Rogue Oatmeal Stout Kit

[GoleyBrew]

Hi all,

I picked up a BrewCraft Rogue Oatmeal Stout kit from my LHBS this afternoon. I bought it with the impression I would have to do a partial mash. This would have been my first partial.

After looking at the instructions It seems this is a steeping grains/extract kit. It says to, "bring the water with the grain in it up to 160degF. Once it has reached this temperature, turn off the burner and allow the grain to steep for about 10 minutes."

From my understanding the only real difference between this and a mini-mash would be how long I leave the grains in at 150-155. Do I follow the BrewCraft instructions and just make this as a steeping/extract? I have read that the only way to do oatmeal is partial mash.

Specialty Grains
1 lb Pale 2-row Malt
.5 lb Flaked Oats
1 lb Chocolate Malt
.75 lb Roasted Barley
.25 Crystal Malt 150L

Fermentables
3 lb Briess CBW Brewers Gold DME
2 lb Briess CBW Traditional dark DME
1 lb Extra Dark Aromatic Belgian Candi Sugar Crystals

Hops
2 oz Cascade Bittering
2 oz Cascade Flavor

Yeast
Pacman

Thanks for the help,
Goleybrew

 

[GoleyBrew]

Would it hurt the beer to steep all of the specialty grains for 45min? Would that release too many tannins? I apologize for the noob questions.

Also, would "steeping" for 45-1hour and then sparging hot water through the steeping bag be an effective way to mini-mash? I haven't seen this strategy.

Thanks

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

I think the flaked oats are ok if used as specialty grains, although I'm not 100% positive. I think you can brew the kit per instructions and be fine.

 

[mcwilcr]

I would steep the specialty grains atleast 30 min if it were me. the main reason people say at a minimum you need to do a partial mash to get a good oatmeal stout is that it is very dificult to get the right mouthfeel otherwise. the longer steep will extract as much out of the flaked oats as possible with that method and hopefully give you that rich texture you expect.

 

[GoleyBrew]

Thanks for the advice. The kit came with 2 steeping bags. Should I steep some of the specialty grains longer than the others?

Disregards question. All the grains are packaged together.

 

[BradleyBrew]

mini mash is when you are taking base grains and converting the starches to sugar... the same process as all grain but at a smaller level. Steeping is basically heating the specialty grains and extracting the flavors of those grains. I mainly do mini mashes of between 5 - 7lbs of base grains + specialty grains. So, in a mini mash you are concerned with conversion and sparging of the grains.

 

[GoleyBrew]

I think I'm going to follow Mcwilcr's advice and steep a little longer. On subject off subject... Could you mini-mash using steeping bags? Once the 45/60min is up just pull out the steeping bags, rinse with sparging water and have the leftover wort... or would there be too much leftover specialty grains in the wort?

I only ask because at the moment I only have one brew kettle.

 

[BradleyBrew]

If you have a smaller cooler or water cooler just get a 5 gallon painter strainer bag (nylon you can reuse) and put all your grains in there. You need two kettle pots or 1 kettle pot and a cooler... Unless you used a spare bottling bucket to rinse your grains or just do your mash in there.

 

[mcwilcr]

well, you only need about 1 to 2 quarts of Sparge water per lb of grains so if you have a large enough sauce pan in the kitchen you can heat up some water in there to about 170 and do something similar to a sparge with one of two methods I have used before.

1) tea-bag your mulson bag in the sparge water for 5-10 min.
2) if you have a large enough strainer and enough room in your brew kettle, place your mulson bag in the strainer suspended above the brew kettle, slowley poor the sparge water overtop of them moving around to evenly soak all the grains.

Personally, I have done it both ways but I think the second is better

 

[docrmarten]

I just did the Rogue Oatmeal Stout Extract Kit from AHS and I believe I steeped for about 30 min. I bottled this last week so i'm excited to try it soon.

 

[BradleyBrew]

I agree with mcwilcr... I almost always do full grain 3 to 4 gallon batches in a similar manner. I use my large nylon paint strainer bag in a igloo water cooler. After conversion is complete I suspended the grains in the bag above the sweet wort (with basic clamps)... I then just re-circulate the sweet wort from the ball valve to a pitcher and pour over the suspended grains. I always have great efficiency and never use a hot liquor tank. Obviously this technique would be void if wanted a lot of grain for a larger batch. The same process could be replicated with your brew kettle.

 

[GoleyBrew]

Nice. Well it seems like the consensus is to steep the grains a bit longer than the instructions say.