Batch #9-10: Oatmeal Stout

Release scheduled just prior to Christmas.  This is a heavy beer with a six-week conditioning period.

Summary:

Oct 6 @ 7:00PM — The brew session was pretty straight-forward, except that I lost about a pint of the brew in a boilover.  I tried hard to avoid it, but it happened anyway.  It made quite a sticky mess on my stove.

The wort was a dark brown color, and the oatmeal was quite noticeable in the aroma.  I went back to the usual 20 minute ice bath for the brew pot, and had an 85 degree wort after topping off at 5 gallons.

This batch is using a dry yeast (specified in the recipe), but I decided to put it in a malt-based starter about 36 hours ahead of time.  The yeast looked pretty active around brewing time, but we’ll see if it generates the same aggressiveness that I get from a Wyeast package.

This batch is again using wick cooling for the bucket.

Oct 7 @ 7:00PM — It tooks a while for the yeast to get going, but I am getting 3 seconds bursts from the airlock, and they last as long as two seconds.   Off to a good start.  Not sure how much the starter has helped.. at least, yet.

Oct 14 @ 10:00PM — Transferred the wort to secondary.  Added 1lb of corn sugar cooked at 170F water to the carboy before transferring the wort.  The IG is 1.020: the recipe expects 1.018 at this point.  Not too bad.  There was a lot of trum in the fermentation bucket: 2 solid inches of it.  Secondary fermentation is definitely called for here.  I hope the pound of corn sugar will boost the alcohol content about 1% more.

The beer is thick, like you would expect for a stout, and the flavor is quite good.  So far, so good.

Oct 20 @ 9:00PM — The carboy had about 1/2 inch of trum on the bottom. The resulting brew was dark brown and very smooth. I am very impressed with how this batch has turned out at this point, and can’t wait to try to the final product in six weeks. From what I taste, it might be worth repeating this batch with about 1/2 pureed banana in the fermentation bucket. The resulting beer might not quite be a new way to eat breakfast, but the flavors would seem to blend well.

Bottling yield: 1x 64oz Growler, 2xs 34oz snap top, 2x 16oz snap top, 1x 22oz and 31x 12oz. I used 8oz of corn sugar dissolved in boiling water as the priming sugar. I have found that taking the time to dissolve the priming sugar in boiling water leaves very little trum in the bottles, and makes a good, smooth head on the beer when it is poured.

Oct 27 @ 9:00PM — Opened the first bottle after chilling it for two hours.  There was minimal head from it, and although drinkable, the flavors need time to meld.  I still can imagine how a hint of banana flavoring would go well with this batch.

Dec 10 @ 1:30PM — I drank three bottles with a week between them.  The flavor improved consistently over time.  This batch received very good feedback. I will definitely repeat this recipe in the future.  It is a very good beer to drink outside when the air temperature is around 68F.  This was my first time using a recipe from other than my beer supply shop, and it was a success.