Flaked Oats - Water to Grain Ratio, Sparging Volume, Partial Mash

Hello Everyone,

I've been researching for my own recipe on an Oatmeal Stout. It's just about ready for brewing, but I have a question on the mashing water volume. I've seen that I should add 1.25 quarts for every pound of grain. Here are the grains I'm using:

Grain Bill
Pale 2-Row
English Maris Otter
Chocolate Malt
Roasted Barley
Caramel 80L

I am also using 1 pound of flaked oats in the mash - should I be counting that as a specialty grain and adding an additional 1.25 quarts to the mash volume?

Also, is it true you should sparge with the same amount of water as the mashing volume (so if I mash with 5 quarts, I need to sparge with 5 quarts)

Thanks!

Count the oats in the total grain bill. Your sparge volume is going to depend on a number of factors such as the size of your grainbill, mash thickness, target boil volume (which will be dependent on your boil off rate). The grain will absorb about 0.5 qt per lb so you can figure out about what your first runnings will be by subtracting the absorption from your mash volume. Then you'll know about how much more you need to sparge to hit target. Or you can just keep sparging until you hit your pre-boil volume.

If you have never brewed with flaked adjuncts before, they are gluey as all get out. I stuck a sparge hard and fast once and it was a bugger to get flowing again. It was those darn flaked adjuncts that did it. The fix is to mash in with your grains only, get them good and mixed, then sprinkle the flaked stuff on top. Use a spoon or something to gently submerge them and mix them with just the top few inches of the mash. Everything will convert and you won't have to worry about not having them mixed into the mash at all. The key is to keep them away from your false bottom/manifold where they can gum up the works.

chickypad said:

Count the oats in the total grain bill. Your sparge volume is going to depend on a number of factors such as the size of your grainbill, mash thickness, target boil volume (which will be dependent on your boil off rate). The grain will absorb about 0.5 qt per lb so you can figure out about what your first runnings will be by subtracting the absorption from your mash volume. Then you'll know about how much more you need to sparge to hit target. Or you can just keep sparging until you hit your pre-boil volume.

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INteresting. I loose about .25 qt/gal doing small 2 gallon BIAB. Average grain weight is 4 lbs. Perhaps because I'm doning BIAB and I press every last drop out of my small amount of grain I get less absorption.

C-Rider said:

INteresting. I loose about .25 qt/gal doing small 2 gallon BIAB. Average grain weight is 4 lbs. Perhaps because I'm doning BIAB and I press every last drop out of my small amount of grain I get less absorption.

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Good point, OP didn't specify method. My estimate is for what I've seen with non-BIAB systems. Also if BIAB'ing you won't need to worry about the stuck mash issue. I find a handful of rice hulls does the trick for me. I have a false bottom and mash a little on the thin side around 1.5 qt/lb most batches.

chickypad said:

Good point, OP didn't specify method. My estimate is for what I've seen with non-BIAB systems. Also if BIAB'ing you won't need to worry about the stuck mash issue. I find a handful of rice hulls does the trick for me. I have a false bottom and mash a little on the thin side around 1.5 qt/lb most batches.

Click to expand...

Funny, I just did an oat meal stout with 6.4 oz flaked oats in total of 4 lbs, the rest all barley. I lost 0.4 gal to this mash. Wonder if the oats took me above my average of 0.25-0.3 gal for 4 lbs of barley.