Vanilla Oat Nut Brown Ale

[Cenosillica]

I'm thinking of modifying an extract recipe from northernbrewer; their nut brown ale extract. What I would like to do is add oats to the grain bill for the purpose of giving it a little extra body and more head retention. I have brewed this recipe twice before and I enjoy it but it lacks a few things I enjoy. Like the mouthfeel, it runs a bit thin for my tastes. So I decided to try adding oats to fill this gap. Now, I'm a relatively new brewer. This will be my 5th extract batch. My local brew shop sold me a pound of oats and said to add it in with the grains. Should I do it that way or start a premash first? Also, I'm concerned about making a very cloudy, oily nut brown. Would adding extra Irish moss help clarify better? I'm ready to experiment but not reinvent the wheel so I'm reaching out to the community to see if anyone has had any luck brewing an English nut brown 11b southern style ale with oats.

Oh, as for the vanilla, I'm either going to use a vanilla bean or extract and pour in the primary fermenter, possibly the secondary. Not sure how much, I'm going to look around some more and see what others have done with these adjuncts.

Thanks in advance for any kind of advice!

 

[DrawTap88]

I have no advice as to the brewing process.

I have this fermenting right now and planned to do much the same thing that you are as far as the vanilla. From looking around this site, I plan on transfering to a secondary and adding 3 whole vanilla beans, scrapped out, and cut the pod into 1 inch pieces-boiling all of that in a couple cups of water for 5 minutes to sterilize the vanilla and adding directly to the secondary for 2 or 3 weeks (depending on when I get a chance to bottle).

Since I wasn't able to find the vanilla beans at any of the local stores, I was able to buy 3 beans online for $7.00 delivered from Beanilla. Keep me updated how yours turns out.

 

[mikebiewer]

Have you thought of just adding dextrose to add to the body and head retention instead of oats?

If your going for more flavor, then add the oats. I would just put them in with your steeping grains. It is only a pound so I wouldn't worry to much about cloudiness. I imagine Irish Moss and a good cold break will help clarify your beer.

Let us know how it goes though!

 

[Cenosillica]

Thanks for your comments. So far, from what I have read about oats is that they lack the enzymes to convert starch into fermenable sugars. I'm going to have to learn how to premash by tonight! hehe, which is why I love this hobby so much. So, I need to figure out what grains will have the least impact on flavor or color yet produce the enzymes needed to convert the oat starches into a fermentable sugar. Judging from the recipe below, do I already have what I need? Should I go back to my brew store and buy something like Pale malt to make a premash with? What temperature would be best to activate the enzyme? I don't want to influence the taste, just increase the mouthfeel and head retention. On that note, I'm a little uncertain about the right grain to use.

The nut brown recipe I'm going to brew tonight has the following grain bill -

--0.25 lbs Simpson’s Chocolate
--0.25 lbs Dingemans Special B
--0.25 lbs Dingemans Biscuit
--0.25 lbs Briess Special Roast

Fermentables:
6 lbs Gold malt syrup

 

[DrawTap88]

I bottled this one over the weekend, and let me tell you that it smelled like turpentine. I am attributing that to a trying my new tap water filter, but lets see how it turns out after bottle conditioning for a few weeks.

How is yours turning out?

 

[Cenosillica]

So far so good. I still have it in the primary since 4/29. Mainly because I have not bothered to grab some vanilla beans from the local store here.

I can tell you brewing with oats created many a boil over. I practically had to sit there with my hand on the propane valve the entire time. I had brewed this recipe several times before without issues; it's a great beginners recipe. Just this time, with oats... well, that took a little more care. During the process, I called a fellow brewer. He said the same happened for him when brewing an oatmeal stout. There's something volatile about them oats!

Personally, I don't use tap water. I bought several 5-gallon jugs and fill them up at our local 'Water & Ice' shop. I'd put nothing less that R/O water into my recipes considering water is your main ingredient. That is mainly because tap water in my neck of the woods is very dirty. Add brewing salts and the rest takes care of itself.

I certainly appreciate everyone's advice and I will post on the final product.

 

[DrawTap88]

Thanks for the heads up about the oats. I've never used them before, and will have to keep your experience in mind, should I ever need to use them.

As for the water, I have somewhat nasty tasteing tap water which I solved by using a filter attached to the faucet. I wanted to try that in the boil to see if it creates any off flavors or other nastiness. I did however steep my grains in 2 gallons of steam distilled water and .5 gallon of filtered tap.

 

[Cenosillica]

Well, I finally kegged on Friday 5/28 just about a month after brewing. I did pitch to a secondary and added two whole vanilla beans at this time. I first sliced them down the middle and then ran a knife down the center carving out the vanilla gooey goodness. I then chopped up the shell of the bean in 1/8th inch chunks and dropped them into the secondary as well.

Yesterday, I tried a little taster. It will be several weeks before it conditions but so far I can't complain. There is a distinct smell of vanilla and the oats definetely added to head retention. The vanilla flavor is not overpowering yet I would not drink several of these in a session... too sweet, but that could change with a little conditioning.

With the vanilla and the frothy foam head, this beer tastes closer to a cream ale than a brown ale. More like a frankenstein style combination of both. Overall, I'm glad I tried the experiment and look forward having a couple pints with friends to get their impression. So far, I got my wife's opinion who is NOT a beer drinker. Her closest thing to a comment was, "Well...I don't, not like it". For her to say that about beer is nothing short of a compliment.

I gotta say, I had this after grilling up a new recipe of buttermilk chicken. It made for a delicious dessert homebrew!

 

[powerfreak]

Sounds like a success fellow Arizona brewer!