No Nonsense Stout

So the wife tried a small sip the other day and gave me the go ahead on thinking about making some more... its still got a bit of the metallic twang to it that sorghum beers seem to have, but it is def getting better with age... swmbo will not be able to drink it til november so it has plenty of time to do just that...

mtbskier said:

any thoughts on how to transform this recipe into
More of a milk/sweet stout?

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I made this into a milk stout. I actually forgot the original recipe wasn't one. I used 1/2 lb of lactose in a 3 gal batch.

How did it turn out? Lately I've been thinking about various ways to modify this recipe to get different types of stouts. I think it would make a great chocolate stout, but I wonder about the milk stout thing...it's already kind of sweet as far as stouts go.

It was good. It was pretty sweet, but no more than comercial, non-GF, milk stouts that I have had. I couldn't drink 2 in one sitting, but I feel that way about all milk stouts. It was awesome with a little ice cream.

Yum!! Thank you so much for this recipe! I just tried my first carbonated bottle and it is divine!

I love really dark and malty beers so much but at the beginning of this year I suddenly developed a gluten intolerance and was really bummed that there aren't many GF dark and strong beers out there to enjoy (though I am lucky to live in Washington and have been enjoying Harvester's dubbel). Anyway, I am just now beginning to get my head above the water in the department of not feeling like crap all the time (yay!) and I realized that if I wanted the kind of beer I like I would have to make it myself. I have done some barley based homebrewing in the past, but this was my first GF recipe and I love it!

I added my favorite stout coffee with the dextrose at bottling and it was just the right amount to taste it while still being subtle. I am not sure if I will call this a stout, though, because it definitely ended up with a little bit of the fruitier Belgian flavors, but that is cool because the flavor profile is awesome whatever you call it. My next batch will be this same recipe with bourbon and vanilla added.

Thank you so much! We are having a couple of friends contribute homebrews to our wedding next month and I was sad I wouldn't be able to try any of them, but now I feel totally rad contributing my own that is actually worth drinking.

Awesome! Glad you liked it! It is pretty sweet and fruity for a stout, I reckon switching the yeast to US-05 or Notty would tame it a bit, but the candi syrup definitely tends to push things in a fruity direction. You could just as easily throw some T-58 at it and make it a dubbel. I've been working toward some stout recipes that don't use candi syrup, but having trouble getting sufficient color out of my home-roasted grains. Going to try some Trail's End Chestnut "Coffee" in the next one and see how that does it.

Oooh! Would you just steep the chestnut to get a flavory and dark liquid to add and then only use sorghum to ferment? That sounds good too, I'm curious how it works out.

I actually prefer beers with some of those figgy type flavors, so I was REALLY excited to find this recipe as a base for future experiments, but if I want to do a drier stout at some point I will try some of your mods. My ultimate goal is to make something in the flavor family with Monk's Blood and I also wouldn't mind something reminiscent of Oatis, though at this point I can't remember exactly what it tastes like, for better or worse.

I don't get much fruity/sweet flavor... mostly the candi and sorghum twang... I did half the sorghum and half the candi at begining and half at end plus used notty... I'm curious how some tapica syrup in place of the sorghum would do...

MoxieStarfire said:

Oooh! Would you just steep the chestnut to get a flavory and dark liquid to add and then only use sorghum to ferment? That sounds good too, I'm curious how it works out.

I actually prefer beers with some of those figgy type flavors, so I was REALLY excited to find this recipe as a base for future experiments, but if I want to do a drier stout at some point I will try some of your mods. My ultimate goal is to make something in the flavor family with Monk's Blood and I also wouldn't mind something reminiscent of Oatis, though at this point I can't remember exactly what it tastes like, for better or worse.

