The stout recipe I am using calls from steeping some malt and barley for 30 minutes, then removing the grains and adding DME, honey and oats for a 60-min boil. Well, when I got the ingredients today, I just brought the list and not the actual schedule so all the grains AND the oats were crushed together and are mixed in one big plastic bag. Do you think I should try to sift the grains through some sort of strainer to remove the oats or just leave them in for the steeping and add more during the boil? I think I could do this since the oats aren't as crushed as the grains. I'm concerned that if I leave the oats in during the steeping, they could soak up some of what should be staying behind in the water. Any thoughts?
I incorrectly mixed grains - should I try to separate?
- Thread starter hezagenius
- Start date
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Blender
Well-Known Member
I have never heard of boiling oats with the wort so don't worry. Why don't you post the recipe and instructions so we can give you some additional help.
Shawn Hargreaves
Well-Known Member
Where did you get this recipe? It sounds a little bogus to me: I'm not sure why you'd want to boil the oats.
Can you post the recipe here?
Can you post the recipe here?
Unless the oats were instant, flaked, or malted, they need to be cereal mashed (cooked).
Ed's Honey Oatmeal Stout (from The Homebrewer's Recipe Guide)
OG 1.051
3# amber DME
3# dark DME
2# buckwheat honey
1# crystal malt (60L)
0.5# chocolate malt
0.75# roasted barley
0.25# black patent malt
1# rolled oats
1.5 oz Cascade for bittering
1 oz Liberty for aroma
1 pack Irish Ale yeast
1.25 cups DME for priming
I will be doing a 3 gallon boil.
Steep crystal malt, chocolate malt, black patent malt and barley at 155 deg. for 30 min.
Discard grains. Add DME, honey, oats and Cascade at 60 min.
Add Liberty at flame-out and steep for 15 min.
Cool, pitch and ferment for 10-14 days.
Bottle using DME and age 2-3 weeks.
OG 1.051
3# amber DME
3# dark DME
2# buckwheat honey
1# crystal malt (60L)
0.5# chocolate malt
0.75# roasted barley
0.25# black patent malt
1# rolled oats
1.5 oz Cascade for bittering
1 oz Liberty for aroma
1 pack Irish Ale yeast
1.25 cups DME for priming
I will be doing a 3 gallon boil.
Steep crystal malt, chocolate malt, black patent malt and barley at 155 deg. for 30 min.
Discard grains. Add DME, honey, oats and Cascade at 60 min.
Add Liberty at flame-out and steep for 15 min.
Cool, pitch and ferment for 10-14 days.
Bottle using DME and age 2-3 weeks.
Blender
Well-Known Member
Yes but even then wouldn't you add them to the mash. At least it is not to common.
If you got flaked oats from the LBS then they should be fine to steep.
Yes, they were flaked oats.
Do you think I should add any more oats during the boil or should I just leave the oats that are already mixed in with the other grains for steeping and not add any more?
I respectfully disagree. Oats need to be mashed in addition to being gelatinized. The recipe is lacking enzymatic malts to convert the starch in the oats.
Bernie Brewer
Grouchy Old Fart
Um, guys, he's not mashing anything. He's doing an extract/steeping grains recipe.
Hezegenius, steep them with everything else. It's the closest thing to a mash that you are doing with this recipe.
Hezegenius, steep them with everything else. It's the closest thing to a mash that you are doing with this recipe.
...that calls for a grain that must be mashed. Yeah, it will probably be "ok" because it is a jet black beer, but I don't want to give the impression that unconverted starch is acceptable. Except in wit.
The recipe is at fault, not the OP.
Whisler85
Well-Known Member
the oats are just for mouthfeel and body in this recipe, and since it is such a dark beer, i dont see any problem with steeping the oats
without any grains that contain enzymes in the recipe, i dont think conversion would be possible even if you were to try doing a protein and/or saccharification rest
without any grains that contain enzymes in the recipe, i dont think conversion would be possible even if you were to try doing a protein and/or saccharification rest
Bernie Brewer
Grouchy Old Fart
944play said:
Agreed. But the throwing a bunch of advanced brewing terms at the poor guy doesn't help him. It probably just confused him. It sure would've confused me in that situation. He needs to know what the best course of action is considering his experience and equipment.
Go ahead and steep the grain mix. It will work out fine.
There are some recipes where you would pre-cook the oats, but I've never seen them added to the boil. Not saying it wouldn't work, but it would make a mess of your kettle.
There are some recipes where you would pre-cook the oats, but I've never seen them added to the boil. Not saying it wouldn't work, but it would make a mess of your kettle.
Thanks for the advice, everyone! I don't mind when new information is thrown my way as I learned quite a bit while going through the replies. Some of it is over my head right now, but that's how we learn. I will just go ahead and leave the oats with the rest of the grains while I steep them. It certainly won't ruin the beer. Since this is my first stout, I wanted to make sure it wasn't going to come out totally wrong. When I read the recipe, I thought it was sort of odd to boil oats for 60 min. Maybe it is a typo in the book.
