I brewed up an Oatmeal stout recently that I just bottled last night. I was really disappointed that the grainy astringent flavor from my 1822 porter (see sig) is back. I assumed that the problem with the porter was too much brown and amber malt but this stout has neither and is nearly as bad.
What in my process could be causing this?
Recipe:
1# roasted barley
1# chocolate malt (330 srm)
1# crystal 40
.5# crystal 120
1# flaked oats
8.5# maris otter
columbus hops bittering
EKG flavor
All the grains were purchased this fall and stored in plastic bags in a cool environment.
I crushed the grains right before mashing in.
mashed at between 152 and 154F with about 1.25qt/# in a 5gal cooler with SS braid
batch sparged with 4 gal in 2 equal amounts.
I see two possible problems:
1. My sparge water was about 180F. I thought that would bring the temp of my grain up to ~170F but maybe it was too hot (I didn't take a temp measurement at that time.
2. I forgot to vorlauf before draining each time. I have forgotten this step before, though usually only or the second or third drainings. I'm pretty sure I didn't vorlauf before any of the drainings this time . The beer appeared to be clear (hard to tell with a stout) but I do remember the wort being cloudy at first when draining the MLT.
So could either of these steps cause a grainy flavor that dominates the beer? Or is it some where else?
I had to try real hard to taste the roast/chocolate flavor through the grainyness, my porter I never really could taste much else. My 1822 porter has not really improved with time so I'm not expecting much from this batch but I will let it carbonate and age a few weeks before dumping anything. And ofcourse I will atleast give a couple bottles a year of aging just to see what happens.
Craig
What in my process could be causing this?
Recipe:
1# roasted barley
1# chocolate malt (330 srm)
1# crystal 40
.5# crystal 120
1# flaked oats
8.5# maris otter
columbus hops bittering
EKG flavor
All the grains were purchased this fall and stored in plastic bags in a cool environment.
I crushed the grains right before mashing in.
mashed at between 152 and 154F with about 1.25qt/# in a 5gal cooler with SS braid
batch sparged with 4 gal in 2 equal amounts.
I see two possible problems:
1. My sparge water was about 180F. I thought that would bring the temp of my grain up to ~170F but maybe it was too hot (I didn't take a temp measurement at that time.
2. I forgot to vorlauf before draining each time. I have forgotten this step before, though usually only or the second or third drainings. I'm pretty sure I didn't vorlauf before any of the drainings this time . The beer appeared to be clear (hard to tell with a stout) but I do remember the wort being cloudy at first when draining the MLT.
So could either of these steps cause a grainy flavor that dominates the beer? Or is it some where else?
I had to try real hard to taste the roast/chocolate flavor through the grainyness, my porter I never really could taste much else. My 1822 porter has not really improved with time so I'm not expecting much from this batch but I will let it carbonate and age a few weeks before dumping anything. And ofcourse I will atleast give a couple bottles a year of aging just to see what happens.
Craig