AG Belgian Chocolate Irish Oatmeal Wheatie Stout

[Ó Flannagáin]

Here's another attempt at a recipe. I ordered the grains and such, so we'll see. This is TOO MUCH fun making up my own recipes... totally just screwing around, but so far all of my beers have turned out realllllly tasty:


EDIT: Name change to shorten:

Flannagan's BADCOW Stout
C.O.W: Chocolate Oatmeal Wheat
BAD = BD = Belgian Dark (chocolate)
COW = lactose additions

IBU 36
75% efficiency
OG 1.061
FG 1.017

8lb Maris Otter
1.5lb Flaked Oats
1lb Chocolate Wheat
.25lb Roasted Barley
.25lb Special B

.75oz Target 30min
1oz Fuggles 60min

White Labs Irish Ale Yeast

Gonna drive up to Belgium and get some dark chocolate... as dark as I can find and throw it in the secondary.

Please give me any comments or suggestions. I'm mainly posting because I like to link from my signature . My grains are being shipped seperately, so I can back off of any one kind a bit if someone tells me I should. I had some Special B in my pumpkin brown ale I brewed and MAN it smelled so flippin good, I thought I'd throw a dab in this recipe.

 

[zoebisch01]

I had some Special B in my pumpkin brown ale I brewed and MAN it smelled so flippin good, I thought I'd throw a dab in this recipe.

Yeah it is indeed a really nice malt imo. It is actually one of the prettiest looking malts imo.

At mash in make sure you add it like 1/3 water + 1/3 grain, stir, repeat, repeat. Anything over %7 and Oats and you should be careful otherwise it can ball up. Make sure you lauter slowly.

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

Cool, another wonderful piece of advise from the folks at HBT. Thanks zoebisch... when you say lauter slow, what do you mean? I'm not sure what lautering is, I usually just pour my water in, let it cool to 170 then pour my grain in and let it sit before sparging.

 

[zoebisch01]

Lautering is another word for draining. So make sure you start slowly so that your grainbed forms a filter and the oats don't clog you up. They are pretty darned gummy. I am not sure how much this makes a difference with batch sparging, but on a fly sparge with a manifold it is a good rule to follow. I found though in general if you start slow and increase the output flow it seems to go well. Hopefully someone that batch sparges will chime in.

One thing I read about (but haven't had the need to do) as well is it is suggested that you do a beta-glucanase rest for app. 30 minutes @104 °F to 120 °F to deal with the gums in amount over 10% oats in the total grist. You are around 13% if I am correct. You might not have a problem, but it is something to consider.

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

Well, maybe its time I take the step up and do a two stage mash, gonna be hella confusing on my water amounts though. I like to do 1.33 qts/lb of grain and just do it all single step infusion. If I was to do the rest like you said, would I put maybe 1qt/lb in for the first step (120F) then add the other .33qt/lb to get it up to 152 for my mash? I should probably do some more reading on the matter, but from what I've heard, its not as easy doing a multiple step mash with a cooler as it is with a heatable mash tun (like in an oven).

 

[Torchiest]

Gonna drive up to Belgium and get some dark chocolate... as dark as I can find and throw it in the secondary.

Any particular reason why you decided to do this? Are you going to get chocolate in some kind of bar form, or are you getting just a powder? In my experience, you'll need to boil it to get it into the beer properly. I'm thinking secondary won't do much.

 

[zoebisch01]

Well, maybe its time I take the step up and do a two stage mash, gonna be hella confusing on my water amounts though. I like to do 1.33 qts/lb of grain and just do it all single step infusion. If I was to do the rest like you said, would I put maybe 1qt/lb in for the first step (120F) then add the other .33qt/lb to get it up to 152 for my mash? I should probably do some more reading on the matter, but from what I've heard, its not as easy doing a multiple step mash with a cooler as it is with a heatable mash tun (like in an oven).

If you use the equations found on Palmers guide, I'd just proceed as you say 1:1 ratio for the initial rest and then go up to your target mash temp. After the first infusion I wouldn't worry about ratios, just use the equations to find out how much boiling water to add for the step. Fyi (future reference note), a two step is fine, three steps is really pushing it unless you have a humungous mash tun.

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

Any particular reason why you decided to do this? Are you going to get chocolate in some kind of bar form, or are you getting just a powder? In my experience, you'll need to boil it to get it into the beer properly. I'm thinking secondary won't do much.

I figured some dark chocolate at the bottom of the secondary would have its flavored leeched right off it... I'm pretty sure I read about someone on this forum who had done it that way. I want to use Belgian chocolate b/c SWMBO and I are heading up there for a day trip soon and figured I could get some.. I hear its the best. If I see some powdered cocoa while in Belgium I might pick it up instead, but the only option I have on post here is 100% cocoa powder by Hersheys, which might not be bad buttttttttt, Belgian Dark Chocolate v. Hersheys powder?.

 

[zoebisch01]

Good lord man. I hope you are going to visit some of the Trappist breweries?!?

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

Good lord man. I hope you are going to visit some of the Trappist breweries?!?

Trappist breweries?? Fill me in, do you know the name/location of some?

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

This was on the "Chocolate Beer?" thread in another section:

I just had a DFH Chicory Stout that was aged on regular dark chocolate and it was awesome. A slight amount of bitterness, but no more than you would expect from a high quality chocolate. So if you make something, just throw some shaved chocolate in the secondary or in the keg.

This gave me the idea to throw some dark chocolate in the secondary and let it "age on" it.

 

[Tony]

Here's a good article for ya on Brewing with chocolate

 

[Ó Flannagáin]

Here's a good article for ya on Brewing with chocolate

That's an excellent article Tony, he says to make sure any solid chocolate (bitter, bars, chips) should be added to the boil and be boiled rigorously due to the oils. Anyone ever had the recipe that was mentioned in the quote above? The chickory beer? I really like the sound of adding flakes to the secondary and not boiling out any of the flavors in the dark chocolate. But, if its gonna ruin my beer then I will steer clear.