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My idea is to do a cold infusion overnight of the chestnut coffee, then filter and add to the mash at saccharification (just in case there's any starch that got solubilized). Either that or add the powder straight to the mash after doing the cereal mash. I just have no real idea how much to add or how much color and flavor to expect. I will probably add some CaCO3 to the mash if doing the latter to counter the acidity--I've tried Harvester's Dark ale, which uses chestnuts roasted to a similar consistency, and found it to be down-right tart from the acidity, so I reckon it must be the dark roast causing it. It's going into a totally new recipe, though; I rarely do extract beers anymore, so I'm trying to find a good stout recipe that doesn't use any extracts, sugars, or syrups.

I was reading through the thread and trying to do the recipe. The part about the oats has me confused...

Bought the GF Instant Oats, then put them in water before putting in the oven to roast. They turned into mostly a mess, like oatmeal. Should I have just roasted the instant version without soaking first, and only soaked the rolled oats that were not instant (if I got that kind)? There was a couple of comments about how to roast the oats and I'm just wondering if I did this part right.

BroncoJoe said:

I was reading through the thread and trying to do the recipe. The part about the oats has me confused...

Bought the GF Instant Oats, then put them in water before putting in the oven to roast. They turned into mostly a mess, like oatmeal. Should I have just roasted the instant version without soaking first, and only soaked the rolled oats that were not instant (if I got that kind)? There was a couple of comments about how to roast the oats and I'm just wondering if I did this part right.

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I had this same problem and it seemed like such a mess I was convinced I did it wrong, but the wet roasted oats just took a really long time to roast but eventually they dried out and then got to the right color. I ended up deciding to do a larger batch so I dry roasted some oats too to make up the volume and that only took about 90 minutes. I did notice what others had mentioned that a little more of the burny, off flavors were present in the dry oats, but it didn't seem hugely significant to me.

Anyways, I guess my point is just keep going until the oats dry out and you can also experiment with some dry oats and see what you like better/what they each contribute.

MoxieStarfire said:

I had this same problem and it seemed like such a mess I was convinced I did it wrong, but the wet roasted oats just took a really long time to roast but eventually they dried out and then got to the right color. I ended up deciding to do a larger batch so I dry roasted some oats too to make up the volume and that only took about 90 minutes. I did notice what others had mentioned that a little more of the burny, off flavors were present in the dry oats, but it didn't seem hugely significant to me.

Anyways, I guess my point is just keep going until the oats dry out and you can also experiment with some dry oats and see what you like better/what they each contribute.

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I definitely got it to dry out (2.5 hours in the oven) but it is no longer grains - its hardened oatmeal. The water soaked in and made paste and glued it all together. Hoping if I steep the results it will still work.

Are the grains suppose to become large chunks of solid oatmeal? Should I break them up as much as possible?

igliashon said:

I went by color moreso than time; I roasted at about 350 for maybe two hours? But I started with wet oats, so they had to dry and then brown. But basically I roasted them until they were the color of milk chocolate. I don't know if long-and-low makes a difference vs. short-and-high, but since I'm not trying to protect any enzymes, I went for the shorter time. I also only let them waft for a week.

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Igliashon - Did you start with wet rolled oats, or wet instant oats? My instant oats per the recipe were a mess.

I don't remember, precisely...probably rolled if I soaked 'em, but it's been quite a while since I brewed that recipe and TBH I didn't keep the kind of notes I should have. I have done instant before, for those it's better to just give 'em a quick rinse rather than soak them.

I had exactly the same problem as you the first time around, the key for me was to take them out and give them a damn good stir every 10 minutes without fail. Took probably 2 and a half hours to brown them enough with the storing but they came out looking and tasting excellent.

Safa said:

I had exactly the same problem as you the first time around, the key for me was to take them out and give them a damn good stir every 10 minutes without fail. Took probably 2 and a half hours to brown them enough with the storing but they came out looking and tasting excellent.

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Bingo. Don't let it soak. Wet the oats briefly spread evenly on a non-stick tray or foil or whatever and STIR constantly...like A LOT. It took me quite a while to figure out the temp in the oven and it took well over and hour to get a dark brownie color. If you have a fancy toaster oven u can switch to convection, adjust temp way down to dry etc. If you soak oats, especially rolled or instant, its going to turn to oatmeal.

This recipe is bomb diggity. Great head retention. This pour is 30 minutes old and still holding a nice, tight foamy head.

That lacing! And the dog approves.

Here we go....

This is currently sitting in the tub with the ice water bath cooling.

I made a few alterations/mistakes...
First, a double batch.
I didn't roast the oats far enough. I ran out of time on roasting day.
I didn't weigh out my hops specifically... I have not yet purchased a kitchen scale.
When steeping the oatmeal, I didn't have a grain bag, so I steeped them in a smaller pot with the intention of straining... Which turned into me dropping the strainer and oats into my 5g boil pot... I fished most of it back out...
Despite being on low, the steep water snuck up to 180* but that probably doesn't make much difference considering the last mistake.

When the time comes to bottle this, I plan to set aside a gallon and add some cold brewed coffee (amt tbd) and let it secondary for a bit.

*crosses fingers* it's been a bad day, outside of brewing...

EDIT after chill at 75* OG is 1.058... Close.

Sorry to hear about the disaster day man, we've all been there.

Hope it turns out well, it's often seems like the screw ups ends up being the best!

11 days in primary.
Approx 8 second bubble interval.
Holding around 66* F.

Fridge nearly empty. 2 remaining BB GF ale half pints. A handful of those apple cider experiment bottles... A few different gallons of other cider experiments meandering along.

Shoot. I might have to go buy something.

Ok. Bottled. FG 1.014 (5.78%)

I put the first gallon in secondary on 10 TBSP ground coffee. Will bottle it in a week or so.

I'm drinking a stout I brewed awile back using Lavlin EC1118 Champagne yeast .Its dry ,hoppy and very high in alcohol but light unlike an Imperial.

I decided to finally brew this with some tweaks. Did a 5 gallon batch with some chocolate millet partial mashed. Half brown rice syrup for sorghum. I'm using the mangrove jacks British yeast and so far it is extremely slow. OG was 1.062 and 7 days later I am at 1.050. It doesn't seem to be stalling bc it is still bubbling at 4 seconds steadily but my gosh. It was at 58 for the first 3 days though then ramped up. Interested to see how it turns out though. I love this yeast though. It was a pacman in a brown ale I made.

Went into ferm/guitar room today. Overwhelming coffee smell, because it had gurgled up into the airlock...

Will this spell disaster?

All the way up into the actual airlock? Sounds like your carboy is too full. I've never seen S-04 ferment so vigorously as to hit the airlock when there's a normally-sufficient amount of head space. Belle Saison, yeah, that one will blow the airlock every time, but not S-04. Maybe there was something living on the coffee grounds? Did you sanitize the coffee before adding it? I'd imagine the safest way to add coffee would be to cold-brew it, filter it, bring it up to 170°F for 10 minutes, then let cool back down to ~80°F and add with priming sugar at bottling. Either that or soak the grounds in enough vodka to cover and then add the whole mix to secondary.

Either way, probably nothing to worry about, clean it out and replace the airlock and let it finish. Rack it off the coffee before bottling and let the solids settle out.

Nah, I'd call my treatment of the coffee "careless" I pulled off the airlock and rinsed it, refilled and replaced. The level inside the carboy had settled back down to where I had filled it to in the first place. I'll rerack this weekend and let it settle.

CavemanDom said:

Nah, I'd call my treatment of the coffee "careless" I pulled off the airlock and rinsed it, refilled and replaced. The level inside the carboy had settled back down to where I had filled it to in the first place. I'll rerack this weekend and let it settle.

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That's my style of brewing right there.

So, I re-racked the coffee addition, and moved the bottles to the fridge. They are still settling out, and some still have obvious sediment floating halfway up.

