Oatmeal Stout Yooper's Oatmeal Stout

[schematix]

I think Notty will dry this beer out too much. Some residual sweetness goes a long way with the chocolate and roast flavors of the beer.

If it were me and i had to pitch dry yeast i'd make it US-05.

 

[brick_haus]

I brewed this as per the OP including water profile, mash temp etc. many times and love this beer when I'm in the mood. 1.051og/1.016fg. I entered it into the Hangar 24 homebrew contest and here are some of the comments.
Scores: 24/27. Two judges were "recognized".
Aroma: Moderate dark brown toasty crust-low floral hop aroma. No obvious fermentation characteristics.
Dark fruit, sweet malty grains, chocolate.
Appearance: 3/3
Flavor: low toasted brown bread-no obvious hop flavor-finishes very clean.
Moderate roasty flavor-somewhat restrained for a stout...more towards a porter style.
Mouthfeel: light/medium body- low astringency.
Smooth-balanced.
Overall: where did the flavor go? The aroma promising. A stout needs more everything. Its supposed to be a big beer. Complex your malt bill.
Enter as a Porter next time, it misses as a stout but I do like the beer...very nicely balanced beer...easy drinking. Not to style.
Entered as 20b American stout.

Not criticizing the recipe, i love this beer, but more wondering where I went wrong. The beer was 3 months old when judged.

 

[Nightstrife]

I brewed this as per the OP including water profile, mash temp etc. many times and love this beer when I'm in the mood. 1.051og/1.016fg. I entered it into the Hangar 24 homebrew contest and here are some of the comments.
Scores: 24/27. Two judges were "recognized".
Aroma: Moderate dark brown toasty crust-low floral hop aroma. No obvious fermentation characteristics.
Dark fruit, sweet malty grains, chocolate.
Appearance: 3/3
Flavor: low toasted brown bread-no obvious hop flavor-finishes very clean.
Moderate roasty flavor-somewhat restrained for a stout...more towards a porter style.
Mouthfeel: light/medium body- low astringency.
Smooth-balanced.
Overall: where did the flavor go? The aroma promising. A stout needs more everything. Its supposed to be a big beer. Complex your malt bill.
Enter as a Porter next time, it misses as a stout but I do like the beer...very nicely balanced beer...easy drinking. Not to style.
Entered as 20b American stout.

Not criticizing the recipe, i love this beer, but more wondering where I went wrong. The beer was 3 months old when judged.

Considering this is an oatmeal stout, and brewed with mostly British ingredients and yeast. I would lean towards entering it into the 16B category. The American stout tenst to be alot hoppier and rosty than the British oatmeal versions...

As a side note don't necessarily listen to a judge that offers feedback on change categories without expressing the real whys...

 

[brick_haus]

Considering this is an oatmeal stout, and brewed with mostly British ingredients and yeast. I would lean towards entering it into the 16B category. The American stout tenst to be alot hoppier and rosty than the British oatmeal versions...

As a side note don't necessarily listen to a judge that offers feedback on change categories without expressing the real whys...

You are absolutely right. Now I feel like a dumb A$$. Thanks for pointing out the category mistake...

 

[Pole]

Brewed this last Saturday. It just makes it into imperial territory. The sample tasted great.

I'm looking to do something very similar to this, basically increasing everything by 50%. Now I'm curious, why didn't you increase the hops? I was thinking to keep a similar flavor profile, the IBUs would need to be increased to about 49 with an SG of 1.080 to keep the IBU/SG ratio similar to the original recipe. (original recipe 32/52 = .615, new recipe 49/80 = .613)

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Yooper]

I brewed this as per the OP including water profile, mash temp etc. many times and love this beer when I'm in the mood. 1.051og/1.016fg. I entered it into the Hangar 24 homebrew contest and here are some of the comments.
Scores: 24/27. Two judges were "recognized".
Aroma: Moderate dark brown toasty crust-low floral hop aroma. No obvious fermentation characteristics.
Dark fruit, sweet malty grains, chocolate.
Appearance: 3/3
Flavor: low toasted brown bread-no obvious hop flavor-finishes very clean.
Moderate roasty flavor-somewhat restrained for a stout...more towards a porter style.
Mouthfeel: light/medium body- low astringency.
Smooth-balanced.
Overall: where did the flavor go? The aroma promising. A stout needs more everything. Its supposed to be a big beer. Complex your malt bill.
Enter as a Porter next time, it misses as a stout but I do like the beer...very nicely balanced beer...easy drinking. Not to style.
Entered as 20b American stout.

