Nothing Wrong with Brewing Kits

I have been getting into brewing kits lately.  There’s something fun about taking out some of the decisions out of picking out ingredients and just brewing what comes out of the box after it arrives at your door.

The last one I brewed was the witbier that was written about a few months ago.  In the pursuit of brewing a great stout, I got an Oatmeal Stout kit from Northern Brewer.

I like taking the kits and modifying them a bit – maybe my mind isn’t ready to shut down all decisions of what goes into the beer recipe.

Just a Bit Modified

Let me know if you agree with me: The hop variety that came with the kit was Glacier.  Now I was all about these hops six years ago but for an oatmeal stout I thought a tried-and-true English variety would be better.  Thankfully, I had some UK Kent Goldings on hand and substituted them in.

The grains come all mixed in together so you’d better hope that the measurements have been done correctly in the warehouse.

What?  I trust them.

The oats did come separately, which was nice because I wanted to toast some of the oats to draw out more flavors from them. I put them in the oven while I was heating up the water for the mash and they were timed perfectly.  The toasted oats came out of the stove and went right into the mash tun right before the hot liquor did.

The wort coming out of the tun was black and oily.

Oatmeal Stout Wort

Foamy Boil and Following the Tips

The boil was pretty foamy. I found that I had to keep on boilover watch throughout the hour. There was one tense situation where my son had run off with my mash spoon but I quickly recovered it so that I could give the wort a stir and keep the foam from tumbling over the side of the pot. I guess oats bring more protein to the brew.

The spent grains were a speckled sight to see.

Oatmeal Stout Spent Grains

The beer cooled down pretty quickly – thank you cold ground water – and I was ready to pitch the yeast. I went with two packets of Safale S-04 (proofed) and followed Mike’s Oatmeal Stout Home Brewing Tips for the fermentation temperature schedule. In short, the temperatures start low and end high to reach that the attenuation that I want.

As always, we will taste this one when it is ready.

Brew On, Peeps!