Oatmeal Stout

[Steve the Zymologist]

Right Long weekend need to brew

Finally got my hands on 2.5kg munich (cracked) and 200g choc malt

getting a kilo rolled oats tonight

got the 250g chrystal rye at home

teabag Super Alpha (60 min boil)

Tin Blackrock stout

This is my first attempt at mashing I have a 12lt esky but havent got around to tapping it yet so sparging will be through a sieve

have a 20lt pot from Big W to boil on the stove

Cooling at end of boil will be in ice filled sink.

As this is my first go at mashing can anyone see any problems I will run into that I need to know about?

Pearls of wisdom most appreciated

Cheers
Steve :beer:

 

[warrenlw63]

Steve,

If you're only using 2.5kg of grain I'd back off the oats dramatically otherwise you'll wind up with a pot of malty-smelling porridge that will gum up badly.

I probably wouldn't use any more than about 250g of oats. Munich malt is lower in diastatic power than pale malt as well so it will struggle to convert too many starchy adjuncts. Try and hold the mash at the correct temps for at least 90 mins.

Enjoy the day.

Warren -

 

[TidalPete]

Out of curiosity, is there a particular reason why you want to use Irish Moss in an opaque beer? I've never used the stuff myself...
TL

[post="61932"][/post]​

I once asked this question of a stout maker, and the answer I got was: So you end up with a glossy black looking beer, instead of a dull black. And you get a shinier, cleaner looking head.

[post="62284"][/post]​

Didn't know that! I'll put it in my recipe after all. All my stout heads in the past have been a brownish off-white colour.

 

[Jovial_Monk]

A kilo of Muncich should convert 500g of oats OK.

I would do a cereal mash of 1Kg of the Munich and 500g oats.Mix with 4.5L water and stirring all the time heat the mash to 32C and hold it there for 30 minutes, then again stirring all the time bring it up to 67C and hold it there for 60 min then again stirring all the time and perhaps adding some more water boil the mash for 15 mins. Cold steep the chocolate, mash the other 1.5Kg Munich and the crystal rye.

Jovial Monk

 

[Steve the Zymologist]

Thanks JM
but why do them seperately
and can you expand on cold steeping as opposed to dumping in a pot and adding hot water and sitting for half hour or so.

Cheers :beer:

 

[Jovial_Monk]

because you will want to stove-top-mash as little grain as possible! You will be doing a lot of stirring

The chocolate malt (or roast barley or black malt) can add astringency if hot steeped. I start the cold steep the night before brewday. I mix 3x as much cold or tepid water by weight as the grain, stir to mix well, then let this stand overnight. There is very little fermentable sugar in the roasted malts but if the weather is warm and you are worried about bacterial infection then by all means put the pot of grain and water in the fridge. I never bother, but then I never brew in summer.

On brewday I then add the roast grain to the mash tun at the end of the sparge and throw the last litre or so sparge water over the black grain.

A Russian Imperial Stout I brewed that way, with 540g black patent, was smooth as a babies bum, no grain astringency at all!

JM

 

[user 384]

This is my first attempt at mashing ..............Pearls of wisdom most appreciated

Cheers
Steve :beer:

[post="62869"][/post]​

Hi Steve

My advice is to ignore JM's advice! I note this is your first time at mashing, so keep it as simple as possible, and forget JM's step mash schedule.

I would drop the oats. With the partial mash you're doing, you will only be able to use a small amount of oats or else you'll have difficulties with sparging. A small amount of oats will have bugger all impact on the final beer, so I wouln't bother.

The crystal rye will add to the beer, but the rye character is unlikely to show through. A stout will have loads of full flavours from the roasted malts. A normal crystal would have worked as well.

Also you need to carefully consider the addition of specialty grains when doing a partial and using a kit. The kit manufactures will already have added enough specialty malts to give a balanced flavour to the beer. Adding more chocolate etc could through the balance out. Same thing for the hops. There would be enough hops added to the kit to give a well balanced bitterness.

I'd suggest that you need to make a choice between 2 approaches. First approach is to use a kit for the main character of the beer, and mash a base grain for the extra fermentables. For example use the BlackRock stout kit and mash just the munich malt.

Second approach is to use an unhopped tin of light malt extract for the extra fermentables, and mash base malt plus specialty grains to get the character of the beer and boil with your choice of hops for a desired bitterness level and flavour.

Cheers
MAH

 

[johnno]

You can do an oatmeal stout by mashing in a pot and straining and sparging using a colander. Dont worry about the temp steps. Mash at about 67 -68 c. Just use less oats.
Thats how i did mine last year and it came up a treat. The recipe i used is posted earlier on ib this thread.
Dont be afraid to use the oats , just dont use too much.

cheers
johnno

 

[TidalPete]

Steve, At the risk of hijacking this thread, here I go,
I can't imagine the problems & expense that you must go to getting your grains & other gear for your brewing setup (I'm sure AndrewQLD of Bundy would agree here). We have enough trouble on the Sunshine Coast & Brisbane getting grain, equipment, etc at a comparable rate to those down south in the (big?) capital cities.

