Author: stoutmaker

The Black Knight Oatmeal Stout

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Today’s brew is another one that was great, but then never got brewed again. Oatmeal stout. 
I actually had forgotten all about this one until I threw some oatmeal in the stout I brewed at the meeting. The oatmeal aromas and taste really jump out at you.
The last time I brewed this was 2010. I’m slightly changing it because of my growing distaste for 120L crystal. So 80L is going in instead. And instead of Mt. Hood hops I’m using Fuggles. 

Black Knight-3 gallon
4.5 lbs 2 row
6 oz roast barley
5 oz chocolate malt
5 oz 80L crystal
1 lb oatmeal
1.25 Fuggles @60
London ale III. Mashed 156
The way my kettle works is I have a false bottom over the elements. Even in the boil bag the oatmeal is sooo gummy that it completely sealed off the false bottom. 
When I started my pump to recirc, it created a suction underneath and just choked everything off. A couple stirs to open a channel and we were all good.  
So this time I did not recirc. I just stirred half way thru like mashing in the tun. 
So this time after I took the bag out I put another clean bag over the end of the outlet hose and recirculated while heating to boil. Really cleaned a bunch of gunk out that would have been strained out during the normal recirc. 
Hit the preboil of .042. And had an OG of .058.  Even right now it smelled delicious. 

Return of the Dry Stout

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The first batch of the full sized 5 gallon biab was the Fogger dry stout.

Fairly close to the original, but used Magnum hops and the BRY-97 yeast. Mostly because I like the subtle aroma that magnum gives plus I think the Magnum has a different sharpness to its bitter, and I think that might play a little better with the amount of the buffering flaked barley in here.
And the BRY is just trying to find a suitable replacement for the ever problematic US-05.
6lbs- 2row
1lb- roast barley 
2lbs- flaked barley
5oz- chocolate malt
.70 oz- magnum @60
Bry-97 yeast- mashed 154

As this was the first Biab in the propane fired bigger kettle I was expecting a few hiccups. Not much went “wrong” but I think I did learn a few things.
– don’t need the false bottom. I think that hindered heat transfer from bottom of mash to top
– the recirc pump works great, but maybe consider an inlet in the lid in order to keep lid on tight.

I did lose about 3 degrees of heat over the mash, but Had the lid cracked open about an inch because of the recirc hose. You could feel the heat just pouring out of there. 
With nearly 8 gallons of water and 10 lbs of grain, that huge thermal mass isn’t going to lose hardly any heat at all with a tight lid. I doubt I would even need reflectix.
Next up,, oatmeal stout. 

Taking it Back

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I was going to have a long winded post about the status of the brewery and my beers. But instead, take this advise. Spend the $20 bucks on a whole house filter system. It will save you money in the end.

There is my rant. 
But next on the list is another step in the new direction of my brewing. First was 3 gallon batches. Next was going electric. Then quickly moving to BiaB. 
The next step is more of a point of focus than an actual brewing change. 
I have gotten so off the path of why I started brewing in the first place, that this step needs to be taken. 
The stout style of beers has always been, or at least once was, my number one beer to brew. You could not find a good stout anywhere unless you brewed it your self. 
And I did. And was very good at them. I was brewing the beer I wanted, the way I wanted it.

While I do like making making other beers, drinking other beers. Nothing seems to have the same.. “Vibe”. Bouncing from this style to that style to styles I didn’t even know what they were. That started to take its toll on quality.  
When I drank one of my stouts from 5 years ago, it was better than anything around. Nowadays nearly every stout is as good or better than mine. And I don’t like that. 
So in order to take back my category, I think it’s time go back to focusing on the stout. 
Remake those defining recipes. The originals, before they were changed. Adapt them to the new system and volumes. 
Sure we can brew other beers. But damn it,,, from here on out its all about the stout. 
I hereby am re-naming the brewery to clearly define our purpose. 
Today begins 9stripe Stoutery