Coffee and Oatmeal for Breakfast (stout)

Brewday on Wednesday. Brewed up a chocolate/coffee/oatmeal stout patterned after Founders Brewing Co.'s Breakfast Stout. A big beefy beer with plenty of slick gooey oats and blocks of baker's chocolate. Smelled w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l while brewing, especially during the final 15 minutes when the chocolate and coffee were added. Yum.

I've always been a fan of Breakfast Stout. A smooth coffee stout with just the right hint of chocolate. This recipe utilizes plenty of chocolate in the boil (and will in a week or so in secondary also) and coffee. I cold-pressed the coffee in the French press. Why not just throw in beans or grinds? Why not just brew a pot of coffee? Bitterness. In the boil, the beans or grounds would elicit bitterness. The heat of a coffeemaker would elicit bitterness. I just want coffee FLAVOR. So I scooped Dominican coffee from one of my relief trips into the French press and added cold water. I let it sit in the garage beer fridge for a day, then pressed down on the plunger and let it sit for a 2nd day. Then at the appropriate time I just poured the liquid in. Hope it works...

A smaller amount of hops were used here. A full ounce at the beginning of the 60-minute boil as usual, but then a mere 1/2 ounce at minutes 30 and 0. Want to be sure the coffee and chocolate flavors are apparent in the end. Cacao nibs were called for in addition to some baker's chocolate. But the ONLY place I could find nibs (Williams-Sonoma) ceased carrying them. Drat. So I used 3 oz of unsweetened and 3 oz semisweet blocks in the boil. Hopefully the oils won't kill any head retention once it's in the glass, but we'll see. Half the fun in homebrewing (besides throwing in odd ingredients) is the experimentation in process to see just what happens.

The recipe:

22 oz. flaked oats

1 lb. chocolate malt

12 oz. roasted barley

9 oz. debittered Belgian black malt

7 oz. Crystal malt 40L

9 lb. Light dry malt extract (DME)

1 oz. Nugget hops, 11.2% AA @ minute 60

1/2 oz. Willamette hops, 4.4% AA @ minute 30

1/2 oz. Willamette hops, 4.4% AA @ minute 0

3 oz. blocks baker's unsweetened chocolate @ minute 15

3 oz. blocks baker's semisweet chocolate @ minute 15

1 Whirlfloc tablet @ minute 15 for clarifying

1 Tbsp yeast nutrient @ minute 15

1 French press cold-pressed Dominican Republic coffee @ minute 0

WLP001 California Ale yeast

Secondary fermentation will require:

1 French press cold-pressed D-R coffee for 2 weeks

1.5 oz cacao nibs for 2 weeks (I will use Scharffen Berger cocoa powder)

Uh-oh. Looks like a storm's a-comin'!

Rain! Thunder! Boiling wort! A storm-nervous dog! Hootie! A little bit of everything:

(Sorry it's so dark, the boil really was impressive. Really.)

Once brewing was done, I transferred into the "fermentation area", in your home you may call it a "kitchen". To keep off-flavors away at higher fermentation temperatures (butterscotch, fruity esters, etc.) I wanted to keep the temp in the appropriate window of 68-72* F. If I just leave the carboy in ambient temperatures of the house, the internal reading would be 78-80. What to do? I want nothing but coffee, chocolate, and oatmeal in the flavor profile; no esters. I tried a homemade "carboy cooler" I read about in my books and online. Have the carboy sit in cool water, place a t-shirt over it to wick the water up into the shirt and keep it moist, then blow a fan onto it. The water wicks up the shirt, evaporates, and voila! Cooling! This really works! Fan on? 68*. Fan off? 70*. NICE!!!

Can't wait for this one! Looks delicious just sitting there!