Oatmeal Stout - Three Ways - Tasting and Evaluation

Back in March, I posted about using different finishing techiques to create distinctive beers from the same wort.  The basic idea was that homebrewers have a limited amount of time to brew beer, given real life demands and constraints.  Homebrewers also demand variety that cannot be achieved by producing multiple batches of exactly the same beer, even though producing a multiple batches are a more efficient use of time.  So, why not use different finishing techiques to produce different beers from the same initial brew.  I set out to try this process by creating the following beers from the same base oatmeal stout recipe:  oatmeal stout with tincture of grapefruit, oatmeal stout aged on sour cherries, and oatmeal stout aged on cocoa nibs.

Kenny, the owner of my local homebrew store, The Fermentation Trap, and I sat down to evaluate the results of the different finishing techniques recently.  Our goal was to evaluate each beer on its own merits and to see if the finishing methods really produced beers that were distinctive.

Oatmeal Stout with Tincture of Grapefruit: This version was used in the Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale (CAMRA) internal Iron Brewer competition.  The base beer was blended with a tincture made by soaking grapefruit zest in vodka.  Feedback from the Iron Brewer competition indicated that the beer, while well-made, lacked a strong grapefruit character.  When compared to the base beer, grapefruit was definitely present, but was very subtle when evaluated on its own merits.  Otherwise, the beer was very smooth and the wheat augmented the mouthfeel provided by the oats.  It is a recipe modification I will use in the future.

Oatmeal Stout with Sour Cherries:  This version of the stout originated from 1 gallon of unfinished beer, without the grapefruit, that had 1.5 lbs of frozen sour cherries added.  After aging for 10 days, the beer was racked off the fruit and bottle-conditioned.  The beer's aroma is dominated by cherries, almost to the exclusion of other characteristics.  The cherries even drove the beer to have a distinctive pink tinge around the edges of the glass.  The beer's entire flavor profile consisted of cherries, even down to a sour aftertaste.  It was very clear that the beer had lost all evidence of its stout base and was really a cherry - beer.  While not completely objectionable, we both wished that more of the stout came through in the finished beer.

Oatmeal Stout with Cocoa Nibs:  This version of the stout came from 1 gallon of unfinished beer, aged on top of 1.5 ounces of cocoa nibs.  Chocolate came through in the aroma of the beer, reminding both of us of unsweetened baking cocoa, blended with the smell of dry hot chocolate powder.  The flavor of the beer initially reminded me of the base beer, a solid oatmeal stout with increased creamy mouthfeel.  These flavors slowly transformed into dark chocolate with some medium roast coffee, while maintaining the same mouthfeel.  The flavor finishes with a lingering bitterness, but one that likely came from the roasted grains and cocoa nibs, rather than from hops.  This beer was our favorite by far, presenting both the characteristics from the base beer and capturing the intent of its finishing technique.  The cocoa nibs provided a richer creamy character with a solid chocolate presentation.  This version was definitely one I would make again on its own merits.

Playing with finishing techniques was a fun exercise a way to create three different beers.  I would highly encourage our readers to give it a try, if for no reason than you can create more variety, more efficiently.

Cheers,

TW

More Variety and More Efficiency

I have maintained an internal debate within my homebrewing-obsessed mind for quite some time - variety versus efficiency.  Having a variety of beer styles available to taste keeps the hobby new and interesting.  It allows the brewer to experiment with a number of different beer styles and learn new techniques.  Given homebrewing's currently increase in popularity, there is no shortage of interesting ideas in the magazines, podcasts, and online forums.  There is certainly no way to ever try all of those ideas, but brewing greater variety allows the brewer to at least pretend to chase that fleeting dream.  Variety appeals to the creative side of the homebrewing hobby.

Brewing efficiency, on the other hand, allows a brewer to dial in their brewing process.  If the brewer constantly switches recipes, it is hard to lock down the process and truly improve as a brewer.  Many educated sources state that the most technically difficult brewing task to complete is to brew the same recipe several times and have the batches taste the same.  This is the challenge of the professional brewer, who's clientele demand that their favorite brand taste the same or they may look elsewhere for quality beer.  Efficiency can also relate to time, our most precious commodity.  With the appropriate equipment, a brewer can produce significantly more beer in the same period of time that it would take to produce lesser amounts of beer in smaller batches (think 5 gallons versus 15 gallons - it does not take much longer to get triple the production volume).  Consistent use of the same brewing process also provides familiarity and time-saving techniques during the brew day - see Brew Your Own magazine's March-April 2012 on Speeding Up Your All-Grain Brew Day).  In many ways, efficiency is the ideal driving the technical side of the homebrewing hobby.

But, I ask, why is it not possible to strive to have a little bit of both.  This question is driven primarily by an article I read in the September/October 2010 issue of Zymurgy, entitled More Beer from Your Brew Day.  In the article, Drew Beechum explains that he likes the efficiency of brewing 10-gallon batches, but gets bored of drinking the same beer day after day.  The boredom has driven him to explore ideas to get more beer variety out of the same base beer.  The techniques he developed feature alterations of the base beer during the boil, fermentation, aging time, and packaging processes.  I interested enough in his discussions of aging beer on different products, such as oak, fruit, and cocoa nibs that I decided to attempt it myself.

My local club, the Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale (CAMRA) have started conducting fun internal competitions using the Iron Brewer model.  The latest competition featured white wheat, Chinook hops, and grapefruit.  I did not want to have an entire batch of grapefruit-flavored beer, so I elected to use some of Drew's ideas.  I brewed an oatmeal stout recipe with a significant amount of wheat malt and a bittering charge of chinook hops.  After the beer fermented out, I transferred some of it to two sanitized and CO2-purged 1-gallon glass jugs.  In one of these, I put 1.5 pounds of frozen sour cherries I had bought at a farmer's market.  In the other jug, I put 1.5 oz of cocoa nibs I had left over from another beer.  I plan to dose the remainder of the beer with a tincture I made from the zest of two grapefruit soaked in vodka, using a technique I outlined in a previous post.

I hope to end up with three distinct beers (one kegged and the other two bottled) from one brew day.  This should give me some variety, while using efficiency gained from brewing a familiar recipe at a comfortable 5-gallon brew size.

Cheers,

TW