I brewed such a horrible oatmeal stout for the Aurora Brewing Competition in Edmonton last June that I have been researching stout brewing ever since. How bad was my batch? Well, one judge scored it at a 12. The next judge went all out and awarded a grand total of 14. The third judge, a novice, just plain quit judging right then and there, really!

So what has my research yielded to date? Well, I have read many articles on stout, but a good general outline by Thomas J Miller was found in Brew Your Own in the Jan/Feb 2003 issue.

A general outline would be, in no particular order:

1. First goal is to design a well-balanced recipe or formula. The typical stout malts are roasted barley, chocolate malt and black patent malt. Overuse of these darker grains can cause an astringent, acidic or burnt flavour. The darker grains should be less than 20% of the total grain bill.
2. The defining character of stout generally comes through the use of “roasted barely”. To add more complexity, you can use other dark grains. Caramel or crystal malt add some sweetness. Black malt gives a “bite” to the stout. Chocolate malt adds color with less aggressive flavour. Caramalt or dextrin malt add sweetness and body because they are less fermentable than other malts.
3. When crushing the malt for the stout, crush the pale malts first. Then adjust the mill to a bit wider to crush the dark malts. The dark grains are drier and tend to shatter into smaller pieces if crushed together with the pale malts. Also, after crushing, ensure your grains are well mixed before wetting.
4. Hops add a more floral or spicy type of bitterness to the stout. Any type of hops may be used but the higher alpha varieties seem to be detectable through the roasted grains more so than the lower alpha varieties, even when the same amount of IBUs are added to the wort. Common stout hops are Chinook, Centennial and Galena, all rated around 9-15 % alpha acids. Conversely, another professional brewer prefers Nugget, Northern Brewer, Challenger and Amarillo, avoiding the high alpha acid hops because they sometimes leave a cloying raisin taste. Since even the “experts” cannot agree, take your choice and use what pleases your palette.
5. The most popular yeast for stouts seem to be the Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale or the White Labs WLP004 Irish Ale. But any English ale yeast is acceptable as long as the yeast does not produce excessive amounts of diacetyl.
6. A challenge is to get a more full-bodied mouthfeel in a stout. The best way is to build the mouthfeel in the mashing process by mashing at a higher temperature (155-160°F). Another option is to use caramalt or dextrin malts at 8-10% of the grist.
7. Stouts tent to blow off a lot of foam during fermentation. Pitching at a lower temperature and then allowing the wort to warm to your preferred temperature can reduce excessive foam.

Keep in mind that there are several types of stouts to experiment with including: dry stouts, sweet stouts, oatmeal stouts and high gravity imperial stouts along with other variations.

Probably the most popular stout for beginners would be the oatmeal stout. Adding oatmeal to a stout lends a nice velvety mouthfeel, mainly from the oils and proteins of the oatmeal. This helps round out the aggressive roastiness and acidity of the dark grain.

Now you can start planning a stout and beat my best score combination of “12-14-QUIT”.