First stout attempt

[pendulum]

I've been brewing more hoppy style beers of late but recently, my neighbor learned I was brewing my own stuff and gave me a bunch of supplies that he had leftover. One of which was this dark malt oatmeal extract (liquid). The first thing that popped into my head was I was doing an oatmeal stout with this. I've never done anything like this so I did a bit of research and asked a few friends and formulated a recipe for it. Let me know what you think. If you have any reccomendations I'd love to hear them.

6 lbs Dark malt oatmeal extract (liquid)
3 lbs Dry pale malt extract
3/4 lbs roasted barley
1/2 lb oatmeal
1/2 lb lactose
2 oz Golding hops
Safale California Ale Yeast (Dry)

Gonna steep the grains for 20 min to draw more flavor and color.
Gonna do a full 60 min boil with the liquid and dry extracts. Gonna add 1.5 oz of the hops for a 60 min boil for bittering and throw in the remaining 1/2 oz for 5 min as a finisher. The lactose I'm gonna add at the very end.

Now I also went out and bought some French oak adjuncts (cubes) that I'm gonna throw into the secondary fermenter and let it sit on those for about a month, maybe longer. I'm also debating soaking them in some bourbon or scotch before hand too, but I'm not entirely sure about that.

My goal is to make a big, bold oatmeal stout with a bit of a richness to it.
Let me know what you guys think.

Tnanks!

 

[feinbera]

That half-ounce at five minutes seems a little bit odd for a stout... you're getting mostly aroma and maybe a bit of flavor from that addition. I throw in a quarter-ounce at 20 and another quarter at five for my porter, and that seems to work pretty well.

The month on oak also sounds a little long; I can't speak to personal experience, here, but I hear a little time on oak (like, a week or two) goes a long way.

 

[pendulum]

I've heard mixed results on oaking. The higher gravity/alcohol beers I've heard can take up to a month or longer and lighter beers like browns or IPA's only 1-2 weeks. That's one of the parts I'm still researching.

The hop reccomendations came from the proprietor of the homebrew store I shop at. Said that's what he typically does with his stouts. The 20 min and 5 min idea sounds like a better option though. Thanks!

 

[Sudz_Makenzie]

I like to toast the oatmeal for more flavor in my stouts

 

[makislav]

Sounds good to me.

I have had success with extract stout by steeping Weyermann CARAFA Special type 1 800-1000 malts and adding two cups of espresso to the secondary/bottling bucket. This provides a nice chocolate/coffee flavor.

 

[pendulum]

Well I went and brewed this beer up on Tuesday. Everything went smoothly. Although, if I were to do it again I'd add about 1/2-3/4 lbs of Black Patent malt to it as the color came out a very dark brown instead of the blacker color I was looking for. It's fermenting away and I'll keep updates on the oaking when I get to that point. Thanks for the tips!

 

[bigmike99]

Be careful with the oak. Too much and it'll overpower the beer. I'd check it after a week, then weekly from there until you're happy.

 

[Hoosierbrewer]

I do not use any black patent in my stout. If you do, remember a little goes a long way. I use chocolate combined with my Munich, crystal and roasted barley. I cut it out since I was able to get color and not have to worry about being astringent.