Rasberry Oatmeal Stout

[DonMoleon]

Hello again everyone. I joined the forum yesterday and so far everyone has been very helpful to me with my questions of brewing my first batch ever (oatmeal stout).

One of my favorite drinks is mixing Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout with a framboise lambic (about 3:1 ratio, respectively). I love the chocolate rasberry flavor, it's great as a desert.

In the spirit of this mixture, I am considering making some alterations to my upcoming batch of oatmeal stout by adding a hint (or more, if possible) of rasberry. I don't expect the result to be a lot like the oatmeal stout/lambic mix, but something along that route would be nice.

I would appreciate any ideas on how I can alter my standard oatmeal stout recipe in a fairly simple way that would allow me to achieve this. Keep in mind I live in a country where I don't have access to most necessary ingredients (I have to order my ingredients kits from overseas), and I am hoping to achieve the rasberry flavor just by adding in fresh rasberries somewhere along the brewing/fermenting process.

I know that fermenting at slightly higher temperatures can help achieve fruitier flavors, so will this help as well?

I was originally planning on just doing a primary fermentation for 2 weeks (as recommended on this forum) and then bottling. Would I need to implement a secondary fermentation instead?

Any SPECIFIC directions would be greatly appreciated since I am new to all of this. Keep in mind I am using a 6.5 gallon plastic fermenter and bottling bucket of equal size to brew a 5 gallon batch.

Thanks guys. I'm really looking forward to your responses.

[BDawg]

Welcome!

Your enthusiasm is great, but I'd suggest you leave it alone. It's your first batch. Let it ferment out normally.
There will be plenty of other batches to push the envelope.

Since you like the Frambois blend, then do so the same as you would with Sam Smith's, mix them in a glass.

Do a side by side with Sam Smith's if you want, just to compare how they smell, look, taste, feel in your mouth, and just how they seem overall.

Is yours fruitier? Drier? Roastier? More chocolatey? How about the mouth feel? How does the body compare? Which is more carbonated?

Then, for all the ones where YOURS was better, pat yourself on the back. For the ones that Sam Smith's was better, make a list of those aspects and we'll see how we can help you to fix them.

Now, the other question is, what are you brewing NEXT????

HTH-

BD

[DonMoleon]

Now, the other question is, what are you brewing NEXT????

HTH-

BD

I only have one other kit at the moment. It's a reichbier (sp) and it was recommended to me cause I like dark, toasty ales. I don't know much about it to be honest, nor what types of commercial beer it compares to.

Thanks for your suggestions. I realize I am probably trying to go way over my head for my first time brewing. I will definitely take your advice. However, for the sake of discussion and education, I would still be interested in an answer to my original query.

Thanks for your time!

[Afterlab]

Yeah welcome to the BN. Which country do you live in?

There are a ton of different viable ways you can do this so you are likely to get a lot of different responses.

The easiest thing that comes to mind would be the brew your current tried and true Oatmeal Stout recipe as is and let it ferment out until it reaches a Final Gravity between 1.010-1.018. This may take 2 weeks, may take 4 weeks it is hard to say without knowing the viability of your yeast or how many yeast cells you have or what strain you are using. Once you reach your Final Gravity give it a few more days for the yeast to clean up any unwanted by-products of fermentation. To be honest the more time you let your beer clear up the more like a "beer" it will taste.

Once that is done and the krausen has dropped to the bottom of the bucket rack your beer into your sanitized secondary vessel. Make sure to avoid introducing a lot of oyxgen into your beer. Mix in a bottle or two of your favorite Raspberry lambic into the vessel with the beer. For example pour a full bottle of Lindemans or whatever lambic directly into the vessel with your beer. You can use the 3:1 ratio you mentioned earlier. Give it a few days and taste some and decide if you want to add more.

The key to get a rich malt/raspberry mix is to make sure you have the majority of yeast and other particles out of suspension before adding the raspberry and before bottling. If you have too many of these particles around it will be hard to detect some of the more subtle flavors in your beer. You may want to even cold crash your beer in the fridge and use some gelatin to clear it up more before adding the raspberry.

Other tips that come to mind is to go easy on the bittering hops so they don't overpower the flavor and to consider doing a yeast starter for a cleaner fermentation. If there was one thing that can improve a beer it is a healthy yeast starter. I could go into more detail but let us know what specific info you need and we can help you.

[DonMoleon]

Wow. Everyone here is so helpful, it's amazing. I feel very fortunate to have discovered this forum, not really sure what I'd do without it.

I like your suggestion of simply mixing a pre-made framboise into my own brew, never thought of that as an option...

To answer your question, I live in Bangkok. Believe it or not it would probably be easier for me to make my own beer with fresh/frozen rasberries than to find a few bottles of lambic around here. One of the reasons I have decided to take up the hobby of homebrewing is due to the lack of beer variety here, at least for reasonable prices.

I don't expect to make a replica of this mixture anyway, just a tasty outmeal stout with distinct hints of rasberry. It doesn't really need to be sweet or have those other traits of a lambic...

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

The key to get a rich malt/raspberry mix is to make sure you have the majority of yeast and other particles out of suspension before adding the raspberry and before bottling. If you have too many of these particles around it will be hard to detect some of the more subtle flavors in your beer. You may want to even cold crash your beer in the fridge and use some gelatin to clear it up more before adding the raspberry.

i once used a recipe from Sam Caligione where he put fruit in primary. It gave very subtle fruit flavor. It was his Kiwi Wit in Extreme Brewing.

[Afterlab]

i once used a recipe from Sam Caligione where he put fruit in primary. It gave very subtle fruit flavor. It was his Kiwi Wit in Extreme Brewing.

Sam is the man I plan on trying a Kiwi Kolsch sometime this summer so I may give that a try.

Don - Conrad from Steamworks Brewing had a ton of great info on the 8-7-11 Session Show about using Raspberries. Justin was drinking a Raspberry Belgian Tripel from Steamworks and Conrad mentioned he used 1 pound of frozen Raspberries for every gallon of beer. He put the whole raspberries (uncleaned, unpasteurized, etc...) into secondary and added some lager yeast in there and let it sit for 2 more weeks. So if you can't get a lambic, 5 pounds of frozen raspberries may be your best bet.

[DonMoleon]

He put the whole raspberries (uncleaned, unpasteurized, etc...) into secondary and added some lager yeast in there and let it sit for 2 more weeks. So if you can't get a lambic, 5 pounds of frozen raspberries may be your best bet.

Wow, that sounds like a lot of rasberries. Were the rasberries squeezed or just left alone? As I mentioned previously, I will be skipping this experiment this time around, but I am already anxious to try it out later this year!