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Chocolate Oatmeal Stout

Post #1 made 15 years ago
by SacSoul
This weekend I'll be doing my 4th AG via BIAB. The past three have all turned out very good by taste, though I've had some issues with carbonation (Brown Ale was overcarbonated but excellent taste, red ale was under carbonated but excellent taste, agave wheat is perfectly carbonated and pretty tasty). I like the experiment, so while using DME or corn sugar for carbonation has worked fine, I wanted to get a handle on fun things like maple syrup and krausening (and eventually honey, agave, and any other fermentable liquid/solid source I can think of). Also, being a chemist by trade, I hate to follow recipes and do things by the book. Whats the fun if you can't experiment?!

So, my 4th brew will be the first of two holiday brews I will be doing. Being that we are going to be in the depths of winter here pretty soon, I will first be getting a chocolate oatmeal stout going. I love the thick, chewy beers in the winter; they just seem to compliment a good fire going in the fireplace.

Here is my initial formulation from memory (I'm at work and don't have beersmith in front of me right now):

Batch Size: 5 gal (will be brewing 4 gallons then diluting up)
Base: 8lbs US-2 row
2lbs Honey Malt
Others: 1lbs Flaked Oats
1lbs Crystal 40L
0.5lbs Patent Chocolate
0.5lbs Roasted Barley
Hops: 1oz Norther Brewer 60 mins
Adj: 8-12oz cocoa powder 10 mins
Yeast: Either Wyeast Irish Ale or Wyeast English Ale (not sure yet)

I had people at work vote on a name, and it was decided that it will be called Stout's Chocolate Beast, so I need to make sure the chocolate aspect is beastish. I also don't want much of a bitter aspect to this one, just enough to keep it from being too sweet. I think the single addition should be sufficient to balance out what the honey malt will contribute, which is about what I'm looking for.

Any input from you other BIABers would be great!!!

As soon as I formulate my 5th AG (a holiday belgian strong) I will throw it up here as well.
Arrogant Bastard Ale: "...Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make a beer taste better. Perhaps you're mouthing your words as you read this."

Post #2 made 15 years ago
by shibolet
Take into account that the roasted barley and black patent will also add some bitterness. Although not the same as hop bitterness, it's bitter non the less. You could use Carafa speacial to substitue some of the chocolate malt.
Cube:
fermenter: Sourdough Spelt Ale, Classic Lambic, Oud Brune, Barrel Aged Belgian Dubbel
Kegs: Bob's Black IPA, Blanc Blond, Soda...
to be brewed:

Post #3 made 15 years ago
by SacSoul
shibolet wrote:Take into account that the roasted barley and black patent will also add some bitterness. Although not the same as hop bitterness, it's bitter non the less. You could use Carafa speacial to substitue some of the chocolate malt.
Yeah, I was expecting to get a little bit from them. I just don't want overpowering malt sweetness.
Last edited by SacSoul on 24 Sep 2010, 02:37, edited 5 times in total.
Arrogant Bastard Ale: "...Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make a beer taste better. Perhaps you're mouthing your words as you read this."

Post #4 made 15 years ago
by hashie
Your recipe looks good SS.

I do a chocolate porter that I think is very nice. recipe as follows;

Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.10 kg Pilsner, Malt Craft Export (Joe White) (3.2 EBC) Grain 65.13 %
0.85 kg Munich, Light (Joe White) (17.7 EBC) Grain 17.86 %
0.38 kg Carafa II (811.6 EBC) Grain 7.98 %
0.24 kg Wheat Malt, Ger (3.9 EBC) Grain 5.04 %
0.10 kg Chocolate Malt (Joe White) (750.6 EBC) Grain 2.10 %
0.09 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (236.4 EBC) Grain 1.89 %
38.00 gm Pearle [8.00 %] (60 min) Hops 29.9 IBU
35.00 gm Cluster [4.80 %] (20 min) Hops 10.0 IBU
0.71 gm Salt (Mash 60.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale



I find with the greater amount of Carafa II it has a rich chocolate flavour and is not overly sweet.

My 2 cents
"It's beer Jim, but not as we know it."

Post #5 made 15 years ago
by SacSoul
Well, brew day went well. I hit all of my expected gravities more or less (~1.075 OG for ~4 gal, then diluted up to 5 gal), so I'm finally getting the hang of just how much bag-squeezing I need (that was one heavy bag for one person to lift and spin/squeeze without the aid of a sky-hook or other apparatus :) ). The wort tasted excellent and chocolaty both pre and post cocoa powder addition. The 1 oz. of Northern was also just about right for the bitterness I wanted in the wort and zero hops smell. Its consistency was nice and thick with a beautiful pitch black color. Now I just hope I can wait the 2.5 months of aging without drinking it all :) In the mean time I have my agave wheat which drew a lot of kudos from homebrew friends and convinced two wine drinkers to give beer a second chance.
Arrogant Bastard Ale: "...Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make a beer taste better. Perhaps you're mouthing your words as you read this."

