AG #5 Samuel Smiths Oatmeal Stoutish

[jimp2003]

Evening All!

Part way through brewing an attempt at an Oatmeal Stout (see recipe HERE) using the BIAB method.

However I substituted the roasted barley in the original recipe with roasted wheat that I had handy so not sure if this should be an oatmeal porter....


So far everything has gone smoothly with the start of boil OG dead on at 1.040

Have taken some pics and will post them later hopefully. As the wife has gone out the door from the garage to the hall is open so I can monitor the latest battles between the kids upstairs which means that the house is full of the smell of malt and EKG - lets hope she does not come home too worse for wear as the smell of the brew might just be enough to tip her over the edge....

[jimp2003]

Ok here goes with my first pic post....


Obligatory Grain Shot...



And the hops. 70g of EKG to go in at 90 mins. EKG never look particularly fresh do they? But the smell of them and the amount of resin on my fingers after I got them out of the bag tells a different story (thanks Malt Miller!)


Heating up the water for mashing. I use a 50l pot and a propane fired 8.8kW gas ring




Doughed in. This is the first outing for my new custom made BIAB bag courtesy of Mrs EoinMag - Thanks Mareth!! It made a huge difference from the large square of material I used to use - no more worrying that the bag might get scorched if I add more heat such as when raising the temp to mash out (note the plimsol line stitched around the bag).


Temperature pretty close to where it needed to be so I wrapped her up in an old sleeping bag, coat and suit jacket.



Pulling the bag..


Getting to the boil...


Start of boil OG was 1039 when adjusted for temperature which is exactly as predicted by my spreadsheet


Hops away!! (shame the camera focused on the dish not the hops )


Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble.


Crappy focus on the hydrometer again . End of boil gravity was 1035 at 57 degrees C which equates to 1049 on my chart so dead on target


Took a pick earlier in the process of my home made immersion chiller - she ain't pretty but she works a treat.


Tipped the wort into the FV through a strainer and pitched the Nottingham. I rehydrated the yeast for the first time so we will see if it makes any noticeable difference.


The brew has been put to bed in the temp controlled fridge at 18 C and lets see if the morning brings any signs of life....

Jim

[WishboneBrewery]

Nice pics, looks like a cracker

[art.b]

that looks ace

must get my ass in gear to use my biab kit....

[jimp2003]

Thanks guys!

I will be posting more pics from future brewdays but with BIAB being such a simple process I hope that they don't become too repetitive.

[jimp2003]

This brew got down to 1.015 after a week or so and I bottled it last night.

I batch primed with 70g of sugar boiled up in about 120ml water added to the bottling bucket before the beer was syphoned in from the FV.

Before the first bottle I drew off a small amount from the little bottler into a glass and it tastes fantastic with the harsh bitterness that I had noticed from earlier samples receding to leave it silky and roasty toasty with just enough bitterness to balance everything out.

After bottling however there was two thirds of a bottle left that I put into a glass to have after cleaning up. When I tasted this it was incredibly sweet, so much so that I could not have more than a couple of mouthfuls. I can only assume that the sugar solution did not mix evenly through the brew.

I have not had this problem before as I position the syphon tubing to create a whirlpool effect to mix everything together. So now I may well have 38 bottles with different amounts of priming sugar in them - like Goldilocks some will have too much, some too little and some just right. Just hope I don't get any bombs!!

jim