Converting a Dry Irish Stout Extract Kit into an Oatmeal Cream Stout?

I'm looking for info on converting an extra Dry Irish Stout extract kit I have into an Oatmeal Cream Stout.

Adding the Lactose to make it a cream/milk stout shouldn't be a problem but the Oatmeal is the difficult part because it needs to be mashed?

I'm not looking for perfection in this batch just the best I can do.

From what I've read it sounds like I need to use Quick Oats(with no additives/preservatives) and I need to bake them @ 350 for 60 mins stirring them every 15 then add them to my other steeping grains?

Anything else I can do to improve my outcome?

jm

 

I believe the purpose of cooking the oats is to gelatinize them so they can be converted by enzymes in the mash. If you're just steeping them with specialty grains, you may not get the conversion. At any rate, 60 minutes at 350F seems like a very long time and high temperature, but I'm sorry I don't know enough to answer that part of the question.

However, if you're not actually mashing the oats, you probably want to add extract to raise the OG of the wort by about 10-15 gravity points. The OG and FG for oatmeal stouts is a bit higher than for dry stouts.

 

What yeast did the kit come with? I wouldn't do anything with the oats other than add them to your steeping grains..

 

Thanks for the info. I think the baking for 60 minutes was supposed to provide a 'nutty' flavor but that may only apply if you mash instead of steep.

 

So just use the Quick oats and add them to the steeping grains? What about baking them to add a 'nutty' flavor, would that work with steeping or only if you mash?

The kit came with a dry Munton Ale yeast packet, but I also have White Labs WL004 Irish Ale yeast in my yeast bank or various wine yeasts like EC-1118 & D-47.

 

Do you want a nutty flavor? I would use a little biscut malt to add it.. I like the muntons dry yeast, it does a great job..

 

The nutty flavor usually comes from either roasted barley or chocolate malt (or both). Part of the character will also come from the yeast. Of the choices you listed, the Irish ale is probably the best of the lot. I wouldn't use a champagne yeast (EC-1118) or white wine (D47) yeast in a beer. At least not for it's main fermentation yeast. Maybe if you have a high ABV brew that is going beyond what the primary yeast can handle (such as a big barley wine)...

Personally, I wouldn't try to monkey around with cheap quick oats for a brew... IMO, better to get the actual item designed/produced for use in a brew.

If you look at enough recipes, you'll see the commonalities between them... Most common is chocolate malt, flaked barley (and/or oats) a darker caramel malt (at least 80L) and roasted barley...

You could see what the oatmeal stout recipe, from where you got the current kit from, lists for specialty grains and try to alter what you have to at least get closer to that... Or, you could just get another kit and shelf this one for later.

 

Thanks for all the tips. The problem I'm facing is the kit has DLME in a plastic container and I've read the storage time in a refrigerator for that is only about 3 months so I need to make this batch as quick as possible. I still have a ton of Dry Irish Stout in bottles so I thought I would try to convert this one into an oatmeal-cream-irish-stout.

So I'm thinking just add some Lactose & Oatmeal how hard can it be? lol

The closest LHBS is 70 miles away, so I'm not sure if its worth trying to do it right vs just making it per kit instructions.

I guess the question is does anyone think adding some Lactose & Oatmeal(steeped with other grains from kit) has a chance of coming out drinkable or should I just stick with Dry Irish Stout for this batch?

 

DLME? Dried Liquid Malt Extract??

Did you get any steeping grains with the extract? Is it already hopped or unhopped? If unhopped, and/or you have a grain bag already, I would just look to see what's listed in the grain bag and augment that... Roasted barley and flaked barley will give you more mouthfeel (to get you closer to what oatmeal stouts have) and the roasted barley will give you the nutty flavor.

I'm avoiding using lactose in any of my brews since my system can't handle it... Given enough flaked oats, or barley, you should get about the same result. If you're going for a 5 gallon batch, then a pound of either should be plenty. I wouldn't use both. About 4-8oz of roasted barley could give you the nutty flavor you're looking for too.

Can you post up what's in the kit? That will really help out a lot...

 

Oops Dark Liquid Malt Extract lol It is unhopped.

Yes its a 5 gallon batch.

It has a grain bag, specialty grains well here we go

6 lb. Dark liquid malt extract, 4 oz. Chocolate Malt, 4 oz. Caramel 10L, 4 oz. Roasted Barley, 4 oz. Flaked Barley specialty grain, 1 tsp. Gypsum, 1/2 oz. Nugget, 1 oz. Willamette pellet hops, yeast, priming sugar and a grain bag.

