Advice on making an Oyster Oatmeal Stout?

[RockTheGoodAg]

Howdy y'all,

I'm currently in the process of planning some future brews, and one I'd like to try a crack at is a melding of an Oyster Stout and an Oatmeal Stout, for both the earth, nutty bitterness as well as the subtly briny qualities of an oyster stout. I'd basically like it to be similar to Real Ale Co.'s Brewer's Cut Oyster Stout (which you may not have even heard of, it's a Texas craft) but with a bit more body and added complexity of the oats.

My question is more about the oats than the oysters, as I've already found a lot of good information on how to brew with oysters. I think I'd like to begin with the LME version of Austin Homebrew Supply's Imperial Stout (13F) kit, since it sounds like it has the base flavor profile and ABV I'd like to have. My question is this: how would I add flaked oats into this recipe, and in what amount?

The recipe includes:

10 lbs. LME
1 lbs. DME
.75 lbs each of base and specialty grains, including Crystal 60L, Black Patent, and Black roasted barley

From my experience with AHS's LME kits, the specialty grains come in a pre-prepared muslin grain bag. After determining the amount of oats to use, should I dump the grains into a new muslin bag with the oats for steeping, or could I just use the oats in their own bag? And again, how much oats should I use to achieve a desirable level of oatmeal-stout-iness?

Although I can't get the exact information on the grain ratios from AHS's website, the estimated OG and FG are 1.079 and 1.019, respectively.

Thanks y'all!

 

[BigEd]

In spite of their inclusion in extract recipe kits from many suppliers oats and any other unmalted grains need to be mashed, at least to get anything truly useful out of them. If you merely steep them you will only soak out some gums, proteins and starches. None of those things are desirable in your finished beer.

However, if you do a mini-mash which is not all that different than simply steeping, you can extract fermentable sugars and many more complex flavors from your oats.

For that recipe try a mini-mash with a 50:50 ratio of pale malt to flaked oats. One pound of oats will make a difference here and two pounds will be even better.

 

[RockTheGoodAg]

So, theoretically, I could do a mini-mash of pale malt and flaked oats, and then add that to the boil of extract + steeped specialty grain wort, then proceed as normal? I'd like to do it in such a manner that I minimize necessary new equipment (college budget....).

 

[BigEd]

So, theoretically, I could do a mini-mash of pale malt and flaked oats, and then add that to the boil of extract + steeped specialty grain wort, then proceed as normal?

That's it!

 

[d3track]

So, theoretically, I could do a mini-mash of pale malt and flaked oats, and then add that to the boil of extract + steeped specialty grain wort, then proceed as normal? I'd like to do it in such a manner that I minimize necessary new equipment (college budget....).

Maybe try 1-1.5# 6-row with your oats and specialty grains. I'd suggest a paint strainer bag from a hardware store.

I think this might be helpful to explain the mini mash: http://brewingtv.com/episodes/2011/2/7/brewing-tv-episode-31-brew-your-own-bender.html

 

[RockTheGoodAg]

Thanks for that link, d3track. Exceptionally helpful video. I was worried I'd have to buy a lot of new equipment to do any sort of mini-mash, but I already have another pot and just need to buy a strainer and mesh bag.