While kit & kilo outlets flourish, the sooner we get more AG products & equipment available to us at a cheaper rate than at present, the faster AG will spread up here. This crying session is now over & I'm going for a beer.

 

[AndrewQLD]

Quote>>Steve, At the risk of hijacking this thread, here I go,
I can't imagine the problems & expense that you must go to getting your grains & other gear for your brewing setup (I'm sure AndrewQLD of Bundy would agree here). We have enough trouble on the Sunshine Coast & Brisbane getting grain, equipment, etc at a comparable rate to those down south in the (big?) capital cities. While kit & kilo outlets flourish, the sooner we get more AG products & equipment available to us at a cheaper rate than at present, the faster AG will spread up here. This crying session is now over & I'm going for a beer. <<<unquote

I'm with you all the way on that one Tidalpete :angry: when are we going to get a good cheap outlet??

 

[Jovial_Monk]

Steve, the step mash is not hard. You will love a stout made with 500g oats! Silky smooth! A couple hundred gram choc malt will improve any stout tin, esp a Black rock one!

Next time you brew a pale ale or bitter use the above schedule to mash 500g each of flaked rye and rolled oats. Unbelievably flavorsome!

My first mash involved a cereal mash! Onwards!

JM

 

[tdh]

Steve, absolutely no need for a cereal mash when using oats. They are gelatinised already!!! Enormous waste of time and energy, watch out for bum steers.
Go ahead, mash 500g of oats, there's enough Munich there to make sure they convert.
As MAH wrote, use a can of light unhopped malt extract so that the stout characteristics and bittering come from YOUR additions.
I make a 1000 litres of oatmeal stout every year at Grumpy's with plenty of oats and no such odd recommendations as a cereal mash!

tdh

 

[Gulf Brewery]

<snip> then again stirring all the time and perhaps adding some more water boil the mash for 15 mins.<snip>

JM

Why boil the mash? In this thread

If he wants to sparge with hot water OK, but adding more water after the first steep I reckon danger of extracting tannins.

JM

[post="59775"][/post]​

you thought that two steeps of 67C water would extract tannins. What do you think boiling 1kg of munich is going to do?

Sadly, this is one area that isn't explained well.

Steve, never boil the grains :excl:. Steeping up to 69C is OK, above that you risk extracting tannins from the grain husks.

Cheers
Pedro

 

[dreamboat]

Steve, never boil the grains :excl:. Steeping up to 69C is OK, above that you risk extracting tannins from the grain husks.

Cheers
Pedro

[post="62978"][/post]​

This really is getting more and more off the original query... but...

What do you think a decoction is Pedro????
Probably not the best for the brew in question to do a decoction, but a blanket statement to "never boil the grains" is completely off the mark.



Dreamboat

 

[Gulf Brewery]

This really is getting more and more off the original query... but...

What do you think a decoction is Pedro????
Probably not the best for the brew in question to do a decoction, but a blanket statement to "never boil the grains" is completely off the mark.

Dreamboat

[post="62983"][/post]​

Dreamboat

OK, in decoction you do boil the grains with part of the liquid and you only decoct an AG. Also, remember in a decoction, you typically would use pale malts and not risk tannin extraction

Maybe I should have said never boil the grains for partials, especially if they are dark(er) grains.

If you want to take this further (meant in a nice way ), lets start another thread.

Cheers
Pedro

 

[Jovial_Monk]

I like to boil a cereal mash, in the case of oatmeal doubly so to try and kill fats.

In a mash, the pH is low enough pulling a decoction causes no extraction of tannins or astringency.

JM

 

[Jovial_Monk]

hmmm and here I was thinking a decoction was the stiff part of the mash?

JM

 

[tdh]

Kill fats?

Rolled/flaked oats are gelatinised, no need for a cereal mash. With steel-cut oats it is needed, or polenta, or rice. But not with flaked adjuncts.

 

[Kai]

Kill fats?

 

[Beer Krout]

Hi Guys

I'm resurrecting this thread to ask about pH levels in an Oatmeal Stout.

I am doing a SSOS type clone this weekend.

4.12kg Maris
0.54kg Oat Malt
0.28kg Crystal, Dark
0.13kg Pale Choc
0.13kg Black Malt
0.13kg Roast Barley

Has anybody had trouble with mash pH with these amounts of dark grains AND oatmeal.
Using Melbourne style water?

Cheers
BK