Oatmeal Stout Yooper's Oatmeal Stout

Oldskewl said:

I sampled it and it tastes good with a nice roastiness. It is hard to judge the sweetness until it carbed. I was just concerned since the target FG was 1.016 and my attentuation was only 57%. So ended up with a session stout at 4.2%.

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Same thing happened to me, and pretty close to the same numbers. I bottle, not keg, and its been in the bottle 9 days now. Going to try one this weekend to see where its at.

Keep us posted. I think it’s still gonna be good. Just need to figure out how to improve the attenuation next time. I should have harvested some yeast for another batch. Some say the first gen doesn’t attenuate well. Guess I’ll build a huge starter next time.

I took a refractometer reading today, just to see where it's at, as I'm figuring fermentation is pretty much done for me, and got a (calculated/corrected) reading of about 1.015, right where Beersmith predicted I should be.

I'll confirm with an actual hydro reading later in the week, the hopefully bottle this weekend.

Oldskewl said:

I sampled it and it tastes good with a nice roastiness. It is hard to judge the sweetness until it carbed. I was just concerned since the target FG was 1.016 and my attentuation was only 57%. So ended up with a session stout at 4.2%.

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Kind of strange you had such low attenuation, maybe keep an eye on your mash temps next time

BUT my last batch I used 1450 and it finished at 1.022 and I think it was my best version yet...this beer does well with some body.

Oldskewl said:

Keep us posted. I think it’s still gonna be good. Just need to figure out how to improve the attenuation next time. I should have harvested some yeast for another batch. Some say the first gen doesn’t attenuate well. Guess I’ll build a huge starter next time.

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Tried one (ok, two), this evening while watching the WS. Exactly two weeks in the bottle. My fears about it being over-carbed were for naught. Just right for the style as far as I'm concerned. It smells and tastes wonderful. Without a doubt the best tasting homebrew I've done yet. Well, I've only done four, but still, this is a great tasting beer!!

Every time i've made this i've had relatively low attenuation (62-68% AA)... but that's why this beer is good. if it were dry it would be too astringent and too roasty.

Look at the grain bill.... lots and lots of unfermentables there.

I bottled my batch this past saturday.

Bottling went smoothly, taste sample was really nice. Excited to start popping these open in a couple weeks.

One thing I noticed was I'm not sure my FG actually finished quite as low as I initially thought.

I was still getting the same reading (within margin of error) as a few days previous, on my refractometer... which, when plugged into an online calculator to correct for the presence of alcohol, came in at 1.015-1.016, right where the recipe predicted.

However, an actual hydrometer FG reading was at 1.018 or so. Guessing the hydro reading is the more accurate reading here, as it's a direct reading.

In either case, close enough.

Mothman said:

I bottled my batch this past saturday.

Bottling went smoothly, taste sample was really nice. Excited to start popping these open in a couple weeks.

One thing I noticed was I'm not sure my FG actually finished quite as low as I initially thought.

I was still getting the same reading (within margin of error) as a few days previous, on my refractometer... which, when plugged into an online calculator to correct for the presence of alcohol, came in at 1.015-1.016, right where the recipe predicted.

However, an actual hydrometer FG reading was at 1.018 or so. Guessing the hydro reading is the more accurate reading here, as it's a direct reading.

In either case, close enough.

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Excellent!! Anxious to hear yours turned out. I'll be you're going to love it.

BongoYodeler said:

Tried one (ok, two), this evening while watching the WS. Exactly two weeks in the bottle. My fears about it being over-carbed were for naught. Just right for the style as far as I'm concerned. It smells and tastes wonderful. Without a doubt the best tasting homebrew I've done yet. Well, I've only done four, but still, this is a great tasting beer!!

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Congrats! Looks great. Mine will be in the Keg a week tomorrow. I'm going to give it a couple more days before I take a sample. I checked my thermometer and it’s on the money. So I guess next time I’m going to make a bigger starter of 1450 and see how the attenuation goes and maybe drop the mash temp a degree or 2.

Two weeks in the bottle.

Needs another week or so to condition and fully carb but this is a really nice beer.

Mildly roasty, coffee, a little bit of sweetness, really creamy feel, super easy going down.

I gave mine my own name and label... Bowl Full Of Mush Oatmeal Stout with imagery from the Goodnight Moon kids book. Lol

Thanks, Yooper, for a kickass recipe. Quite possibly my best batch to-date.

And a little old lady whispering "hush".......

I love that book!

Making it today for the first time! I will report back later. 10 gallon batch.

