Franco-Belgian Blood Orange Oatmeal Stout

[mashani]

I figure if Dupont can make stout with Belgian Saison yeast, I can make stout with French Saison yeast. And I have no stout in my pipeline. And it's too hot to brew stout any other way.

The only thing I do not like about Duponts "Monks Stout" is that it's so dry and roasty that it's almost got a charcoal vibe, due to how much it attenuates / lack of any residual sweetness. I'm hoping the oats, special B, and higher mash temps leave something there to smooth it out. The orange is just a bonus. I had it, and I think it will make this a nice holiday beverage.

But French saison might just eat it all anyways, we will see.

2.5 Gallon target BIAB mash @154 of:

3.25# Maris Otter
0.50# Flaked Oats
0.25# Roasted Barley
0.25# British Chocolate Malt
0.25# Special B

0.50oz 7% AA Northern Brewer @60
0.50# Blood Orange Candi Syrup @5

Cooled, pitched full pack of Bella Saison.

That's about it.

OG was 1.052
IBUs should be around 28

FG will hopefully not be lower then 1.004 but who knows...

[mashani]

This started active fermenting only 2 hours after I pitched the yeast. With big krausen at 4 hours. Wheeeeeee. Fermenting at 78 degrees. It will probably be done in 4-5 days if I wanted to push it.

[JohnSant]

Mashani, looking forward to you finial results. It sounds like an interesting brew.

[BigPapaG]

Mashani, looking forward to you finial results. It sounds like an interesting brew.

Ditto! Should have an interesting flavor profile... I'm intrigued as to how this might age out... Dave, you might want to keep a few around beyond the holiday season!

[mashani]

Mashani, looking forward to you finial results. It sounds like an interesting brew.

Ditto! Should have an interesting flavor profile... I'm intrigued as to how this might age out... Dave, you might want to keep a few around beyond the holiday season!

Hey, my friend, I've been worried about you. I was just in your neighborhood last week, and would have visited and brought some homebrew if I knew you were around and ok. I hope you and your family are doing well.

[BigPapaG]

Mashani, looking forward to you finial results. It sounds like an interesting brew.

Ditto! Should have an interesting flavor profile... I'm intrigued as to how this might age out... Dave, you might want to keep a few around beyond the holiday season!

Hey, my friend, I've been worried about you. I was just in your neighborhood last week, and would have visited and brought some homebrew if I knew you were around and ok. I hope you and your family are doing well.

Darn the luck! Oh well...

You know, we are doing the best we can with what little we have... And my back has been out so I'm a bit behind on the pipeline... But I'll be kegging a Grizette tomorrow, yeeha!

Thanks for thinking about us! Hope you and yours are also well!

[mashani]

Well, this is in the bottles now. It finished at 1.006. That's the highest I've ever had Bella finish, which is a good thing in this case, it is what I wanted. I just didn't expect it to actually happen LOL.

It did have enough residual sweetness left to not have the Dupont "Monks Stout" charcoal vibe, which is a good thing in my view. It's still dry enough to seem like a lower OG dry stout as it's still 6 or 7 points lower FG then it would have been with any normal stout yeast. The orange is subtle, at least in the sample. It might pop out more with some age. It has some dark fruit going on too, which gives it a bit of that Belgian vibe.

I think I'll like it.

[mashani]

Popped the sample bottle.

stout.JPG (73.11 KiB) Viewed 2868 times

It's ready to drink now. It needs no aging. I will age some just because, but it doesn't need it. It's smooth. Not harsh in any way. Noticeably citrusy from the yeast and the candi syrup. Slightly tart and dry, just enough residual sweetness to keep it from being rough edged like the Monks stout is. It's actually very refreshing even though it's 87 degrees outside. Which isn't something I would normally say about a stout. It actually comes across more like as a light bodied Baltic porter with citrus mixed in. If you could imagine such a thing.

So yeah, this is good.