dogfish Head's Raison d'être. I haven't tried it yet but it made sense to puree them for more flavor.

From the Raison d'etre recipe:

Half way through the boil remove 2 cups of wort from the kettle and soak the raisins for 10-20 mins. Puree in blender then add back to kettle with 10 mins remaining in boil.

Click to expand...

Yeah I will definately try pureeing them in the future. Thanks for the info!


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

C

m00ps said:

This is in "recipe form", are you looking to convert it to extract?

Click to expand...

No I meant recipe but maybe I am not saying what I mean lol. Most of what I consider recipe would be stuff like OG, FG, batch size, boil size, ibu's, steep times, etc. Going to swap this to extract and put it in my brew list.

HawleyFarms said:

No I meant recipe but maybe I am not saying what I mean lol. Most of what I consider recipe would be stuff like OG, FG, batch size, boil size, ibu's, steep times, etc. Going to swap this to extract and put it in my brew list.

Click to expand...

Oh OK. Im on my phone so I can't run the numbers. But try going to brew.gr and put in all the ingredients to check the specs. I love this sites online software, its free and very extensive

Sounds good m00ps. Merry Christmas!

HawleyFarms are you looking at the website on a mobile phone or the homebrewtalk app? All of the info you are looking for I put into the original post, but it doesn't show up when looking at the website on a mobile phone or through the app. Try looking at the recipe on a regular computer and all your info should be available. Let me know if that doesn't work.

Cheers


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Not only am I looking at it on a mobile app, but I broke my phone a few weeks ago so am looking at it on an OLD version of HBT on an OLD crappy phone! Lol. I'll check it out when we get home. Thanks bud. Hope you all had a merry christmas. I have a centennial based ipa an dc a brooklyn brew shop everyday ipa to brew this weekend any so this recipe might be on hold for a bit.

other then leaving the raisins out, how would I make more of an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie ale?
Should I just add more of the chocolate malt or would I be better off with cocoa nibs?

toast the oats in an oven. This is key for an actual oatmeal taste in the final beer. I usualyl toast 8-12oz of what the recipe calls for

chocolate malt really isnt too chocolatey. It just gives a roasty flavor that can have hints of chocolate and coffee. you will not get an actual chocolate flavor with nibs

Reviving an old thread. I made this today and followed the recipe with the following changes: put the raisins in a hop bag to minimize the sludge and did not have cinnamon sticks so used 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder. Batch sparged and came in at 1.06. Smelled and tasted just like an oatmeal raisin cookie. Can't wait to get this one in the keg!!!

Hey TDirgins, glad you gave the recipe a whirl. Have you tasted the finished product yet?

Its funny, I am finishing my Ph.D. thesis and between that and traveling around the country for job interviews I haven't been able to brew in quite a while, and this is the first time I have checked HBT in like 4 months. But I should be back in the game soon and I just thought I would check this thread to see if anyone had tinkered with this recipe. Glad to see that someone recently revived it.

Hope it turned out well for you.

Cheers,

It's carbing right now. Heading to Jamaica next week so probably won't tap it for 2 weeks. I'll let you know!

This sounds delicious, adding it to my todo list for the fall. Can you comment as to how you might modify the recipe? You mentioned adding some victory or biscuit malt, but I'm not sure in what amount or which would be preferable.

I just finished brewing this today, OG started at 1.071. I added a pound of Biscuit Malt and toasted half of the oats. I just smashed the raisins really good before I added them. Going to ferment off the yeast cake from a US 05 batch that I kegged this morning. I will let you know how it finishes up.

Munster51 said:

I just finished brewing this today, OG started at 1.071. I added a pound of Biscuit Malt and toasted half of the oats. I just smashed the raisins really good before I added them. Going to ferment off the yeast cake from a US 05 batch that I kegged this morning. I will let you know how it finishes up.

Click to expand...

Sweet! Looking forward to the report!

Following...
I have got to try this one out!
I wonder how this would turn out if you put some bakers chocolate in at the end of the boil?