 

I would say that if you doubled the chocolate malt and flaked barley you'd have a closer match to an oatmeal stout... Adding lactose would make it a sweet stout. It would also be good to add some DME (I'd use either light or extra light if it was me)...

I would also advise, in the future, not getting dark extracts. Go with light or extra light and get your colors, and flavors, from the specialty grains. It gives you much more control over the brew you drink.

So, what I would add:
+4oz Chocolate malt
+4oz Flaked barley -- you could go to a full pound total if you wanted.
+1# light DME

BTW, are the hops all added for the full hour boil, or is one for flavor?

 

Thanks for the help. One of the hops is an aroma hops that gets added at the end of the boil but cant remember which one.

 

LMAO!!! That's ok... The nugget is probably the bittering one, with willamette for flavor/aroma...

BTW, the additions I mentioned would land you right in the middle of the profile for an oatmeal stout... You should get around 5% ABV too. So more kick than the original recipe, plus the characteristics and more flavor in line with an oatmeal stout...

Since you're not mashing, you'll not get a lot of impact from the flaked grain... If you did a mini-mash with a pound (or two) of 2 row malt, you'll get more from the grains...

 

A mini-mash method such as DeathBrewer's Easy Partial Mash instructions right here on HBT ?

 

Pretty much... If you use 2 pounds of 2 row base malt, you won't need the DME... It also means you'll fully convert the other grains, getting more out of them. :rockin: Gives you an OG of about 1.063, and ~6.1% ABV... Since you're only talking about 4 pounds of grain total, it shouldn't be too difficult to do... What size is your brew pot?

You can order what you want, milled, from most of the suppliers listed in the vendor section... I've had solid results with grain from Farmhouse Brewing Supply...

 

I've got a 5 gallon SS pot and a 4 gallon enamel pot.

So...

+4oz Chocolate malt
+4oz Flaked barley
+2# 2 row

All of it Milled?

Sorry but I haven't ventured into AG or even Partial Grain brewing yet so total noob.

 

You should be fine with mashing the small amount of grain we're talking about then... Use the method shown by DeathBrewer and go from there. I would target a mash temp of about 152 for this one. So if the grain is at room temp, and you start with about 1.25-1.5qt/# of grain, you'll want it around 10F higher, so that the grain will help it to settle back down... Just be careful if you need to apply heat so that you don't burn through the bag.

Yes, get all of the additional grains milled. I had solid results with a gap of .039" when using the BIAB method. You can use a finer crush, but it's not necessary. I would be careful if the crush is larger though. The flaked barley probably won't be run through the mill though, although they might. If it has the option (depending on where you're buying it from) then go for it. As I mentioned, I've had solid results from Farmhouse Brewing Supply when it comes to getting pre-milled grains.

 

Will the Muslin Grain bag that came with the extract kit work for the Partial Mash? Its more like a giant sock but looks like it could hold a lot more than comes with the kit?

 

I would just get a nylon mesh grain bag... Only about $5 and you can use them over and over and over and over again... Not sure if the muslin bag will work as well or not. I think some people might use those, but I believe the mesh isn't nearly as tight.

BTW, if you get a total of 4# into the grain bag (increase the flaked barley and maybe a bit more chocolate malt, or add another pound of 2 row), with 1.5qt of water per pound, you'll only need about 2.5 gallons of space. So you could mash in the smaller pot, then transfer to the larger pot to sparge. Then combine both worts into the larger pot for the rest of the process. I would sparge with 6-8 quarts of water, for 15-20 minutes (at 168-170F) before draining the grain and setting it aside (you can make dog treats, or a spent grain bread with it later)... Combine both worts, top off with some more water, then proceed as normal... I would try to boil 3.5-4 gallons of wort if it was me. If your pot, and/or stove, can't handle that much, then boil as much as you can (without making a mess)...

 

So lets see if I got this right...

Mini-Mash Kit grains
+ 3# 2 row
+ 8oz chocolate malt
+ 8oz flaked barley

Sound about right?

 

You left out the 4 oz. Caramel 10L and 4 oz. Roasted Barley... I was talking about adding 4oz of chocolate malt and flaked barley, for 8oz of each total, not adding 8oz of each, making 12oz of each...

You shouldn't have any issue mashing 4.5# in your pots... Try to keep the mash in the 152-154F range (don't go higher than 154F during the mash, a bit lower than 152 should be ok, towards the end)... If you wrap it in something to insulate the pot (a number of people seem to use winter jackets for that) you shouldn't need to do much once you break up the grain clumps (very important to do)...

 

Ahhh I understand now.

Thanks again for all your help.

 

Did you brew anything from this? It sounds interesting.

I added oats to one of mine randomly - the beer was pretty good.