BrewDay: Oatmeal Stout

I've been on a heavy wheat beer diet for a while now, and so why not mix it up with something that is in a lot of ways the compete opposite? I'm adding the oatmeal for sweetness, though, to help ease the transition.

The grain mix is an adaptation of Palmer's stout:

• 8 lb two-row base malt
• 1 lb crystal [muntons - 64L]
• .75 lb flaked barley
• .40 lb roasted malt [675L]
• 1 lb store-bought oats
  

I increased the recommended amount of flaked because I wanted more body, and also decreased the amount of roasted because the L value on the black stuff I got was very high.

If you're curious, this is how the recipe differs from the the common Guinness proportions:

Thanks to some helpful discussion at homebrewtalk I realized my store-bought oats needed gelatinized; so that was done just prior to mash.

Strike temp was 165F, which put my mash at 153F, about one degree higher than I wanted. For my second sparge I added 180F water, although I probably shouldn't have gone higher than 175F because of one the 2,463 things Palmer knows about that will lead to non-ideal wort.

Efficiency went like this:

1.047 grav X 6 gal / 11.15 lb grain = 25.3

So not great, I was really hoping to get closer to 28, but I had the boil down to fall back on.

To get the water a bit more Irish-like (I use bottled to avoid the poison that is DC city water) I added 2 teaspoons of gypsum.

The hop additions:

• 0.8 oz Nuggest (60 min)
• 1.0 oz Fuggles (20 min)

I sparged a total of 7 gallons of water and ended up with 6 after the mash. Post-boil I ended up with almost exactly 5 gallons of wort and on OG of 1.060.

My biggest concern right now is the yeast. I used the smack pack for Wyeast, Irish Ale #1084, but for the second time in a row I couldn't get the pack fully inflated; it rose maybe 30% of full. Now last time this happened fermentation went fine, but with three hours to sit I don't understand what the issue is.

Eat Your Oats [But Gelatinize Them First]

My oats on a cookie sheet, ready for the oven.

Something that didn't occur to me while getting ready for today's Oatmeal Stout was the fact that oats, purchased in bulk at the market and not at the local home brew shop, aren't out-of-the-package ready for mashing.

So, remember, with oats, that they need to be gelatinize first. And no, I didn't know what that meant at first either. Per Wikipedia:

Starch gelatinization is a process that breaks down the intermolecular bonds of starch molecules in the presence of water and heat, allowing the hydrogen bonding sites (the hydroxyl hydrogen and oxygen) to engage more water.

So in order for to the oats to take on water and give out flavor, you need to cook them: 20 minutes at 350F, but don't forget to turn them once or twice.

Local Home Brew Shop > Home Depot

I hate going to Home Depot, I really do. I've never once left there with everything I wanted, and I bet I've spent five minutes in the store for every dollar I've spent, which is really a pretty awful ratio.

I went there to try and build a wort chiller, only to find out they lacked some of the fittings I needed (in hindsight, though, I could have gotten away with a hose clamp if only I had found directions to do so online).

So when I couldn't find a braided hose at a hardware store the size of five football fields I said screw it and went to buy supplies at the LHBS. They sold me this, which I was happy to buy from someone who actually was interesting is selling me something:



I then drilled a hole in this cooler:


With this bit:


And bam(!):