jovialmonk.com.au

[Lefty]

Has anyone heard of putting oatmeal in stout to supposedly make it smoother?

[The Monk]

Oh yes! Oatmeal/oatmalt stouts are godly!

Have to do a mash though!

Try:
1 Kg Joe White pilsner malt
400g rolled oats
100g Carafa Special I (MUST be Carafa Special*)
200g Carafa Special III (ditto)

A Coopers Lager kit plus the above mash will give you about 40 points, i.e. starting gravity 1040--add some dried light malt extract to the boil after dissolving this in some cold water. 15g Target hops added at the start of the boil will give a bit more bitterness.

Now, the mash. In a 8L pan place 5.5L cold water. Put on medium-low heat. Gradually stir in the grains, stir well ensuring no dry pockets of 'doughballs' keep stirring** until the temperature of the mini-mash is 32C. Lid on, heat off and insulate pan well with towels. let the whole thing stand for 25 minutes. this is the betagucanase rest where the betaglucanase enzymes break down the betaglucans or gums.

After the betaglucanase rest as the above is called put the heat back on again and, stirring all the time, heat the mash to 50C and turn heat off, insulate pan etc and let stand 10 minutes. This allows the protelytic enzymes degrade some of the bigger proteins in the oats***

Then heat, stirring, to say 68C, and cover. With such a small mash check every 20 minutes and reheat, stirring, to keep the mash in the 66-68C range.

At the end of this sacharification ('sugar making') rest transfer the mash into 2 colanders each sitting in a pan or food grade plastick bucket and pour 2L of 80C water over the grains in each colander.

We get back half our strike water (the 5.5L) and all our sparge water (4L) nearly 7L in all, so we need a nice big pot, 10L or bigger, go get a 20L pot from Target etc for $20--and never, ever trust the handles on these flimsy pots!!!! Sieve the wort into the large pan to remove most of the 'bits' bring to the boil, add the Target hops and boil 60 minutes. Elsewhere (on-line manual Pt I Ch 4) we describe the 'whirlpool' to strain the wort off the hops into fermenter. The abovementioned Lager kit (green lid) and 2L boiling water should previously have been added and stirred together. Strain the wort in and top to say 20L, pitch yeast yadda yadda. Enjoy your silky-smooth stout!

* Carafa Special are grains from Weyermann maltings in Bamberg, Germany. They are milled after the roasting taking off the outer layer contining the astringency and grain bitterness. If you can't get this (MUST be a shop in brissy stocks these) use chocolate malt in place of the Carafa Special I malt and black patent malt in place of the III and cold steep these outside the mash tun.

** Anytime you are heating a mash it should be done ideally in a thick-bottomed pan and must be stirred constantly to prevent grains sticking and scorching.

*** A lot of big proteins are a bloody nuisance in a beer (chill haze etc) so beers with a fair bit of wheat, rye or oats need the protein rest to degrade the bigger proteins. There is a reason why the various cereals are used for various purposes:

Wheat, ton of gluten so used in breadmaking

Barley, lower protein and has a husk so little problem sparging (lautering) so ideal brewing grain

Oats the gums, fats and protein make it a high value cereal for porridge in cold climates, for supplementary animal feeds etc

Rye grows where the climate is too cold for the other cereals, similar to oats in terms of protein & betaglucans:- here is a thought, after your stout has been bottled and you have sucked one or two down to great enjoyment repeat the above mash but replace the oats with the same amount of flaked rye and replace the carafa malts with the same amount of Vienna malt.

[Lefty]

Thanks Jovial

I don't suppose chill haze would be much of a problem in a thick, black stout though?

[The Monk]

DON'T BE LAZY! Do the steps as i outlined, even if just for the practice!

Yes, haze isn't really a problem with stouts, but the protein (and the nitrogen in the protein) might feed any bugs present in your bottles, one of the reasons lambic brewers use 40% unmalted wheat in their sour beers!!!

[Lefty]

Yes sir!

Seriously though, home brewing is probably not as advanced in Gladstone as it is in the capitals. I could no doubt source anything if I was in Brisbane but some ingredients are harder to get off the shelf here.

The lady at our local brew shop has assured me that pretty much anything that is not in stock can be ordered in. I don't think that many people here are into part or full mashing. About the only full grains that seem to be always on the shelf here is the black grain used in stouts. Obviously the oat mash wort can be added in with a regular kit, say a Muntons export stout with a stout improver pack and black grain.

As long as you reckon this would turn out ok then this will be my next brew unitl I get a bit more adventurous and start looking at full mashes.

cheers

[The Monk]

Oh come on, a part mash isn't hard. Just do the whole thing on the stove top.

If you really must chicken out try two cans of the Malt Shovel Oatmeal stout kit (each kit only makes 11L, stupid concept I say.)

But mashes are easy.

However, why not do a dry Irish Stout as a tryout?

Can Coopers Lager, one of light liquid malt
500g roast barley, cracked (if need be in blender or coffee mill etc)
750g light dry malt + 250g dextrose
25g Target hop pellets (even POR would do)

Night before brewday mix the roast barley with 2.5l cold water. Stir well, spend 10 mins stirring (heh stirring natural to you. . .) and get every grain wet. Cover container & let stand overnight (in fridge if weather is really hot.)

