Thoughts on tweaking this oatmeal stout please

[olotti]

I brewed this around Halloween with additions of chocolate and steeping coffee grounds, def get the coffee and some bitter chocolate not bad for first try. Anyway it's an oatmeal stout which as I understan is supposed to have a silky mouthfeel or creaminess from the oatmeal, I don't detect this in my beer in fact the body seems a little thin to me. So next go around I'd like to try to increase the silky mouthfeel, looking at this grain bill what should I tweak or I was also thinking about adding lactose as I had a really nice example of a coffee cream stout that used lactose and really had the mouthfeel I was hoping to achieve. Here's the grain bill. I also want to add flaked barley for head retention, so how much should I add?

9lbs 2 row
1.4lbs flaked oats
1.5 lbs victory
.84lbs chocolate malt
.56lbs c40
.56lbs c120
.56lbs roasted barley

Beer came out to OG 1.066 with a FG 1.016 which was a little weird considering I mashed at 155-156. Anyway any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[FastAndy]

Adding the lactose will help with a more full bodied beer. Usually the silkyness you speak of comes from oats. You try upping that amount a bit and see if it helps. I wonder if the astringency from the coffee is making you not get the mouth feel you are looking for.

 

[olotti]

Adding the lactose will help with a more full bodied beer. Usually the silkyness you speak of comes from oats. You try upping that amount a bit and see if it helps. I wonder if the astringency from the coffee is making you not get the mouth feel you are looking for.

Maybe I'll just up the oats a tad and add the lactose, drinking that beer I had made me think I could get that extra body from the lactose. I've also wondered if it wasn't some slight astringency thinning the body a bit, it's not terrible but I guess if I think about it there is a tad of that astringent flavor that's why next batch I'm going to try adding the whole beans directly to the secondary and letting it sit for a couple weeks.

 

[FastAndy]

I think the lactose cant hurt. If anything, it will help with a creamy flavor that could pair well with the coffee.

 

[JayDubWill]

To avoid the astringency in coffee, cold press it the day before for a smoother coffee flavor. Or just add crushed beans to secondary for a few days. Everything else in your recipe looks good. Maybe cut back on the roasted barley to 4oz.

 

[olotti]

Bumped to top with question of how much flaked barley should I use to aid in head retention.

 

[FastAndy]

I've personally never used flaked barley.

When in doubt.....

http://www.howtobrew.com/section2/chapter12-2.html

 

[olotti]

I've personally never used flaked barley.

When in doubt.....

http://www.howtobrew.com/section2/chapter12-2.html

Thanks for replying both now and earlier. I think now looking at the recipe Im thinking of trying Cocoa powder in the boil instead of the bakers chocolate then adding nibs in primary so Im thinking I may not have that prob with the head retention like I did with this batch using the bakers bars. But looks like if I did .5 lbs would cover it. Thanks for the link. I have the book never thought about looking there the Internet is so much easier. Damn I'm lazy. Lol.