Started With An Attempt At A Stout But Ended Up With A ?

[ledgenko]

Hey brewers , thought I would chase down some opinions and I am happy to take on the "constructive" critisism too ... I started trying out to make a oatmeal stout and ended up very excited and swayed slightly off the original or should I say planned recipe .. had a difficult time with the fermentation but all ended up pretty damn good.. I was looking for around the 8% mark for the stout .. OG 1090 with FG 1012.. so I am hoping that I am pretty close .. tastes pretty good with an awesome "Knockem down" black thing which is like a port at the end of a long dinner ... a sleeping pill so to speak .. Taste is pretty good with very little bitterness .. can not see through and really very roasty !! Yum !!

5kg Ale malt
500 Gm Chocolate malt
1 kg Dark Crystal
1 kg special blend
1 kg caramunich ( was laying around and I was having fun with mill and thought what the hey .. and dropped it in the mash)
750gm rolled oats
500gm golden syrup (added at the 20 mins to flame out)

60 gm East Kent Goldings hops added at 60 mins ..

anyway as I said ... happy to hear thoughts on this recipe .. I think it might become a small keg constantly in my fridge ... certainly not a quaffer ...

Matt :icon_drunk: :beerbang:

 

[Fatgodzilla]

Hey brewers , thought I would chase down some opinions and I am happy to take on the "constructive" critisism too ... I started trying out to make a oatmeal stout and ended up very excited and swayed slightly off the original or should I say planned recipe ..
Matt :icon_drunk: :beerbang:

Welcome to free style home brewing. I've regularly done recipes in Beersmith that started as one thing like a Pale Ale and finished as a porter cos midway I've changed my mind and thrown in extras. Part of the fun of brewing. It's a lousy philosophy if you are trying to nail down knowledge in how things work, but if you are (1) confident in your knowledge on how things interact or (2) don't give a stuff as long as the outcome is drinkable, then you are sweet.

Your recipe looks okay, but as always, the proof is in the tasting. Good brewing.

 

[manticle]

Jesus that's a shitton of crystal. What was the volume? Is 1012 your expected FG or did you actually get that?

What's special blend?

 

[benno1973]

2kg of crystal is an awful lot, but it finished at 1.012 so go figure! I guess the golden syrup would dry it out a bit.

Not sure whats in the 'special blend', so can't comment on that, but 500g of choc is also pretty heavy. Anyways, as Fatz said, proof is in the tasting, and if it tastes good, then who cares what it looks like on paper?

I tend to sweat adding 50g too much of brown malt, and here you've gone and found 1kg of caramunich and thrown it in! Too funny! Recipe building can be a pretty fine balancing act between malt and hops, so getting to know what each ingredient does for you is a great way to start.

 

[manticle]

if it tastes good, then who cares what it looks like on paper?

Couldn't agree more.

 

[ledgenko]

ok .. yes 1012 is what i ended up with .. used burtons ale yeast .. 2nd generation .. I think it kind of struggled with the beer as the krausen started to build quickly but subsided after 2 days ..

The Crystal .. well it smelt soo good .. and the blend of all of the together whilst mashing was tops .. I re ran the grain with a 3 kg addition of malt and some more golden syrup which has turned out slightly lighter but not quite as "yummy" as the black thing.. it will spend the next 2 months cold conditioning as I will be away .. but I am sure it will taste better than it does now in 2 months ...

I was thinking I did not quite use enough Hops .. but the variety seems to have worked..

I dont think the golden syrup dried out the flvour too much either .. certainly felt very naughty dropping it into the wort ... mmmm ... fermentables ...

 

[ledgenko]

Manticle , I am not sure what the special blend is , however I think it is something like amber ??? I picked it up from Brewerschoice in Enoggera Brisbane.. I thought it may have been a shop blend but have started seeing it on various websites..

 

[benno1973]

I re ran the grain with a 3 kg addition of malt and some more golden syrup which has turned out slightly lighter but not quite as "yummy" as the black thing.

Que? :blink:

Oh - second runnings?

 

[ledgenko]

I thought I would give it a go ... it seemed like a GREAT idea at the time .. it is conditioning now .. as I said the colour was slightly less .. thats about the only difference really ... I was concerned about "ugliness and baddies " getting hold of the beer but no infections .. not sure if it is something I would do frequently .. but .. thought I would give it a go !!

 

[benno1973]

I thought I would give it a go ... it seemed like a GREAT idea at the time .. it is conditioning now .. as I said the colour was slightly less .. thats about the only difference really ... I was concerned about "ugliness and baddies " getting hold of the beer but no infections .. not sure if it is something I would do frequently .. but .. thought I would give it a go !!

If you boiled the second runnings, there'd be no issues with infection assuming the rest of the sanitation process was up to scratch. I assume you boiled? And added hops? I'm a bit confused about what you did really...

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Did you ad your hops at the start of the boil and boil for 60mins, or at the end of the 60min boil....

 

[ledgenko]

ok simply .. the first batch was drained after from tun .. brought up to boil and then I dropped in hops .. boiled for 60 mins and then put the wort into cubes to cool ..

second batch was a drop 3 odd kgs of pale malt onto exisiting grain bed and then followed it up with 30 lt of 78 degree water .. let it sit for 60 mins and drained into urn .. brought to boil and added hops .. boiled for further 60 mins ... into cubes ..


That kinda explains the process I used to make this "black thing" I think I missed out on original recipe a 500gm dose of Rye .. beer is very black and well confusing on the palate .. lots of flavour but one of those ... mmm ... I think I like this beer but .... sort of ends .. SWMBO .. my toughest critic says it tastes flat .... has been on the gas for only a few days (2) so it will pick up I am sure ...

in the mean time ... more beer is being fermented .. which is important !!

 

[benno1973]

So you boiled both, which negates the need to worry about infection, unless you have any other sanitation issues. And you added hops and boiled for 60 minutes. The wierd thing is that you added 78C water. Considering the original grain bed would have been up in the 60-70C range, and you only added 3kg more malt, I'd guess that the temps would settle out around 75C. That's well high. Mashing temps are in the 63-71C range. Mashout is 78C, which is temps hot enough to stop the enzyme activity. Higher mash temps will make for a less fermentable wort. How far did it ferment out? OG and FG?

As far as the stout goes, high gravity beers take a while for all the flavours to settle down and meld together, so give it some time. And leave it on the gas at serving pressure for 5-7 days before expecting it to be carbed up.

Good luck, sounds like an interesting experiment. Is it your first all grain beer?