I'm so sad, I basically ruined my oatmeal stout

[Calypso]

I made a big oatmeal stout. When I transferred it to secondary, I bottled the little bit that wouldn't fit in the secondary container. Then after secondary, I bottled the rest, along with some bourbon infusions with cacao nibs, vanilla, and coffee.

I tried the "no additions" one the other night and it was so delicious. Really nice coffee flavor, a little sweet, with hints of chocolate. Really tasty. Tonight I tried the one with the additions. The cacao infusion gave it this weird, not quite chocolate flavor that really throws the whole thing off. It's not... awful, but it's not pleasant. I'm really sad I ruined 5 gallons of an otherwise nice oatmeal stout. I'm hoping it will age out in a few months, but I'm not optimistic.

 

[FirstAidBrewing]

Age cures most things I have found. Give it time. If it still sucks in 2016, dump it

 

[Brettomomyces]

I agree that age might do wonders at blending all those flavors together

 

[kh54s10]

How long has it been. I find my stouts are best when aged for 4 months or longer. With all those different flavors it might take quite a bit longer.

 

[Calypso]

How long has it been. I find my stouts are best when aged for 4 months or longer. With all those different flavors it might take quite a bit longer.

It's been about 21 days. I'll keep aging it, but I can't help but think it would have been better without the additions, even with aging.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Next time I'd go the other way, and package most unaltered, and only alter a small amount. That way at least if your altered version sucks you still have the rest.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Cacao nibs and coffee take a while to mellow out. Usually at least 3 months depending on how strong the flavor is. I had a holiday ale that I overdid the nibs. It was a fine holiday ale eventually - but the holiday was July 4

 

[Beernik]

My opinion: making a stout isn't any different than making anything else. If it takes months and months to age and mellow, you're probably trying to do too much with it or flavoring it too strongly. My latest stout went from grain to glass in 3 weeks and that included bottle carbing. My usual stouts are ready in 8 weeks and that's because I'm being lazy, not because they need that much time.

Oatmeal, bourbon, vanilla, cacao, and coffee is trying to do too much. Dark/roasted malts should be roughly 5 - 10% of the grain bill. Pick only one or two flavors to add to it.

 

[kh54s10]

It's been about 21 days. I'll keep aging it, but I can't help but think it would have been better without the additions, even with aging.

You are probably right that it would have been better without the additions, but keep them around. It might not be too bad when the flavors mellow.

My opinion: making a stout isn't any different than making anything else. If it takes months and months to age and mellow, you're probably trying to do too much with it or flavoring it too strongly. My latest stout went from grain to glass in 3 weeks and that included bottle carbing. My usual stouts are ready in 8 weeks and that's because I'm being lazy, not because they need that much time.

Oatmeal, bourbon, vanilla, cacao, and coffee is trying to do too much. Dark/roasted malts should be roughly 5 - 10% of the grain bill. Pick only one or two flavors to add to it.

I agree that there was too much going on in this batch. But IMO, 3 weeks is not giving your Stout time enough to come to optimum flavor. 8 weeks sounds a lot better to me.

Then again starting to drink them at 3 weeks is not bad as long as you don't finish all of them before the flavor peaks.

 

[Bellybuster]

I wouldn't even touch that beer for a year. It will be very yummy then

 

[jrgtr42]

Like others have said, you may be trying to do too much with your beer.
How long did you age with the additions? or was it just mixing bourbon soaked with etc into the beer in the bottling bucket? Either way, it may need time just to mellow and meld.
It's very hard to truly ruin beer, age (almost) always helps.

 

[Calypso]

My opinion: making a stout isn't any different than making anything else. If it takes months and months to age and mellow, you're probably trying to do too much with it or flavoring it too strongly. My latest stout went from grain to glass in 3 weeks and that included bottle carbing. My usual stouts are ready in 8 weeks and that's because I'm being lazy, not because they need that much time.

Oatmeal, bourbon, vanilla, cacao, and coffee is trying to do too much. Dark/roasted malts should be roughly 5 - 10% of the grain bill. Pick only one or two flavors to add to it.

Yeah, you're probably right. I was trying to create something similar to Founder's Breakfast Stout. I was somewhat restrained with additions (4 ounces of cacao nibs and two vanilla beans, soaked in 6 ounces of Buffalo Trace, 4 ounces coffee, soaked in 6 ounces of vodka, soaked for about a week, then filtered and added the infused liquor), but they definitely did not work out the way I wanted.

Next time I might just try some debittered cocoa and skip the rest. The cacao flavor ended up being strangely vegetal and not chocolate like I wanted.

 

[Calypso]

Also, this is my first stout, so definitely a learning experience. Should have started simpler.

 

[Calypso]

Like others have said, you may be trying to do too much with your beer.
How long did you age with the additions? or was it just mixing bourbon soaked with etc into the beer in the bottling bucket? Either way, it may need time just to mellow and meld.
It's very hard to truly ruin beer, age (almost) always helps.

It spent ~21 days in secondary with the additions. I even added an equivalent amount (it was something like a quarter of a teaspoon) of the infusions to the sample I took to measure the gravity, just to see if I liked the flavors together, and at that time I felt it helped round out the otherwise very dry, bitter coffee character of the base stout.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

"... soaked in 6 ounces of Buffalo Trace, 4 ounces coffee, soaked in 6 ounces of vodka ..."

You may have a bigger issue than mellowing the coffee and nibs. If you really added 12 oz of hard liquor, you may have your first 40 proof beer That's a lot of booze. It will likely give you a pretty hot, boozy flavor that won't mellow out. But you never know. Give it a while and see what you've got. Bourbeer?

 

[Calypso]

It actually only ended up being about 8 ounces, since the cacao and coffee absorbed some liquid, which should only increase the ABV by about 1%.

 

[Beernik]

I wasn't expecting my stout to be ready this fast. But the Irish Ale (Wyeast 1084) yeast ripped through it in 3 days. i also have it a lighter roasty flavor by using Carafa I and midnight wheat where I'd normally use chocolate malt.

@calypso, I used to be really bad at trying to do too much with my beers and they would take a long time for the flavors to come together. A couple years ago I started simplifying my recipes. Instead of thinking "What are all the flavors I want in this beer?" I started thinking "What is the focus of this beer?" and removed everything from the recipe that didn't support what I was highlighting. It's probably the single biggest improvement I made to my brewing process.

 

[kh54s10]

Again, brew your next beer and put this one aside for a few months to a year or more. It will likely change significantly.

BTW 8 ounces of liquor in 5 gallons of beer is not that much really. Certainly not 40% abv.

 

[Paps]

Also, this is my first stout. Should have started simpler.

 

[Calypso]

I tried a bottle last night, and the weird cacao nib vegetal flavor had all but disappeared. It's now a dry, roasty coffee tasting stout, with a bare hint of smoke (don't know where that came from, maybe the black patent?) Anyway, it was actually pretty good, so I think in another 2-3 months it will be quite enjoyable. Thanks for listening to me fret and complain.