So... What is it?
The Oatmeal Stout is a cousin of the classic Stout, the one major difference being a little obvious, oats! This gives the resulting beer more malty sweetness and a luxurious silky mouthfeel! Now add a barrel to the mix and Bam! you get a Barrel-aged oatmeal stout! Aging the beer for a period of time in a barrel allows the natural tannins and organic compounds in the oak to add additional layers of complexity to the Stout that you can't get in any other way, introducing layers of Vanilla, caramel, spiciness, and even Coconut!
What is ours like?
Here is our attempt at a winter classic! The mouthfeel is creamy, silky, and luxurious, the bitterness mild and in balance, as is the hops profile. The star of the show is the slightly sweet malty nutty character, with delicious flavours of freshly baked bread and espresso coffee-like flavours! Coming in at 6.3% its definitely not low abv but not the 10% target we had in mind! Finally, half this batch was thrown into a 20L Oak barrel that once held irish whiskey, contibuting further flavours of vanilla & oaky sweetness!
Batch Size & Stats
- 35L / 9.5 gal finished beer
- 51L (13.47 gal) wort
- Starting gravity – 1.066
- Final gravity 1.018
- ABV – 6.3%
What ingredients?
Water
With sparging
- 90 minutes, 30L (7.9 gal) Mash water 69°C (156.2°F) - use our calculator to determine strike water
- 42L (11 gal) sparge water at 78°C (172°F)
Without sparging
- 90 minutes, 65L (17.2 gal) strike water 69°C (156.2°F) mash - use our calculator to determine strike water
Malts
Total Grain Bill 14.2kg (31.3 lb) + 1kg (2.2 lb) rice hulls
- Light Munich – 5.74kg (12.65 lb) - (40.4%)
- Dark Munich - 1.96kg (4.32 lb) - (13.8%)
- Wheat malt – 1.94kg (4.27 lb) - (13.7%)
- Rolled Oats - 1.7kg (3.74 lb) - (12%)
- Dark Chocolate malt 980g (2.16 lb) + 200g (7 Oz) end of mash for colour - (8.3%)
- Medium Crystal Malt - 840g (1.85 lb) - (5.9%)
- Rice Hulls – 1kg (2.2 lb)
Adjuncts
Vanilla extract - 3 small vanilla beans, sliced down the middle & soaked in a small cup of bourbon
Hops & whirlfloc tablets
Northern Brewer
- 20g (0.7 oz) - 60 minutes left in the boil
- 50g (1.76 oz) 15 minutes left in the boil
Fuggles
- 50g (1.76 oz) 15 minutes left in the boil
Whirlfloc
- 1.5g (0.052 oz) / 2 tablets – 15 minutes left in the boil
Yeast options & fermentation temperatures
- US-05 – ferment at 20°C (68°F) 23g (0.81 oz) / (2 packets)
- AUS-05 – ferment at 20°C (68°F) 23g (0.81 oz) / (2 packets)
- S-04 – ferment at 18°C (64.4°F) 22g (0.81 oz) / (2 packets)
Step by step process
Step 1 – Milling
- Mill grains to medium crush (set mill rollers to a gap of approx. 1.00mm / 0.039 inches (credit card width)
- Just keep in mind roller gap settings are not universal so as you brew more batches you will find the ideal crush size for your setup
- Alternatively if you don’t have a grain mill you can order your grains crushed from most homebrew stores, both online and in person
Step 2 – Mashing
- Mash for 90 minutes at 69°C (156.2°F)
- Set your strike water to a few degrees above the target mash temperature
- ensure you mix in the grains thoroughly with a mash paddle to prevent dough balls from forming (big spoons, spatulas or whisks will also work)
- its easier to mash the grains and prevent dough balls if you add a little grain at a time, mix, add more grain, and repeat until all the grains are mixed
- if you don’t have a mash tun with heating then ensure after you have finished mixing the grains in to insulate your mash tun (thick neoprene or heavy blankets both work well)
Step 3 (optional) – Sparging
- if your setup has the capability to sparge then do so with 42L (11 gal) sparge water at 78°C (172°F)
- if you are not sparging and using a BIAB (brew in a bag) method then remove grains from mash tun and twist and squeeze the bag to get as much liquid out of the grains as possible
- as you start sparging (or straining your BIAB bag) begin raising the temperature of your wort to a boil
Step 4 – Boiling
- (Optional) - for this beer we wanted to bump up the starting gravity after our very efficient mash! so we boiled the wort for an extra hour BEFORE we added our 60min bittering hops when the “real” boil began!
