All oatmeal stout

So... my wife has a gluten sensitivity (along with several other sensitivies we found out, but gluten is the one that affects beer drinking)

She's never been a big drinker, only in the past couple of years has she learned to enjoy beer at all, and that was mostly the thickest darkest sweetest stouts you could find (Dark Lord, my oatmeal stout... one other I can't think of).

Which gets me to my recipe idea... So I'm thinking of roasting some oats. Some roasted in the oven to brown... some roasted all the way to black. Basically trying to recreate roasted barley and chocolate malt.

So I'll throw out something here and hope ya'll can help me figure out how to do this.

8 lbs rolled oats plain (subbed for American 2-row)
.5 lbs rolled oats slightly toasted (subbed for American Caramel 40°L)
.75 lbs rolled oats toasted brown (subbed for American Chocolate Malt)
.5 lbs rolled oats pretty much black (subbed for Roasted Barley)
2.5 lbs Oats Flaked (ok just add this to the 8 lb above)
.75 lbs Lactose... need to replace this with something... truvia? Splenda?
.5 oz whatever ~15.0 AA% whole hops; boiled 60 min
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 10 min -
WYeast 1084 Irish Ale™ (or something else, like S04 perhaps)

Mash in at 1 qt/lb and hold at 125*F for 30 minutes
Infuse with enough water to get up to mashing temp at 153*F hold for 45 minutes.
Double batch sparge with 180*F water

So I'm wondering how to get the caramel and sweetness in this brew. I can't use Lactose. I'm wondering if I can partially convert some of the oatmeal in the American Caramel sub and then toast it so I get the resulting sugars caramelized.

This is a huge stuck mash waiting to happen. I plan on using rice hulls, but also have some sort of protein rest (I've never done one before) Could use some help here. Perhaps brew in a bag? I'd like to keep the thickness of an oatmeal stout, but I want it to run and I want it to ferment of course, I don't want to wholesale throw a ton of amylase enzyme in, (I'll need some though)

Are you totally married to the idea of 100% oats? Why not try some traditional gluten-free ingredients like brown rice syrup or sorghum for a portion of the fermentables?

I've never done anything without barley, but I figure the same techniques work for GF. To get some caramel and sweetness you could take a gallon or so of your first mash runnings and boil it down to a pint or so. Then add that back to the boil. I use this on a scotch ale and it gives some very nice caramel flavors without using caramel/crystal malt.

I'm not totally married to the idea of all oats, just thought it would be interesting I could get some sorghum syrup or rice syrup, but I am trying to keep this really thick. I've always thought adding things such as that would tend to make a beer dryer. I suppose using sorghum syrup for the original 8lb of 2-row and then converting the rest to oats might work out. I've looked through the gluten free forum a while back but didn't see a lot of success with stouts so far.

I like the idea of boiling down some of the wort to get the caramelization flavors

I read somewhere on the interwebs that somebody tried to make an all-oat malt beer, and that his result was realizing why such things are not commercially available. Ryane made this 100% oat malt pale: http://ryanbrews.blogspot.com/2009/12/100-oat-malt-mt-rainier-hops-smash-beer.html and said it was best suited as a glaze for chicken.

The problem with roasting anything huskless is that you'll get a lot more color than roasty flavor (think Midnight Wheat or Dehusked Carafa). You could try roasting up some rice hulls to see if that gives you the right stoutiness. If you can make homemade cara-malts from barley, I see no reason you couldn't do the same from malted oats. I have absolutely no idea what the right ratio of oat malt, cara-oats, oatmeal and burnt rice hulls is for a gluten-free stout, but this may be a time to make some 1 gallon batches.

With that information I'm thinking about buying some whole oats and some oat malt. I can use the whole oats to make roasted oats, then use the oat malt to make the crystal and chocolate malts. Then either use sorghum syrup for the main fermentable, or use oat malt with a bit of amylase enzyme to get it to convert better (it is really a push to hope it will self convert based on the article Kingwood posted and others).

My other thought is to only buy enough oat malt to make the crystal and chocolate malts... then just use amylase enzyme and whole oats (http://www.farmandfleet.com/products/354385-agrimaster-whole-oats.html#.ULjZ_-TAffA) Yeah yell at me for being a hick and using horse food to make beer... but yeah would be fun (and a lot cheaper!)

I'm wondering if in the future they may start making specialty grains out of something other than barley in the future for gluten free brewers. hmm maybe a business idea if I can make it work with oat malt/whole oats.