3rd Brew: Oatmeal Stout (PM) - Need some advice/experience...

scocam · Sep 17, 2007

Hi All,

Just wanted to get a quick sanity check from some more experienced brewers.
I brewed a partial mash Oatmeal Stout last night and everything went nearly perfectly and I even came close to nailing the target OG of 1.052. One concern for me is that I didn't allow the yeast to sit at room temperature for the recommended 3-6 hours; instead, it sat for only ~2 hours.

My question is this... after 14 hours in primary, I'm getting very little action in the air lock. I know this isn't a key indicator but by previous (only 2) batches showed quite a bit of activity even a couple hours after being put in primary. Is this common?

- Scott

The recipe is a follows:

OATMEAL STOUT
6 lbs. dark malt extract
1 lb. oatmeal
1 lb. Six-row pale malt
1/2 lb. Roast unmalted barley
1/4 lb. Black Patent Malt
1/2 lb. medium crystal malt
1 oz. Target hops (bittering)
1/2 oz. Willamettes hops (flavoring)
1/2 oz. Willamettes hops (finishing)
White Labs British Ale Yeast (liquid)
1 pkg. Bru-Vigor (yeast food)

O.G. - 1.052
F.G. - 1.013

WOP31 · Sep 17, 2007

Your yeast should be fine, the biggest thing that you want to avoid is mass temp differences between your wort and your yeast, as long as the yeast had time to warm up some from fridge temp you'll be alright. It just may take a littel longer for them to kick off.

Cheers

Lil' Sparky · Sep 17, 2007

Agreed. Don't sweat it. It'll take off.

scocam · Sep 17, 2007

Ahhh, my mind is at ease. I came home to find it fermenting away with about 2" of foam on top. Gotta love it. Air lock burps 2x/sec.

Thanks for setting my mind at ease gentlemen. There something strangely settling about peer reassurance.

Scott