First BIAB Partial Mash - Imperial Oatmeal Milk Stout

[TheMuffinMan]

Hi everyone!

This is my first post here, and only about my sixth batch of beer that I'll have brewed. I'm really excited to try out a sparge free BIAB partial mash with my specialty grains and flaked oats. Here is the recipe I've designed:

Grains
- 1 lb chocolate malt
- 1 lb roasted barley
- 1 lb honey malt
- 2 lb flaked oats
- 6 Oz cara-pils/dextrine

Sugars
- 8 lb dark DME 60 min boil
- 2 lb honey at end of boil
- 2 lb Lactose 60 min boil

Hops
- 1 Oz warrior 60 min
- 1/2 Oz nugget 20 min

Flavorings
- 3 cinnamon sticks
- 5 Oz ginger root
- 5 vanilla beans

Yeast
Undecided

Mash at 157 deg for 45 minutes, BIAB style. Hoping to pull even more unfermentable sugars from the specialty grains and the oats with the higher temp mash. Lazy sparge: I'll just heat my water to 170 with the grains in there and dunk them a few times and let them drain. Then I'll start the boil and the rest is history.

Stats:
OG: 1.110
FG: 1.033?
ABV: 10.6%
Taste: thick, creamy, sweet gingerbread stout with a significant malty alcohol undertone. A good holiday beer.

Tear this apart guys, what am I doing wrong? Is this too much lactose/oatmeal? Any help on an approximation for FG? Any other suggestions on yeast or anything else?

 

[Vellum]

I like the idea of Ginger with the Vanilla. Sounds pretty tasty. Someone else will chime in hopefully regarding the lactose. Oats look fine to me for a nice silky mouthfeel.

 

[TheMuffinMan]

I like the idea of Ginger with the Vanilla. Sounds pretty tasty. Someone else will chime in hopefully regarding the lactose. Oats look fine to me for a nice silky mouthfeel.

Yeah I'm really excited, and hope it tastes fantastic! Aiming for aging some of the batch until Xmas this year as well

 

[TheMuffinMan]

...

 

[RM-MN]

I hate to be the one to say it but without any base malts in your grains you won't have a partial mash, just a steep in a grain bag. Now you may get some more flavor if you can keep the grains loose for the steep instead of tightly confined in the muslin bag but non of the grains you listed have any power to convert. If you add a pound or 2 of pale malt you will have a partial mash as that grain can convert.

 

[TheMuffinMan]

I hate to be the one to say it but without any base malts in your grains you won't have a partial mash, just a steep in a grain bag. Now you may get some more flavor if you can keep the grains loose for the steep instead of tightly confined in the muslin bag but non of the grains you listed have any power to convert. If you add a pound or 2 of pale malt you will have a partial mash as that grain can convert.

Thank you! That's what I was waiting for, because I was having the same thought. I designed the partial mash around the oats, to extract the unfermentables there. Do you think my recipe would benefit from some addition of base malt to the mash? I was thinking it would be a wash because this will be such a heavy stout, might as well just use all extract.

 

[BaylessBrewer]

You will need at least 1.5-2 lbs of 6-row to convert the specialty grains and adjuncts you have listed. I don't think a lb of basic 2-row has enough DP to convert its self and all the other starches.

 

[TheMuffinMan]

OK I know this is very basic, but in order to convert the oats, I need DP, an enzyme?, from 6-row or similar? Looks like I'll add a few pounds of 6 row to this recipe with a reduction in DME.

 

[TheMuffinMan]

OK I looked it up, diastatic power. Found the following article. Thank you for the help BaylessBrewer.

http://beersmith.com/blog/2010/01/04/diastatic-power-and-mashing-your-beer/

 

[Jwin]

DP-diatastic power.
Also, imho, 2# lactose is overkill as you should have a high fg with the extract as is. A 1.033 fg would be super sweet. Hell, that's SG for some beers.
Also, I wouldn't heat to 170 with roasted grains as you would be nearing the point of pulling astringency from them (175ish iirc, to close...) for no real benifit.

