Thin oatmeal stout

[Macphergus]

Made an oatmeal stout (details below). It came out noticeably thin, not too bad, still very drinkable but it surprised me. Any ideas where I should adjust to avoid in future?
All grain, 5 gal
Grain bill: 2-row 50.6%, Flaked barley 10.1%, Flaked oats 10.1%, Crystal 60L 9.3%, Munich light 10L 9.3%, Chocolate 5.1%, Roasted barley 2.1%, Rice hulls 8 oz, turbinado sugar 4 oz.
Hops all Northern Brewer (oz / addition): 0.5/60 min, 1.0/15 min, 0.5 whirlpool, 3 oz Hop Rocket filter
Mash: 1.5 qt/lb 156-154 deg F 60 min, mash out 170 deg F; sparged at 170 to pre-boil vol 8.25gal
Boil: 75 min to 6.75g, yeast nutrient and whirlfloc; cooled to 75 deg F, 1.060 OG
Ferm: 70 deg F, 2 packs Safale S-04 dry, prehydrated, about 1 min of oxygen, purged with C02, stainless conical 7.5 g fermenter. 7 days primary, 9 days secondary, 1.013 FG, bottle coarb with priming sugar.

 

[flars]

This was a five gallon recipe and you ended with 6.75 gallons. A longer boil time to get down closer to five would have been warranted.

 

[Nosybear]

Second the boil length idea. Looks to me like you made too much wort to start with, over 8 gallons for a 5-gallon recipe. I generally shoot for 7.5 gallons and boil down to 5.5 gallons. You only got to 6.75 - too much sparging!

 

[PZ]

Even with the over-sized final volume, was OG 1.060 what you planned to hit? You could eliminate the sugar to keep the FG higher, although 4 oz isn't much. I recommend letting it sit. Amazing things happen sometimes. Perhaps the "thin"body will morph into an elegant dryness. Also, after a break it might just taste better to you. Good luck!

 

[Macphergus]

Thanks for the replies. Yea, the volume explanation was an obvious one I overlooked. I lose a fair amount from post boil to fermenter going through a Hop Rocket and a homemade counter flow chiller (copper tube coiled inside a rubber hose). I'm working on ways to reduce volume loss there; one reason for relatively high post boil volume vs ferm volume. I was shooting for the 1.060 OG that was hit, one reason for my confusion on the thinness. It is tasting better with time.

 

[Nosybear]

It is tasting better with time.

They generally do. Cheers!

 

[JustBrewIt]

you might also try some minute rolled oats. I have had very good luck using plain old oat meal, the minute variety. Drop the flake oats and substitute minute rolled oats. With the minute stuff, the starch converts much faster.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

Thanks for the replies. Yea, the volume explanation was an obvious one I overlooked. I lose a fair amount from post boil to fermenter going through a Hop Rocket and a homemade counter flow chiller (copper tube coiled inside a rubber hose). I'm working on ways to reduce volume loss there; one reason for relatively high post boil volume vs ferm volume. I was shooting for the 1.060 OG that was hit, one reason for my confusion on the thinness. It is tasting better with time.

looks like your set up is similar to mine, so I had to increase all my recipes from 5.5 gallon to 7 to account for it, you may be getting a thin beer because too much water and trying to add for the loss from the equipment, you cant just add water if thats the case, you will need to rescale the recipe higher and just take the loss

 

[Crookedeyeboy]

I see no mention of mash treatment, did you add any gypsum or flake?
For a dark beer you need to have a ratio of Chloride:Sulphate of around 300:100
This will help greatly with body and mouth feel.

A lack of calcium will also contribute towards a thin beer.