Oatmeal Stout

The seasons are changing and so is my beer tastes.  Now that fall is here it's time to start kicking in some darker beers to tide the winter over.  Some will be stouts and porters, others will be Black IPA's, and there's always got to be some super hop bomb IPA's.  So to kick it off, here's an oatmeal stout that I have brewed before.  It's similar to a Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout from Rogue.

Recipe:
10 gallons

Fermentables:
23 lb GW 2-Row
1.18 lb Bairds Chocolate
1.18 lb Crystal 120L
8.73 oz Roasted Barley
1.55 lb Flaked Oats

Aniticpated OG: 1.074
Actual OG: 1.070
Anticipated FG: 1.019
Actual FG: 1.019
ABV%: 7.3%

Hops:
1.25oz Cascade for 75m
1.25oz Cascade for 60m
1.25oz Cascade for 30m
1.25oz Cascade for 1m

41 IBU

Yeasts:
5 gallons with White Labs WLP004-Irish Ale
5 gallons with Wyeast Pacman slurry

Notes:
Brewed last Sunday (9/16/12).  Smooth brewing.  Used a canopy to keep the leaves from falling into the boil.  Fermenting is coming along slow.
Update 10/7/12: Kegged the Irish Ale half.  Really tasty.  FG was 1.019.  It might have dropped a little lower, but I was in a rush to get it going for a party.  I'll keg the other half next week for the next party it's going to.

Espresso Stout

This is my attempt at cloning Laurelwood Brewing's Espresso Stout.  I had this a month or two ago and it really stood out to me.  It was fantastic actually, so I figured I'd give it a shot.  I brewed an 11 gallon batch to split with my buddy, so that's why the amounts will be so high.  I stuck with my oatmeal stout recipe, I just took out the oatmeal.  I'll add some cold brewed Portland Roasting Espresso to the secondary, which will be soon since I brewed this last week.  I still have to figure out the amount of coffee and how that's going to happen.  I'll put what I did in the notes, like usual.

Recipe:
11 Gallon

Grains:
25lb 2-Row (GW)
1.3lb Crystal 120L (GW)
1lb Chocolate
.6lb Roasted Barley

Hops:
1.5oz Cascade (6%) for 75m
1.5oz Cascade (6%) for 75m
2oz Cascade (6%) for 30m
2oz Cascade (6%) for 1m

Yeasts:
5.5 gallons with Wyeast Pacman
5.5 gallons with Wyeast 1056 slurry

Notes:
Brewed last Saturday.  Smooth brewing (I did this plus the Bitter American in one day).  Gravity came is right at 1.068 (75% efficiency).  Fermentation on the Pacman bucket was fast and furious.  I had to set up a blow off hose since the airlock was close to popping.  The pressure on the bucket was unreal, like nothing I had seen before in person (although here's a video of an airlock popping).  The 1056 bucket is slowly going, it started after a day or two (probably time to ditch that slurry).
Update 4/24/12: Added 1/2 gallon of cold brewed coffee to each bucket at secondary.  For the cold brewed coffee, I added a bunch of medium grind coffee and filled the growler with water and stuck it in the fridge for a couple days.  I then filtered out the grinds and added the coffee to the secondary bucket before I transferred the beer.  I used two 8 cup grind amounts for the amount of coffee.  It smells really good.  First bucket is bottled and I'll bottle the second bucket in a day or two.

Taste Update 7/17/12: So this turned out amazingly good.  The coffee flavor was perfect, the cold brew method really brought out the flavor of the coffee without the acidity.  The balance to the stout was dead on.  The Pacman yeast was definitely better than the 1056 yeast.  It's such a good strain, especially for stouts.  This is one I'll be making again for sure.  Also, I did a side by side with the Laurelwood Espresso Stout, which was the inspiration for this one, to see how they matched up.  I used the Pacman yeast version in the comparison.

Body: Extremely similar.  The Laurelwood version kept a better head (the one on the right), but otherwise these were very close.

Flavor: Again, very close.  The coffee in my version was a touch stronger, but a touch smoother in the Laurelwood.  It was really hard to tell the difference.

Hops: Too hard to discern.

Overall: This was very close.  I think the Laurelwood might edge out my version overall, but just barely.  I honestly couldn't tell them apart in a blind tasting, so that should tell you something!  If you're looking for a good coffee stout, brew this up and enjoy!

Oatmeal Stout

Man, I really like a good oatmeal stout.  Especially when it's winter and it's an oatmeal stout I made.  A side note...I found a couple bottles of the first oatmeal stout I brewed in the fridge at my in-laws on Thanksgiving from last February.  I figured they weren't going to be finishing them, so I took them and enjoyed one and gave one to a friend who may like it more than I do!  They were delicious!

This is my fourth time brewing a variant of this recipe now, and it keeps on tasting awesome!  This is by far my most recurring recipe, which is interesting since I'm usually not too big on stouts these days...I guess I come up with too many IPA recipe's that are totally awesome!

