As mentioned in another post, my kitte pooka passed away this weekend and I want to brew a beer in her memory. I am thinking a deep black oatmeal stout as she was very nearly pure black. I want something silky smooth but with a little bite (just like her) I’ve never done a stout except an RIS extract brew a couple of years back so I am wide open. I have about 10 pounds of pale ale malt hanging around as a base and I figure some oats (rolled? steel cut? malted?) for creaminess and body and something roasted for bite, but not too much.
Here’s a rye stout that I was happy with. You could swap out the Fuggles or up the bittering charge for some more bite. I was using up leftovers, which is why the crystal is all over the place. And I realize I didn’t output my gravities when I exported from Beersmith. >:( I think it was around 1056 OG, 1016 FG
Thanks, those both look like good starting points. I like the idea of rye. Not sure if I was thinking of a hops bite so much as a roasty bite. but a rye bite might be just the thing.
Ingredients:
8.0 lb Maris Otter
1.0 lb Crystal Malt 60°L
1.0 lb Oats Flaked
0.75 lb Chocolate Malt
0.5 lb Roasted Barley
0.5 lb Black Roasted Barley
0.25 lb Carafa Special® TYPE III
.75 oz Columbus (14.4%) - added during boil, boiled 50 min
1.0 oz East Kent Goldings (5.0%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
1.0 oz East Kent Goldings (5.0%) - steeped after boil
1.0 ea WYeast 1084 Irish Ale™
I keep my grain bills fairly simple when I can manage it. this one is pretty complex for me so if I am missing something important or misusing something, do let me know
for 11 gallons US
Gambrinus Pale Ale 8.5 Lbs 56.67%
Flaked rye 3.0 Lbs 20.00% (couldn’t find organic malted rye If anyone knows of where I might, let me know. also please enlighten me on the differences flavour wise and performance wise between the two)
Carafa II 1.0 Lbs 6.67% (as I understand this will give me lots of color with less bitterness, is that right?)
Crystal 120l 1.0 Lbs 6.67%
Flaked Oats 1.0 Lbs 6.67%
Black Barley 0.5 Lbs 3.33% (I want a little roasted bite but not too much)
Bravo Whole leaf hops at 13.5% alpha 1 oz at 60 minutes
Ivanhoe Whole leaf hops at 8.0% alpha 1 oz at 20 minutes
Mash at 158 for 60 minutes, batch sparge, boil 60 minutes etc.
Ferment with Wyeast 1968? 1728? Us-05? Dennys favorite? Something belgian?
You could do a Tropical style stout - it’s strong, sweetish but balanced, very dark and is surprisingly good as a summer beer, especially with hot Caribbean or Tex-Mex food.
I’ve never used flaked rye but, from what I’ve heard, it’s a completely different animal than malted rye.
I usually put 1 lb 2 oz of oats in my recipes because that happens to be the container size you can usually find them in at the grocery store. If I used just 1 lb, I’d always have 2 oz leftovers laying around
Mark wasn’t black, but he was silver grey - don’t know how to do that in a beer, so instead I’m going to make a “Fat Cat Imperial Sweet Stout” in his honor.
I saw the picture you posted. He was beutifull kitty, but yeah hard to match in a beer. My mothers old cat who passed away 10 years ago at the age of 23 was the same color as your Mark. My kitty actually looked like a smaller version of the picture of his cat that beersk posted in the tell us about your pets post.
