Oatmeal Chocolate Stout

[thaywoody]

I am fairly new to home brewing but I have made several good beers. After doing a lot of reading and running a mini mash kit from Northern Homebrew I am ready to try a recipe of my own making. I would appreciate any input that can be offered:

Mini mash

1lb Flaked oats
1lb Chocolate
.5 lb dark crystal
.5 lb caramel cyrstal
2lb Maris Otter

6lb LME Dark
1lb Lactose
1lb DME Dark

1oz goldings for 60 mintues
1oz Nugget at 30 minutes

Adding in cacao nibs in secondary

Probably using Safale S-05

http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/145840/chocolate-oatmeal-stout

 

[QuercusMax]

Don't use Dark LME or DME. Just use the pale/gold stuff. You don't know what they used to turn those dark, and repeating this recipe will be difficult. Your chocolate and crystal malts will give you plenty of color and a better/fresher flavor than whatever roasted and crystal malts were used in the extract.

I'd also skip the lactose, you have plenty of unfermentables in there. It will probably end up way too sweet if you keep it in.

 

[thaywoody]

Using Brewers Friend I could easily drop the DME but I don't seem to have enough grains to get above 2% ABV without the LMW

 

[QuercusMax]

I'm not saying drop the DME and LME. I'm saying use Pale or Golden DME and LME instead of the Dark.

If you were brewing this all-grain you would be using 2-row or Pale Ale malt to make up the bulk of your fermentables. The best way to create an Extra+Grains recipe is to treat it the same way - use the lightest extract you can to make up the bulk of your fermentables, and then add your character grains (chocolate and crystal malts) on top of that.

Now if you've already bought the extract... I'd say go ahead and use it. But in the future you'll get the best results using extract which doesn't have a bunch of extra mystery grains put into it. And if you decide to do All-Grain in the future, it will be a piece of cake to convert this into an AG recipe (replace 6lb of light LME with ~10lb 2-row or Maris Otter).

 

[thaywoody]

I gotcha, yea I have a extra 6lb jug of dark LME. But thanks for the info for future recipes!

 

[QuercusMax]

For some backstory: I made an awesome smoked porter a couple years ago using Dark LME as the base, before I switched to all-grain. I keep meaning to rebrew it, but since I don't know *what* was in that extract, it will be tough to reproduce.

I'm sure it'll make a fine beer, so long as the extract is fresh.

 

[thaywoody]

Any thoughts on adding cocoa powder to the boil for a added chocolate flavor. I've read a lot of people add about 4oz's.

 

[ob_1jr]

I've used cocoa powder and cocoa nibs in the secondary and my beer has turned out pretty good...(1/2 cup cocoa powder and 4oz nibs).

Also, if you do put lactose in it for the body, I was told to start with no more than 8oz. I brewed up I Eat Danger for Breakfast Stout with 8oz of lactose and it was pretty thick with just 8oz...kinda like chocolate milk. I am waiting until tomorrow to put a bottle in the fridge to try it since it has been almost 3 weeks in the bottle.