Oatmeal Stout... when to add oatmeal?

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slakwhere

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hey guys,

been lurking the forum the last couple days and just brewed my first batch (amber). i believe it to be a success and it's in primary now. getting ready to start a second, which is an oatmeal stout kit from my LHBS. it came with a bag of grains and then a bag of oatmeal (and malt extract and hops, obviously). do i add the grains and the oatmeal all at once to my tea, or do i add them separate? if so, when?!

any help would be greatly appreciated :mug:
 
Didn't you get a recipe with your kit? I'd cook the grain and oatmeal for an hour at 160 deg F for about an hour, before I'd add the malt extract and hops. After the hour, remove the grain and oatmeal, then crank the wort up to a boil then add the malt extract.
 
flash, the recipe sheet that came with it is a generic that they use for all their kits. it isn't specific to this oatmeal stout. that's why i was confused.

why would you boil before adding extract? my directions with this kit say steep grains, remove grains, add extract and bittering hops, boil.
 
sounds to me you're doing a partial mash. although i've only brewed an oatmeal stout doing AG. the grain and oats were mixed together so i could only imagine it being the same for a partial mash
 
gumby: so you'd do all the grains and oats together in the first step, then remove them, add bittering hops and extract and boil?
 
well in all grain brewing there really is no removing the grains since they're in the mash tun and you extract the malts yourself but during the process the grains and oats are mixed together and before the brew process. not sure if this would be same for partial mash. i'll search the boards a bit and see what i can find
 
After reading other forum post I discovered that 20-30 minute steeping time will work alright with the specialty grains that you have. Just put the grain in a steeping bag and bring the water up to 155*f-160*f. Cook for 20-30 minutes and remove the specialty grains. Afterwards, bring the pot up to a boil and add the malt extract. After add the hops at the specific times.

I grabbed this little excerpt from YooperBrew's post on "Specialty Grain Techniques";

20 minutes is usually about right, but a little longer won't hurt. There aren't many sugars that you extract- it's really negligible on the OG. You don't want to sparge with boiling water- you want the temperature of the grain bed no higher than 170, so that you don't extract tannins.

Keep in mind that we're talking about specialty grains and steeping. A partial mash with base grains IS a different ball game!


flash, the recipe sheet that came with it is a generic that they use for all their kits. it isn't specific to this oatmeal stout. that's why i was confused.

you'd really remove the grain and oatmeal before the boil? extract last? why?
 
After reading other forum post I discovered that 20-30 minute steeping time will work alright with the specialty grains that you have. Just put the grain in a steeping bag and bring the water up to 155*f-160*f. Cook for 20-30 minutes and remove the specialty grains. Afterwards, bring the pot up to a boil and add the malt extract. After add the hops at the specific times.

I grabbed this little excerpt from YooperBrew's post on "Specialty Grain Techniques";

20 minutes is usually about right, but a little longer won't hurt. There aren't many sugars that you extract- it's really negligible on the OG. You don't want to sparge with boiling water- you want the temperature of the grain bed no higher than 170, so that you don't extract tannins.

Keep in mind that we're talking about specialty grains and steeping. A partial mash with base grains IS a different ball game!
alright there's the answer i had a feeling it was going to be completely different then what i was saying. was about to search the boards but looks like you beat me to it.
 
will steeping the grains longer have any negative side effects? my directions say to steep for 30-45, not 20.
 
I don't think so. I've been steeping for 1 hour, and I haven't had any adverse side effects. I just think you get all you're gonna get after 20-30 min
 
Hey everybody, I am currently making an oatmeal stout for my 3rd batch of beer. Initially I thought I was supposed to add the oats once the wort started boiling and did. I read this right after and removed the oats about 15 minutes into the boil. Do you think I did any serious damage by exposing the oats to too high of high temperatures?
 
well in all grain brewing there really is no removing the grains since they're in the mash tun and you extract the malts yourself but during the process the grains and oats are mixed together and before the brew process. not sure if this would be same for partial mash. i'll search the boards a bit and see what i can find

That's what I've been told. I've been told that if you're doing a partial mash there's no reason to separate the grains that need to be mashed from the grains that just need to be steeped. So you might as well just mash it all together. Plus, it just takes some of the guess work out of the process - I get confused as to exactly when I need to mash and when I just need to steep. So I just mash it all. Seems to work for me so far.
 
That's what I've been told. I've been told that if you're doing a partial mash there's no reason to separate the grains that need to be mashed from the grains that just need to be steeped. So you might as well just mash it all together. Plus, it just takes some of the guess work out of the process - I get confused as to exactly when I need to mash and when I just need to steep. So I just mash it all. Seems to work for me so far.

My understanding is you are either mashing or steeping, not both. The difference is that in mashing you are converting starches to sugars, where in steeping you're basically just getting out whatever sugars are already in the grain without conversion.

So, if you have your "steepable" grains in with your grains that have to be mashed, you'll get a little extra sugar out of the steepable ones due to the mash process. Not much, though, as I don't think they really attribute much in the way of gravity points in the first place. In other words, just do it all together because it is completely unnecessary to do them separate and, hey, it might save you some extract if you're doing a partial mash.
 
Hey everybody, I am currently making an oatmeal stout for my 3rd batch of beer. Initially I thought I was supposed to add the oats once the wort started boiling and did. I read this right after and removed the oats about 15 minutes into the boil. Do you think I did any serious damage by exposing the oats to too high of high temperatures?

From what I understand, the danger of steeping grains at too high a temperature is that you can extract tannins which affects the flavor of the beer. A quick Google search indicates that oatmeal doesn't have tannins, though.

So, you're probably fine. The beer may not have the same mouthfeel you'd get with an oatmeal stout, but it can still be good.
 
My understanding is you are either mashing or steeping, not both. The difference is that in mashing you are converting starches to sugars, where in steeping you're basically just getting out whatever sugars are already in the grain without conversion.

They're basically the same, but mashing uses a water to grain ratio (my understanding is if you use too much water, the enzymes get watered down). I've never seen a specific water-grain ratio for steeping. I've also noticed that people tend to steep at a higher temp than mashing.

So it's a question of do I put X pounds of grain in 1 gal of water and keep it at 155 for an hour, or do I soak X pounds of grain in 3 gallons of water at 160 for an hour? I figure I might as well be sure I'm getting all the sugar out that I can, so I'll mash all the time.
 
The vast majority of grains that people steep can also be mashed. The difference between "steeping grains" and "grains that have to be mashed" is that some grains will impart flavor and color without a mash, while others just sit in the water and don't do a thing without some enzyme. Now, that said, the ones that can be steeped are ONLY giving you flavor and color attributes and aren't contributing any fermentables. If you put those grains in a mash, you get the flavor and color (possibly more flavor and color than you would just steeping them) AND you are converting starches in the grains to contribute to your gravity.

I can't see any reason why you would want to separate out grains just because they don't HAVE to be mashed. Mash 'em all and let the yeast sort 'em out! :D
 
You add the oatmeal the same time you steep the split grains. But before you add the oatmeal with the grain, MAKE OATMEAL out of the oatmeal. Make the oatmeal, add the oatmeal to the grain bag along with your grains and then go on. This will ensure that the oatmeal actually gets "mashed" and the flavors come out.
 
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