Seven gallons of Oatmeal Stout were bottled today. I got off work early, so I took advantage of the time. It is a nice, black as night brew with a hint of coffee (and I did not add any coffee). I tasted some and it was great! I can't wait until it is fully bottle conditioned and carbonated!Ingredients: 4 lbs 2 Row Pale, 2 lbs 80 degree Crystal, 2 lbs flaked oats, 1 lb Black Patent, 1 lb chocolate malt, 1/2 lb roasted barley, 6.6 lbs Dark Malt Extract Syrup (I prefer extract powder, but my local brew store was out) 2 oz German Hallertauer and 1 oz Tettnanger.
I came up with this recipe by looking at different recipes in my few brew recipe books, as well as Homebrew talk .com, and piecing together what I hope will work well. This is how I have been creating/stealing my recipes over the last year.
However, my notes don't make sense on my ratio for boiling and aroma hops. I'll try to decipher them when I replicate this later. Oh yeah, and I used Nottingham Ale Yeast.
I tried a sort of filter while siphoning into my bottling bucket (thanks Matt), and it caught a fair amount. I have also been bottling in growlers the last few batches and it seems to work well. I guess they are not rated for pressure? So hopefully one won't explode someday...so far so good.
Looks like this brew is only 5 percent alcohol by volume. I was afraid it would be low, but I am limited in the amount of grains I can use because the size of my sparge pot. It is only 3 gallons compared to my 5 gallon brew pot. This is why I still do partial mashes. Nevertheless, I think this is an awesome brew!
I am looking forward to bringing some of this brew to Dark Lord Day at Three Floyd's Brewery to share.
This weekend I have to bottle my Ice Wine as well as my Dunkelweizen. Sounds like fun! If the funds work out...I need to buy wine bottles, corks and more beer bottles. I have about 12 cases worth of beer in my closet!!! Only half is ready to drink... Praise Jesus for the art of zymurgy! 
Wwith all of your experience why haven't you built a mash tun and made the jump to all-grain? Also, are you getting decent efficiency steeping grain socks for your mash and sparge? I don't think that I've come across the method you use before, but it seems as though you do very well with it.
ReplyDeleteI just haven't had the cash to get or make a mash tun. I guess I am just happy with doing partial mashes. I was intimidated by it when I began brewing in the late nineties (I didn't start doing partial mashes until this past June). I feel like I still have a lot to learn. But now that I understand it more, I want to get a mash tun but I am happy with what I have now. Someday I will get one though.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like I get decent efficiency, but I haven't really sat down and calculated it with any of my batches. I picked up this technique by a guy named Deathbrewer on homebrewtalk.com. He has a post you could dig up, I can find the URL for you if your interested.