hey guys. i’m planning on making a stout and a slightly bitter belgian wit. take a look at the recipes below and give me some feedback please. these are recipes that I have cobbled together from multiple recipes I found here (and elsewhere). these are using extract and steeping grains.
for the chocolate i’m trying to decide on the following: bakers chocolate + lactose in boil OR chocloate extract in keg OR lactose in boil and cocoa nibs in secondary. i’m leaning towards the last one. i want this beer for an end of the day sipper.
looking for citrusy, floral hop aroma from late hop additions (any recommendations will be welcomed). this is designed to be a hot-day, yardwork, easy drinker.
I’m pretty sure the flaked oats and wheat need to be mashed to do any good (need to double check that). For the stout that seems like A LOT of steeping grains. I think I have tried using that much in an all-grain mash and the resulting beer came out really potently roasty. I’d go cocoa nibs in the secondary. The dry hops on the belgian I think are going to lean you more towards IPA proportions. I’d cut that way down or even out IMHO.
thanks for the reply. from what i have read, the wheat/oats don’t need to be mashed; but i am quite new at this so i’ll delve a little deeper. the ipa character of the wit is purposeful, but i don’t want it to be too bitter (i tried to keep the IBUs around 30-40). any recommendations for other hop varieties given the citrus/flour aroma i’m trying to get? i’m trying to get a nice roasty stout with a semi-sweet chocolate flavor/aroma. i was leaning towards the lactose/cocoa nibs combination for the flavoring. thanks for the input!
[quote=“wedraper”]thanks for the reply. from what i have read, the wheat/oats don’t need to be mashed; but i am quite new at this so i’ll delve a little deeper. the ipa character of the wit is purposeful, but i don’t want it to be too bitter (i tried to keep the IBUs around 30-40). any recommendations for other hop varieties given the citrus/flour aroma i’m trying to get? i’m trying to get a nice roasty stout with a semi-sweet chocolate flavor/aroma. i was leaning towards the lactose/cocoa nibs combination for the flavoring. thanks for the input!
bill[/quote]
No, the oats most definitely need to be co-mashed with some kind of base malt or something with enough diastatic power to convert the starch in the oats. Otherwise, you won’t get anything out of the oats but a permanent starch haze. In fact, this is true of any raw, unmalted grain…oats, barley, wheat, whatever. They have no diastatic power whatsoever, so they cannot self-convert like malted grains can. I’d substitute some of the malt extract for base malt so you can get what you need out of the oats.
Both the flaked oats and the flaked wheat are not malted, so have no diastatic power. So, steeped alone you won’t get anything other than a starchy soup.
If you want to use them, you’ll have to do a partial mash with a couple lbs. of 2-row, or 6-row barley.
Or instead of flaked wheat, you could use wheat malt which has enough diastatic power to convert the flaked oats.
Hold the temp from 145-155 for 45-60 minutes
