Oatmeal Stout for the first time

[Kimsta]

I was originally going to make a Chocolate Vanilla stout, but after reading around I decided to convert the recipe into an Oatmeal stout. Going to make this an extract recipe. I want to make this smooth and mildly bitter with some sweetness.

Cold-steeping caught my eye in one of the posts around here, so to get the mild bitterness should I cold steep overnight, then add it late in the boil? Or can I just add it halfway through the boil and still get a little bitterness out of it? Anyway, here's what I got:

0.5 lb each Black Patent, Chocolate, Roasted Barley

1 lb (?) Quick Oats

1 oz Galena

4 oz each Lactose and Maltodextrin (@ 15 min)
2 oz Vanilla Extract (primary)
8 oz Unsweetened chocolate, melted (@ flameout)

British ale yeast (that's all the LHBS had in place of a stout yeast... )

I'm guessing I can just start the oats steeping @ 150 for 30 mins, Then proceed with the rest of the boil? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[bradsul]

Quick oats (or flaked oats) can just be steeped with the rest of your steeping grains, so no worries there. I would drop the black patent however, it's not appropriate for a stout (it's more for porters) and half a pound of it is a lot.

I would also leave out the chocolate if it were me, you will get a nice chocolate aftertaste from the chocolate malt, and chocolate itself has a lot of oils in it that will kill the head on your beer (if you really want to add some chocolate flavour, go with cocoa powder).

Think about adding the vanilla to taste in the bottling bucket as well, it's REALLY easy to over do the vanilla and make the beer undrinkable.

 

[Kimsta]

Thanks for the input. Unfortunately I have all the grains in one bag so i 'm forced to use them :\ Think that will really offset the flavors? Maybe I could steep for a short amount of time...?

 

[bradsul]

Most likely with that much black patent you will need to age it for a quite a while (figure at least 4-6 months as a guess), but it should mellow out nicely if you give it enough time.

 

[Kimsta]

Alrighty, I guess I can wait for that long... THanks again

 

[bradsul]

Just think of it as an excuse to make it again without the black patent so you can do a comparison. Plus that way you have twice as much stout.