Once upon a time, in a magical distant land called England...John brewed a strong, sweet oatmeal stout which won a blue ribbon at the 1996 New Forest & Hampshire County Show. Some judges were surprised to discover the brewer was American. Sadly, I never tasted that one because I was stranded on the other side of the pond. So this is my attempt to recreate it following his recipe and technique as closely as I could.
Mistakes I knew I was making:
I couldn't find Munich Dark, but substituted Cara 10 which is similar. My unmalted oats were processed a little differently. I couldn't find Northern Brewer hops (I know…weird, right?) so I created a blend with similar profile and IBU level. He used a direct-heated mash tun but I used a picnic cooler mash tun. Perhaps my biggest tweak was yeast, but with good reason. I used the Ringwood dual-strain, because John lived down the lane from the brewery and has always remembered their brews fondly.
As you'll see, he got a higher mash efficiency and original gravity than I did. I texted John about that and my high-attenuating yeast; he replied predicting mine "will taste less sweet too and that will make a better stout." Nice guy, huh?
JOHN'S BLUE RIBBON STOUT
4.5 US gallons = 3.75 Imperial gallon = 17 Liters
GRAINBILL:
59.6% = 7 lbs = 3175 g, UK Pale Malt
8.5% = 1 lb = 454 g, Pilsener Malt
8.5% = 1 lb = 454 g, US Cara 10L Malt (John used Munich Dark)
2.1% = .25 lb = 113 g, UK Chocolate Malt
6.4% = .75 lb = 340 g, UK Roasted Barley
8.5% = 1 lb = 454 g, Steel-Cut Oats (John used Flaked)
6.4% = .75 lb = 340 g, Molasses, added directly to boil kettle
TOTAL: 11.75 lbs = 5.33 kg
MULTI-STEP MASH:
I STRUCK grainbed with ≈2.75 gal/2.29 Imp gal/10.4 L of 155°F/68.3°C water to reach 138°F/58.9°C for 30 min.
I added ≈1 US gal/.83 Imp gal/3.79 L of boiling water to reach 151°F/66°C for 90 min.
I didn't have any headspace left, so I repeatedly drained a bunch, brought it to a boil, and cycled it back in until I reached 170°F/76.7°C, rested for 5 min. In my opinion, this is the most frustrating part of mashing in a picnic cooler. If anyone has come up with a better method, I'm all ears.
I VORLAUFED then SPARGED to collect 6 US gal/5 Imp gal/22.7 L pre-boil.
I BOILED 60 min with single hop addition at beginning.
HOPS (John used Target and Northern Brewer):
.75 oz/21.3 g, UK Flyer, whole cone, first wort addition
1 oz/28.3 g, UK Keyworth Midseason, whole cone, first wort addition
YEAST:
Ringwood Brewery English ale dual-strain (John used Wyeast 1007, the Zum Uerige Dusseldorf alt strain)
STATS (John consistently gets >85% mash efficiency, I simply cannot):
OG: 1070 (John got 1074)
FG: 1013 (John got 1018)
ABV: 7.5%
IBU: 36
COLOUR: opaque, very dark reddish brown with light brown foam
Check-out that dark mash:
Yeast starter, molasses and pre-measured hops ready to go:
"Slow as molasses":
Sparging:
Coming to a boil:
Some idiot (me) didn't put away the garden hose last time, so it was frozen solid. I had to go buy a new cheapo one for the chiller:
Transferring from the boil kettle to the chiller:
Ready to ferment:
Pitching the yeast:
Blue Ribbon Stout Mulch (from the spent grains):
There's really nothing complain about, it's always cool to share my beer at an event like this.
