My first stout

Herm brews

Herm brews

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Here is the recipe that I have built to brew my first stout. It is kind of straddling the line between Oatmeal and American Stout. I want to use flaked oats for a smooth mouthfeel, and have opted to use American hops that I have on hand. If any of you have any feedback concerning water profile and yeast, or any other observations, I would be happy to consider your ideas. Thanks in advance.
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1260400/herms-smooth-stout
 
Seems to have an awful lot of specialty grains, did the recipe calculator say it had enough diastatic power to convert?

Yeast and hops seem fine to me. Are you aiming for the high carbonate levels in the London water profile?
 
Sunfire96 said:
Seems to have an awful lot of specialty grains, did the recipe calculator say it had enough diastatic power to convert?

Yeast and hops seem fine to me. Are you aiming for the high carbonate levels in the London water profile?
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Thanks for the feedback. I generally followed recommendations in beerandbrewing.com How to Make Your Best Oatmeal Stout, and it called for all of those specialty grains. According to the recipe builder, this will have a DP of 66, so conversion should be fine. As for the London water profile, I picked that because it seems to fit the style. The recipe builder indicates via Palmer to have residual alkalinity as CaCO3 at 476-535 ppm. Maybe I need some oyster shells;)
 
Has some similarities to Yooper’s Oatmeal Stout. Maybe look to this thread for some tips.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/yoopers-oatmeal-stout.210376/

I just made this. It shares a lot of similarities with an English Porter. A bit rounder, more chocolatey than a Dry Stout. I’ll always prefer a Dry Stout, but this one doesn’t disappoint. Very good.
 
Only comment I have is I usually shift the water profile to malty.

Also wyeast 1098 is my go to for stouts, never tried the s-04 for it
 
Megary said:
Has some similarities to Yooper’s Oatmeal Stout. Maybe look to this thread for some tips.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/yoopers-oatmeal-stout.210376/

I just made this. It shares a lot of similarities with an English Porter. A bit rounder, more chocolatey than a Dry Stout. I’ll always prefer a Dry Stout, but this one doesn’t disappoint. Very good.
Click to expand...
Thanks for sending me down that very deep rabbit hole. I just joined HBT as a result. As if there isn’t enough info to digest here on Brewer’s Friend. My wife is gonna love this:eek:
 
All of my stouts are Irish stouts so I’m not I’d be much help. But…
For a Guinness style the ratio is 65/25/10 MO/flaked barley/roast. Extra stout uses more base malt so the percentage is roughly 70-75% Mo and rest follow suit. Mixing choc for some of the roast is nice. Some crystal in place of some of the flaked or roast is also nice. I’m not sure you need lots of different malts but you are good at building flavors so have at it. I did not like s04 as much as Nottingham or Irish ale yeast. When I made a milk stout I used s04 once and us05 and liked us05 better
 
I'm not a Stout Master but mine typically have 75%-85% base malt. I would say that is a lot of victory for a small batch but i don't have experience with it.
I'd say that there should be some roasted or black malt in there too.
I've used wlp005 yeast with good results. have used some american yeasts too but adjust mash temp up a bit so they don't finish too dry.
 
WesBrew said:
I'm not a Stout Master but mine typically have 75%-85% base malt. I would say that is a lot of victory for a small batch but i don't have experience with it.
I'd say that there should be some roasted or black malt in there too.
I've used wlp005 yeast with good results. have used some american yeasts too but adjust mash temp up a bit so they don't finish too dry.
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I built this recipe on recommendations from beerandbrewing.com under the query How to Make your Best Oatmeal Stout. It had, by weight, 50% Maris Otter (I subbed pale ale malt), 10% Munich, Victory, flaked oats and pale chocolate malt, with 5% each English Crystal 45 and midnight wheat. I think the pale chocolate covers the roast, and the midnight wheat covers the black.
Anyway, I appreciate your feedback, and will take a look at WLP005 to see if it will work in my brewery.
 
Herm_brews said:
Here is the recipe that I have built to brew my first stout. It is kind of straddling the line between Oatmeal and American Stout. I want to use flaked oats for a smooth mouthfeel, and have opted to use American hops that I have on hand. If any of you have any feedback concerning water profile and yeast, or any other observations, I would be happy to consider your ideas. Thanks in advance.
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1260400/herms-smooth-stout
Click to expand...
Looks good to me, run with it and let us know.
A bit on the bitter side for me though.
My2cents
 
Herm_brews said:
I built this recipe on recommendations from beerandbrewing.com under the query How to Make your Best Oatmeal Stout. It had, by weight, 50% Maris Otter (I subbed pale ale malt), 10% Munich, Victory, flaked oats and pale chocolate malt, with 5% each English Crystal 45 and midnight wheat. I think the pale chocolate covers the roast, and the midnight wheat covers the black.
Anyway, I appreciate your feedback, and will take a look at WLP005 to see if it will work in my brewery.
Click to expand...
-Those tend to have higher FG, although some english yeasts will ferment a bit more if you give them time.Plenty of good american ale yeasts to ferment a drier beer.
I found this thread regarding Victory and how much is too much. Yooper had a few comments too.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/victory-as-a-base-malt.367545/
 
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In my Azacca pale ale (brewed 3 times), I use Victory at 10% of the grain bill, to no apparent ill effect. So maybe I should do some further tweaking on this stout recipe to get both Victory and Munich at or below 10%. I have noted that Palmer recommends using Victory between 5-15% of a grain bill.
 
Ward Chillington said:
Hop choice while practical seem different to what I'd expect to see
...EKG or Fuggles
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Sure, EKG or Fuggles would be great in a British stout, but an American stout could have all kinds of hops that would work. I just brewed a dry stout with CTZ as the bittering hop. Turned out great!
 
Lol...that same combo is going into the cream ale I am brewing this weekend!

Beer....go figure!
 
Final recipe is set, grains are weighed and milled. I have RO water ready for brewing salts. Irish moss assisting in the aim for clear beer. Hops were already in my freezer. Yeast, recommended by my buddy at the lhbs, waiting to do the heavy lifting. Shout out for the Smooth Stout!
 
Herm_brews said:
Final recipe is set, grains are weighed and milled. I have RO water ready for brewing salts. Irish moss assisting in the aim for clear beer. Hops were already in my freezer. Yeast, recommended by my buddy at the lhbs, waiting to do the heavy lifting. Shout out for the Smooth Stout!
Click to expand...
Let's go!
 
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