- By: Dave Bonta
- Final volume: 4½ gallons / 17L
- Original gravity:1.087
- Final gravity:1.018
- Potential alcohol: 9%
Makes 4 1/2 gallons. Alcohol content 8-9%. Grain bill derives from an award-winning recipe by the Seven Bridges Organic Brewing Cooperative. (If you don't want to have leftover malt, simply order their all-grain kit for Oatmeal Stout and give away the hops.)
Grain bill
- 8 1/2 lbs pale 2-row malt
- 3/4 lb caramel 120 L malt
- 1/2 lb chocolate malt
- 3/4 lb Weyermann Carafa II malt
- 1/2 lb roasted barley
- 1/2 lb Weyermann pale wheat malt
- 1 lb oat flakes
Extra sugars
- 2 lbs wildflower honey
- 1 c blackstrap molasses for bottling
Herbs
- 1 1/2 oz dried mugwort tops and leaves (roughly three packed cups)
- 1/2 oz licorice root
- 1/2 oz roasted chicory root
- 1/2 oz dried chamomile flowers
- 1/4 oz dried lemon grass
- 1/4 oz dried sweet orange peel
- 1/2 fl oz vanilla extract
- 1 T Indian sarsaparilla (Hemidesmus indicus)
Yeast
- Wyeast Scottish Ale
This requires a step-infusion mash to extract the sugars from the oats. Heat 3 gals water to 140 F for initial mashing; temp should reach around 125 F. Soak for 15 min, then add 1 1/2 gals of 200 F water to bring temp up to 150-152 F.
When conversion is complete, raise mash temp to 170 F. Sparge, etc. Add enough water to bring up to 5 1/2 gals. Add honey to wort before it comes to a boil to avoid scorching.
Add 1 oz. of mugwort at beginning of 1 hr boil. Twenty min. before end of boil, add remaining 1/2 oz mugwort, licorice and chicory. Ten min. before end of boil, add chamomile, lemon grass, sweet orange peel and vanilla. If you plan to use a wort chiller, cover brewpot and let steep at end of boil for ten additional minutes before straining out herbs.
At bottling, add Indian sarsaparilla and molasses to 1 qt water and boil 20 min. Bottle with oxygen-absorbing caps if possible.
This stout will taste great in just two weeks, but should continue to improve as it ages. Save it for special occasions; don't waste it on your Coors-guzzling brother-in-law.