New Beer: Chocolate Oatmeal Porter

Today, I get to do my favorite part of my job... Brew a new beer! Fortunately, I've been able to do so a lot lately. Recently, I have been asked quite a few times if we come up with our own recipes. It is always a little funny to me to hear that question. Yes, our recipes are all our own original recipes (What fun is it to brew a beer that's already been brewed by someone else?), and the follow up question is always; "How do you come up with a recipe?" or "I bet you brew a lot of small batches and tweak your recipes before filling those big vats." 

The truth is recipe creation relies mostly on experience these days. I typically try to compare recipe creation to cooking. Most people know what ingredients like salt, pepper, cinnamon, sugar, etc. taste like. Most people also know what ingredients like chicken tastes like, so if you have experience cooking, you can easily imagine what it tastes like if you put those spices on your chicken and what the texture of the chicken will be like if you fry it, boil it, grill it, or bake it.

Similarily, when I brew, I know what all our malts and hops taste like, the characteristics of various yeast strains, and the effects that our various procedures have on each ingredient's contribution. So it is pretty predictable what the beer will taste like when it is done. This gives us the ability to create new beers and brew 60 barrels right off the bat... Which is what we are doing today.

Today's new beer is a chocolate oatmeal porter. This is a new seasonal for us and it is one that I am very excited about. Ever since I got back from school, most of the new beers I have brewed have been German styles and they have been very well received. I think a lot of people have enjoyed drinking styles that are not frequently brewed in America. Most American Ale styles have their roots originating from English Ale styles, so I am excited to brew something that is a little more closely related to what craft beer drinkers expect in America. However, there are quite a few things about this beer that are unique in comparison to American ales.

This Porter is being brewed with only English ingredients and features malts only from Thomas Fawcett and Sons, a great maltster which still utilizes many traditional malting techniques and is known for producing the highest quality English Malts. For our base malt, we are using Floor Malted Maris Otter, a very flavorful base malt with an intense toasty character. In addition, we are using two types of chocolate malts. In comparison to American chocolate malts, Thomas Fawcett Chocolate is much less harsh and has a more full chocolate flavor. We also have some English crystal malt which is sweet and toffee like, but does not have the sugary, candy like sweetness found in American caramel malts.

Perhaps the most unique malt we are using (and probably the most unique we have ever used) is oat malt. Typically, brewers use rolled or flaked oats when they advertise oats in a beer. Flaked oats are great for beers where you want a smooth, creamy mouthfeel, but they do not provide much oat flavor. The only oat malt that I am aware of is made by Thomas Fawcett and it was rare enough that their distributor had trouble completing our order for it. Oat malt does have a distinct grainy, oat flavor. We are using it as 10% of our malt bill, so the oat flavor should be well distinguished.

The hops will be kept to a minimum at 25 IBU's just to balance out the maltiness and the use of London Ale Yeast will provide some pleasant fruity esters while leaving a small amount of residual sugar. The end result will be a malt forward beer with a medium-thick body and a creamy tan head. At 6.25% ABV, I think this will be the perfect beer for the cold months coming up. We will have about 2.5-3 weeks before we are ready to bottle it. Hopefully you guys are looking forward to it as much as I am!