Not criticizing the recipe, i love this beer, but more wondering where I went wrong. The beer was 3 months old when judged.

I'm a certified BJCP judge. An oatmeal stout isn't a "big beer", so it must be a category issue. 16B is the category.

16B. Oatmeal Stout Overall Impression: A very dark, full-bodied, roasty, malty ale with a complementary oatmeal flavor. The sweetness, balance, and oatmeal impression can vary considerably. Aroma: Mild roasted grain aromas, generally with a coffeelike character. A light malty sweetness can suggest a coffeeand-cream impression. Fruitiness should be low to mediumhigh. Diacetyl medium-low to none. Hop aroma medium-low to none, earthy or floral. A light grainy-nutty oatmeal aroma is optional.

Appearance: Medium brown to black in color. Thick, creamy, persistent tan- to brown-colored head. Can be opaque (if not, it should be clear).

Flavor: Similar to the aroma, with a mild roasted coffee to coffee-and-cream flavor, and low to moderately-high fruitiness. Oats and dark roasted grains provide some flavor complexity; the oats can add a nutty, grainy or earthy flavor. Dark grains can combine with malt sweetness to give the impression of milk chocolate or coffee with cream. Medium hop bitterness with the balance toward malt. Medium-sweet to medium-dry finish. Diacetyl medium-low to none. Hop flavor medium-low to none, typically earthy or floral.

Mouthfeel: Medium-full to full body, with a smooth, silky, velvety, sometimes an almost oily slickness from the oatmeal. Creamy. Medium to medium-high carbonation.

Comments: Generally between Sweet and Irish Stouts in sweetness. Variations exist, from fairly sweet to quite dry, as well as English and American versions (American versions tend to be more hoppy, less sweet, and less fruity). The level of bitterness also varies, as does the oatmeal impression. Light use of oatmeal may give a certain silkiness of body and richness of flavor, while heavy use of oatmeal can be fairly intense in flavor with an almost oily mouthfeel, dryish finish, and slight grainy astringency. When judging, allow for differences in interpretation.

History: A variant of nourishing or invalid stouts of the late 1800s using oatmeal in the grist, similar to the development of sweet stout that used lactose. An original Scottish version used a significant amount of oat malt. Later went through a shady phase where some English brewers would throw a handful of oats into their parti-gyled stouts in order to legally produce a ‘healthy’ Oatmeal Stout for marketing purposes. Most popular in England between the World Wars, was revived in the craft beer era for export, which helped lead to its adoption as a popular modern American craft beer style that uses a noticeable (not symbolic) quantity of oats. Characteristic Ingredients: Pale, caramel and dark roasted malts (often chocolate) and grains. Oatmeal or malted oats (520% or more) used to enhance fullness of body and complexity of flavor. Hops primarily for bittering. Can use brewing sugars or syrups. English ale yeast. Style Comparison: Most are like a cross between an Irish Extra Stout and a Sweet Stout with oatmeal added. Several variations exist, with the sweeter versions more like a Sweet Stout with oatmeal instead of lactose, and the drier versions more like a more nutty, flavorful Irish Extra Stout. Both tend to emphasize the body and mouthfeel.

Vital Statistics:
OG: 1.045 – 1.065
IBUs: 25 – 40
FG: 1.010 – 1.018 SRM: 22 – 40
ABV: 4.2 – 5.9%
Commercial Examples: Anderson Valley Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout, Broughton Scottish Oatmeal Stout, Figueroa Mountain Stagecoach Stout, St-Ambroise Oatmeal Stout, Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout, Young's Oatmeal Stout Tags

 

[brick_haus]

Thanks Yooper, That describes it almost spot on... Very good beer, thanks for sharing the recipe!

