Froze Hoze Oatmeal Stout

Source: Bob Wall
Recipe added: 04/27/01
Email: bwall2001@mediaone.net

This recipie won me third place in the Peach State Brewoff held in Atlanta GA Feb 17, 2001 http://www.coverthops.com/PSBO/psbo2001.html Scroll down to "Group 15" Special note about the "Froze Hoze" name: It was the first cold day in a cold snap that gripped North GA for a few weeks in the winter of 2000/01. It was a cool morning, but not real cold yet when I began my brew. I use a three-tiered gravity flow system of 15-gallon kegs. Like many married brewers, I am banished to the garage to brew. I use a garden hose for my wort chiller and to zap any mad boils. As I said, it was not real cold when I began, but as I was happily brewing, I noticed that the wind really began to whip and the temperature dropped a bit. Being in the garage and next to a burner, it never occurred to me just how cold it was getting. To make a long story short, when it came time to immerse my chiller, I discovered that my garden hose had frozen solid! Undaunted, I acted quickly. I had 15 minutes to get the hose unfrozen. I reeled the hose in and unhooked the hose from the spigot only to discover that the spigot was also frozen! I couldn't even turn it off it was froze too solid. I had to go to the interior shutoff valve and I got it closed, but I could hear ice crystals crunching. I then went and got the hose reel and lifted it off the side of the house and brought it up to the bedroom where I immediately filled the garden tub with hot water and soaked the whole hose, reel housing and all. Then, I ran downstairs to get a 2qt saucepan of water boiling on the stove. I retrieved a universal hose/faucet coupler and ran back upstairs and connected the garden hose to the tub faucet. I ran hot water through the hose to purge all the ice then drained the tub. Now, back down with the dripping hose and reel. By this time the 2 qt saucepan of water was boiling. I took it outside and held it up to the spigot to melt the ice buildup. It worked! I re-attached the hose reel to the house, reconnected the hose, turned on the inside valve, and ran a bunch of water through the hose before I connected it to my waiting wort chiller. And I did all of this with 1 minute to spare before my timer went off! Yeah...I know. I really didn't HAVE to act that fast. I could have let my wort cool off naturally for a while before resolving the frozen hose issue, but then, I wouldn't have this brewing adventure to share with you.

Specifics

Recipe type: All Grain
Batch Size: 10 Gallons
Starting Gravity: 1.059
Finishing Gravity: 1.015
Time in Boil: 60 minutes
Primary Fermentation: 1 week
Secondary Fermentation: 2 weeks
Additional Fermentation: 1 week chilled in fridge 40F then Keg

Ingredients:

Procedure:

Roast the Oats by spreading them out in cake pans @ 325 degrees for 75 minutes (1 hour & 15 minutes). The cake pans are better than cookie sheets because they allow you to mix the oats without spilling them everywhere! Let the oats get to a dark brown color, slightly more black than brown. It’s a good idea to do this the night before. Mash temperature is 150 degrees for 90 minutes. Re-circulate for the last 30 minutes and be sure to maintain your temp! I gotta get a friggin’ pump! Add all hops @ boil Boil 60 minutes, Irish Moss, immersion chiller, yadda yadda yadda. Chill to 75 degrees and pitch yeast. Try to keep the fermenters about 65-70 degrees while fermenting. Rack to secondary after about a week. Keg after another week or two, depending on the final gravity. Priming and bottling is for sissies!
[Back]Back to previous Table of Contents
Copyright © 1996 - 2005. All Rights Reserved. No information found in the Gambrinus' Mug pages should be assumed to be in the public domain.