How to use flaked oats?

I am wanting to attempt to make a Blue Moon style beer from a recipe I got from another thread and I had a question regarding the flaked oats.

The recipe says to throw 0.5# of flaked oats in the last 15 minutes of the boil. From what I have read you are supposed to mash the oats (which I have never done).

Here is the recipe. What would you do?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/blue-moon-clone-65328/index44.html#post3275093

Thanks.

I would mash them.

Mash them.

Mash.

Have you ever eaten oatmeal? Notice the particular flavor and texture it has? Your oatmeal didn't get mashed, it just got cooked and that flavor and texture came through. Since you are doing an extract beer (you did post in the extract forum) just follow the directions. The flaked oats will impart a flavor and mouthfeel without needing mashed. It might be better if mashed but it isn't a critical issue for your beer.

http://***********/stories/beer-styles/article/indices/11-beer-styles/1194-oatmeal-stout-style

Read this it will tell you all about oats and why many brewers mash them.

Some recipes tell you to soak them/steep them.

You get more out of them by mini-mashing them.

Put a pound in with 2# of 2Row and minimash on your stove. Peice of cake and really opens you up for better flavor, better use of the grains/oat. Plus you can add a few points to your brew, cutting down on DME/LME.

Put 1.25qt water per pound of grain in a pot, heat it up to strike temp. Add your grains and monitor your heat to keep 154-156* for 1hr. Then heat to 168* for a mashout, hold for 10min, then dump into a strainer (I used a big colander with a muslin bag stretched over). Just before doing so, add the same amount of water in another pot and bring up to 170* to batch sparge.

Use this Wort to add your extract to.

Use which as the wort? The hour heated or the "same amount of water in another pot" for sparging?

(Yes, beginner question)

The water you heated in the other pot will be your sparge water. If you can find a colander that will fit over your boil kettle/pot, slowly pour the wort/grains into the colander, then use a 2C measuring cup to pour sparge water over the grains in the colander (Sparging).

Let them sit and drain for a bit, then put your kettle on the fire(should have all the Wort from the steeping/minimash and sparge water) and start adding extracts.

I would think that during the steaming and rolling process, the cell walls of the starches would have been ruptured. That would make the sugars available for fermentation without having to be converted (steep OK).

I would think that during the steaming and rolling process, the cell walls of the starches would have been ruptured. That would make the sugars available for fermentation without having to be converted (steep OK).

Click to expand...

Starch has no cell wall. Only cells have cell walls. Starch is a carbohydrate in the grain seed that the growing cells, i.e., the grain seeds, convert to sugar to use as food for growth. The malting process causes the seed/grain to produce the enzymes that the seed uses to convert the starch to sugar, then kills the seed so it doesn't continue growing. Leaving us humans with a seed full of unconverted starch and enzymes that we can use to mash and make beer.

Unmalted grain, whether it's rolled or not, does not have sufficient enzymes to convert it's starches. Further, the heat of the rolling process denatures what few enzymes there are in the unmalted grain yielding flakes that are mostly just starch. The heat of the rolling process does gelatinize the starch, meaning the starch is in a more water soluble form so it doesn't require prolonged cooking to make it mashable. It will however require the contribution of enzymes from malted grain, usually barley.

Re the OP, if you don't mash your oatmeal, you will be contributing a lot of free starch to your beer. Boiling starch = gravy. Your beer will have a permanent haze which will not drop out in the fridge with the chill haze. For opaque stouts this may not be an issue, but for lighter beers it is.

So mash your oats!

Thanks everybody for the replies. I will try to mash the oats.

Cubslover said:

The water you heated in the other pot will be your sparge water. If you can find a colander that will fit over your boil kettle/pot, slowly pour the wort/grains into the colander, then use a 2C measuring cup to pour sparge water over the grains in the colander (Sparging).

Let them sit and drain for a bit, then put your kettle on the fire(should have all the Wort from the steeping/minimash and sparge water) and start adding extracts.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the follow up.