Bring a friend brewday - 21/07/2007

[J_P]

How do all

A mate of mine has expressed an interest in popping over and helping with an AG brew and seeing as my other half is away on a hen do and the weather is still sh*te I figured I'd invite him over this weekend. We are planning on making a day of it and I have told him he can take home half of what we brew - can't say fairer than that.

He drinks stout and the recipe we're planning on making, the Imperial Oatmeal Stout by Mick Yallup on the craft brewing association website, this recipe involves 1kg of porridge oats.

My first question is this can I just throw these straight into the mash or do I need to pre treat them first?

My Second question is I don't have a heated mash tun so would a normal single infusion mash at the prescribed 63C temperature achieve a reasonably similar result as the two stage mash described?

My third and final question is what kind of IBU level should I be aiming for?

Cheers in advance (again)

[Garth]

that's well bitter JP, it comes out at 91 IBUs, and that was without the First Gold added in, maybe a few months maturing.....?

also the recipe seems to be working on a 79-80% efficiency

edit just re read the recipe, he's using homegrown stuff which mustn't have as much AA in, a strong stout like that would maybe be up to 65 - 70 IBU, maybe more

[johnmac]

JP, have you made oatmeal stout before? Does your mate like beer with no head on it?

[Frothy]

Those kind of IBU's would be understandable if it was 10% + like the Russian Imp stout/ Barley wines but not for a gravity of 1.065. JP you need to start serupticiously buying beer kits for peoples birthdays / christmas, like reeling in a fish.

Frothy

[J_P]

JP, have you made oatmeal stout before? Does your mate like beer with no head on it?

I've not made any stout before, re my mates tastes in stout it'll be fine as long as it sucks all the light out the room , I on the other hand like a bit of head on my pint, would I be able to throw in some torrified wheat in there for good measure?

that's well bitter JP, it comes out at 91 IBUs, and that was without the First Gold added in, maybe a few months maturing.....?

That sounds way too high for a 1065 beer, I've just checked in Beersmith and it's said that the target IBU for an oatmeal stout would be between 25 and 45 does this sound about right?

also the recipe seems to be working on a 79-80% efficiency

Since accurately measuring the volumes in my fermenter the last 2 brews I've done have worked out at 80% and 80.1% so I don't think that this will be a problem (I hope) this has been calculated using the figures from the recipe formulation pages and assuming a figure of 298 for torrified wheat. I'm effectively fly sparging with a jug and some punctured tin foil

You can increase the heat by adding kettles of boiling water until the mash is at the desired temperature. If you are going to do this then I would start off with a thick mash at a round 2:1

Ahhh - I never thought of that

you need to start serupticiously buying beer kits for peoples birthdays / christmas, like reeling in a fish.

He bottled his first turbo cider last week he's got a stout kit on the go too and has just bought a dark mild kit too.

Cheers as ever for the pointers

[Gurgeh]

My first question is this can I just throw these straight into the mash or do I need to pre treat them first?

I'm no expect here, never done one. IIRC you have to 'gelatinise' the starch in the porridge oats before mashing them.

I don't know if this is right, but I think you have to boil them in water for a little while first.

[delboy]

J_P good luckwith the brew day, i had a similar brew day with a mate, we done 10Gs of a golden ale i fermented half and he fermented the other half.
He'd never brewed before but he enjoyed the process (and the beer) so much that he bite the bullet and is assembling his kit for all grain brewing and he's taking a few of the cornies im getting from IanB .

[SteveD]

he's using homegrown stuff which mustn't have as much AA in, a strong stout like that would maybe be up to 65 - 70 IBU, maybe more

Why not? They could just as easily have more in..or the same ammount...but that isn't it.

Wakey, wakey, people!! He said he used 100g fresh challengers, ie, just picked and frozen, and not dried therefore most of the weight is water. He said if you're using dried hops, use 25g. You're all working out IBU's for the fresh hops, but using calcs for dried hops!! Try it for 25g, and the panic will be over.

There is no reason to assume home grown hops have less aa than their commercial counterparts, or to assume that the same strains 200 years ago also contain less. It's just a convenient excuse accountant-brewers use for putting less hops in.

[J_P]

Cheers for the advice chaps. I think I'll boil up the porridge oats to gelatinaise the starches, which if my memory is firing on all cylinders happens in the high 60's C.

I think I'm going to settle for around the 50 IBU mark here and don't worry Steve I won't be scrimping on any of the ingredients

[SteveD]

Cheers for the advice chaps. I think I'll boil up the porridge oats to gelatinaise the starches, which if my memory is firing on all cylinders happens in the high 60's C.

I think I'm going to settle for around the 50 IBU mark here and don't worry Steve I won't be scrimping on any of the ingredients

Trying to sparge porage ...oooh. Good luck.