Killer_Robot
Well-Known Member
My first brew (in the Mr. Beer) is finishing up and ready to bottle very shortly, and since my new five gallon kit is busy fermenting some cider I'm going for another two gallon batch with one of my remaining refills and am looking for a little advice since I'd like to experiment more with this one before going whole hog into just making beer from base ingredients. It's one of their recipes rather than a basic kit, for their Dubliner oatmeal stout. I'm looking to see whether it's something that bears further tweaking. It came with(and called for)
In box:
1.2 lb hopped malt extract(stout)
1.2 lb dark UME
1/2 oz. Fuggle Pellet Hops (AA 3.6%)
From the kitchen:
1/2 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
2 Cups Oatmeal
So far I'm taking out the included Mr. Beer yeast and using a packet of Nottingham, but a I have a couple other questions for substitutions.
1.) I don't usually keep brown sugar on hand, rather I mix white sugar and molasses when I bake something that needs it. Might I be better off just adding DME and molasses instead? And is molasses something I need to be careful not to overdo? I'm not sure if it's a "use sparingly" ingredient or a forgiving one.
2.) The oatmeal is called to be boiled in a bag for five minutes (which is all the boil lasts anyway.) Would more be good, or bad? Or for that matter, is oatmeal something best used at sub-boiling temperatures? I know oats are one of those ingredients that can be overdone, so don't want something that suffers for it.
3. I understand these kits are a bit low on hoppiness, which is part of why I got one that came with extra. A dry hopping like this will add aroma but not so much bitterness, as I understand: might it balance the flavor better to put half the hops in a boil(long or short) and the other half in dry instead, or am I better off just sticking to the recipe?
In box:
1.2 lb hopped malt extract(stout)
1.2 lb dark UME
1/2 oz. Fuggle Pellet Hops (AA 3.6%)
From the kitchen:
1/2 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
2 Cups Oatmeal
So far I'm taking out the included Mr. Beer yeast and using a packet of Nottingham, but a I have a couple other questions for substitutions.
1.) I don't usually keep brown sugar on hand, rather I mix white sugar and molasses when I bake something that needs it. Might I be better off just adding DME and molasses instead? And is molasses something I need to be careful not to overdo? I'm not sure if it's a "use sparingly" ingredient or a forgiving one.
2.) The oatmeal is called to be boiled in a bag for five minutes (which is all the boil lasts anyway.) Would more be good, or bad? Or for that matter, is oatmeal something best used at sub-boiling temperatures? I know oats are one of those ingredients that can be overdone, so don't want something that suffers for it.
3. I understand these kits are a bit low on hoppiness, which is part of why I got one that came with extra. A dry hopping like this will add aroma but not so much bitterness, as I understand: might it balance the flavor better to put half the hops in a boil(long or short) and the other half in dry instead, or am I better off just sticking to the recipe?
