Vanilla Oat Porter: A Mission in Big Beer

[jkpq45]

OK Folks, here goes nothing... an AG idea I concocted all by meself, totally open to ideas.

Grain Bill:
5# Crisp Brown Barley Malt (Somewhere near L65)
0.25# Castle Black Barley Malt (L550)
2.5# Crystal Carapils (40L)
2# Whole Oats (malted and roasted at home... more on this below)

Adjuncts:
2# Extra Dark Brown Sugar
4 oz. dark molasses

Hops
0.75 oz Willamette - 60 mins from end of boil
0.75 oz Fuggle - 15 mins from end of boil

Yeast:
Safale S-05 American Ale (11g dry, rehydrated in starter for length of brew)

Primary:
5 whole star anise pods (remember that black licorice flavor?)

At bottling:
1/4c pure vanilla extract
3/4c dark brown sugar


Malting oats:
Soak overnight in warm water, spread out on sheet pans in direct sunlight, misting with fresh water daily to allow the grain to sprout. Once the sprout happens (and the then-malted grain tastes sweet) roast on sheet pans in 350*F oven, turning frequently, until a medium-brown color is achieved. Mill/crack via any method you prefer.

Brewing:
Combine malted oats and remainder of grains in cold water (1.5 qt/lb = 3.66 gallons) in mash tun and bring water slowly up to 145*F. Hold, stirring occasionally, for 90 minutes. Fly sparge with 1 qt/lb = 2.5 gallons water at 180*F water. Combine in boil kettle with brown sugar and molasses, boil for 90 mins total. Add hops per schedule. Pitch Safale yeast (plus starter) once chilled to ~70*F).

Add star anise pods to primary, ferment to completion, rack to bottling bucket with vanilla and 3/4c brown sugar. Age until I can't stand it any longer.

Now for the ideas:
1. A vacation of a week or two in the secondary with the vanilla wouldn't be all that bad.
2. Are the hops appropriate for this kind of porter? I'm hoping for some residual sweetness, and hopefully the beer will be big enough (1.060+OG) to retain some sweetness at the end.
3. Is there a better yeast? The safale is just what i have on hand.
4. Are the star anise pods just begging to get in the way of what I anticipate to be a very nice, smooth porter?
5. Any foreseeable problems with head retention? Bitterness? Undercarbonation due to wearing out my yeast on such a big beer?
6. Any other adjunct that could lend to the smooth, deep character?
7. Any ideas for a name (other than Black Insanity? Wait a minute, why do the names for all my beers turn out to be racist-sounding? My second to last batch, Irish Red Ass, comes to mind. Of course, my very first batch was called Skunk Butt Ale, so at least I'm an Equal-Opportunity racist amongst all species).

Any discussion/comments are appreciated. I malted whole rye, barley and soft winter wheat berries for my last batch and it turned out very tasty (no idea about efficiency though....)

Thanks for your help,
jkpq45

 

[jkpq45]

Somehow I knew this novel I posted wouldn't get any response. 16 views, but no response.

I may just have to brew the dang thing and let you all know how it goes!

 

[McKBrew]

Most of us don't kiln or malt our own barley, so not much help there.

You are using way too much caramel malt for one and it looks like you are trying to make a high alcohol beer using way too much sugar instead of upping the malt percentage. Have you tried plugging this recipe into any brewing software to see what the end result is going to be?

 

[jkpq45]

What brewing software would you recommend? Not going for high alcohol, mostly just body and depth in the finished product.

I could cut down on the brown sugar or get rid of it altogether. As I recall, most of molasses is unfermentable. Does that sound about right?

All the barley will be bought from the LHBS, it's just the oats that I want to malt myself.

Does anyone see any diastatic issues with the recipe?

 

[ChshreCat]

Adding sugar decreases body.

 

[carnevoodoo]

I don't think many people are commenting because this recipe is sort of wacky. It isn't really like a typical recipe and they're right about the sugar. It will just thin it out. If you want body, get to the right OG using a base malt. Brown malt is typically used in smaller quantities, and I am not sure of its diastatic power, but this recipe still seems unbalanced in just about every way. Even the amount of vanilla you're using seems like way too much.

Find a recipe that might be similar to what you're looking for. Maybe look up Denny Conn's bourbon vanilla imperial porter and use a real recipe as a base. Go from there.

 

[Ryno]

+1 carnevoodo................If you dont want to make a beer as big as Denny Conn's bourbon vanilla imperial porter, I'd try Edworts Robust Porter as a base and maybe add .5 to 1# flaked oats, 8 oz lactose, and 1 oz vanilla, mashing at 152 for 60min. Not sure what your're after though? Good luck.

 

[carnevoodoo]

+1 carnevoodo................If you dont want to make a beer as big as Denny Conn's bourbon vanilla imperial porter, I'd try Edworts Robust Porter as a base and maybe add .5 to 1# flaked oats, 8 oz lactose, and 1 oz vanilla, mashing at 152 for 60min. Not sure what your're after though? Good luck.

Or even a couple of pounds of oats. They really taste good in beer, smooth it out, and you can play with them to see what they do. I have an oat brown in a keg right now that is just fantastic.

 

[Shay]

jkpq45, I am with you. I do not think the brown malt would have enough enzymes to convert itself much less the oats. + 1 to the Denny's bourbon vanilla porter. Drop the bourbon and add some oats. Here's the recipe: Beanilla Vanilla Beans - Recipes - Recipes - Denny Conn's Bourbon Vanilla Imperial Porter

 

[chefmike]

Or even a couple of pounds of oats. They really taste good in beer, smooth it out, and you can play with them to see what they do. I have an oat brown in a keg right now that is just fantastic.

carne, are you using malted oats or rolled?

I have been feeling the oats recently... my last stout needs more... next time...