 

[Lazer Wolf Brewing]

You are absolutely right. Now I feel like a dumb A$$. Thanks for pointing out the category mistake...

Don't feel bad. I literally just did the same exact thing. I haven't gotten my scorecards mailed yet but I have a feeling they are going to look almost identical to yours. Lesson learned!!

 

[Greytop]

Pole,
I pretty much left the hops alone because I wanted something heavy on the malt and not too bitter. I brewed a bitter chocolate imperial oatmeal stout the next day and planned to combine both batches for my Christmas stout. I was worried the extra hops and bitter chocolate might clash. As it happened, I ended up combining only about half of each batch once they fermented, so I ended up with three different stouts. Yooper's tastes similar to Anderson Valley's Barney Flats and the Chocolate tastes similar to the Stone Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Stout. The combo of the two is awesome and should be more awesomer (?) by Christmas.

 

[crusader1612]

I brewed this as per the OP including water profile, mash temp etc. many times and love this beer when I'm in the mood. 1.051og/1.016fg. I entered it into the Hangar 24 homebrew contest and here are some of the comments.
Scores: 24/27. Two judges were "recognized".
Aroma: Moderate dark brown toasty crust-low floral hop aroma. No obvious fermentation characteristics.
Dark fruit, sweet malty grains, chocolate.
Appearance: 3/3
Flavor: low toasted brown bread-no obvious hop flavor-finishes very clean.
Moderate roasty flavor-somewhat restrained for a stout...more towards a porter style.
Mouthfeel: light/medium body- low astringency.
Smooth-balanced.
Overall: where did the flavor go? The aroma promising. A stout needs more everything. Its supposed to be a big beer. Complex your malt bill.
Enter as a Porter next time, it misses as a stout but I do like the beer...very nicely balanced beer...easy drinking. Not to style.
Entered as 20b American stout.

Not criticizing the recipe, i love this beer, but more wondering where I went wrong. The beer was 3 months old when judged.

Like you I experienced low scores on beers entered in competitions. Even though I really enjoyed the beers. (I brewed similar beers in consecutive years) the socres were over the top low (8-9 out of 50)
We spoke about scoring and stuff at our Club meet not long after, and while it can be disappointing and dis-hearteningto receive below average scores, even though you enjoy the beer.

Just remember a tasting or a scoring is completely subjective. different people have different palates, and some judges are harsher than others.

Its not to take away from any judges scoring or their abilities to taste numerous thing we can't. but just to say, enjoy the beer as it is, and remember Its not about what a judge likes - its about your tastes (and probably your friends)

Since then, (these scorers were 2-3 year ago) sincethen I've thrown out the style book, and brewed to my own tastes, I've squeezed them into the closest styles I reckon I could fit them into and had success.

 

[Pole]

Pole,
I pretty much left the hops alone because I wanted something heavy on the malt and not too bitter. I brewed a bitter chocolate imperial oatmeal stout the next day and planned to combine both batches for my Christmas stout. I was worried the extra hops and bitter chocolate might clash. As it happened, I ended up combining only about half of each batch once they fermented, so I ended up with three different stouts. Yooper's tastes similar to Anderson Valley's Barney Flats and the Chocolate tastes similar to the Stone Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Stout. The combo of the two is awesome and should be more awesomer (?) by Christmas.

Ah, gotcha. Thanks for the clarification!

 

[dstockwell]

Did a similar brew this past weekend. Taste going into FV, yum...

6.5 lbs Golden Promise
12.0 oz Oats
10.0 oz Victory Malt
6.0 oz Black Barley
6.0 oz CaraFoam did not have Flaked Barley
4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L
3.0 oz Chocolate Malt
.2 oz Magnum @ 60 min
.8 oz EKG @ 20 min

WLP002

 

[Horseflesh]

I'll soon be kegging a batch of this. It came out great! Interestingly I found it had a pretty big chocolate flavor after 1 week of fermentation, but that has mellowed and now the coffee is more apparent.

