Oatmeal Stout Recipe Help

This is my first attempt at partial mash. That being said here is my dilemma. My recipe was put together using the online recipe generator at beertools.com. I told the generator that I would be doing a 3 gal boil (since that's about all my pots can handle). Then I would top off the fermenter to reach 5 gallons. I just learned that someone I know has a 7 gal stock pot they are going to let me use. Which brings me to my question. Using the ingredients I already have, that were for the 3 gallon boil, can I do a full boil now or should I stick with the 3 gal boil (1.5 gal mash & 1.5 gal sparge)?

Here's the recipe:
Target gravity is 1.051
3.37 lbs. 2-Row Brewers Malt
0.93 lbs. British Black Patent
0.82 lbs. American Chocolate Malt
0.14 lbs. American Victory
3.65 lbs. Liquid Light Extract
0.22 lbs. Oats Flaked
0.9 oz. Northern Brewer (Whole, 8 %AA) boiled 60 min.


Thanks for looking.

going to a full boil is going to affect your hop utilization (specifically, you're going to get more bittering from the hops). don't know if you were planning a late extract addition when you entered your info in the recipe generator...if you did, you're probably close enough. just eyeballing the amount of hops you've got listed, you're probably fine.

if you're looking for feedback on the recipe, per se, i'd suggest bumping up your flaked oats to at least a pound. with all black patent and no roasted barley, a purist would tell you that you really have more of a porter going there. i'm no purist, but i'd personally sub in at least some roasted barley for some of the black (keeping in mind that sierra nevada stout is all black patent and i consider it a great stout!)

I just made a VERY similar recipe. I wanted a holiday ale type thing though, so I added more base malts for gravity, but for specialty malts I'll tell you what I had.

1# chocolate
1/2# flaked barley
1/2# black patent
1/2# crystal 40L
1/2# flaked oats

My recipe also technically doesn't fit a real category. It's too dark to be a porter, but I don't have the roasted barley to make it a stout.

I would suggest trying EdWort's robust porter recipe. Take out the malto dextrine, since you're already adding malt. Adjust your base malts to get the gravity you want. Then add 1/2# oats to make it oatmeal.

As is your beer will be fine though. It's going to really be an Oatmeal "Porter". Pretty much the same as mine.

Ok, making a porter I can live with. I was more concerned that I was going to make something that was going to be no good. Thanks for the input guys.

If you want a pronounced oat flavor I recommend toasting them. If they are not toasted they will just add a little body and little flavor. I recently made an oatmeal stout and didn't toast them, next time I will try it.

Don't worry about the style overmuch. If you've got the grist ingredients on hand, use 'em and call it a Stout. With that grist, I very much doubt anyone will notice it's black malt, not roasted barley.

(For the record, I'm one of the purists who thinks Stout ain't Stout without Roasted Barley. But it's not my beer, it's yours. )

I agree that the proportion of oats you've got is way too low to be of any effective use. The best Oatmeal Stouts, IMO, follow the same basic grist percentages as Dry Irish Stout (70% Pale Malt, 20% Flaked Barley, 10% Roasted Barley) but with different ingredients. My most successful Oatmeal Stout was 70% Pale malt, 20% Flaked Oats, 5% Roasted Barley, 5% Chocolate Malt. Chewy, nutty, roasty, and just plain nice.

I'd stick with my own equipment. After all, you can't rely on loans. You should figure out how to brew well on your own gear.

Cheers!

Bob

+1 on brewing on your own gear. A lot of styles and beers are born from the brewer making it too. Identical recipes in different systems will be different.

No one will know it's not a stout, so call it what you want. If you want to enter it in a contest they may need a recipe, so you're technically without a style, but so am I, and I know the beer will be good.

NQ3X said:

...I agree that the proportion of oats you've got is way too low to be of any effective use. The best Oatmeal Stouts, IMO, follow the same basic grist percentages as Dry Irish Stout (70% Pale Malt, 20% Flaked Barley, 10% Roasted Barley) but with different ingredients. My most successful Oatmeal Stout was 70% Pale malt, 20% Flaked Oats, 5% Roasted Barley, 5% Chocolate Malt. Chewy, nutty, roasty, and just plain nice....


Bob

Click to expand...

I appreciate your feedback guys. I brewed this late last night before you had posted. I decided, on the fly, to up the oats to 1/3 lb, but that still falls short of what you suggest as 20% of the bill. I will have to see how this one comes out and adjust as necessary.
I felt pretty good about doing this beer considering it was my first time at mashing. It really was easy. Temp control on a glass top stove isn't easy but I managed to get pretty close to the temps and my final gravity ended up being just 0.002 higher that predicted. I had a really nice starter made for this guy and I saw signs of fermentation within 4-5 hours of pitching.

Well, here's a little update.

Beer's been fermenting for 2 weeks now. I added 1/4# cold steeped coffee (Torreo Nicaraguan Blend) at the end of the boil. Today I took a small sample (didn't bother with a gravity check since it's got another week to go). I get a somewhat pronounced odor of cold black coffee. I am thinking of adding more coffee to the bottling bucket. The taste is somewhat sweet (not malty sweet though) with a slight dry finish at the back end.

I hope I can wait the 4 weeks until it's ready.