Very Cloudy Oatmeal Stout - offer your diagnosis

[artongue]

About 3 weeks ago I brewed a partial mash oatmeal stout. The grain and extract bill was the following:

3 lbs Maris Otter
1 lb crystal 80L
1 lb Flaked Oats
.75 lb Chocolate Malt
.5 lbs Roasted Barley (500L)

2.5 lbs Extra Light Dry Extract
2 lbs Dry Wheat Malt

mashed for 60 min at 156-158F

safale us-05 yeast
fermented at ~67

The extract was half added to the beginning of the boil, half last fifteen minutes. No whirlfloc or irish moss was used. At two weeks I used a fining agent called Super Kleer KC Finings, recommended buy the guys at austin hb, did nothing.

Possible reasons:
1. Due to not having an IC, and because for some reason I didnt want to buy ice that day I was forced to just give the brew a water bath. it took well over an hour, probably close to two to cool the stuff down to ~82. I couldnt get it colder because my apt was hot as hell that day (Im in tx, and an old apt). I guess there might have been no cold break?

2. I pitched at ~82

3. High mash temp?

Its really cloudy... I mean reaaaallly cloudy. You probably couldnt see light through .5 inch of it. it's not the darkness of it being a stout, it's straight up cloudy. Ive done many beers (stouts included) without irish moss and whirlfloc and they have all cleared by 3 weeks.

If anything else needs to be specified, let me know. otherwise, could someone tell me if one of these/anything else could be the culprit, and why?

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

Did you bottle or keg this? I've never really heard of a stout being cloudy, and even if it was, I doubt I could tell the difference.

I haven't used whirlfloc or irish moss in years and I have no problem with my beers clearing. I also had an issue awhile back where it took 5 hours to cool a beer to 80. I had no issues with that beer either.

Did you suck up a lot of yeast while racking?

 

[ChshreCat]

If you can see that your stout is cloudy, it's not dark enough.

 

[artongue]

Did you bottle or keg this? I've never really heard of a stout being cloudy, and even if it was, I doubt I could tell the difference.

I haven't used whirlfloc or irish moss in years and I have no problem with my beers clearing. I also had an issue awhile back where it took 5 hours to cool a beer to 80. I had no issues with that beer either.

Did you suck up a lot of yeast while racking?

I havent racked yet, it's still in the primary (3 weeks and 3 days now)

chshrecat -- agreed!

added note: It is even affecting the mouthfeel... It's somewhere between too thick and slightly SLIGHTLY gritty. No, there were no grain particles in the boil.

 

[Germelli1]

I would let it ride, I don't know what the OG is but just 3.5 weeks isn't a terribly long time in a fermenter. I plan to leave my future breakfast stout in the primary for 1.5-2months, then secondary it for a few more months then bottle condition for another few months.

Once the yeast is done hopefully everything will settle out including any non yeast material. The only way to tell if it will is to give it time!

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

I would let it ride, I don't know what the OG is but just 3.5 weeks isn't a terribly long time in a fermenter. I plan to leave my future breakfast stout in the primary for 1.5-2months, then secondary it for a few more months then bottle condition for another few months.

Once the yeast is done hopefully everything will settle out including any non yeast material. The only way to tell if it will is to give it time!

I agree it needs more time.

As for your breakfast stout...why would you age it so long? Breakfast stouts are extremely low gravity and meant to be done fairly quickly compared to most other stouts. Mine usually primary for 1 month, and condition in the bottle or keg for 3-4 weeks.

 

[artongue]

Another little tidbit of info:

In the three weeks of primary time the cloudiness has improved, if any (it could just be me hoping too much), only marginally.

 

[Germelli1]

I agree it needs more time.

As for your breakfast stout...why would you age it so long? Breakfast stouts are extremely low gravity and meant to be done fairly quickly compared to most other stouts. Mine usually primary for 1 month, and condition in the bottle or keg for 3-4 weeks.

I'm doing a founders clone with an OG of 1.078 so I'm gonna give it some time to hit its stride

 

[erock2112]

I agree about giving it more time. If the beer really has the dark color of a stout, the only way it would look cloudy is if there are still tons of yeast in suspension and maybe trub is being churned up. For most beers though, chilling time as well as boil strength have a huge effect on clarity. If your boil is weak (a problem for a lot of stovetop brewers) and you aren't able to chill quickly, the beer is likely to end up cloudy.