What should I have done differently, or what should I do next time to prevent this? Or is this part of the deal with the oatmeal etc?

With the sediment I have not yet had the chance to enjoy a bottle yet, but I am still looking forward to it.


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Ok, gave up on waiting for it to settle, cracked open a bottle, it poured pretty easily, the stuff stayed in the bottle. Didn't have much of a head to it, but that's fine. I have 1/2L bottles and 16oz glasses, so not really any room for a head anyway.

Will probably bottle the coffee variation later today.

Thanks again Igs


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Next time U add coffee....cold brew it and add to bottling bucket "TO TASTE". That way no grains to worry about and you know what it will taste like. I use 8 oz in 2 gallons.

C-Rider said:

Next time U add coffee....cold brew it and add to bottling bucket "TO TASTE". That way no grains to worry about and you know what it will taste like. I use 8 oz in 2 gallons.

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Next time I make it, I will be doing that way. But I typically drink my coffee black, so I'm not expecting it to be too much for my taste. Btw, I was a slacker and didn't bottle yet.


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So... It is bottled now. Got 6 1/2L bottles and a decent size tasting sample. I think I went as far as "breakfast beer" with that coffee addition. As I said I typically drink it black, but it almost tastes more like coffee than beer.

Also, I used a light roast coffee (my preferred coffee) and I think I should use something darker next time, as the roastiness that was there is buried. I think a coffee bringing its own roast to the table might cooperate better...in addition to cold brewing and adding "to taste"


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C-Rider said:

Next time U add coffee....cold brew it and add to bottling bucket "TO TASTE". That way no grains to worry about and you know what it will taste like. I use 8 oz in 2 gallons.

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Wait, you use 8 oz of ground coffee for 2 gallons? You must seriously like your coffee. I am going to use about 2 oz in a 5 gallon batch as per the mad fermentist.

Sent from space for your convenience

Osedax said:

Wait, you use 8 oz of ground coffee for 2 gallons? You must seriously like your coffee. I am going to use about 2 oz in a 5 gallon batch as per the mad fermentist.

Sent from space for your convenience

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Oh yea, you know it's a coffee-stout when you take that first sip. But remember if you add at bottling time you know exactly what it will taste like.
Will be entering mine in the Kona Home Brewing contest this year in a few weeks.

I think I missed something. I thought you cold brew, then add 8oz of that cold brew? Instead it seems you use a half pound of grounds in 2 gallons?

Please clarify...?


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Well, the 6 pack of 1/2L bottles of coffee variant is in the fridge. Going to dig in tomorrow.

I have been contemplating my next batch, with tweaks...

1. NOT screw up the oat roast
2. Swap 1# of D-180 for D-90, keeping in mind I will be doing a 6 gallon "double" batch. So, 3# and 1#.
3. Actually use the scale I bought.
4. Was also considering upping the OG with more rice syrup for a little more "oomph" (abv)
5. Filtration/secondary to alleviate the bottle sludge. I also have bags for the oats now.
6. With the coffee gallon, cold brew then add rather than "dry hopping"


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I'd like to try this recipe for my wife (Celiac) but she'd rather me do a 1 gallon test batch rather than potentially wasting 5 gallons.

Any recommendations on how to scale this recipe back for a 1 gallon batch?

Looks and sounds delicious.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers!

Edit: Just noticed you said 5 gallons. The recipe is for a 3 gallon batch.

You could cut the ingredients by two thirds. I personally hate fractional amounts of syrup, unless I'm using the remainder in a second recipe at the same time. The first time I used a part bottle of sorghum, the remainder got an infection with a quickness.

Roasted oats for round 2 today. It went much better than last time. They aren't roasted to chocolate brown, but they are brown, unlike last time. In the interest of more oomph and a bit more complexity, rather than swapping 1# of D-180 for D-90, I am just adding it. So, 4# 180 and 1# 90. I'll check back in after brew day.


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