If you want to do true mini mashing, consider getting a good biab style nylon bag and get away from muslin bags. Brewhardware sales a pretty decent one for cheap that I use for my hop blocker in 11g batches.

http://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/nylonbagfine12x19.htm

 

[TheMuffinMan]

Thanks Jwin, looks like I'll skip the lazy sparge and just take the grains out at the end of the mash. I guess I could decrease to 1 lb of lactose for this first batch, with the oats adding a lot of unfermentables as well. Alright looks like I'm off to learn how to calculate the gravity from 3 pounds of 6-row in my partial mash with the oats, and reduce my DME. Or maybe I'll keep the DME the same and let the alcohol content rise.....hmmmm

 

[BaylessBrewer]

Thanks Jwin, looks like I'll skip the lazy sparge and just take the grains out at the end of the mash. I guess I could decrease to 1 lb of lactose for this first batch, with the oats adding a lot of unfermentables as well. Alright looks like I'm off to learn how to calculate the gravity from 3 pounds of 6-row in my partial mash with the oats, and reduce my DME. Or maybe I'll keep the DME the same and let the alcohol content rise.....hmmmm

So I took so long to respond. Work is killing my internet time yo! Lol
You can calculate the gravity by going off the ppg (points per gal per pound) of each malt and divide that by the total amount of liquor (water) or just use a online calculator like this one http://www.brewersfriend.com/stats/. That's the way I would go.

Hope this helps you.
Edit: I just ran the numbers and if you go 1 for 1 on the 6-row and DME then you should get an OG of 1.101 @ 75% on 5.5gal going in the fermenter. Oh and that's with 1lb of lactose. I would call it Imperial at those numbers. 🙂

 

[TheMuffinMan]

Helps a ton! Is that also a reliable way to measure the gravity contributed by the oats and lactose, so I can attempt to calculate my final gravity as well?

 

[BaylessBrewer]

Helps a ton! Is that also a reliable way to measure the gravity contributed by the oats and lactose, so I can attempt to calculate my final gravity as well?

Final gravity will be dependent on % of attenuation. And your attenuation will be determined by the yeast strain you use and @ what temp you do your partial mash at. I would recommend mashing low around 148 due to the amount of specialty and adjunct grains you intend to use. This will produce a more fermentable wort

 

[TheMuffinMan]

I really appreciate all the help folks. You're making my first designed beer that much better!

Bayless, I'm hoping to actually extract as many unfermentables as possible from my mash, and use the DME as my driver for alcohol content. Should I still shoot for my higher 157*F temps if that's my goal? I'm also gonna go do some research this evening (after work) on how to calculate the attenuation, and that's a perfect way for me to start picking my yeast strain. After I do that research, I'll post an updated full recipe, and see what you all think.

 

[BaylessBrewer]

I really appreciate all the help folks. You're making my first designed beer that much better!

Bayless, I'm hoping to actually extract as many unfermentables as possible from my mash, and use the DME as my driver for alcohol content. Should I still shoot for my higher 157*F temps if that's my goal? I'm also gonna go do some research this evening (after work) on how to calculate the attenuation, and that's a perfect way for me to start picking my yeast strain. After I do that research, I'll post an updated full recipe, and see what you all think.

One thing to keep in mind is that at best your DME is 75% fermentable and all the grains you plan to add are high in dextrin's. That is the leading factor in my advice to mash at a lower temp. I don't think you will have to worry about body and mouthfeel with this one.
For the yeast strain I would pick something that's neutral due to the amount of flavors already in the beer. And I would pick one that attenuates to 75% or more. @75% you are looking at a FG of around 1.028 with a potential ABV of 9.58% that will be plenty sweet and full in my mind with enough alcohol to back it up and help dry out the finish a little.
Best of luck to you

 

[TheMuffinMan]

OK everyone, just wanted to check in. I'm not gonna have time tonight to learn and make the adjustments I promised, with any real calcs behind them, but I will soon. I think that I got what I needed from this forum topic. Look for my updated recipe and breakdown of calculations and process in the recipes forum in the next few days! Thanks again everyone!