Lacking flavor????? any ideas???

[sharkguy05]

So I brewed an oatmeal stout the other day last sunday. Today i check the gravity and gave it a taste. It seemed to be lacking flavor. Was very bland other than some hop flavor. The aroma was slightly chocolately with sweet almonds. No off flavors or anything and I can not think of anything I did wrong other thank a lil too much chalk and gypsum to the water. My scale apparently does not calculate below 2g increments. The recipe is as follows: Made a 1l starter with irish ale from white labs. Toasted .5lb of oats in the oven to light golden brown. Then mashed@149 F for 80 min of .5lb oats as mentioned, .25lb roasted barley, .5lb each of crystal 50 and chocolate malt with 9lbs of 2-row. All british varieties of malt. Water treatment was meant to be made into dublin water. I have very soft water and added 10g of chalk and 2.5-3g gypsum to like 9 gal water. Then 2 oz of EKG@60 min. Vigorous ferment within 12 hrs of pitching starter. (the starter was very well chilled as i stuck it in the house fridge which is about 36F). Fermented @67 F for 7 days and no I am here. OG was 1.054 and FG 1.011. I did also use my new grain mill but I adjust it before brewing to a .040 gap which gave me a good crush and good efficiency of about 75%. I have no idea why it seems to be lacking. Maybe it is just to early yet? I know it needs to sit least another 2-3 wks before I keg it. Any thoughts would be helpful thanks guys!!

[EagleDude]

No real answers for you here, but a couple thoughts. First, it depends a bit on what you are trying to acheive with the final product. For an oatmeal stout Mashing at 149 and the corresponding FG of 1.011 seems low. A higher mash temp of 154-156 would give you more mouthfeel and leave more unfermentables in the wort --> may add to some of your flavor issues. Second thought, the specialty grains seem to be a bit low. I recently brewed an Oatmeal stout for the first time in years and used a little higher crystal (80), Victory, Chocolate, roast barley, and oats --> All ~ double the amounts or more than you used for an equivalent 5-6 gallon batch.

For the record, my recipe was derived from the BCS oatmeal stout. Hope this helps.

[Scharf]

No real answers for you here, but a couple thoughts. First, it depends a bit on what you are trying to acheive with the final product. For an oatmeal stout Mashing at 149 and the corresponding FG of 1.011 seems low. A higher mash temp of 154-156 would give you more mouthfeel and leave more unfermentables in the wort --> may add to some of your flavor issues. Second thought, the specialty grains seem to be a bit low. I recently brewed an Oatmeal stout for the first time in years and used a little higher crystal (80), Victory, Chocolate, roast barley, and oats --> All ~ double the amounts or more than you used for an equivalent 5-6 gallon batch.

For the record, my recipe was derived from the BCS oatmeal stout. Hope this helps.

Same here, my usual recipe is about double your specialty grains and I mash at 154

[sharkguy05]

Yea I thought of mashing higher but I forgot to calculate the grain temp and ran a lil low on temp. I made the recipe within the bjcp style guidelines. I was trying to clone samuel smith oatmeal stout but I think their percentages are a lil off when they scaled down. Oh well thanks for the thoughts. I guess I could add a lil medium toast oak to add some complexity or lactic acid which is traditional.

[brewinhard]

Just give it some time. A few weeks in the keg can really help to bring a beer around especially beers with some roast in them. Let is sit and come back to it a few weeks from now. Be sure to let it warm up a bit before drinking, and don't over carbonate it.

[Cliff]

9 pounds of 2 row?
half each Crystal and Chock malt?
Should come out OK

[BDawg]

Carbonation will improve the the flavor, too.