Oatmeal Stout

My first foray into stout country with an oatmeal stout. I'm not a great connoisseur of stouts, but I really like the idea of an oatey stout which is a bit fruity too. I'm using the second generation of the guinness yeast (WLP004) that I first used in the Irish red I made a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully the yeast will give it the fruity character I'm looking for. So anyway, here's the recipe:

Ingredients

Amt Name Type # 4.64 kg Maris Otter Low Colour Pale Malt (2.5 EBC) Grain 1 72.6 % 0.51 kg Oats, Flaked (Toasted) (2.0 EBC) Grain 2 8.0 % 0.39 kg Biscuit Malt (45.3 EBC) Grain 3 6.0 % 0.26 kg Crystal 145 EBC (5.9 EBC) Grain 4 4.1 % 0.20 kg Black Barley (Stout) (985.0 EBC) Grain 5 3.1 % 0.20 kg Chocolate Malt (886.5 EBC) Grain 6 3.1 % 0.20 kg Chocolate Malt (Pale) (525.0 EBC) Grain 7 3.1 % 3.00 g Liquorice (Boil 60.0 mins) Flavor 8 - 50.00 g EKG 2011 [5.40 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 9 33.1 IBUs 1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 10 - 1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 0.0 mins) Other 11 -

The recipe is based on one I found in the wiki for the American Homebrewers Association here. One particular change I made though, was to use toasted oats. I really want to bring out the oat flavour, not just use them to add body, so I decided to toast the oats before adding them.

Oats under the grill (that's steam, not smoke!)

The first time I tried this I put them in the oven, but after a good 20 minutes they were still wanting a little more colour, so I turned up the oven. 10 minutes later and I opened the oven to a huge cloud of steam! The colour of the oats was good, but the steam mixed with oil in the oven and gave the oats an oily taste. Maybe time to clean the oven! Not time for that now though (when is it ever?) so I picked up some more oats and stuck them under the grill this time. I spread them quite thinly in the tray, so it took three batches, but it was much quicker and easier to keep an eye on them too.

Finely toasted oats.

As usual I cold steeped the dark grains overnight instead of adding them to the mash. I use Gordon Strong's suggested ratio of 1.9 litres of water to 454g of grain (it's simpler in imperial measurements). I've always had good results doing this. It avoids any harsh bitterness and gives a really smooth flavour. That's what I look for in a dark beer, so I've gone with it again here.

Having cold steeped the grains overnight, I use a colander to drain the grain bag.

In Gordon Strong's excellent book " Brewing better beer" (which I can highly recommend), he suggests that you can add the dark grain 'tea' directly to the fermenter. I don't feel right doing this as the grains haven't been sanitised at all and I can't believe that it wouldn't be a source of contamination. So I add the 'tea' to the boiler with 15 minuted to go. My thinking is that'll be enough time to kill off any nasties that might be lurking in there, but won't undermine the smoothness of the dark flavours.

Adding the dark grain 'tea' to the boiler.

The brew-day itself went pretty smoothly. There was a bit of an issue with the mash sticking, probably due to all the oats. But other than that it all went swimmingly! I hit my numbers with a post boil O.G. 1.060. So I'll look forward to trying this in a few weeks time, but I imagine it'll really come into it's own around the month mark.