Oatmeal Stout Image

Batch #13: McNerney’s Oatmeal Stout

I finally ventured into the wonderful world of stouts!

When drafting this recipe, I wanted to create a good base stout recipe that I could use to build upon for other variations moving forward (oak aging, imperial stouts, etc.). I went with an oatmeal stout, because I like the flavor and body the oats impart into the beer, and I wanted to maintain a bit of residual sweetness with the final product.

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Batch #12 – Windward Amber Ale

This beer was a carefully planned accident. Let me explain…

For my last few beers I have used the Brewers Friend software to draft my recipes, but I was recently given a copy of Ray Daniels’ Designing Great Beers. Having a better understanding of how the ingredients affect the end product, I decided to create a worksheet where I could create my recipes by hand.

For quite a while now I’ve had a vision of creating an easy to drink pale ale. I even had a name picked out — Leeward Pale Ale. With that in mind, I set out to draft a pale ale recipe. I decided on a grain bill consisting of base malt, crystal malt for head retention and body, and honey malt for a touch of sweetness. (I used honey malt in my Munich lager as a substitute for melanoidin malt, and I was a fan.) I was also planning on using a mixture of glacier and willamette hops for a floral, herby, citrusy note. After a few recipe drafts, and some feedback from the fine folks on Reddit, I had a recipe.

One problem. My local homebrew store doesn’t carry glacier hops… Whoops… Continue reading