Milk Stout: How to use flaked oats and barley?

[brew4you15]

Hi all,

so I came across a milk stout recipe that I would like to brew, however it uses flaked oats and flaked barley. I've read that I might need to do a partial mash? I am not sure how to do that is the issue. I was wondering if I could just steep these with my specialty grains at 155 and continue as normal?


Please let me know what all of your thoughts are!

My recipe is detailed below:

6 lbs Gold LME
• 1 lb Roasted Barley
• 12 oz Crystal 60
• 12 oz Munich II
• 12 oz Chocolate Malt
• 10 oz Flaked Barley
• 8 oz Flaked Oats
• 1 lb lactose (10 minutes)

1oz East Kent Goldings (60 min)
1 oz Eas Kent Goldings (10 min)

Safale us-05

 

[cyanmonkey]

Yes, might want to consider a partial mash.

 

[eadavis80]

If you want to do a partial mash, just buy a pound or 2 of 2-row or pale ale malt and add those grains to all the other grains you have in your recipe. Those are base malts (will add gravity) to your beer, but with only a pound or two it will be minimal. It will add a touch of body as well. Anyway, get a BIAB bag, throw all those grains in there, and mash them in your brew pot for an hour at around 153. AFter an hour, remove the bag (with the mashed grains) and proceed as you normally would. When you do BIAB, the grains will absorb some liquid so you'll have to have plenty of water in your brew pot before mashing OR do a quick sparge after the mash is complete. However, I honestly don't KNOW if you NEED to do a partial mash or BIAB for this. You probably could just steep all those grains together as your normally would in your extract brewing. I don't know if barley or oats are different. I did a milk stout using the BIAB method I suggested and the recipe was pretty darn close and I was very happy with the results.

 

[eadavis80]

Found this thread which might help you too: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=205939

 

[brew4you15]

Thanks for all the help guys, I am considering doing a partial mash. I don't currently have a BIAB but I do have an extra grain bag.. because I am only mashing a small amount of grain (2.5 pounds) is a BIAB neccessary or can I get by with using a regular grain bag?

Might be a dumb question but I haven't looked into the science of mashing very much as of yet.

Thanks again!

 

[RM-MN]

I think a regular muslin grain bag will constrict the grains to much. You want the water to circulate freely so it activates the enzymes. Once you do this batch and see how easy a partial mash really is, consider going to all grain BIAB for a batch or maybe just a half batch. You can do 2 1/2 gallons in a 5 gallon pot and it's incredibly easy. Maybe buy a paint strainer bag for this one and you can still use it for an all grain BIAB batch too.

 

[cyanmonkey]

Thanks for all the help guys, I am considering doing a partial mash. I don't currently have a BIAB but I do have an extra grain bag.. because I am only mashing a small amount of grain (2.5 pounds) is a BIAB neccessary or can I get by with using a regular grain bag?

Might be a dumb question but I haven't looked into the science of mashing very much as of yet.

Thanks again!

Use a colander to strain it. Just put all the grains in the water.

 

[z-bob]

Replace 2 pounds of the LME with 2.5 pounds of 2 row, or better yet 6 row malt, and mash that with the specialty grains. 5 gallon paint strainer bags are really cheap at Home Depot and would easily handle it.

I used to do partial mashes and lautered them in a cheap aluminum pasta cooker. That was a long time ago, but I remember it worked pretty well.

 

[brew4you15]

Thanks for all the replies guys. Given me some good info to work with.

If I am adding 2 pounds (or so) of 2 row, what sort of gravity contribution can I expect from that? I've been throwing some stuff into the brewers friend calculator, but some personal opinions would be great.

z-bob: thanks for your input, I'd like to use all of the lme I have (6.6 lbs) to avoid worrying about storing it properly and factoring it into my next batch etc. Do you think it's critical to tone that down or will it just bump up the og a bit? I don't mind that, but I would like the beer to stay somewhat true to style.

Also does mashing at 155f sound reasonable?

 

[z-bob]

155 sounds a little high. I generally mash at 150 degrees.

I used to buy LME in bulk and store it in the freezer. I'd mash about 5 pounds of grain, then add LME to make up the difference. So using 2 lbs less LME just meant I had that much more for next time. (I know that doesn't really help, but you asked for my opinion and that's all I got)

 

[ChelisHubby]

155 is fine if he doesnt have a insulatleted mashtun that most of us have. My guess is that each pound of grain would contribute 4 or 5 points of gravity. With a stout he should be fine. This means you can steep your various ctrystal grains with say 2 lbs of 2 row at 155 and get 4 points of gravity per lb you will want the temp to stay between 155 and 148 for 20 minutes which is in stovetop realm. I hope I have helped.!

 

[cyanmonkey]

I pay a lot more attention to my projected FG than I did when I first started. I know in my mind how sweet I want something and I know generally what the final gravity should be. If you have to mash at 155 to each a good target gravity, then so be it. That comes with a little experience, however.

 

[cyanmonkey]

I'm not sure if that's helpful in this particular situation or not. I brew all grain so it's probably more predictable?

 

[IslandLizard]

Don't forget, the Munich II should also be mashed. Using 2 lbs of 2-row or pale malt should cover that and both flaked goods.

 

[brew4you15]

Hi all, just thought I'd let you know how my brew day went yeserday!

I picked up 2 lbs. of Pale Ale malt (LHBS didn't have 2 row in stock) and a 5 gallon paint strainer bag from Home Depot (none of my colanders were small enough to block a significant amount of grain)

I mashed all of the grains (about 4.33 lbs.) in 2 gallons of water at 152 degrees (target) for an hour. I did get fluctuation in my mash temperature though, with it getting down to 135 at one point. But I did the best I could with my larger 8 gallon pot that isn't insulated. This yielded a gravity of 1.025 after the mashing. Is there anything else I should have measured during this process?

Next I sparged with 5 gallons of 170 degree water, to bring me up to a pre-boil volume of 6 gallons.

I then continued my brew day as normal and ended up with a final gravity of 1.067. How do you all think this process went? Overall the mashing was pretty easy, but having better insulation and a larger BIAB or better strainer would have been preferable.

In other notes, I kegged for the first time as well yesterday, so all in all it was a good learning process brew day!

Updated recipe

6.6 lbs Gold LME
2 lbs Pale Ale Mat
• 1 lb Roasted Barley
• 12 oz Crystal 60
• 12 oz Munich II
• 12 oz Chocolate Malt
• 10 oz Flaked Barley
• 8 oz Flaked Oats
• 1 lb lactose (10 minutes)

1oz East Kent Goldings (60 min)
1 oz Eas Kent Goldings (10 min)

Safale us-05

 

[RM-MN]

Hi all, just thought I'd let you know how my brew day went yeserday!

I picked up 2 lbs. of Pale Ale malt (LHBS didn't have 2 row in stock) and a 5 gallon paint strainer bag from Home Depot (none of my colanders were small enough to block a significant amount of grain)

I mashed all of the grains (about 4.33 lbs.) in 2 gallons of water at 152 degrees (target) for an hour. I did get fluctuation in my mash temperature though, with it getting down to 135 at one point. But I did the best I could with my larger 8 gallon pot that isn't insulated. This yielded a gravity of 1.025 after the mashing. Is there anything else I should have measured during this process?

Next I sparged with 5 gallons of 170 degree water, to bring me up to a pre-boil volume of 6 gallons.

I then continued my brew day as normal and ended up with a final gravity of 1.067. How do you all think this process went? Overall the mashing was pretty easy, but having better insulation and a larger BIAB or better strainer would have been preferable.

In other notes, I kegged for the first time as well yesterday, so all in all it was a good learning process brew day!

Updated recipe

6.6 lbs Gold LME
2 lbs Pale Ale Mat
• 1 lb Roasted Barley
• 12 oz Crystal 60
• 12 oz Munich II
• 12 oz Chocolate Malt
• 10 oz Flaked Barley
• 8 oz Flaked Oats
• 1 lb lactose (10 minutes)

1oz East Kent Goldings (60 min)
1 oz Eas Kent Goldings (10 min)

Safale us-05

Just for a clarification, most malted barley is 2-row. Most recipes would probably have called for pale malt but pale ale malt is only slightly darker so it would substitute well. I think that from the lightest to darkest malts that can convert would be pilsen, brewers, pale, pale ale, Munich, and finally Vienna. Munich comes in variations that can be different colors and some will have sufficient enzymes to help convert other grains while the darker ones my only be able to convert themselves. Vienna has little enzymes left active and cannot convert other grains, only itself.

It is likely that you got pretty good conversion as long as the temperature didn't go too high as that would destroy the enzymes that are needed to convert the starches to sugars. Most of the conversion likely happened in the first 30 minutes. Temperatures over 160 destroy enzymes but not immediately so if you did get a little high the grains could still convert.

Congratulations on your first partial mash. It wasn't terribly difficult was it? For your next batch you can use more of the 2-row and less of the extract to get the same results. Eventually if you keep on raising your amount of 2-row and reducing the extract you will find that you are using only a tablespoon of extract. At that point, you essentially are all grain...so forget the extract.

 

[brew4you15]

Thanks all!

partial mash was fun and easy... thinking I might be doing this again and start the move away from extract....

Any thoughts about if I might be able to calculate my efficiency??

In other news.. Poured my first beer from my new DIY kegerator today!