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Oatmeal Stout
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72 oF
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Adj
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Orig
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Alcohol
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SPGR
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1.021
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1.022
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1.0602
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4.9%
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Ingredients
·
¾ lb. Roasted Barley
·
¾ lb. Crystal
90
·
¼ lb. Chocolate Malt
·
1 lb. Oatmeal
·
1 oz. Fuggle Pellet
Hops (Bettering Hops)
·
1 oz. Fuggle Pellet
Hops (Flavoring Hops)
Brewers Log
Beer Date 09022007: <Day 1>
Stouts were always one of my favorite beers during college
and my early drinking days. I recall Oatmeal Stout as being one of my
favorite types. I didn’t have a recipe in hand, and there were so many
options in the recipe book, I asked the gentleman at the homebrew supply
store for a recommendation. I was not certain if the recipe was an award
recipe, or from an award winning brew-master, but he pointed to a wall of
ribbons and told me that this recipe was from the former owner of the shop.
That was enough to seal my interest.
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Washed out brew pot and threw filled with 2.5 gallons of purified
water.
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Poured grains into a couple mixing bowls and stirred
together and then placed into two muslin socks.
·
¾ lb. Roasted Barley
·
¾ lb. Crystal
90
·
¼ lb. Chocolate Malt
·
1 lb. Oatmeal
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When water approached 150oF, placed the
muslin socks in the pot to steep the grains. Turned down the heat and to
try to keep the temp around 154 oF as specified by the
directions, but the temp managed to jump up as high as 172 oF.
I couldn’t find string to tie the sock shut and to the pot handle, so they
just sunk to the bottom. I was nervous about the socks sticking to the
bottom of the pan so I would rotate them with the spoon every couple
minutes.
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Pulled out the grain socks. Pulled out the first one by
hand and due to the heat had to immediately put it in the holding bowl, the
second sock I held in place with a couple of spoons to let as much water
drip out as possible without squeezing. The drippage
was a deep, dark brown almost black, and at a quick glance it looked almost
like motor oil. Dave later poured the leakage form the first sack into a
cup and drank it, it had that same oil like look and it was a thick, and
almost coffee like taste.
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When the temperature of the wort
crossed the 200 oF
mark we added the malt extract. The recipe called for 8 lbs. of Dark Malt
Extract. It was in liquid extract form, we pulled the pot off of the burner
and slowly poured the liquid in phases, while strongly stirring and making
sure it wasn’t sticking to the bottom.
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Removed the yeast from the refrigerator just before the wort came to a boil.
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Once the wort came to a boil
and the foam died down, I added the bittering
hops.
- 1
oz. Fuggle Pellet Hops (Bettering Hops)
The pellets quickly separated into a layer of mossy-like
floaters that we regularly stirred to circulate through the wort. For the hour of boiling we regularly stirred
every 5-10 minutes.
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After 45 minutes of boiling, I added the flavoring hops,
ironically the same as the bittering hops.
- 1 oz. Fuggle
Pellet Hops (Flavoring Hops)
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After 1 hour of boiling it is now done cooking and time
to cool. down. I learned from the last time and
purchased to bags of cubed ice beforehand. I placed the brew pot into the
sink and filled ice around the edges and stirred. We added the ice slowly
stirring along the way. I took between 20-25 minutes to bring the wort down to 74 oF. During the cooling
process we encountered 2 potential occurrences of contamination.
- The
stir spoon fell in twice and we had to use non sanitized spoons to
fish it out.
- The
pot lid accidentally fell partially into the wort.
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After the wort was cooled to
< 80 oF
( or 74 oF in our case) we
poured it into the bottling bucket to aerate the wort,
and to filter out the grains and hops. We used a strainer, but had a little
spillage and some of the hoppy goo spilled into the bucket.
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We use the racking cane and siphon the wort into the 5 gallon carboy. The siphon has a special
plug that is supposed to filter out the crap, so hopefully the hops goo
didn’t make it into the carboy.
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Added another 2 gallons of purified water to the carboy.
The instructions suggested this as the first step, but I waited because the
carboy hadn’t been sanitized yet. I am glad I did because this gave a
little extra chance to aerate the wort as the
water was mixed. After adding 2 gallons we capped the glass carboy and
shook vigorously for a few minutes to mix in a lot of oxygen and then added
in a final ½ gallon of purified water.
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After a little more shaking we poured out a little
liquid to take a couple of measurements.