I'm thinking about reserving 1 of 5 gallons and putting it in a tiny keg for a flavoring experiment... cacao nibs and ceylon cinnamon. Anyone else have ideas for tasty add-ins?

 

[MagicMatt]

I've done many different iterations of adding cacao nib (+ vanilla bean) tinctures and coffee.

Most recently I "dry-beaned" whole espresso beans in a keg at room temp for 48 hours. The flavor was incredible.

 

[Horseflesh]

Coffee beans sound tasty! How many did you use? I imagine you wouldn't need a lot.

 

[MagicMatt]

Nope. Two ounces of medium-dark espresso beans for 2 days. This last batch I left it for 3 days. Haven't tasted yet, but I'm sure it'll be a delicious coffee bomb, which is what I was going for.

 

[Scturo]

Looks like this will be my next brew. Will get it in by the end of August, so it will be ready to give out for XMas.

 

[brick_haus]

Update from previous post where I entered it into the wrong category in the Hangar 24 Homebrew Contest and the Judges mentioned that it would be better entered as a Porter. Just for ****s and giggles I entered into the Los Angeles County Fair Homebrew contest as an "English Porter" and the Ventura County Fair as a "Oatmeal Stout".
Highest score in category in both competitions! Blue ribbons in the mail.
Brewed precisely as written in the OP. Water chemistry, water to grist ratio, pH ... Thanks for the recipe Yooper.
Not only a good recipe, but versatile too!!

 

[weeple2000]

If you have a way to mash the oats, and then maybe steep the other grains, and then combine that into the kettle, then I think it could work.

I've never done a true BIAB mash, but you may be able to get a big BIAB bag and mash 8 pounds of grain in the kettle and then sparge up to your desired boil volume, and then add the extract at flame out. If you could do that, that would be my preference I think!

Would it look like this? I've got some bulk LME I bought to do a couple 15 minute Pale Ales. I was thinking I could do a 10 gallon extract batch in my BIAB setup if I did partial mash. So for 5 gallons (half the batch to keep the math simple) of that recipe, I'd have:

Partial Mash
4 lbs LME
4 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 63.64 %
1 lbs Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 9.09 %
12.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 6.82 %
10.0 oz Chocolate malt (pale) (200.0 SRM) Grain 5.68 %
8.0 oz Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
8.0 oz Black Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
2.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 1.14 %
2.00 oz Williamette [4.80 %] (60 min) Hops 31.6 IBU

1 Pkgs British Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1335)

If I am doubling that, I will have 16 lbs of grain, for a 10 gallon batch. Will I be able to mash that in a Bayou Classic 11 gallon pot? I have found that 15 lbs of grain was already pushing the limit with the basket in the pot. Although I also was using 9 gallons of water to mash (15 lbs/9 gallons water for a 5 gallon batch). How much water do I need to convert all of those grains?

I suspect that if I can limit the amount of water I use, I will be able to mash all of it in the pot. I can add more LME if efficiency is a concern. I am trying to use up the rest of that bulk LME.

Thanks.

 

[TrustyOlJohnson]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1472341713.494649.jpg

Yooper's Oatmeal Stout.. On Nitro!!

Delicious!!

 

[MagicMatt]

View attachment 367977

Yooper's Oatmeal Stout.. On Nitro!!

Delicious!!

Jealous! I've been wanting to put this on nitro since I first brewed it some 3 years ago!

 

[Yooper]

Would it look like this? I've got some bulk LME I bought to do a couple 15 minute Pale Ales. I was thinking I could do a 10 gallon extract batch in my BIAB setup if I did partial mash. So for 5 gallons (half the batch to keep the math simple) of that recipe, I'd have:

Partial Mash
4 lbs LME
4 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 63.64 %
1 lbs Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 9.09 %
12.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 6.82 %
10.0 oz Chocolate malt (pale) (200.0 SRM) Grain 5.68 %
8.0 oz Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
8.0 oz Black Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
2.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 1.14 %
2.00 oz Williamette [4.80 %] (60 min) Hops 31.6 IBU

1 Pkgs British Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1335)

If I am doubling that, I will have 16 lbs of grain, for a 10 gallon batch. Will I be able to mash that in a Bayou Classic 11 gallon pot? I have found that 15 lbs of grain was already pushing the limit with the basket in the pot. Although I also was using 9 gallons of water to mash (15 lbs/9 gallons water for a 5 gallon batch). How much water do I need to convert all of those grains?

