I'm really new to brewing so I thought I'd solicit some help for my first all grain custom recipe. I've been toying around with a recipe for an all grain Oatmeal stout. The idea for the beer is to make it an oatmeal milk stout with an ABV on the high end of an imperial stout with a chocolaty profile and a milk like texture.
Recipe as Follows for Batch size 5 gallons
Belgian Pale Ale Malt 8lbs
Flaked Oats 2lbs
Black Patent 1lb
2oz Cocoa Powder
Fermentis Safbrew S-33 Dry Ale Yeast
45Cascade 1oz
15 Nugget .5oz
Additives
1lb Lactose
Let me know if anything there is a bad idea wrought from inexperience. Also, any thoughts on yeast? Is a single packet enough? Thanks for all of the helpful suggestions.
Advice on First All Grain Recipe
Oatmeal Stout
The recipe looks fine, though I'm not a huge fan of large amounts of Black Patent, so I would probably choose to split the dark malt grain bill between Roasted Barley, Chocolate Malt, and Black Patent. But if you like beers with a lot of Black Patent, and the Lactose will help smooth it out, then the recipe looks fine.
If you get an average 75% efficiency, you should hit about 1.058 OG, before adding the lactose. It sounds like you might think it is a bigger beer. It won't be on the high end of an Imperial Stout, just on the high end of an Oatmeal Stout. If you get a lower efficiency, as often happens on your first All-Grain, it might be closer to 1.050, before the Lactose.
I probably wouldn't advise trying to make a big beer on your first attempt, due to the unknown efficiency of an untested system. Also, Oatmeal can lead to slow run-off, or even a stuck mash, so I probably wouldn't start with a beer containing Oatmeal. On the other hand, if your efficiency still comes out a little low, it should still make a decent beer and the Lactose will help make up for that.
If you get an average 75% efficiency, you should hit about 1.058 OG, before adding the lactose. It sounds like you might think it is a bigger beer. It won't be on the high end of an Imperial Stout, just on the high end of an Oatmeal Stout. If you get a lower efficiency, as often happens on your first All-Grain, it might be closer to 1.050, before the Lactose.
I probably wouldn't advise trying to make a big beer on your first attempt, due to the unknown efficiency of an untested system. Also, Oatmeal can lead to slow run-off, or even a stuck mash, so I probably wouldn't start with a beer containing Oatmeal. On the other hand, if your efficiency still comes out a little low, it should still make a decent beer and the Lactose will help make up for that.
BTP v2.0.* Windows XP