Brewing a Oatmeal Milk Stout

I tend to use some darker crystal malt in stouts, rather than carapils. With the relatively high OG, plus oats, plus lactose I don't think you'll need the extra dextrins. Mash temperature?

I think you are fine with just bittering hops, but why three different hops?

How much lactose and oak are you planning on? I'd save the lactose to add at bottling to get the right amount of sweetness, that is add it to taste based on how the beer is after fermentation.

 

A few comments:

To kind of springboard off what OldSock posted, I would solely utilize dark malts. I would not use Carapils or 30L Crystal. For dark malts I have a strong preference for English dark malts vs. Briess/American. I would only use English (Simpsons) Chocolate Malt and English Black Malt. I am not a fan of Roasted Barley in a sweet stout (I personally associate Roasted Barley with a dry stout) so I would nix that malt as well.

The bittering level is just fine but you have an interesting mix of hops there (but that should be OK).

I personally would nix the oak cubes.

I think OldSock provided great advice to add the lactose at bottling to taste.

Cheers!

 

Lactose will not really ferment out so I would be careful mashing so high as you may make the beer too sweet, of course that also depends on how much lactose you add. I love WLP004 and use it in all my dark beers but sometimes it seems to underattenaute for me if I mash too high.

 

“That being said, do you think this grain bill should produce a dark enough stout?”

I brew an Oatmeal Stout that has ½ lb. of English Chocolate Stout and ¼ lb. of English Black Malt. That beer is plenty dark.

Cheers!

 

Agreed, although the Briess Roasted Barley and Chocolate malt are surprisingly pale at 300L and 350L. I really like their softer flavor compared to the really dark English stuff, but I upped the amount on my last oatmeal stout to 1.25 lbs of the roasted barley and 1 lb of the chocolate and that was about right in terms of color and flavor. I don't use the considerably darker black barley, which will provide much of the color in this case.

 

I third the darker crystal malts for an oatmeal stout - maybe even some special B. I think they really complement each other.

Loves me some oats. I just bought a 25# bag of them at the grocery store yesterday. It was $10.

 

I suppose I should have added the color details to my prior post:

· English Chocolate Malt: 375 – 450 L
· English Black Malt: 500 - 600L

Again, I don’t recommend Roasted Malt for a sweet stout since it can impart dryness, espresso and smoky notes to the beer. If the OP wants this dryness in his sweet stout than he should utilize Roasted Barley. I personally would not use Roasted Barley in a non-dry stout.

Cheers!

 

Funny this post came up today. I'm about to do my second batch (All Grain) soon here and was looking for a good oatmeal milk stout recipe. I'm not quite skilled enough yet to put together my own recipe so was definitely looking for some help. A good base recipe would be fine and then I'll make a few tweeks to it. I would also like to add a decent amount of chocolate to it as well. Any help would be appreciated. Also I brew 6gal batches.

Also not trying to hijack thread just didn't want to post a new one since this is so similar.

 

The Briess roasted barley is very different from the classic sharp/dry character of a 500+L roasted barley. The flavor lacks any of the harsh/acrid/charcoal, much more coffee/chcolate etc.

Here is the recipe I mentioned above. I add coffee, but you could just as easily do chocolate (I'm a fan of making a paste with cocoa powder and hot water to add to secondary, a vanilla bean never hurt either).
http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2013/01/oatmeal-cofee-stout-3-bigger-and-bolder.html

 

“The Briess roasted barley is very different from the classic sharp/dry character of a 500+L roasted barley. The flavor lacks any of the harsh/acrid/charcoal, much more coffee/chocolate etc.”

Thanks for the education on the Briess vs. non-Briess Roasted Barley. I learned something new today!

Cheers!

P.S. I still will not be adding Roasted Barley to a non-dry stout. IMHO, the Chocolate Malt and Black Malt are sufficient.

 

That recipe looks pretty good I think I'm going to go with that. Now what can I add more of to make it a 6 gal recipe? I have BeerSmith, still new to it so not sure if that will help me on that. Also how do you go about making this chocolate paste? Thanks for the help!

 

It's a 5.75 gallon recipe, so you could increase all the ingredients by ~4%... or just add an extra half pound of pale malt to replace the lower gravity and give it a whirl. You may also need to adjust the amount of malt depending on your efficiency.

I was actually on the BeerSmith podcast last week and converted/posted this recipe in BeerSmith format on Brad’s recipe site: http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/97182/black-house Might make things easier for you.

Mix cocoa powder (4-5 oz) wiith enough near-boiling water, about equal amounts by volume, to make a paste. Let it sit for a few minutes then pour/scoop it into the empty secondary fermentor. Rack the beer onto it and let it sit for about two weeks. Cocoa powder is low if fat so it won't disrupt head retention and the hydration makes for a fuller chocolate flavor, and an easier time mixing it into cold beer.

Good luck!

 

Looks good man thanks again! After I brew it I'll let you know how it went.