I make a similar beer like this and use pale chocolate to give it a chocolate flavor with much less roast. English crystals change the flavor as well. Denny's 1450 yeast gives it an awesome mouthfeel.

Forgot about this thread. I let it sit in primary for 6 weeks due to life getting in the way. It turned out pretty good. I think I would get rid of the later EKG addition. But other than that, pretty good.

TDirgins said:

It's carbing right now. Heading to Jamaica next week so probably won't tap it for 2 weeks. I'll let you know!

Click to expand...

So.... how'd it go?

I saw this thread and gave it a go with some slight changes, brewed on Saturday morning.

9.0# Marris Otter
2.0# Victory
1.0# Flaked Oats (1/2 toasted)
.5# Crystal 80
.5# Crystal 40
.25# Chocolate
.25# Special B
.25# Blackprinz

.5# Dark Brown Sugar (60 min)

1.0 oz EKG (60 min)
1.0 oz Willamette (30 min)
1 cup puréed raisins (15 min)
.5 tsp Cinnamon (0 min)

Denny's 1450 WYeast

.5 Vanilla Bean in Secondary

bsn309 said:

I saw this thread and gave it a go with some slight changes, brewed on Saturday morning.

9.0# Marris Otter
2.0# Victory
1.0# Flaked Oats (1/2 toasted)
.5# Crystal 80
.5# Crystal 40
.25# Chocolate
.25# Special B
.25# Blackprinz

.5# Dark Brown Sugar (60 min)

1.0 oz EKG (60 min)
1.0 oz Willamette (30 min)
1 cup puréed raisins (15 min)
.5 tsp Cinnamon (0 min)

Denny's 1450 WYeast

.5 Vanilla Bean in Secondary

Click to expand...

Please report back. I've wanted to brew this for a while.

Any tried raisins instead in the secondary? Quite unusual to add to the boil instead of secondary.

Sounds yummy but I question how dark and roasty it may be what with the Cara 80, Special B and Blackprinz. Wouldn't the brown sugar be better off at flame out vs 60min to preserve the molasses taste?

So I made this today after looking at it quite a few times but it never seemed the right time of year. The recipe looks really good as is but I made a few minor changes from the original. I just wanted a little less bitterness and try to have it finish a little sweeter. I am excited for the final product. Here's my changes and numbers.

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: US05
Yeast Starter: none
Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter: none
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.067
Final Gravity: unknown at this time. shooting for 1.015 - 10.17
IBU: 23
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 20.2 SRM

Grain:
9 lb Maris Otter Pale Malt
1 lb Flaked Oats (toasted @ 350 until golden)
.5 lb Biscuit Malt
.5 lb Crystal 80
.25 lb Crystal 60
.25 lb Chocolate Malt
1.6 oz Black Patent Malt

Hops:
1 oz EK Goldings 60 min
.5 oz EK Goldings 20 min
1 oz Willamette 5 min

Other:
1.25 cups raisins (mashed up and put in bag) 60 min
8 oz Brown Sugar 8 min
2 Cinnamon sticks (about 2 inches long each)

Mashed at 154 degrees for 70 min. I hit pre and post boil gravity exactly per Beersmiths recommendation.

The final sample had a great flavor. First sip you could pick up the raisin and a slight cinnamon flavor. The back end really did taste like a cookie. Toasting the flaked oats like the original stated and adding the biscuit malt really made this happen. Will keep this updated on the progress. Thanks for a great recipe for the holidays.

Thanks for this recipe! Will brew this on my next run.

When did you add ther cinnamon sticks? Were they added to the boil or in ther fermenter?

Vader ipa said:

When did you add ther cinnamon sticks? Were they added to the boil or in ther fermenter?

Click to expand...

Beer Smith suggested 5 min at the end of boil.

Morebeer has a new Cookie Dough Crystal malt from Viking malts. I got a pound but haven't used it yet. Anyone try it?

Brewsncrabs said:

Morebeer has a new Cookie Dough Crystal malt from Viking malts. I got a pound but haven't used it yet. Anyone try it?

Click to expand...

No but might have to try it out one day. Sounds tasty! Tell us how it comes out.