To begin brewday get a nice big pan (say 8L) and put 3L cold water in it and place pan on medium-low heat. Begin stirring in the dry malt extract and dextrose then bring the wort to a simmer. Get the container of roast barley and pour this through a sieve into the simmering extract wort. Now, as I state in the 'Cold steeping' topic we need to sparge the cold-steeped grains. Pouring 1 teacup of water 10 minutes off the boil over the grains in the sieve (hopefully abour 80C) will rinse out the rest of the sugars/color/flavors etc in the grain but not be in the grain long enough to extract the grain bitterness & astringency. After this sparging we discard the grains-onto compost heap or chook house. (we sparge through the sieve into the pan of simmering wort)

Bring combined extract/roast barley wort to a vigorous boil & add the hop pellets. This will boil for 60 minutes--top up the wort occasionally with boiling water to keep the volume at the 5-6L mark. When 10 minutes of the boil are left (50 minutes after the start of the boil) bail our 2L of the boiling wort to another pan and off heat add the unhopped liquid malt and stir to dissolve, add this back to the boiling wort.

When the wort has boiled for 60 minutes transfer pan to a sink part-filled with cold water, stir the wort vigorously creating a 'whirlpool' and let stand 45 minutes. Towards the end of that time add the contents of the Lager kit (green lid) to the cleaned & sanitised fermenter, add 2L boiling water, stir yadda yadda.

Put a sieve over the fermenter, let the water run out the sink, and moving the pan very smoothly pour the wort out in a smooth steady pour through the sieve into the fermenter--the hops should only show up right at the end, filling the sieve, just let sieve drip dry, top up to 22L, pitch yeast etc.

Nice little practice for a part mash verson of a oatmeal stout, eh Lefty?

[Lefty]

OK, have ordered the roast barley (they didn't even have that on the shelf this time).

What percentage of alcohol would 300g of rolled oats add to a 17 litre brew Jovial?

BTW, I tried the first brew I made (a stout). Heh, only 3 weeks in the bottle, last 2 chilling in the fridge but I was curious.

1.8kg can Muntons export stout
500 g dark dry malt extract
600g dextrose
400g corn syrup
15ml liqorice extract
*made up 17 litres

At 3 weeks the taste was watery - as expected - but contained none of those "home brewey" tastes I used to get when I didn't care about the temperature. So far, so good. The head stayed right to the bottom (I had to flick it out at the end, even though it took 20 minutes to finish) and was less foamy and more creamy (yay ) In the fullness of time, I'm sure it will evolve into something quite tasty.

Speaking of which, do you have any tips for adding different flavours to stouts Jovial?

cheers

[Lefty]

OK, made up the oatwort/mash as per your instructions. Added it to basically the same stout mix. Only difference was that I cut in half the amount of dextrose and corn syrup (they were pre-mixed as a pack - it is labelled a no.10 improver pack, 60% dextrose 40% corn syrup).

The main reason for halving it was that the stubby I sampled left a kind of a smooth sensation in the mouth which I'm guessing is the corn syrup. Obviously the 1kg improver pack was meant for a 23 litre brew not the 17 litres I made up, so I cut it back in case adding the oats overdid it. Will this affect the thick, creamy head or will the oats compensate for this?

cheers

[The Monk]

Rolled oats have a degree of extract of 201 assuming 75% efficiency, so .3 * 201/22 (.3Kg oats & 22L batch) = 3 points gravity or .3% alcohol.

If you are using dark grain don't use a stout kit, instead buy a cheap Coopers Lager kit from your supermarket--the grains provide all the color and flavor needed.

Dark malt extract you might as well avoid, mostly it is just light dry extract with caramel added for color!

As everyone here knows I consider dried corn syrup as utmost rubbish! It does put a awful taste in the beer, leave it for packets of dried soup mix! Again, the licorice extract, whatever it really is, should be avoided. As you start using more malt, esp the grains, in your beers your head rentention and mouthfeel will improve.

Flavors to stouts, hmmmmm. If you use roast barley you will get a nice deep roasted note while chocolate and black patent will give coffee-ish and licorice flavors. The Carafa Special I & III grains give much milder, smoother roasty-toasty notes and this is when you could add coffee or chocolate to your stout.

When you mash you can start using English amber and brown malt which add biscuitty flavors. My fave Russian Imperial Stout recipe has 1.6Kg amber malt which gives a beautiful chocolaty flavor to the stout though the stubby of 4 yo RIS that I tried a couple days ago had a lovely strong licorice flavor. Not much head rentention but then 14% alcohol does tend to kill the head!

Now in theory the rolled oats add proteins to your stout which will increase head retention, but I fear that the fats in the oats will kill the head.

So make a nice stout with restrained additions of chocolate and black malt or better still their Carafa Special equivalents, 100g choc and 175g black should be enough. Preferably include some oats for smoothness and don't over bitter.

To add chocolate buy about 180g good Dutch cocoa or some good 75% cocoa butter plain dark chocolate bars. If using the bars break them up and melt in a double boiler. The cocoa you need to reduce to a smooth thin paste--start by adding 1/2 cup water and start stirring, breaking up lumps etc, add more water as needed. Just before adding to the boil add a cup or so of the boiling wort and stir that into the chocolate, bars or cocoa paste. Add this to the wort when the boil has 10-15 minutes left to go. Add chocolate essence to the bottling bucket.

If this sounds yuck to you try a bottle of Youngs double chocolate stout, yum!

Alternatively if you prefer coffee make up a mug of real black expresso or whatever coffee--not instant, yuk! Again add this at the 15 minute boil mark.

If you like licorice reduce the choc malt and increase the black.

If you can't get the Carafa Special grains (unlikely through the Brewcraft network) you will need to cold steep the dark grains--I have posted a pdf on steeping grains, go to the main website and click on the Manual button, the link is near the bottom of the contents page.

[Lefty]

Thanks Jovial.

The coffee flavour idea really appeals to me. It might also help keep you awake so you can keep going longer