Post #6 made 15 years ago
by Ralph
SacSoul wrote: Now I just hope I can wait the 2.5 months of aging without drinking it all
Ahh, some one else suffering the same affliction I do!
'Just one sample, there's plenty more...' 'oh well, maybe another just to check.' ad finitum. :oops:

Good work Sac, well done!
Last edited by Ralph on 28 Sep 2010, 06:53, edited 5 times in total.
[center]Give me a beer and I will move the world. Archimedes[/center]

Post #7 made 15 years ago
by SacSoul
Mmmmmm.... my chocolate stout is tasting amazing and it hasn't even finished fermenting yet (still some hints of acetaldehyde). I quite literally had about 2-3 inches of sediment settle out in the bottom of my primary, so I racked it to secondary this weekend. The tastes are predominantly chocolate, coffee, nut, and a hint of toffee right now. It is also rather dry... a bit more so than I wanted but acceptable. This is going to be a hard one to let sit for two months without drinking it all. I just have to keep telling myself: "This is for other people over the holidays. DON"T TOUCH!!"
Arrogant Bastard Ale: "...Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make a beer taste better. Perhaps you're mouthing your words as you read this."

Post #8 made 15 years ago
by SacSoul
I had a scare with my beer this week. I was pulling out small amount with a 5 mL pipette and it was tasting pretty terrible (and smelling terrible too). I thought I had somehow got a bacterial infection or had done a terrible job rinsing after my bleach sanatizing (I was out of PBW at the time). Turned out my beer is fine. I was tasting it in small amounts prior, and that was too little. I was getting a rubber stopper smell and a whole lot of roasted barley flavor, which would turn anybody off. However, I gave it a good swirl in the carboy last night, and then pulled out a decent amount with my wine thief, and lo-and-behold it smelled great and tasted great. The complexity just isn’t quite where I want it to be though, so I added a small dash of allspice and mint to add some minor notes to the smell and possibly the taste (though I don’t think I added enough to do anything to the flavor). Hurray for hardy beer!!!

Next on my list is a repeat of my red ale but spiced up for holiday and a clone of Chimay Blanche (I recently tried this Chimay and it is now one of my all time favorites).
Arrogant Bastard Ale: "...Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make a beer taste better. Perhaps you're mouthing your words as you read this."

Post #9 made 15 years ago
by hashie
One of the hardest lessons for me to learn was to be patient.

Beer changes in flavour and complexity quite a lot over it's life. What it tasted like from a sample will be very different (in most cases) to what it tastes like from a keg or bottle 3 months later.

These days I will taste the hydro sample to make sure there is nothing nasty, but I've learnt not to rely on those flavours being the final make up of the beer.
"It's beer Jim, but not as we know it."

Post #10 made 15 years ago
by SacSoul
While I mostly agree with you hashie, I tend to taste and adjust throughout the process. To date, I think I have only followed a set recipe once, and that was the first kit brew I did a long while ago. Everything after that has been mostly brewing by taste and feeling... yes, I have a special bond with my brews :)
Arrogant Bastard Ale: "...Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make a beer taste better. Perhaps you're mouthing your words as you read this."

Post #11 made 15 years ago
by hashie
No worries sacsoul, if that works for you, it's great :) My pallet(sp?) is not all that refined so I just enjoy my beers how ever they come out, which is mostly good.
"It's beer Jim, but not as we know it."

Post #12 made 15 years ago
by SacSoul
Well, since I've been absent from the site for a few weeks, thought I would throw an update on here. I still have the choco stout in the secondary aging, and it tastes really good. The coffee flavors from the barley and chocolate malt have started to shine through along with the chocolate finish. The mint added just the touch I wanted to the smell, but didn't really add any taste.

I also bottled my holiday spice red ale after giving that two weeks in the primary. It will be pretty good and subtle on the cinnamon and allspice.

And on the final front, work has been crazy lately and I got a 7 week old puppy... so time is not something I have much of lately. I'm taking a week vacation (or staycation since I'm not going anywhere) in two weeks and plan on getting at least one brew going during that time, possibly two.

Cheers! (and hurray lots of smiley face choices :clap: )
:drink:
Arrogant Bastard Ale: "...Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make a beer taste better. Perhaps you're mouthing your words as you read this."

Post #14 made 15 years ago
by SacSoul
I could give it a shot. No guaruntees with all of the recent tightening on security around shipments though.
Arrogant Bastard Ale: "...Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make a beer taste better. Perhaps you're mouthing your words as you read this."

Post #15 made 15 years ago
by SacSoul
Tasted for the first time last night. It was good, but didn't have the huge chocolate finish I was hoping for. Oh well, it is still a very flavorful stout with an aroma of chocolate and a hint of mint.

I ended up adding 4 oz. of Malto Dextrin with the priming sugar as well since it was a tad on the watery side for an oatmeal stout (which was the result of me not hitting target volume and diluting into the primary). It worked as it now sits somewhere between a porter and a stout in terms of heaviness/mouthfeel.

Taste wise it reminds me of a New Belgium 1554 but fuller with a slightly more pronounced chocolate finish. It is very light on hops with the majority of the bitterness coming from the dark roast grains. I'll update the flavor profile later this weekend while I am actually drinking it :yum: I'll need to taste this side-by-side with my holiday red ale to see which I prefer, but both turned out really good.
Image
Last edited by SacSoul on 11 Dec 2010, 00:11, edited 5 times in total.
Arrogant Bastard Ale: "...Perhaps you think multi-million dollar ad campaigns make a beer taste better. Perhaps you're mouthing your words as you read this."
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