Blackened Oats

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ICWiener

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I am getting ready to brew a gluten free chocolate oatmeal stout. The recipe is from one of the forum members (Lcasanova). I've tweaked it just a bit from the original, but in a nutshell:

2 lb Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Rolled Oats, roasted
3 lbs Brown Rice Syrup (60 min)
3 lbs Sorghum Extract (60 min)
1 lb Dark Candi Sugar (60 min)
.5 oz Fuggles, pellet (60 min)
.25 oz Fuggles, pellet (30 min)
.25 oz Kent, pellet (15 min)
5 oz (.5 lb) Unsulfured Molasses (15 min)
1 tsp Irish Moss (10 min)
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient (10 min)
6 oz Fat Free Cocoa Powder (10 min)
8 oz Maltodextrin (5 min)
S-04 SafAle Yeast
2 Vanilla Beans, split, chopped (added in secondary)

So here's my dilemma: I was at the LHBS, talking with the owner. We were discussing how difficult it is to get decent coloring for a GF stout. He said that black patent is pretty much roasted until it's almost burnt and that doing the same thing to the oats will help get more color.

So, I toasted the ever loving cr@p out of them. 1 hr at 350, 1 hr at 400, and about 45 min at 425. Spraying them with water and turning them about every 10 minutes or so. They have a beautiful dark chocolate color, but as you probably guessed, they smell pretty well burned. I made a tea from them, steeped at 160 for 30 min. It wasn't that bad, very woodsy flavor. Some of that acidic, ashy flavor did come through on the aftertaste. It didn't give off the color I was hoping for. It's a dark amber, but definitely not black. I have them resting in a paper bag and I'm hoping a week or so will mellow them out a bit.

I've looked all over HBT and haven't found anything on burnt oats. To be honest, I'm kind of getting cold feet. I want to get that color out of them, but I don't want to ruin the flavor. Any thoughts/opinions?
 
A drum roller is what you need to get the color without burning. The thermal conductivity of metal pans in an oven will burtn your oats even with the water and even in ten minutes. Having the rotating drum prevents any constant contact for an individual oat. Try getting a home coffee bean roaster and putting oat malt in it at a french roast setting. That being said I'd repeat you tea experiment in about two weeks and see if the flavor has mellowed a bit, as the wait time is what is suggested in radical brewing.
 
I'll brew up some tea in a week or so, see what happens. Worse comes to worse, I guess I can buy more oats, toast them lightly and mix the blends together...mellow out the overall flavor.
 
I could be very wrong, but isn't black patent malt almost gluten free? Maybe I just misread that someplace, but if it's true, it's definitely worth discussing here.
 
I don't think it is. Otherwise, there would probably be a decent gluten free stout on the market. But I've been wrong before, so if it is...that will make my life easier!
 
Maybe it's just low in gluten content, which is enough to scare any Celiac sufferer away. Or maybe I'm just full of it.

I do know that dark candi sugar is gluten free and will add some color and deep flavors. EDIT: But you've already included it in your recipe.
 
the original recipe called for 1 lb of dark candi sugar during the boil and 1 lb added at the end of primary fermentation. I adjusted it because that sounded like a little too much.
 
Barley is in general low gluten, but not gluten free, same goes for rye
 
Well, it's been a week of wafting. They're still giving off a pretty powerful aroma. I'm thinking I might toast another lb, but not so heavily this time, and use them to cut the dark roasted ones. That way I still get that color, but not so strong of flavor.
 
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