What are you brewing?

[nzbrewer]

Since this is the most popular thread on the RealBeer.co.nz forum I thought I would start it here just to see what happens

[Edward Siddle]

tony
extract or with mashable grain? i am not sure you can even really do oatmeal stout without some grains to mash with. if you are planning on mainly using extract, you can get around it by mashing with a small quantity of grain (say equivalent to the amount of oats you're going to use) at 66C with a few litres of water for an hour. strain this off through a colander and proceed with adding your extract. for all-grain, i'd give it a good long mash with the rest of the grains, but otherwise there's nothing special about it. i do a golden ale with oats in and they just go straight in. use some nice quality rolled oats - support good kiwi southern ones and get Harraways. you could soak them for 10 mins in boiling water prior to mashing with the water and adjusting to the temperature if you want. seemed to help when i made an oatmeal stout recently with 1.5kg oats - at least, it sparged ok, it's still sitting in fermenter waiting to be bottled tomorrow.

[Tony]

I am tending to barstardise extract brew at the moment. I need a little more practice before I attempt a full mash. I was thinking of basically what you have suggested for the extract brew. I was also looking at some chocolate malts and roasted barley in the mix? How much oats would you suggest for a 20L brew?

[Barry]

Yeah as Ed pointed out, the key factor will be mashing with some pale malt to get some diastatic action going. Without the diastatic enzymes of some base malt the oats won't have anything to convert their starch into sugary goodness.

[HerrSchnapps]

I think I did read somewhere in my quest for a dry-stout recipe, that you can use instant (porridge) oats, hence negating the need for mashing...
Oh, and um, how is Aqua Vitae in Christchurch still around? Last time I step foot in that place...

[Edward Siddle]

i have seen recipes around the web which do not include mashing. i don't really understand how they would work. but it isn't hard anyway.

if you wanted to include 500g of oats, get a 1kg bag of malted grain from your local homebrewshop and get them to run it through their mill for you. combine half or more of it with the oats and 2.5L of hot water in a large pot (eg. a 4or 5L one). use a thermometer and the stove to get it to 66C then keep it there for an hour. then strain it through a sieve or a colander or pasta strainer and maybe run another 2L of extra hot water through it to ensure all goodies are washed out. stick all the runoff liquid in your pot with your liquid or dry extract and extra water and heat up as normal (i presume you are steeping the dark grains in a grain bag or something at this stage too - i'd stick to that, rather than include them with the oats/malt, because their acidity might overwhelm such a small quantity of mashables).

i know it looks tricky, but really it is not, and it will serve as excellent practice if you ever want to move to partial mash or all-grain. it'll demystify the whole thing a bit for you.

[Tony]

Thanks Ed, thats excellent advise. I have previously steeped my dark grains/malts for about half an hour at about 70-80deg. Then added this to the boil? So I would steep 50/50 oats/malts as you suggest, then separately the dark malts as I outlined, then add them both to the extract?

[Edward Siddle]

yep just as you said. you just need to make sure the temp is right for the oat/malt mix - 66C should be ideal. essentially mashing is just accurate temperature controlled steeping.......

[Edward Siddle]

anyway back to 'what are you brewing'....

Yesterday I did a bit of an experiment with things that needed using up; a parti-gyle Imperial Stout and Mild. Basic grain bill:

4.4kg pale
400g munich (cos i ran out of pale)
430g mid crystal
210g chocolate malt
210g black patent.

first half of runnings went into the Imperial Stout, to which i added a bunch of high alpha hops, a goodly quantity of dark cane sugar, and some stray DME (about 50g) i had lying about. ended up with 11.5L at OG 1108 - a few points higher than the Dave Line recipe i was working off. Pretty happy about that. us-05 yeast. Anyone with experience in high grav fermentations? would be happy to hear any views on whether to just leave it until activity seems to stop and then maybe bottle without priming sugar for the yeast to continue slowly eating away, or to transfer to a demijohn (one of the those 11L glass thingies?) for long-term storage before re-seeding with yeast and priming up and bottling in a year or so......

Second half of runnings were for a dark mild - 12.5L at 1036. I capped the mash with 130g amber that needed using up, and added a small quantity of sugar (135g) left over from the imp stout. used up some nz goldings i had lying around. this one with wyeast 1338 and planning on drinking it pretty fresh.

[delMonte]

Dave's Stout from the 'Glorious Beer' book.
the 200g hops are equal parts Willamette, Pacific Gem, & NZ Fuggles
+ added 1oz grated 100% cacao

[Tony]

I have decided to take the plunge! After some good advise, that I wouldn't really get the fullness of a good stout with a beer kit extract, I am going to do a mash.

Thanks Ed, your advise is invaluable. I am just formulating the recipe and deciding on which grains I am going to use.

I am thinking: 500g Oats
1kg pale malt
100g chocolate malt
100g crystal

I haven't quite decided on hops yet, but I am seriously looking at using some fuggles, with LME of course!

[jt]

You won't regret it Tony.

Now if it's dry irish stout, you can't go wrong with some roast barley. Even 50gm will get you on the way. 100gm would be wonderfull !

As for hops, I don't think it matters what you use (well to some extent anyway) as you're probably only going for the bittering addition ?

[Dan]

i,d agree with JT, if its a dry irish stout i,d use an easy to obtain cheap nz hop and use it for bittering only, import hops are getting too hard to get, to waste in the bittering stage of the boil, personally I use nz cascade cones for most of my bittering, its 9.2 AA and does a good job, mostly because I had a kg to get thru!
If it is a dry your doing dont be shy on the roasted barley, its what defines a dry stout.