- once your wort begins to boil start a timer for a 60-minute boil and add your bittering hops, 20g (0.7 oz) of Northern Brewer
- at 15 minutes left in the boil add 2 whirlfloc tablets (OR granulated whirlfloc 1.5g (0.053 oz)) and 50g (1.76 oz) each of Northern Brewer & Fuggles
Step 5 – Whirlpooling / cooling
- once wort has been boiling for 60 minutes in total turn off your heat source and begin chilling wort down to yeast pitching temperature
- once you’ve reached yeast pitching temperature take an original gravity reading of your wort
Step 6 – Yeast Pitching
- It is best to make a yeast starter before beginning your brew day (ideally 1 day before) to ensure your yeast are as active and healthy as possible before pitching, but not completely necessary – you could also just rehydrate yeast 30 minutes before pitching.
- Wort Aeration (Optional) if you have a paint mixer give your wort a quick blitz before pitching yeast to help add more dissolved oxygen into the wort to help the yeast have a healthier kick start into fermentation
- Now add your tincture of Vanilla extract! (or you can wait till end of fermentation if you prefer)
- Pitch yeast in wort a degree or two higher than the target fermentation temperature to help yeast take off more aggressively
- To make a yeast starter you can use either:
- DME (dry malt extract) at a ratio of approx. 100g per 1L water (3.5 oz per 33 fluid ounces) for gravity of approx. 1.040
- some unfermented wort kept cold and sanitary from a previous brew day
- 70g of table sugar per 1L water (2.5 oz per 33 fluid ounces) – however, it is best to use malt sugar (wort / DME) whenever possible to reduce the chance of shocking the yeast with a different food source from starter to wort pitching
- To rehydrate yeast
- Add yeast to approx. 10 times as much room temperature water as the weight of the yeast e.g. 10g yeast in 100 ml water (0.35 oz yeast in 3.5 fluid ounces water)
Step 7 – Fermentation
- Allow yeast to ferment over the next two weeks (approx.)
- If you have a temperature-controlled system keep the fermenter temperature to the recommended fermentation temperature for each yeast strain (stated in the yeast ingredients section above)
- Monitor the fermentation activity over the first 7-10 days by the bubbling of the blow-off tube/airlock of your fermenter, as the bubbling slows down (roughly around day 10-12) take a gravity reading. When the gravity reaches around 1.020 raise the temperature of your fermenter by 1-2 degrees for 2 days for a diacetyl rest (if you don’t have temperature control don’t worry about this step, it's not the end of the world!)
- On day 2 of the diacetyl rest (once gravity reaches roughly 1.018) & gravity is the same 3 days in a row move onto cold crashing! (If you can’t / don’t want to cold crash go straight to kegging/bottling your beer!)
Step 8 (optional) – Cold crashing
- begin cold crashing your fermenter (bring the temperature of your fermenter down to as close to 0°C (32°F) as possible, for 2 days to a week depending on how patient you are
- If you don’t have a temp-controlled fermenter, you can cold crash by putting your fermenter in a fridge or temp-controlled chest freezer
- After you have finished cold crashing it's time to keg/bottle your beer! If you are bottling your beer from the fermenter uncarbonated, remember to add about 5-7 grams (0.17 - 0.24 oz) of priming sugar to your bottles to carbonate your beer.
