Having died out sometime in the 1960's (probably - don't quote me on that), Oatmeal Stout has not only been resurrected, but is doing quite nicely.You've probably all heard the story of how the recipe for Sam Smith's Oatmeal Stout was thrown together in the course of a few phone calls between Michael Jackson, Sam's head brewer and the American importer. With zero reference to any old recipes. Pure guesswork.
Can you guess what's coming? What were the original Oatmeal Stouts like and are they anything like Sam Smith's?
One thing's certain, during the first half of the 20th century there were plenty of them about. More, in fact, than was at first apparent. It all goes back to party-gyling, that favourite technique of many British breweries.
Whitbread, in particular, almost always party-gyled their Porter and Stouts. One of these beers being Oatmeal Stout. Which is why during the 1920's and 1930's pretty well all their Stouts contained oats. In fact the LOS (London Oatmeal Stout) was identical to LS (London Stout). Same ingredients, same gravity, fermented in the same tun. 100% identical. I suppose the label was different.
It's even curiouser at Fuller's. They weren't claiming to be making an Oatmeal Stout, but their Porter and Brown Stout both contained oats. Quite small amounts - about 0.6% of the grist - but still some. Hang on. That's the same as Whitbread's LOS. That had just 0.6% oats, too. I've just been looking at their final brew of Porter. It was party-gyled with LOS, so also had oats in it.I guess the oatmeal character was pretty subtle. Otherwise drinkers would have noticed its presence in the other Stouts. And the amount used was tiny. The most I've found was just 3% of the total grist. I wonder what exactly the point was? And how does that compare with modern Oatmeal Stout recipes? My guess would be that they use much more. Antone know for sure?
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6 comments:
Hi Ron
Do you have any idea if they where malted oats that they where using?
Maybe they only used 3% because they were scared of gumming up their mash tun?? Most home brew recipes are between 5-10%. I think 3-5% would be just fine.
A bit late in on this one. The period you are talking about, immediately pre-WW2 and post war, you are in an era when the major breweries began to fake many of their beers. The whole range of the majority of brewer's beers were produced from one standard grist. This standard grist always contained a pound or two of oatmeal to meet excise labelling regulations in the case of oatmeal stout. The small amount of oatmeal made no difference to flavour. This standard grist would be fermented at three strengths, say; 1048, 1041 and 1035. The 1048 would go out as IPA, the 1041 as bitter, and the 1035 as light ale. The range would then be extended by adding caramel to these three basic beers. The IPA with caramel added would become strong ale, the bitter with caramel became old ale, and the light ale with caramel became mild ale. Bottled versions of these beers would then be produced, with various names on the labels. Notably the strong and old would have been labelled stout or double stout, and the mild labelled as brown ale. The 13th beer, the oatmeal stout, was simply one of the stouts with a different label on the bottle.
You observed in "Whitbread's Last Porter" that no black malt was present in the grist. There wouldn't be at that date. The colour would have been produced by adding caramel post-fermentation. It was (and still is, or would be) common practice. It is no wonder that many of these "fake" beers died out.
Whoops! You already knew all that - just read your Fuller's stuff.
I also take back what I said about Whitbread porter being coloured post fermentation. It probably was not necessary. Examining the grist again, chocolate malt is nearly as black as black malt, and the "dark sugar" was probably No. 4 Invert, which is black. Plenty of opportunity for a black beer without any adulterative help.
Hi, do you know if Sam Smith use oatmeal flakes or oat malt just as Maclay's? I feel like there's something amiss when brewing an oatmeal stout if you want to replicate the Samuel Smith's version. Best regards from Sweden.
Anonymous,
I don't, I'm afraid. Though often beers that used oat malt are called Oat Malt rather than Oatmeal Stout.
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