Recipe:
5.5 gallon

Grain:
12.65# GW 2-Row
.65# Crystal 120L
.65# Chocolate (dark patagonia again!)
.3# Bairds Roasted Barley
.85# Flaked Oats

Hops:
.75oz Cascade (10.2%) for 75m
.75oz Cascade (10.2%) for 60m
1oz Cascade (6%) for 30m
1oz Cascade (65) for 1m
(note the two different alpha percentages)

Yeast:
Wyeast Pacman Slurry

Notes:
First time brewing this where I didn't have any problems or issues.  Original gravity came in at 1.072 (target was 1.074-close enough).  This was the second of two batches that I brewed today.  I prefer doing it this way because I can brew two batches in one day in about 6-6 1/2 hours instead of doing two separate batches of 4-4 1/2 hours each.  Way better.  I think I'll do it this way from here out and not have to take as many days brewing.
Update 11/28/11: Nothing happening in the fermenter.  I'm going to pitch a 1056 slurry in there.  Not sure what happened to the Pacman slurry I used.
Update 12/16/11: Bottled.  FG was 1.016.  Got 18 22's and 23 12's.  Not too bad a haul.

Breakfast in a Bottle, Round 3.

So I really love this stout.  The oatmeal, the dark malt, the Cascade hops...everything is really good.  So I made another 11 gallon batch, half of it going to my buddy Scott who was jonesing for a dark beer for a good price.  That's where I come in.  So the recipe is pretty similar as the previous incarnation of this, however it's adjusted to account for 11 gallons instead of 10.  The 11 gives a more realistic target of four 24 packs.

Recipe:
11 Gallons.

Grain Bill:
25.3 lb GW 2-Row
1.65 lb Oatmeal (Flaked)
1.1 lb Crystal 120L
1.1 lb Chocolate Malt
.55 Barley (Roasted)

Hop Bill:
2.25 oz Cascade for 90m
2 oz Cacade for 60m
2.5 oz Cascade for 30m
2.25 oz Cascade for 0m

Yeast:
1056 Slurry in one
Pacman slurry in the other
(I'm hoping to see if there's a difference between the two)

Extras:
2tsp Irish Moss for 15m

Specs:
Pre-boil Gravity: 1.050
Post-boil Gravity: 1.061
IBU: 44

Mash: 11.1 gallons @ 163 for 60m
Sparge: 6.3 gallons @ 184-double sparged

Notes:
Everything we smoothly up until boil time.  I had sold my old boil keggle to my buddy since I had another keg I could convert.  I decided that the best time to convert it would be during the mash.  Great idea until the rubber seal broke on the new boil keggle and then I had to run to the hardware store to pick up some more.  But now it's working and working well!  But something about making this stout that leads to problems I guess.  Oh well, it's worth it.
Update 5/23/11: 1056 slurry is at 1.018 and the Pacman slurry is at 1.020.  No discernable taste difference that I can pick up.  I'll give this another couple days to ferment and then I'll bottle it (although I might do a secondary, but I'm not sure yet).
Update 5/27/11: Racked the 1056 to a keg and got 2 22's.  I'll bottle Scott's half in a day or two.
Update 5/29/11: Bottled the Pacman half for Scott.  Got 48 12's for him and 4 22's for me.  I always love it when there's more than 5 gallons in the batch!

Breakfast in a Bottle Stout

This is actually a recipe I've done already, well sort of.  I did this extract style a couple months ago and it was awesome.  So I'm going to do an all grain this time and break in the keggles.  This is pretty much a clone of Rogue's Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout.  Also, I'm going to do a 10 gallon batch this time since a couple guys want to go in on it with me, so hopefully the new equipment works well!





Recipe:
Grains:
22lb American 2-Row
1lb Crystal 120L
1lb Chocolate Malt
1.5lb Flaked Oats
.5lb Roasted Barley

Hops:
2oz Cascade @75min
2oz Cascade @ 60min
2oz Cascade @30min
2oz Cascade @flameout

Yeast:
Pacman Slurry from Poorhouse Brewing.  I plan to split the slurry when I return it, keeping half so I don't have to keep stealing Randys.

Extras:
2tsp Gypsum at boil
2tsp Irish Moss at 15min

Anticipated Post-boil gravity: 1.070
Anticipated Final gravity: 1.018
Anticipated ABV: 6.8%

I'll update after brewing tomorrow and add any notes.  Maybe some pictures as well.

Brewing Notes:
So I brewed this on Saturday, April 2.  I should have done this on the 1st, cause the day felt like a giant April Fools joke on me.  There were some good things though that I'll touch on first, then the bad things.

Wort draining from the Mash Tun.

The Good:
-The hot water keggle and the mash tun keggle both worked great.  I got good sugar out of the mash tun and it stayed plenty warm (after an hour it was still at 152 degrees, right on target).  It will be easier once it's all on the brew tree, which hopefully will be going down this week.
-The new Counter-Flow-Chiller worked great.  Dropped 10 gallons from boiling to 62 degrees perfectly.  The entire flow out for the 10 gallons to run through was about 25-30 minutes.  There was a tiny leak in the epoxy for the water, but I'll add some more and hopefully it will be good.
-The Hop Spider worked well.  Hopefully the hop flavor is increased in future brews.
-I got to brew.



