Breakfast Stout II (An Imperial Oak Aged Oatmeal Stout Brewed with Coffee and Coco) - 05.07.2011

This is the second go at the Breakfast Stout.  The first one had a terrible ending when carrying it in the secondary fermenter.  The reason behind this brew is that we wanted to brew a beer for our friends who are getting married soon and thought, since they enjoy a nice beer, that they would like this gesture.  As I had brewed a coffee porter a few months ago and apparently they really enjoyed it, so I figured that they would like a more alcoholic version with some oatmeal for smoothness and the hint of vanilla from the oak chips in the secondary fermenter, I think will add a nice touch.

The Recipe:

Specialty Grains:

• 0.5 lbs Simpsons Black Malt
• 0.5 lbs Simpsons Chocolate
• 0.5 lbs Simpsons Roasted Barley
• 1 lbs Briess Caramel 40L
• 0.7 lbs Oats

Extracts:

• 9.9 lbs LME - Dark

Hops (Calc IBU:24):

• 1 oz of Goldings (B.C.) Hops (Pellets) AA% 4.9% - Bittering
• 1 oz of Fuggles Hops (Pellets) AA% 4% - Flavoring/Aroma

Yeast:

• Wyeast 1094 - Irish Ale: Created Starter, procedure for higher alcohol content ale

Additional:

• 8 oz Coco Powder
• 1.5 oz of Oak Chips
• 1 lbs Coffee -ground (Starbucks Breakfast Blend)

First I steeped all the grains (in separate mesh bags) while bringing the 2.5 gallons of water up to a boil.

Making sure NOT to boil the grains, I kept track of the temperature of the brew pot.  After 30 minutes of steeping, I removed the grains and opted not to sparge the grains for this recipe.  Added all the LME and some additional water (to bring up the water content in the brew pot and to get as much of the LME out of the cans as I could.) At this time I also added 8 oz of coco powder to the brew pot.

Hop Schedule:
Added bittering hops (Goldings) at 60 minutes. At 20 minutes added flavoring hops, 1/2 oz of the Fuggles.  Added the rest of the Fuggles at 5 minutes for Aroma.

After the 60 minute boil, removed the pot from heat and steeped the ground coffee in the pot for 20 minutes before moving to the ice bath.  One does not want to boil coffee, as that will produce off flavors and that is not the optimum temperature for brewing coffee.  I wanted to brew this coffee with the brew, in conjunction. Some people add in premade coffee into the secondary, but I feel this takes away from the process. Just my own opinion, as there are many ways to brew and this is how I like to brew.  I liked how my porter with coffee turned out and so I wanted to do the same for this beer.

I chilled the wort, ran it through a strainer to catch left over hops and such.  Then I added the yeast starter.  With regard to the yeast starter, one can add the entire or decant off some of the liquid and just pitch the yeast.  I added the whole starter for this one.

05.14.2011 - Update
After a week and some gravity samples, it was time to transfer to the secondary and age it on some oak chips.

Gravity after primary fermentation: 1.022
Sample review:
Appearance: Black/dark brown
Aroma: Roasted sweet note. Hints of Chocolate.
Taste: Smooth, malty/chocolate and slightly bitter

So I boiled 1.5 oz of oak chips in water (man it smelled good in my kitchen).  I have used oak chips in the past and there are several different approaches one can use to sanitize the chips before adding them to the beer.  I used bourbon for an IPA before, which resulted in some interesting and good flavors.  This time I wanted to try a different approach and boiled them for 15 minutes in water then drained the water and added them to the fermenter.  I saved the yeast cake from this one...