Sky Pirate - 6.0% Coffee & Oat Stout

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The inspiration for this beer came from drinking way too many 11% imperial stouts. We wanted a more sessionable stout with undertones of coffee rather than it being the main focus of the beer. We are aiming for a crisper finishing beer that retains a velvety mouth feel and good head retention, we also wanted the hops to play a significant enough role in the beer that even in their limited quantities for the style were still distinct in their contribution.

In order to allow a beer to finish crisp the final gravity must be low enough, this is typically unusual for stout as the darker malts are less fermentable and leave longer chain sugars that the yeast gets too tired to eat. To solve this we drive the mash temperature down to encourage a higher ratio of alpha amylase enzyme activity in the mash, causing shorter chain sugars to be produced from the starch in the malted grains.

Typically a lower finishing gravity is dangerous territory for a stout as the moderate bitterness and alcohol level of the style is supported by a sweeter finish. In this case we are leaning on the water chemistry to help produce the velvety mouthfeel.