Toasty Oats Ale

I just pitched yeast for my 9th brew! This is my 1st brew using a new 10 gal pot. This is also the first time I have ever tried to do a mash (partial with a bag). I fathomed up this combination of ingredients, not because I wanted to recreate a certain style, but simply by following my nose. Please note that I started with a Cooper's DIY kit that had instructions/equiptment for 23 liter batches, so my batch sizes have floated everywhere in between 5 gal to approx 6 ½ gal. Here's the receipe!

Name: Toasty Oats Ale

OG: 1060
FG: 1006
ABV: 7.74%
Efficiency: N/A - Primarily an extract recipe.
Boil Size: 6.5 Gal
Color: 9 Lovibond (Approximately)
Batch Size: 5.5476 Gal (21 liter)
Boil Time: 60 minutes

Extract: 6 ½ lbs Pilsener LME
Grains: ½ lb Victory, ½ lb Vienna, ½ lb Munich, 1 lb Flaked Oats, ½ lb Honey Malt, & 1 lb 2 Row
Hops: ½ oz Northern Brewer & ½ oz Goldings Pellets
Yeast: Wyeast 1469 W. Yorkshire Smack-pack
Fining Agents: Irish Moss & Gelatin
Priming Sugar: ¾ cup Corn Sugar

1. Smack pack and wait for 3+ hrs, then make a starter using some of the LME, 1 cup water, and yeast nutrients.
2. Mash grains @ 150-155 degrees for 60 minutes in 7 quarts of water.
3. Teabag and then remove the grains.
4. Gently add 5 gallons of hot water to the pot.
5. Add extract, cover, and bring to boil.
6. Set timer for 60 min & add ½ oz NB hops.
7. At 15 minutes, add ¼ oz Goldings hops and Irish moss.
8. At 10 minutes, add wort chiller.
9. At 5 minutes, add ¼ oz Goldings hops.
10. Cool wort and add to fermenter.
11. Aerate for 3 min.
12. Pitch yeast starter.
13. Top off to 21 liters.
14. Four days before bottling, dissolve gelatin in ½ cup of warm water, heat for 5 min on stove (no boiling), and add to fermenter.
15. Crash cool night before bottling.
16. Boil priming sugar in a pint of water for 10 min, cool, and add to fermenter.
17. Let sit for 20 min.
18. Bottle & store for 3 weeks at room temperature.
19. Chill and drink!

I intend to keep the fermentation temp at 60-65 deg F. I will let it hit FG and then sit for 1 more week in the fermenter before bottling. Any comments, suggestions, questions, or tips appreciated!

I just realized the name implies the oats have been toasted. This is not the case! Plain flaked oats is what I used.

I just tried a sample of this beer, as it appears to be at or near FG (1008). The color is a pale golden hue. The aroma has a sweet hint of honey to it. The flavor is just what I aimed for even though the abv is approx. 7%. The after taste is akin to honey nut cheerios. SUCCESS! I can't hardly wait to see what it will be like after it has been bottle conditioned! YUM.

I just got my results back from a local competition that I entered this beer into. I entered it in BJCP category 23 since it has such high alcohol content and oats in a light colored beer. I called it an "Imperial Oat Blonde Ale" It scored 30/50. The best scores were in Appearance and Mouthfeel, and the worst was in flavor.

The big drawback was an acetaldehyde issue that caused major green apple flavor and aroma.

Well that's certainly an interesting recipe. Too bad about the green apple, I've had that happen to a beer or two and it's annoying. In my case it was (probably) from pitching too much yeast, but you can also get it from racking to secondary or bottling too early.

You should re-brew it pretty much as is, or MAYBE swap out the yeast for something a little more neutral. The British yeasts can be finicky or weird sometimes. Plus, they don't typically go with the German base malts you are using. Having said that, I made a good Scotch Ale once with Munich as half the base malt.

If you want to kick up the oat flavor more, there is a crystal malt made from oats called Golden Naked Oats, and there's also malted oats that can be used too. I love oats in beer! I made a decent oatmeal porter recently, because I was enjoying Highland's Oatmeal Porter so much.

Thanks for the tip on the Golden Naked Oats and malted oats! I will definately have to look for those at my LHBS.

That yeast sounded like a good choice, but I did have some difficulty with it. I was thinking that either I had kept the fermentation temp too low or possibly had an oxidation issue when bottling. I can't remember if it was that beer or not, but once when I was bottling the bottling valve broke and moving very quickly was all I could do to keep the beer from spraying everywhere and over filling the bottles. The beer was coming out way too fast!

Good news! The green apple flavor/aroma has seemingly vanished. I suppose this is due to the yeast in my bottles getting hungry.

Anyway, in the end I feel the honey malt was too strong/beer too sweet. I will be using no more than a ¼ lb of Honey Malt per 5 gal batch from now on.