Saturday, April 4, 2009

Oatmeal Stout and Danke Schön

You know what they say about the cat being away? The girls (all three of them) are gone for the weekend, which leaves me with time to brew. As I've recently had some disasters due to inattentiveness, I made sure to pay particular attention to my process for this session. Strike temp hit the mash-in dead on, mash temp was consistent throughout, I made sure to have a vigorous boil the full 60 minutes, whirlpooled after the boil and quickly cooled on the way to the fermenter. I started the yeast about 2 weeks ago, so it should be rarin' to go by now, and I gave the beer a good 30 minutes of aeration prior to pitching. Gravities were good, volumes were good and the cleanup went well. In fact, this session went so well I feel like I've just cursed myself for something I overlooked to happen, and happen badly. I guess time will tell.

Thanks to Adeptus, who came through on his end of the deal with a good assortment of German beer. Some I've had, others I've never heard of. But that's the beauty of it, innit? I'll post some notes once I break into them.

Also, just a reminder that Dark Lord Day is right around the corner - April 25th to be exact. Those who are fans of Russian Imperial Stouts and Three Floyds should not miss this event. The wife and I plan on going, and perhaps bringing the girls as well.

4 comments:

Barry M said...

Hope you enjoy 'em Mike, and sorry for the delay :)

What does the recipe for your oatmeal stout look like? Just wondering how gooey your mash was with oats/oatmeal.

Mike Ring said...

I will generally use 1.35 qts/lb for my mash (I have no idea what that works out to in metric). On thicker mashes with wheat or oats, it keeps the mash from getting too sticky; on ordinary mashes it works pretty well. Obviously my FG is approximate at this point, but check out that efficiency!

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal): 5.00 Wort Size (Gal): 6.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 9.00
Anticipated OG: 1.049 Plato: 12.21
Anticipated SRM: 39.4
Anticipated IBU: 39.5
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Actual OG: 1.044 Plato: 10.96
Actual FG: 1.012 Plato: 3.07

Alc by Weight: 3.29 by Volume: 4.21 From Measured Gravities.
ADF: 72.0 RDF 59.9 Apparent & Real Degree of Fermentation.

Actual Mash System Efficiency: 90 %
Anticipated Points From Mash: 49.27
Actual Points From Mash: 59.38


Pre-Boil Amounts
----------------

Evaporation Rate: 15.00 Percent Per Hour

Raw Pre-Boil Amounts - only targeted volume/gravity and evaporation
rate taken into account:

Pre-Boil Wort Size: 7.06 Gal
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.035 SG 8.76 Plato

With sparge water, mash water, additional infusions, vessel losses, top-up
water and evaporation rate recorded in the Water Needed Calculator:

Water Needed Pre-Boil Wort Size: 8.21 Gal
Water Needed Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.030 SG 7.56 Plato


Formulas Used
-------------

Brewhouse Efficiency and Predicted Gravity based on Method #1, Potential Used.
Final Gravity Calculation Based on Points.
Hard Value of Sucrose applied. Value for recipe: 46.2100 ppppg
Yield Type used in Gravity Prediction: Fine Grind Dry Basis.

Color Formula Used: Morey
Hop IBU Formula Used: Garetz

Additional Utilization Used For Plug Hops: 2 %
Additional Utilization Used For Pellet Hops: 10 %


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
72.2 6.50 lbs. Maris Otter UK 1.038 4
11.1 1.00 lbs. Flaked Oats America 1.033 2
5.6 0.50 lbs. Roasted Barley Great Britain 1.029 575
5.6 0.50 lbs. Chocolate Malt Great Britain 1.034 475
5.6 0.50 lbs. Dark Crystal Great Britian 1.034 75

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 oz. Chinook Pellet 12.00 39.5 60 min.


Yeast
-----

WYeast 1084 Irish Ale


Mash Schedule
-------------

Mash Type: Single Step
Heat Type: Direct

Grain Lbs: 9.00
Water Qts: 12.15 - Before Additional Infusions
Water Gal: 3.04 - Before Additional Infusions

Qts Water Per Lbs Grain: 1.35

Tun Thermal Mass: 0.25
Grain Temp: 68 F

Dough In Temp: 0 Time: 0
Saccharification Rest Temp: 153 Time: 60
Mash-out Rest Temp: 170 Time: 10
Sparge Temp: 170 Time: 0

Runnings Stopped At: 1.020 SG 5.08 Plato


Total Mash Volume Gal: 3.76 - After Additional Infusions

All temperature measurements are degrees Fahrenheit.



Water Needed For Brewing Session
--------------------------------

Sparge Amount: 7.50 Sparge Deadspace: 0.25 Total Into Mash: 7.25

Total Grain Lbs: 9.00 Qts Per Lbs: 1.35 Total From Mash: 1.96
Mash Gallons: 3.04
Grain Absorption: 1.08

Amount Lost in Lauter Tun Deadspace,
Grant and Misc. to Kettle: 1.00

Top Up Water Added to Kettle: 0.00
Amount into Kettle: 8.21

Boil Time (min): 60.00 Evaporation Rate: 15.00
Amount after Boil: 6.98

Left in Kettle Deadspace: 0.50
Left in Hopback: 0.25
Left in Counterflow Chiller: 0.25
Left in Other Equipment / Other Absorption: 0.30

Amount to Chillers: 5.68
Amount After Cooling (4 perc.): 5.45



Grain absorption rate is: 0.12 (Gallons Per Lbs)

Evaporation rate is Percent per Hour

This formulation will yield 5.45 gallons of fermentable wort.

You will need 10.54 gallons of water for the complete brewing session.

Barry M said...

Interesting. Not as much oatmeal as I thought. The only Oatmeal Stout I think I've had was Samuel Smith's fairly recently. Was a pretty different flavour, and I was wondering how much of that was from the oats.

I haven't brewed in a while as I have a huge backlog of beer to drink/give away. I think I need some cornie kegs to speed up the drinking part :D

Mike Ring said...

Bottling has its advantages, but it's really labor intensive. I have about 10 cornies and nothing beats chucking it all in a keg and forgetting it.

The oatmeal generally contributes a "silky" feeling to the beer. I was debating adding lactose for a milk stout or maybe coffee (I guess I still can) but figured I'd just do the base brew for reference. I've done a chocolate cherry stout (twice) and a clone of Guinness, so this will be my fourth stout. I've got the Guinness faucet and nitro as well.