The Bad:
-I still didn't get quite the targeted gravity, so I'll need to fine tune some more.  I wasn't off too much though, but more than I would have liked.
-The ball valve decided to start leaking on the boil keggle right when I added the wort.  That meant moving the wort to buckets while I ran to Home Depot to get a new rubber seal.  Works fine now though, but it added like an hour to the brewing day.
-I also managed to catch the propane hose on fire due to having it too close to the flame as well as wind coming at an inopportune time.  Luckily I was able to see it quickly and shut off the propane line.  That meant running to Home Depot again, and when they didn't have it nor the next place I checked, I resorted in buying a new burner so I could get the regulator and hose from it.  I guess at least I'll have three new burners on the brew tree (once my banjo burners arrive).  So I managed to not blow up my garage or kill myself, so that was good, but it made my 4-5 hour brew day turn into a 8-9 hour brew day.  I was rushing out the door to make it to our Saturday Night Service.  So I still actually have to clean the boil keggle and the hop strainer.

So I was able to save the brew and my life, but it was a stressful day.  Hopefully next weeks is better, supposing I get the brew tree finished.  I don't think I'll brew again until I build that, which will hopefully be this Thursday.

The Stats:
Pre-boil Gravity: 1.040
Post-boil Gravity: 1.062 (I wanted it to be 1.070)
Collected 6.25 gallons of wort from the strike.
Collected 5.75 gallons from the sparge.
Boiled 12 gallons, ended up with 10 after a 75 minute boil.

Update 4/6/11: Bottled this up.  Adam and Daniel came over to help out since they're splitting the batch with me.  We had a good time and got 93 bottles out of the 10 gallons.  They each took 24 leaving me with 45.  Final Gravity was 1.013.  ABV ended at 6.6%, pretty close to the target.
Update 4/11/11: Tried a bottle of this for fun.  Turns out it's pretty much ready!  Good body and flavor.  I can taste the oatmeal much better this time.  Quite enjoyable.

St. Patrick's Day

So today is St. Paddy's day.  A day of corned beef and drinking, right?  Afterall, everyone's Irish on March 17th!  So here's a few bits of info to think about while enjoying you Irish (or non-Irish) ancestry...

St. Patrick's day is a religious holiday started by the Roman Catholic Church to celebrate St. Patrick, who was a Catholic priest and brought Christianity to Ireland.  While there were later, more successful missionaries to Ireland, St. Patrick was the first and got things going.  The clover was employed by Patrick to teach the locals the doctrine of the Trinity, and green wasn't the official color of the holiday until the 17th century.

One of the more popular beverages on St. Patrick's day is Guinness.  This is one of my favorites personally, so I thought a bit of history on Guinness would also be in order for today.  According to the book on the side bar here, Guinness began as a way for Arthur Guinness, who was a follower of Jesus,  to provide a better beverage for those who didn't have quality drinking water.  So the brewery was started after paying 100 pounds and signing a 9000 year lease for 45 pounds a year.  Talk about a great deal!  Guinness also has antioxidants in it which make it a good beer to drink for health reasons!  The translation of the Old Irish on the poster is "Guinness is good for you!"

So pour yourself a pint of Guinness and praise God that St. Patrick brought Jesus to Ireland back in the 400's!  God is Good!


(Please note that I haven't read this book yet, but I am looking forward to reading it!)

Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout Clone

So I just bottled up my Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout Clone I brewed last Saturday. That thing went to town thanks to a yeast starter donation by Poorhouse Brewing. It started at 1.084 and ended at 1.020. Got six 22oz bottles and thirty 12oz bottles. Really good flavor. I'm looking forward to this being ready. Here's the recipe I used from hopville.com:

Ingredients bought at Brew Brothers.

Malt:

7lb 8oz Light Malt Extract

8oz of Crystal 120L

8oz of Flaked Oats

8oz of Chocolate Malt

4oz of Roasted Barley

Hops: (also donated by Poorhouse Brewing)

1.0 oz of Cascade at 75 min

1.0 oz of Cascade at 60 min

1.0 oz of Cascade at 30 min

1.0 oz of Cascade at 0 min for 30 min post boil.

Yeast:

Whatever Randy gave me

Extras:

2Tbs of Gypsum for Boil

1Tbs of Irish Moss for last 15 min of boil.

Brewed on Saturday, Jan 29, 2011.

Bottled on Tuesday, Feb 1, 2011. Tasted before I bottled it. Big malt taste and I could really pick up the oatmeal. This is going to be awesome! I may have to try to get my wife to make some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies to pair up with this...

2/13/11 Update: Really good flavor. Trace of oatmeal and heavy body. This is a winter beer and a good one at that. Another couple days and the carbonation will probably be perfect.

I'll do a side by side in a week or so.






Update 3/4/11: I never did a side by side with this one.  But I did convince my wife to make some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies to pair up.  Oh man, so good.  Here's a picture of my enjoyment.  I'll be doing this recipe again in a few weeks, only all grain this time.