David

So far, an incredibly slow sparge. Plenty of time to go out and get a fresh tank of propane.

Its a gravity system with a simple 1/4" copper tube drilled with a bunch of holes in a 1/4 sanke. I sort of expected this when I put the oats in. I have used rice hulls. Was out of them today. I checked PH, was a little low, so I added some baking soda and made a little volcano. PH is around 5.4 now.

Other wise, looks good.

David

5 hour sparge. Longest ever. Last time it took 90 minutes.

Collected 13.5 gallons. By the time the mash tun hose had bubbles in it (empty), brew kettle was 84*f. I hit my gravity mark, and now am boiling it off. Yeast packs are swelled and ready.
Hoping for a great beer.

Edit: Garden hose was froze, so no using the chiller. I put the wort in 2 7 gallon conical fermenters and left them overnight.

In the morning, I pitched the yeast @ 66*f and things are normal again. they are both perking away.

The sad thing is, I have 2 empty 5 gallon cornys, so I can't brew anymore until I make room. Bummer.

David

Hey Yooper!,
I'm looking at making this stout this weekend however I stopped by my LHBS to pick up the yeast and start pitching it up as well as scope out the grains, however they did not have the Black Barley (Stout). They have Roasted Barley by Thomas Faucet and Black Pearl by Patagonia. http://www.patagoniamalt.com/eng/p_perla_negra.html I was wondering what your thoughts on this is? I was thinking the Black Pearl sounds quite good in this brew..

Hoppylikerabbits said:

Hey Yooper!,
I'm looking at making this stout this weekend however I stopped by my LHBS to pick up the yeast and start pitching it up as well as scope out the grains, however they did not have the Black Barley (Stout). They have Roasted Barley by Thomas Faucet and Black Pearl by Patagonia. http://www.patagoniamalt.com/eng/p_perla_negra.html I was wondering what your thoughts on this is? I was thinking the Black Pearl sounds quite good in this brew..

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The TF Roasted Barley is my typical substitution for the Black Barley since no one around here carries the Black Barley called for in the recipe. It is slightly darker but i just do a straight 1:1 sub. My LHBS of choice stocks many TF malts so i usually end up using TF MO, TF Choc, TF Pale Choc and TF Roasted Barley.

@Yooper, i just added this recipe to Brun Water so i can brew it this weekend, the thing is i use 100% distilled water and add salts, for me to reach those levels of Bicarbonate i have to add a bunch of baking soda which is something i never done before.

How important is the Bicarbonate? Should i really focus on getting it higher than the other salts? Here is what i get so far in my attempt, if you can take a look at the attachment please.

Bicarbonate is totally UNimportant! It's never a target. What you want is a mash pH of 5.5 or so. I would not use sulfate (gypsum), unless you really want to. I'd look at more the "black balanced" profile, for the amount of chloride and baking soda to get your mash pH at 5.5 or so.

Yooper said:

Bicarbonate is totally UNimportant! It's never a target. What you want is a mash pH of 5.5 or so. I would not use sulfate (gypsum), unless you really want to. I'd look at more the "black balanced" profile, for the amount of chloride and baking soda to get your mash pH at 5.5 or so.

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Perfect, thanks!

Made this for the first time last month.. Tried it last week.. Tastes great thanks for the recipe Yooper

I'm going to brew this over the weekend. I went to my LHBS today to pick up supplies. They didn't have pale chocolate malt, just regular Briess chocolate malt, which is 350L.

I also couldn't find Wyeast 1335 or 1450. I have Wyeast 1968 in my fridge, or would S04 be better?

This recipe looks fantastic, thanks Yooper! Brewing this one soon!!

I used s04 and am very pleased with the results

I brewed this yesterday on my BIAB system. I scaled Yooper's recipe up to an 11 gallon batch, then added an extra half pound of 2 row for good measure.

14.5 lbs 2 row
2 lbs flaked oats
24 oz chocolate malt (Briess 350L)
24oz Victory malt
1 lb black barley (Briess 500L)
1 lb crystal 80
1 lb flaked barley

3.75oz Willamette @ 60 (4.8% AA)

RO water
5 g gypsum
8.5 g CaCl

Wyeast 1968 starting at 66F and ramping up after a couple days.

I mashed at 155F to nudge the 1968 to slightly higher attenuation, although I got 75% last time I used it.

Boil gravity was 1.045, OG came in at 1.050. I didn't have to use any lactic acid on this brew, and the mash pH came in at 5.31 at the 30 minute mark. Pitched yeast last night and it's happily bubbling away this morning.