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77 oF
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Adj
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SPGR
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1.060
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1.0602
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Potential A/V
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7.8%
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8%
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Balling
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15
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15.5
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I now shook it well to mix in the sediment on the bottom
of the tube and poured into the carboy. We capped the carboy and shook to
mix in the yeast with the wort and then moved to it’s final resting place under the AC vent.
- White
Labs Pitchable Liquid Yeast – English Ale
Yeast WLP002
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Beer Date 09032007: <Day 2>
12 hours after pitching the yeast, there were no signs of
activity. The carboy looks exactly as I left it when I went to bed L. I go ahead and fill the
cooler the carboy is sitting in with water and cover the carboy with a towel
to help chill and keep out unwanted sunlight and wait for the magic to
happen.
I begin to retrace my steps and from yesterday and wonder
if I overestimated the yeast. The label did say to remove from the
refrigerator 3-6 hours before pitching, and I removed 1.5 hours. And before I
used a smack packet what swelled up showing activity, this time I just shook
the vial, make sure the sediment mixed in and poured. I begin to wonder if I
made a fatal error and wasted a batch. Perhaps I was wrong, and the yeast
just need a little more time to awaken and start feeding or perhaps I can
just buy another vial of yeast. I will give it another day and call the brew
supply shop if I don’t see activity soon as the vial stated activity should
be visible in 5-15 hours.
As I head toward bed, roughly 24 hours after pitching the
yeast, I begin to see the first signs of activity. A very thin layer of foam
is starting to form at the top, like a very weak head a pour. There couldn’t
have been more then a couple dozen bubbles on the top, but it was a very
proud moment as that was the very first sign of goodness happening.
Beer Date 09042007: <Day 3>
YAY, foam. I come down stairs in the morning and look into
my overflow bucket and I see bubbles. This means that enough gas has formed
to fill up the remaining space in the carboy and force it’s
way out the top and through the hose (that is submerged in water). I peel
away the towel for a quick glance and I see lots of foam. It has worked it’s way a couple inches of the carboy and sort of
resembles the foam that forms on a root beer float (except this probably
smells and tastes a lot worse).
Beer Date 09052007: <Day 4>
Still bubbling away, however it has slowed down
significantly. Early in the day there was still a bit of foam and a
continuous stream of bubbles coming out the hose. Later in the day the foam
had pretty much receded and the bubbles were coming with a small burst about
every second.
Beer Date 09132007: <Day 11>
Changed the water in the evaporative cooler and took a
reading with thermometer and hygrometer. Looks like we are sitting at 4.9%
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69 oF
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Adj
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Orig
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Alcohol
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SPGR
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1.023
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1.204
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1.0602
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Potential A/V
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3%
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3.1%
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8%
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4.9%
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Balling
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5.5
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6
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15.5
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Beer Date 09152007: <Day 13>
Changed the water in the evaporative cooler and took a
reading with thermometer and hygrometer. Looks like we are sitting at 4.9%
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69 oF
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Adj
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Orig
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Alcohol
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SPGR
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1.022
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1.023
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1.0602
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Potential A/V
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3.1%
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8%
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4.9%
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Balling
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Beer Date 09202007: <Day 18>
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71 oF
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Adj
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Orig
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Alcohol
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SPGR
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1.022
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1.023
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1.0602
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Potential A/V
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3.1%
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8%
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4.9%
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Balling
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Beer Date 09222007: <Day 20>
Bottling day!
Nothing major to report. Watched the priming sugar water
like a hawk as we brought it to a boil, no boil over this time J
Got 42 bottles out of this batch, next time I think I will
take less hygrometer readings as that just wastes beer. I think I will take
one when we start fermentation, and another when bottle. I will judge
bottling time by the recommendations in the directions, and by the activity
in the airlock instead of taking so many hygrometer reading.
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72 oF
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Adj
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Orig
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Alcohol
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SPGR
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1.021
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1.022
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1.0602
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Potential A/V
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3.1%
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8%
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4.9%
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Balling
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Beer Date 10072007: <Day 35>
The first taste, yum!!!!!!!
After a short hike down the South Kaibab trail of the Grand Canyon, and a weekend of camping at the South
Rim, we returned to a couple if nicely chilled beers. We came home and popped
off the top to the pleasant sound of gas releasing as the tight seal of the
cap was broken.
The pour was wonderful, there was
plenty of carbonation giving it a nice thick head. While I had a stuffy nose
and couldn’t confirm, I am told it had a very pleasant aroma. But the best
part would definitely be the taste. I cannot wait to compare to some other
stouts.
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