Oatmeal Stout – Racking to secondary – 10/28/2007
My worries were alleviated today when I racked my oatmeal stout off to the secondary fermenter. From the gravity reading of 1.020, I was able to deduce that my original gravity was right on track, a little bit low, but on track. With an ABV of around 3%, this brew could definitely be considered a session beer.
After a taste, I was quite pleased. At first taste, I did notice some subtle fruity esters, but I think that these will probably fade during the next month or two. The dominant flavor was a nice, lingering roasty flavor reminiscent of chocolate and coffee–very nice indeed. The bitterness was nicely balanced, I am glad that I gave my bittering hops a little extra time in the boil. The color is a very dark brown that looks black in the carboy; I really hit my mark in this regard.
I was tempted to add coffee to this batch in the secondary but have decided against it; I want to get a good baseline for future alterations.
The residual yeast, when mixed with some of the beer in the bottom in the primary, reminded me of a (light) chocolate milkshake; like the color you get from Dairy Queen when the kid behind the counter doesn’t know what he is doing. I am going to practive yeast collection this time..
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