This is my first dark beer. The samples I pulled tasted awesome, excited to see how it turns out.

I am brewing this tomorrow but scaled the OG up to 1.075 and the IBUs up to about 50. Planning to put it on Nitro in a few months. Before I brew it I wanted to check with the community and make sure this isn't a bad idea. It's not too late for me to call an audible and brew the original again. Do people think this will be okay?

I should also add that unfortunately I do not have Black Barley and instead am using English Roasted Barley (Bairds) 550 - 650 L.

@Yooper,
So I brewed this on 11/10/17 and I actually adjusted the gap on my grain mill (after a move and not adjusting it in about 2 years).. Well with that being said, all my values were WAYYYYYYY off. I netted 1.055@ ~ 14gal Preboil and 1.068 post boil @ ~12.5gal. With that being said, I obviously need to recalculate my Brew house efficiency. However, I just went ahead an took a gravity reading, and Its clear enough to see no yeast in suspension as well as no active fermentation with the conical. The Fg reading was 1.023 with an attenuation of 65%. I gave this beer a massive blast of O2 from the bottle prior to fermentation with a 4.5L starter that was active when pitched. Additionally, I pitched and held fermentation at 64 and bumped the temp to 68 over the course of 4 days once fermentation started to show signs of slowing. I'm thinking I might have a stuck fermentation. I know that 1335 is highly flocculant and I have never had any problems with it dropping out prior to them completing the mission. Any ideas on how to rouse the yeast without introducing O2 to the mix? Whats your take on this predicament? (BTW, I did sample the hydro sample, and it does not taste as sweet as I expected it to with that current FG reading).

Cheers!

I've had it finish at 1.020, so I'd say that you're right in there. If it tastes good, and the FG is steady, I'd call it done (not stuck)!

Honestly, I know the original recipe specifies a lower OG but out of the 5 times I've brewed this, my favorite version was with 1450 where the FG was 1.022.

Biscuits said:

Honestly, I know the original recipe specifies a lower OG but out of the 5 times I've brewed this, my favorite version was with 1450 where the FG was 1.022.

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I used 1450 and finished 1.022 or close to it. Tastes quite good to me. I did mess up the bottling a bit, so some bottles are under-carbed. But with this style under is better than overcarbed.

I prefer it to finish closer to 1.020. My last batch, mashed 156, OG 1.052, WY1450 held @64, finished a little dry at 1.015. My favorite so far went 1.050 to 1.021.

I made this recipe as per the original post (scaled to my batch size), and it's been about 3 weeks since they were adequately carb'd (bottle conditioned), so I'm about 6 weeks total in the bottle at this point.

When drank the first few bottles after carbing, it was a very nice, mildly roasty, mellow, easy-drinking stout.

Now, several weeks later, the beer has mellowed even more, to the point where I think it *may* be a little too mellow. I'm not totally decided on that, need more research (ie more drinking of the beer )

But, it definitely is a very mild roastiness, very mellow, light coffee sort of flavour, really what I'd call a crushable stout. The last bottle I had, the last half of the glass almost seemed like I was missing some of the roastiness, like my taste buds had acclimatized to the already mellow flavour. I may have served it too cold.

Question... if I do decide that I'd like the increase the roastiness just a tad in this, to get a bit of a fuller flavour out of it, without damaging the overall balance, what would be the suggested change for a repeat brewing?

Would boosting the OG by increasing all grains a small amount do it? (first brew was OG of 1.052ish (from memory), and FG was 1.018)

Or maybe just boost the dark malts a tad?

Yesterday I brewed a 2.5 gallon batch using 2-row instead of MO and Fuggles hops. This was only my 2nd all-grain BIAB batch and my 4th batch overall. It smelled so good while I was mashing! Overshot my initial mash temp, up to 160 but after 15 minutes I got it down to 156. My efficiency keeps getting better so I need to tweak my settings. Came out about 1.066 OG. It's bubbling away now with some S-04 yeast. Can't wait until this is ready to drink!

Do you guys think this beer will benefit from conditioning in the keg? I ask because it is already good in day 2! I fear it will be over before it changes due to conditioning...

Yooper said:

7 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 63.64 %
1 lbs Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 9.09 %
12.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 6.82 %
10.0 oz Chocolate malt (pale) (200.0 SRM) Grain 5.68 %
8.0 oz Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
8.0 oz Black Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
2.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 1.14 %
2.00 oz Williamette [4.80 %] (60 min) Hops 31.6 IBU

1 Pkgs British Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1335)


Water was
Ca: 84
Mg: 26
Na 9
SO4 45
Cl 62
HCO3 228

Mashed at 156, with a thin mash (1.75 quarts per pound) to keep the pH in range.

