Batch 10 - Oatmeal stout

[rabbie]

Tomorrow night I'll be getting my tenth brew on; this'll be the first time I re-brew something I've done already, an oatmeal stout, based losely on the Wez/Vossy one.
I've seen a few posts lately with guys getting set for their first all-grain batch, so thought I'd take a few more pics than usual and try and show every step I go through. Might help someone out, and hopefully I'll get a few more pointers myself :thumb:
OK, the first bit is done; I've decided what to brew and got my recipe sorted:

Pale malt 70%
Flaked barley 7%
Caramunich 5.5%
Flaked oats 5.5%
Black malt 4%
Carafa type II 4 %
Roasted barley 4%

Northern brewer to 33 IBU and S-04 yeast

Tonight's job is to crush the grain so I can get of to a quick start tomorrow.

Pale malt (luckily I'm not crushing it all):

Pre-crush:

Grained weighed out and then transfered to the mill. I stick a plastic bag under to catch the grain then set aside for tomorrow.

Post-crush. Is this decent? I've crushed a good bit finer than usual here after getting tired of a consistent 55% efficiency

Last bit of prep for today is chosing what to bring up from the cellar to help get me through brew-day...

 

[rickthebrew]

good luck with the brew :thumb:

lovely selection of beers there - i`m very jealous, rochefort 10 has come reccomended

 

[legionbob]

I have one bottle of the rochford 10 left, so if your not drinking that one on your self........ :

 

[Petros]

Had some Chimay last night for the first time, wonderful stuff!

Thanks for endeavouring to put together such a thorough AG walk through as well. As someone who is next attempting a partial mash brew, then hoping to go AG, this will be invaluable! Thank you!

Also, oatmeal stouts, lovely beers. Looks top draw! :drunk:

 

[rabbie]

Right, we're off. Slightly delayed due to a snapped chain chain on the way home from work...
First off was roasting the oats:

Then a glucan rest at 40 C for 20 mins, hopefully this will improve the head and make the lautering a bit easier:

Thirsty work, so refuel with a bottle from the last batch of oatmeal stout:

Start warming the strike water to 74 C:

At the same time I'm pre-heating the tun:

Up to strike temp:

Quick view of the false bottom, thanks to muddydisco:

Water added to the tun, then the grain:

Half of the mash added:

 

[rabbie]

All set for the run-off:

Jug the first litres back:

Then start filling the boiler:

Meanwhile get the hops weighed:

Quick check of the gravity for the first runnings (still warm):

I turn the boiler on as I'm still running off to save a bit of time:

Hops in as I get the boil started:

Decent boil now:

Time to get the sanitiser on the go:

Cooler in and water turned on:

 

[rabbie]

Cooling finished, and time to siphon over to the FV. Bit unusual maybe, but it works for me:

Gravity check shows I need to liquor back quite a bit, I'm aiming for session strength:

That's more like it:

Aereated by the old fashioned method, i.e. a good shaking:

Yeast pitched (dry...) and time for bed :thumb:

I'll set the temperature controller in the morning once I see that's it's fermenting ok. There are a few other jobs for tomorrow too, including cleaning out the tun and giving the boiler a good wash. Something to look forward to

 

[rickthebrew]

Looks likeyou had a great brewday there Might have to try this recipe soon :thumb:

 

[Tony]

Looks like a cracking brewday there. I love that initial gravity reading.. I would have been really tempted to leave it there

 

[rabbie]

I siphoned over to a secondary last night, the gravity is down to 1.018 so coming along nicely.
Have to say this tastes really good already, I'm glad I've got some left from the last batch cause it's going to be difficult to leave this one alone...
I'm thinking another 10 days in secondary should se me right, but is it worthwhile to give it a few days at 4C before bottling? Clarity is obviously not an issue but will I get a cleaner flavour? I'm not sure if it's required for a beer like a stout.

 

[rabbie]

Onto the home straight now.

Gravity is sitting steady at 1.015 which means it's bottling time:

Sugar solution boiled for 10 mins and cooled, then added to the sanitised bottling bucket (have to use my boiler since I've got both FVs full):

I siphon over to the bottling bucket and start sanitising the bottles, which are done 6 at a time in the sink:

Once the bottling bucket is filled I sit it above the dishwasher with the door open to catch any spills (which there always is), and attach the bottler with a wee length of tube, so I can tilt the bucket for the last few litres under the tap outlet:

After I've filled a batch I transfer to the table and cap, breaks up the process I find:

Worth it in the end, 19 litres bottled, and a healthy taster which is delicious :drink: , this is a great recipe:

These are now tucked up under the worktop in the kitchen where they'll stay for 10 days before a trip to the cellar for 5 weeks. In the mean time I need to get the FVs filled up again...the never ending story

 

[tubby_shaw]

That's a really well documented brewday :clap:
It will show those who are thinking of going down the grain brewing route just how simple and straight forward it is when everything is planned and prepared in advance.

 

[Tony]

Mmmm that's made me thirsty!

Wonderful collection of pics .. I'd never thought of taking pics of bottling.. nicely done!

:

 

[graysalchemy]

Great Post. I am going to do an oatmeal stout as my first AG. Hope I am not being thick :wha: :wha: but what is the glucan rest? and how do you do it?

MAking Me thirsty looking at that pint.

Cheers

AG

 

[Cussword]

To quote Aleman




It's not all flaked adjuncts that require this . . .Corn/Maize is fine without . . . but Flaked Barley and Flaked oats contain a lot of readily accessible and soluble Glucans (Its the glucans that makes Porridge sticky). So doing a simple mash with the barley and oats plus about a 1/5th of their weight in pale malt in a small pan at 35-45C (Optimum for glucanase), helps break the glucans down into smaller fragments which are more soluble aiding the lauter at the end of the mash . . . As a bonus these smaller fragments provide great head formation/retention properties. . . . and if you are in trouble over your strike temp it gives you the opportunity of raising it a bit when you return it to the main mash. . . . . It's a process refinement and not something that is strictly essential as you can get away without it. . . . A lot of breweries cheat and add something like Murphys Biase into the mash tun (A blend of amylase and glucanase) as it improves the conversion rate and makes the mash easier to lauter.

Hope that helps

 

[graysalchemy]

Gotya sounds easy enough. I may try that. I take it you then return it all to the main mash after the glucan rest?

:

AG

 

[broadfordbrewer]

That's a really well documented brewday :clap:
It will show those who are thinking of going down the grain brewing route just how simple and straight forward it is when everything is planned and prepared in advance.

Cheers Rabbie... and TS is dead right here, this is really very helpful to someone like me who is constantly reading and making sense of and planning an AG brew... it's only a matter of time and I'll be using yours and others helpful posts to start my first AG brew.

P.s. I would have gone for the Orval ! :drink: