Beer Kit Help

I bought a Milk Stout 5gal kit (LME) and plan on brewing tomorrow. I wanted to make a Vanilla Oatmeal Stout. Is it possible to just add oatmeal to the grain bag? Or would that ruin it? If possible, what kind of oatmeal? And how much?

I'm guessing you'll be steeping specialty grains? If so, I'm leaning towards you probably can - you won't get any starch conversion but you should get the mouth feel.

This thread is a pretty good discussion on it.

Quaker flaked oats is cheap and has always worked for me.

Oatmeal needs to be mashed. If you're simply steeping, you will just be adding starch to your beer, and that's not what you want for an oatmeal stout. To mash, combine the oatmeal with an equal weight of crushed 2-row malt. Put the grain in something looser than the stretchy "gym sock" muslin bag that most kits come with. A nylon 5 gallon paint straining bag works well. Soak the grains in 1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain and maintain a the heat at a constant 154F for 60 minutes. More complete instructions are here: Easy Partial Mash Brewing.

Well looks like the oatmeal is well covered. Just making sure you are adding the vanilla in after active fermentation for the best results. A little seems to go a long way in 5 gallons too. Good luck and have fun

Thanks for all of the responses. I am getting alot of contadicting information. Some say its OK to add to grain bag, some say it needs to be mashed. I've been reading more on it and I'm leaning towards the mash. I would hate to ruin a beer and mashing seems to be the safe route. I will be adding the vanilla at secondary. Thanks for all of the responses. I appreciate all of it.

Think of it this way: if you don't mash the oatmeal you're adding starch to your wort. You're going to boil that starch + water slurry for an hour. What do you get when you boil starch and water? Gravy! Obviously your beer will be a lot thinner than the gravy you put on your biscuits, but what you'll get is a permanent starch haze in your beer.