This is the second time with this recipe. I've started using the black roasted barley unstead of the regular, and using less of it. It's got a great roast behind it, but it's not a big roasty flavor that overtakes the stout. It's reminscent of coffee, with a hint of the coffee notes behind the flavor. Not too big, not too sweet, not too dry, with a creamy mouthfeel and brown head that lasts and lasts.

Generally, I keep in the fermenter for 14ish days or so, before packaging.

The most current information about this recipe, along with notes and the "whys" of certain ingredients is here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/brew-it-yoopers-oatmeal-stout.html

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Hi Yooper,

First off, thank you for this wonderful recipe. I've made it numerous times and it never disappoints!

I was reading in another thread and saw a post of yours saying that you love Golden Naked Oats and it got me thinking. Have you ever tried them in this recipe?

Thanks!

luizffgarcia said:

Do you guys think this beer will benefit from conditioning in the keg? I ask because it is already good in day 2! I fear it will be over before it changes due to conditioning...

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Yes, it does benefit from conditioning. I age few lower OG beers since I make a lot of hoppy beers, but this is one that is really best at about 4-6 weeks, since the flavors meld nicely and the mouthfeel improves.

jpb2716 said:

Hi Yooper,

First off, thank you for this wonderful recipe. I've made it numerous times and it never disappoints!

I was reading in another thread and saw a post of yours saying that you love Golden Naked Oats and it got me thinking. Have you ever tried them in this recipe?

Thanks!

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I never have- I've used GNO in pale ales, and other beers, but never in a stout.

@Yooper , looks like we don't have a search feature in the threads anymore so i was not able to search before asking, but have you ever attempted a variation using lactose? I am curious on how would that turn out...

luizffgarcia said:

@Yooper , looks like we don't have a search feature in the threads anymore so i was not able to search before asking, but have you ever attempted a variation using lactose? I am curious on how would that turn out...

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No, I personally haven't. I don't have a sweet tooth at all, and I just haven't had the inclination to try it.

DaveDiedDancing said:

I am brewing this tomorrow but scaled the OG up to 1.075 and the IBUs up to about 50. Planning to put it on Nitro in a few months. Before I brew it I wanted to check with the community and make sure this isn't a bad idea. It's not too late for me to call an audible and brew the original again. Do people think this will be okay?

I should also add that unfortunately I do not have Black Barley and instead am using English Roasted Barley (Bairds) 550 - 650 L.

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DaveDied Dancing,

Did you ever brew a scaled up version? I'm considering one myself.

Oldskewl said:

DaveDied Dancing,

Did you ever brew a scaled up version? I'm considering one myself.

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I chickened out and Brewed the original but am adding cocoa nibs and 3 vanilla beans for 6 days and dark roast whole bean coffee beans for 2 days. I am putting this batch on nitro. Will be ready 1/7. I decided not to scale it up because I read conflicting info about scaling up stouts.

Unless I misunderstood (which is very possible), scaling up a stout as you would say a pale ale or IPA could possibly make the beer have too much roast character. I read that it may be better to simply increase the base malt in order to scale up. This confuses me as I would assume it could also throw the beer out of balance. People with more knowledge than I may be able to comment on this. I hope so, because I would love to do a 7% or 8% ABV version and would like some direction.

DaveDiedDancing said:

I chickened out and Brewed the original but am adding cocoa nibs and 3 vanilla beans for 6 days and dark roast whole bean coffee beans for 2 days. I am putting this batch on nitro. Will be ready 1/7. I decided not to scale it up because I read conflicting info about scaling up stouts.

Unless I misunderstood (which is very possible), scaling up a stout as you would say a pale ale or IPA could possibly make the beer have too much roast character. I read that it may be better to simply increase the base malt in order to scale up. This confuses me as I would assume it could also throw the beer out of balance. People with more knowledge than I may be able to comment on this. I hope so, because I would love to do a 7% or 8% ABV version and would like some direction.

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Yes those are my same concerns. Mine ended up around 4.5% and would like to try bumping it to the 7-8% range and I wouldn’t mind a bit more roastiness. As after 5 or 6 weeks in the keg I am experincing a mellowing of the roast. I haven’t plugged it into brewers friend yet, but my thought is to try increasing the whole recipe 25% and then increase the base malt from there. Obviously the hops would need increased too.