I finally had a chance to put the
oats I toasted to use. While stout is a favoured style this time of year for us, the oatmeal variety has usually left me wanting. The main problem, of course, are my own expectations: what do I think oats are going to add to all that stouty goodness already present? In my mind, it's probably more what you get from lactose: a bump in sweetness and body. In reality, there's an added fullness, but a certain slickness on the palate as well. Why not just throw in some lactose and call this a sweet stout then? Cos I really want to wrap my head (and taste buds) around the concept of oatmeal stout in a new way. That, and these oats smelled so damn good.
Simple American base malt balanced with equal parts roasted barley, chocolate malt, and caramel malt set the stage. While I often like to go with the more heavily roasted British grains in dark beers, I wanted to make sure
that coffee and roast characters didn't steal the stage from the brother grain that gives this style its name, so I went with the American versions for colour and the normal stout personality. The oats had plenty of time to mellow and let any harsh aromas and flavours that developed from their time in the oven to dissipate before use; when I opened the bag of toasted wonder on brewday, the first thing that came to mind was coconut. In these cold days, there was something about that scent that will not get old for me. A bit of Galena for bittering without trying to make too much of a hoppy impression, a small starter of White Labs Dry English yeast for a bit of character and a respectably low finishing gravity, and it was time to brew.
Nailed the mash-in temp; managed to put it right where it should have been, sometimes more of a struggle for me than it should be. Mash efficiency came in a bit low; not sure if that came from the wild card contribution of the oats--uncertain what to really expect from them in terms of fermentable sugar--or the fact that it's just been a while since I've brewed. The day went on, and the brew came to a happy end in the fermenter. The best part of it all, honestly, was how well everything seemed to come together because I wasn't also working out the logistics of a second beer at the same time. It's been quite a while since I've done a (relatively) simple one-beer brewday, and it went so smoothly it almost seemed untrustworthy. You could get used to this kind of ease. Thing is, I'm too greedy to make that a normal thing; I want to get the maximum return (= multiple full fermenters, of different styles if possible) out of a given brewday. Oh, the incredible struggles of the homebrewer.
Toasted Oatmeal Stout
Batch size: 5 gallons
Projected OG: 1.048
Projected SRM: 29.1
Projected IBU: 34.2
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 72%
Grains
74.0% - 7 lb Malteurop 2-row
10.1% - 15.3 oz Organic quick oats, toasted
5.3% - 8 oz Roasted barley (US)
5.3% - 8 oz Chocolate (US)
5.3% - 8 oz Briess C-80
Hops
.7 oz Galena (13.2%) (60 min)
Yeast
WLP007 Dry English Ale - 1L starter
Extras
1 tbsp Yeast nutrient (10 min)
Water Additions (mash)
5 qts Distilled water
Brewday: 17 November 2012
Mash: 153F for 75 minutes
Pre-boil volume: 6.3 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 11P (1.044)
The toasted oats have a great nutty aroma in the bag, even with a coconut overtone; continues into the brewkettle
5.3 gallons into the fermenter
Fermented in swamp cooler at 58F ambient
20 November 2012: Active primary fermentation complete; yeast has flocced out and krauesen has completely dropped. Agitation of the yeast cake yields no renewed activity. Pulled from swamp cooler and brought to room temp.
Bottled: 8 December 2012
FG: 1.016
ABV: 4.2%
Bottled with 3.5 oz table sugar.
