Oatmeal Coffee Stout feedback

To add a bit to this, in addition to dry yeast packets containing more cells, they are less prone than cells in liquid yeast to viability losses over time and as a consequence of the sort of mishandling that occurs when temps fluctuate during shipping and improper storage.

 

Briess also makes a darker one, black barley, that come in at 500L. I think I perceive the lighter one to be more coffee like and the darker one to be more chocolate like.

I usually use Belgian malts for Belgian beers, German malts for German beers, etc., but from time to time I like to challenge myself with using only (or mostly) Briess malts to make a batch. Mostly it was the for the novelty of saying California common or English mild with all Wisconsin malts. I think these beers mostly have been successful, but I want to say that those international styles shine best with traditional (i.e., imported) ingredients. Could just be bias though.

 

I hate that name: "Black Barley." When I hear it, I immediately think of Black Patent Malt, which it's not. Thanks Briess!

 

I just realized, I think for the first time, that they have spec sheets for products named Black Barley and Black Malt and both are 500 L. The former is not malted and the later is. The unmalted one is described as more coffee like than the malted one. Given the similarity in name and Lovibond, I now find myself questioning which I have used in different recipes over the years.

FWIW The Black Malt spec sheet says Black (Patent) Malt. I feel like in 2018, we could probably drop the reference to a patent that is centuries old. Only adds to the confusion, IMO.

 

Dunk Sparging helped bring my BIAB brew house efficiency up from a normal 64-68% to over 75% on my most recent coffee stout batch. Mashed grains in 6.5Gallons of water, then squeezed bag like all hell - poured 8 cups of "sparge water" over bag, squeezed again. Then dunk and squeezed the grain bag a few times in the sparge water - combined sparge water with mash for the boil. Boiled for 2 hours to get just under 6 gallons into my fermenter at 1.082.

For coffee: I find that beans are great for aroma, cold brew concentrate is great for taste and doesn't add much if any perceived bitterness. I crack up coffee beans (or VERY coarsely grind them - we want to limit extraction) at about .75oz per gallon or so, and let sit in fermenter as I cold crash down to around 45F (limitation of my wine chiller ferm chamber). I'll add them as i begin crashing and they'll sit for around 48-72 hours total.

At kegging I add around 100-150ml per gallon of cold brew concentrate - the more concentrated it is, the less you need.Of course the less you use - the less you're "watering down" your beer. If you really want in your face aroma - another .5oz or so per gallon of cracked (very coarsely ground) coffee beans in the keg will help. I did this back in March - counter pressure filled a few bottles. Opened a bottle last weekend and the coffee aroma was still very nice and strong.

i'd recommend finding a local coffee roaster and getting beans from them - nice freshly roasted coffee will do wonders for aroma, and if you're lucky you'll find a variety that may compliment your beer. I use Bali from Rook Coffee Roaster in NJ - it has notes of cherry, vanilla, and dark chocolate (i also add cacao nibs and vanilla bean to this beer)

 

Just a few thoughts. Been doing tons of research on brewing dark beers over the last few months.

Water is key, looks like you’re adding some Bicarbonate which is good. What does your calculator say your pH will be. A little higher pH throughout the whole process will help with smoothing everything out.

Look to use some English roasted malts in the future. I pretty much wont use one product from Breiss. IMHO there tends to be much better options in almost every category. The British malts tend to have more positive roast characteristics. Baird’s and Fawcett chocolate, Simpson’s for caramel, etc. Also check out chocolate rye, chocolate wheat, and chocolate spelt (if you can find it) for more true chocolate flavors and aromas.

Coffee: Locally roasted high quality coffee. All you need is rough cracked beans. Colder the temp the better. I’ve had better success just doing the “cold brew” in the beer instead of cold brewing on the side and adding. Be careful with contact time, it’s really easy to get the green pepper/vegetal with extra contact time especially if it’s a light roast coffee. I wouldn’t go much longer than 2 days personally.

Mash warmer and shorter. A higher FG really helps to balance out the harsher aspects of the roast malt. I think a lot of people would be surprised how high a FG a lot of the highly regarded stouts have. Even in lower ABV beers.

Also try adding the dark grains at the end of the mash or even doing a cold steep with the dark malts and adding them at the end of the boil. This is how Guinness is made and I’m pretty sure Treehouse does this as welll.

 

What does it put the Sodium up to? Don’t be afraid of Sodium. It takes quite a bit to become perceptible and it can really help with pallet fullness and flavor intensity. Supposedly 150ppm is where it starts becoming perceptible. Malt definitely adds some (roughly 40ppm depending on a few variables).

If you add the roast malt at the end you won’t need the Bicarbonate as it won’t drive mash pH down. I don’t believe it would drive final runnings pH down a ton but I’m not 100% sure of that.

I might mash even higher especially if using 05. For reference Everett from Hill Farmstead finishes at 1.030 (it’s 7.5%), most Treehouse and Trillium stouts finish even higher even with lower ABV. Depends how you want the beer to drink thought, it’s all about balance.

 

i'd aim for 5.5-5.55.

Depending on how you want your stout..I mashed at 157 and boiled for 2 hours. OG 1.082 went down to 1.020 (note I had milk sugar in mine) within 5 days with Imperial darkness

 

If using 05 getting it to stop at 1.020 might actually be tough if you mash at 154. I don't use 05 that often though so I'm not 100% sure on a recommended mash temp for it.