[BIAB] Oatmeal Stout

[shane_oh4]

My first foray into brew in a bag will be an Oatmeal Stout, happening later tonight.

I'm currently living in Shanghai and have bought this recipe from an online brewing store and
recipe/instructions/translations provided by a friend are a little patchy: https://imgur.com/a/J6YAQ5H

I have milled the grains finely after reading advice to do so. They smell incredible. I have a 30L boil kettle. I will be using bottled drinking water. I have a 26L plastic fermenter. The recipe includes a small package of calcium sulfate / gypsum too.

My plan was to do a full water volume mash, raise the bag, squeeze and progress to the boil, and chill to around 18 degrees with the immersion chiller and ice bath before racking to the fermenter.

I also intend to leave the beer in primary for a few weeks and then in the bottles for a few more, bypassing a secondary fermentation (depending on your suggestions)

I am a little confused about modifying the original recipe in terms of water volume and any other changes for BIAB:

1) 25L (17L + 8L from recipe) heated to 65-68°C? for 60 mins, raising to 78°C for 10 mins

2) Bag raised and squeezed

3)Boil 65 mins, adding hops at 10, 50, 60, 63 mins

4) Chill, disinfect everything, rack to primary, pitch yeast, aerate

5) Wait

6) Bottle (Sugar addition?)

7) Wait

Does this seem like a logical list of steps?

Any suggestions, help, or suggesting that I've made huge mistakes researching this would be greatly appreciated. This is my second brewing day and my head is full of conflicting information from multiple sources.

Thanks in advance. Either way I'm very excited about learning as much as possible.

 

[RM-MN]

My plan was to do a full water volume mash, raise the bag, squeeze and progress to the boil, and chill to around 18 degrees with the immersion chiller and ice bath before racking to the fermenter.

Your 30 liter kettle may be a little too small for a full volume mash. I'd probably start with a little less water to avoid the chance of it running over. When you raise the bag to drain and squeeze out the wort, you can then pour water over it and squeeze again to get to the volume you want for pre-boil. Note that while the original recipe calls for raising the temperature to 78C at the end of the mash, this isn't needed for BIAB.

I also intend to leave the beer in primary for a few weeks and then in the bottles for a few more, bypassing a secondary fermentation (depending on your suggestions)

2 to 3 weeks in primary would be enough for this beer but since it will take some time for the beer to mature anyway, leaving it in the fermenter longer will just be part of this time.

1) 25L (17L + 8L from recipe) heated to 65-68°C? for 60 mins, raising to 78°C for 10 mins

Use a calculator to decide on the temperature to raise the water to before you add the grains. You'll want the temperature of the mash to be about 67C. There is no need to raise the temperature at the end of the mash. Just pull the bag.

2) Bag raised and squeezed

Assuming that you collected a little less wort than you wanted, pour some water over the bag to achieve the amount you want. This will rinse some more sugars from the grains and increase your OG. Cool water works about the same as hot for this.

3)Boil 65 mins, adding hops at 10, 50, 60, 63 mins

I question the multiple hop additions. My stout has such a strong flavor from the dark grains that I don't think I would be able to tell if it had hops other than for bittering. I'd probably just just a single hop addition at the start of the boil to get the right amount of bitterness.

 

[shane_oh4]

Thanks for the reply.

Apparently my kettle is 35L. I used http://www.biabcalculator.com/ for some volume calculations on hte advice of some people. That determined I needed 29L of total water which I thought was high, so there's probably something off in my input.

Sure enough, after reaching striking temp and adding the grain in the bag, it was too much liquid. I had to let some flow out of the tap while mixing.

It is mashing now, hopefully retaining the correct temperature via some insulation (sleeping bags and blankets haha)

I don't know anything about the hop additions , so how would I know what to choose out of the 4 types of hops (2 different sized packets) and when to dump them into the wort?

 

[RM-MN]

With fine milled grains it doesn't take long to get full conversion so if the temperature drops a bit during the mash it is of no consequence. Go ahead and add the hops as the recipe states but don't worry if you miss the timing a bit.

 

[shane_oh4]

With fine milled grains it doesn't take long to get full conversion so if the temperature drops a bit during the mash it is of no consequence. Go ahead and add the hops as the recipe states but don't worry if you miss the timing a bit.

Thanks again. Really have learned a lot these days.
I held back with the hops and excluded 2 of their additions after your advice spurring me on to research more about hops in oatmeal stouts / stouts in general.


Overall it was an enjoyable brew with no major issues until cooling. In the bathtub, with plenty of ice, the hose flew off the immersion chiller twice. I can't be sure what if anything landed in the beer. Everything else was so sanitized. That's a shame, hopefully nothing nasty finds its way in there.

It was cooled to around 18 degrees, racked to the fermenter, aerated, yeast pitched and put away to hopefully ferment.

If it was you (or anyone reading this) how long would you personally leave it in primary - and then how long in bottle conditioning.

My second fermenter arrived so it's gonna be time soon for another brew. Either the Belgian Dubbel I have all the ingredients for, or order a lighter, faster ale of some sort that might be much quicker. Cheers!

 

[RM-MN]

Thanks again. Really have learned a lot these days.
I held back with the hops and excluded 2 of their additions after your advice spurring me on to research more about hops in oatmeal stouts / stouts in general.

I this is a good thing. We often blindly follow some recipe without thinking about the why. I like an occasional stout...and brown and pale ale, etc. I've been brewing long enough to know my tastes in beers that I make and often take a recipe and make changes to fit my palate.

Overall it was an enjoyable brew with no major issues until cooling. In the bathtub, with plenty of ice, the hose flew off the immersion chiller twice. I can't be sure what if anything landed in the beer. Everything else was so sanitized. That's a shame, hopefully nothing nasty finds its way in there.

If your tap water is clean it probably won't hurt to have splashed a bit in your beer. Lots of extract recipes call for top off water after the boil is over. Once the yeast get started a little bacteria will have a hard time competing against them.

If it was you (or anyone reading this) how long would you personally leave it in primary - and then how long in bottle conditioning.

I have quite a bit of beer in bottles so I can afford to be very patient. If you have beer to drink now, I'd suggest a 3 to 4 week primary followed by a few month in the bottle. The stout is likely to be rather harsh right away but will mellow with time in the bottle. I don't usually recommend a stout for someone's first beer because they take more time to get really good than a lighter color, lower alcohol beer. If you don't already have a bunch of beer in bottles, I'd cut that time short, probably 2 week in fermenter and 3 in bottles.

My second fermenter arrived so it's gonna be time soon for another brew. Either the Belgian Dubbel I have all the ingredients for, or order a lighter, faster ale of some sort that might be much quicker. Cheers!

As I mentioned above, beers with more alcohol take longer to mature than lighter color, lower alcohol ones. I'd recommend a pale ale or an amber for the next beer.