This August 4th I brewed up my Oatmeal Stout again. I upgraded my brewpot to a 15 gallon keg allowing me to end up with more than a measly three gallons that I normally end up with due to boil overs. Overall the brewday went great, no issues with the mash tun. I have learned that not stirring the beans out of it is best. It just disturbs the grain bed causing a stuck sparge with big brews like this one, that exceed 20 pounds of grain. It was getting late and I cut the boil short at an hour. The resulting gravity came out at 1.075, a bit lower than I wanted. Last time I managed to get 1.120 out of the same recipe. I added a bit more coffee beans and oak than before. While still only about six to twelve beans, I left it on secondary for a good two months. It allowed the coffee to dominate. The vanilla sweetness is still present but the coffee is very forward. The toasted American oak was still only mildly detectable despite adding close to a third of a pint to secondary. I upped the coffee and oak more out of curiosity just to see what the result would be. I like coffee stouts, so I was pleased. It's a very drinkable brew. It pours a rich dark amber, with an aroma of coffee and vanilla. Medium bodied the coffee remains present in the aftertaste. Some hops bitterness is present but blends with the dry astringency of the coffee and malts. The primary sweetness comes from the vanilla. I would prefer more body and malt character. But end the end I am still pleased.
I used my new wax stamp when wax dipping the bottles. I have decided that the double boiler approach to waxing is a poor one. It causes too much steam to mix with the wax, and bubbles the wax. Using a tin can seems to work well, less cleaning up. I think I will try using a propane torch with the tin can eliminating the bubbles in the wax issue.