I suspect that if I can limit the amount of water I use, I will be able to mash all of it in the pot. I can add more LME if efficiency is a concern. I am trying to use up the rest of that bulk LME.

Thanks.

I don't know if it'll fit or not, but you can try the "can I mash it?" calculator on rackers.org to see how much volume it will take up. You need at least 1 quart of water per pound of grain to ensure conversion, but it will be a pain to stir!

 

[woo_pig]

I was planning on bottling and using maple syrup to card it. Has anyone tried this yet?

 

[weeple2000]

I don't know if it'll fit or not, but you can try the "can I mash it?" calculator on rackers.org to see how much volume it will take up. You need at least 1 quart of water per pound of grain to ensure conversion, but it will be a pain to stir!

Thanks. The calculator defaults to 1.25 quarts per lb of grain. According to the calculator, I could fit that in 6.28 gallons. If I did 2 quarts per lb of grain, I'd wind up with 9.28 gallons total according to the website. I suspect that may not be completely accurate depending on what the mill used to crush is set at. If I did 9.28 gallons, that'd leave me room to sparge after I take the grain out. I suspect I'd get greater efficiency with a greater water:grain ratio for the mash.

Edit: it looks like the calculator figures 1.28 gallons of volume for 16 lbs of grain, which would work out to 12.5 lbs of grain occupying 1 gallon of volume.

 

[jpb2716]

I brewed this up last weekend using Denny's Favorite 50 yeast. Fermentation was strong for the first couple of days and then abruptly stopped. The krausen fell on day 4. I checked the gravity yesterday, one week after brewing, and it came in at 1.022 and tasted way too sweet. I'm going to try to rouse the yeast today and see if that wakes it up. If not, I brewed a robust porter yesterday using Nottingham. If the stout doesn't get any lower after rousing the yeast, I'll rack it onto the yeast cake from the porter after it's done fermenting.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[bolus14]

I had the same result using Denny's Fav on this, except I bottled instead of rousing the yeast. Ended up over carved and likely would have been bombs if I hadn't thrown them in the fridge when I did.

I would say raise the temp to 70 or so and give it a gentle swirl, I'd bet you'll get at least a little more fermentation.

 

[MagicMatt]

I too used Denny's most recently on this (May 28) and also under-attenuated a little. OG was 1.055 and it only got down to 1.020 (expected 1.017). This was after 4 weeks in primary (the last 2 at 70°) so it wasn't getting any lower.

I "dry hopped" with 3oz of whole espresso beans for 48 hours and it still turned out marvelous this weekend, 4 months later. The residual sweetness may have even helped for my application, to balance the coffee.

Previous batches of this have all been with 1330 that I've been harvesting each time I made a starter. I do like the flavor from the Denny's better, but just wish I could squeeze a couple extra points out of it. I also harvested this one so we'll see what the next batch has in store (should be any weekend now that it looks like it's finally going to start cooling to below 90°F every day).

 

[BlackIce]

Making this today. Mashing in right now. A very good smell.

 

[BlackIce]

Brew day went well on this one.

I did a mash in for 90 mins.
BeerSmith had pre-boil gravity at 1.048 I was at 1.047.
BeerSmith had post boil gravity at 1.059 and I was at 1.061

For yeast I just WLP007 Dry English Ale

I will have a brew day video up on youtube soon if anyone wants to check it out

 

[blanchmd]

I would love to brew this beer this weekend. Can anyone tell me what the efficiency is on the original recipe? I only get 65% so usually have to adjust Thanks