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Why The Long Face? Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Stout

Posted by Hop Hooligans on

Why The Long Face? Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Stout

We kinda have the habit of taking a simple idea and then adding a lot more stuff to it. Of course, we’re not just gonna throw things in there like you would on an ugly, kitschy Christmas tree, but rather think of ingredients that would fit well together.

This one started as an exercise in oats. We wanted to brew something that would take up as much as half of all the malt bill in oat flakes. At the risk of a slow wort transfer and lower starch conversion, but looking to get that special thickness that only ladies in rap videos have. Extra thicc, that is.

Still, we kept it rather light, so we wouldn’t get other things in the way. So only 7.5% alcohol.

Then came the additions. We didn’t want to beat a dead horse with a stick too much (there will be more puns, stick with us) so no chocolate or vanilla. Or tonka beans!

We thought of oatmeal cookies, and settled for cinnamon and raisins, but also some special malts.

If you want to mature a beer on raisins, you have to use A LOT to really get something out of them. We threw in our fair share of that, but also used some nice specialty crystal malts that inherently bring notes of dried dark fruit. On a larger scale, i can imagine one could be more generous with raisins. Duly noted.

Cookie malt came next, because we wanted to see what it can do. Some nice toasted biscuity notes came out of that. We added some wheat, but not the whole haystack. Hints of chocolate from some other more traditional types of malt, too.

When we got to cinnamon, we changed from the usual true Ceylon cinnamon that we use in Chupacabra, to Cassia cinnamon, for a more candy shop / confectionery-like feel. Think of the dusting on top of rice pudding, and just let nostalgia do its thing.

And that pretty much sums up what we had in mind, and carefully applied when brewing Why The Long Face.

You can try it first on Friday at Absintherie Sixtina Romania, and feel free to tell us: Yay or Neeeigh?

Bottles, hopefully, next week.

 


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