Inner Richmond Oatmeal Rye Stout

I love stouts—especially Oatmeal Stouts—and it was high time I brewed one again. Only this time, I decided to kick the recipe up a notch and give the beer a dry, spicy finish with a handful of malted rye in the mash.

Grain bill:
6.0 lb (61.5%) Maris Otter - added during mash
1 lb (10.3%) Rye Malt - added during mash
1 lb (10.3%) Oat Flakes - added during mash
.5 lb (5.1%) Crystal Malt 80°L - added during mash
.5 lb (5.1%) Chocolate Malt - added during mash
.5 lb (5.1%) Roast Barley - added during mash
.25 lb (2.6%) Black Malt - added during mash

Hop schedule:
.5 oz (50.0%) Magnum (14.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 m
.5 oz (50.0%) Magnum (14.5%) - added during boil, boiled 30 m

Yeast:
1.0 ea White Labs WLP007 Dry English Ale

Inner Richmond Oatmeal Rye Stout pours an opaque black with a one-and-a-half finger off-white head that falls into a dense cap. The aroma is bittersweet chocolate and deep roasted coffee with a touch of malt graininess. The taste is primarily of dark roasted malt with some sweetness—toffee, espresso, and bitter chocolate. It’s thick and sticky in the mouth with moderate carbonation and a dry finish that cuts some of the oatmeal’s creaminess. There’s a little roasted malt astringency, but nothing too far out of style.

Overall, it’s a tasty beer. In the future, I think I’ll bump up both the oatmeal and rye percentages to give it a more distinct character and back off on some of the darker roasted grains (or add them later) to mellow out the taste a bit.