Oatmeal stout

Doive · Sep 16, 2013

Tried my first brew last night from scratch, having only made kits before. Used a fairly simple recipe from a book I was given for birthday, but scaled back a bit to make 8 litres instead of 20, as I don't yet have a brew pot large enough to allow it.

Recipe was something like:

400g flaked oatmeal
200g black malt
200g crystal malt
600g dark extract
600g amber extract
28g Northdown hops
8g Fuggles hops

Ended up with a lovely dark wort, quite hoppy and bitter, smelled amazing. Sparged out to make 8 litres as per recipe. OG of only 1.032, which is a bit less than hoped for. In two demijohns with ale yeast, and bubbling away nicely. Book recommends bottling and leaving for three months, so should be ready for Christmas :)

zgoda · Sep 17, 2013

The starch from oats has not been converted, unless there was some base malt you omitted here. :)

graysalchemy · Sep 17, 2013

As Zgoda says you have omitted the most important ingredient Pale malt.

You will also need to do a glucan rest ie mash at 40c with 10% of its own weight in pale malt.

If you want an oatmeal stout search for Alemans effin Oatmeal stout. It is fantastic don't try fixing what is not broken. :lol:

Doive · Sep 18, 2013

Does the dark malt extract and amber malt extract not provide the sugars required? I'm a total newbie to this, just followed the recipe in the book

Will look up the Aleman's oatmeal stout and give that a go next time then :thumb:

zgoda · Sep 18, 2013

Yes, they provide sugars but not enzymes to convert starch from oats into sugars. The beer might taste right, but starch in beer makes it unstable and it will go off. Hard to say when but definitely it's not a beer for prolonged storage. There are some beers that may have starch in it, i.e. Belgian wheat, but they're designed for immediate consumption.

graysalchemy · Sep 18, 2013

Sorry I didn't read the recipe right, but i agree with above and you will certainly need to mash the oats with pale malt. :thumb:

Doive · Oct 7, 2013

A little update on this one. It may not have turned out right, but it tastes great - not a bad head, lots of hops, very enjoyable pint. On the grounds that it may not have a long shelf life, I'm making a point of working my way through it... :drink: