Using Oatmeal

I've heard of a few different techniques on how to use oatmeal but have yet to find a definitive explanation on how to use them. Some people bake them for a while, others make oatmeal to gelatinize the starches. Is there a right or a wrong way?

I tried putting two pounds Quaker oats in my mash of a previous batch but it didn't seem to create the thick, velvety mouthfeel I was hoping for. I'm going to be doing a couple batches tomorrow and I want to use oatmeal in one of them.

If you have flaked oats (quick oats) you don't need to pre-cook them as the starches are already gelantinized. If you buy whole oats you'll need to make oatmeal first. Then you can steep or mash them as usual.

If you post the recipe you're planning to use we can help you tweak it.

I haven't finished formulating the recipe yet but it's going to be a parti-gyle session with an imperial stout on the front end and this oatmeal stout using the second runnings.

My goal for the oatmeal stout is to make it as hearty as possible with the hopes of living off it for a weekend. I'm going to mash the imperial stout low (probably high-140's) and sparge with some higher temps for the oatmeal batch to try to get as many unfermentable sugars as possible. I may mash some grains separately from the main mash and add them to the second batch to make sure I get some good flavor and color.

I'll post the recipe later today when I have a chance. As a whole, do you envision any problems with this idea?

Two different techniques for two different reasons. You might do both in a recipe.

Baking oatmeal changes the flavor, gives it more of a toasted flavor.
Pre-cooking increases the efficiency of both starch extraction and conversion.

david_42 said:

Two different techniques for two different reasons. You might do both in a recipe.

Baking oatmeal changes the flavor, gives it more of a toasted flavor.
Pre-cooking increases the efficiency of both starch extraction and conversion.

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If I wanted to make sure I got as much out of the oats as possible would it be a good idea to make a thick oatmeal and add that to the mash? And can you toast the oats then make the oatmeal? Thanks for the help.

Toasting the oats and making the oatmeal are two separate things. You toast the oats to change the flavour, the cooking is required if your oatmeal doesn't already have gelantinized starches.

My usual oatmeal stout is about 12% flaked oats and it is very chewy. Use ~10-15% and you should get the mouthfeel you're after.

bradsul said:

Toasting the oats and making the oatmeal are two separate things. You toast the oats to change the flavour, the cooking is required if your oatmeal doesn't already have gelantinized starches.

My usual oatmeal stout is about 12% flaked oats and it is very chewy. Use ~10-15% and you should get the mouthfeel you're after.

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Thanks for the info. That's exactly what I needed to know. Out of curiosity is there a ceiling for how much oats you can use, or complications from going over 20%?

I've never looked into a ceiling with regards to the affect on the beer, but if you go over 20% I'd be very worried about the affect on the sparge. Rice hulls would be a must.

Ok I think I'm going to go with this:

23 lbs Pale 2-Row
4 lbs Chocolate
4 lbs Crystal 120L
4 lbs Oats, roasted and made into oatmeal
2 oz Magnum (60 min)
1 oz Amarillo (20 min)
1 oz Amarillo (0 min)
White Labs California Ale Yeast

I'm going to mash with 12 gallons of 150* water, drawing off 8.5 gallons to boil down to 7.5 for the first batch.

Then the second batch (a 5-gallon batch) will come from the sparges. To that batch I'll also be adding:
4 lbs Pale 2-row
1 lb Crystal 120L
2 lbs Oats
1 lb Lactose

I'll also be using a temperature-sensitive yeast so I can stop fermentation on that lighter batch when I feel it has the right body/alcohol combination.

Feel free to let me know what you think or any problems you think I may come across. I'll grab some rice hulls to make sure the oatmeal doesn't clog everything up.

What efficiency are you targeting, and what's your expected OG for each of the two batches?

Maybe I don't completely understand what you're trying to do (and I've never tried anything like this, so take this with a grain of salt) but it seems like an awful lot of grain..particularly the 120L and the Chocolate.

And a pound of lactose in 5 gallons of beer? I can't even imagine how sweet that will be.

It seems to me, that most mash temperatures are in the gelatinization range for many grains? Can anyone confirm or disprove this?

Bike N Brew said:

What efficiency are you targeting, and what's your expected OG for each of the two batches?

Maybe I don't completely understand what you're trying to do (and I've never tried anything like this, so take this with a grain of salt) but it seems like an awful lot of grain..particularly the 120L and the Chocolate.

And a pound of lactose in 5 gallons of beer? I can't even imagine how sweet that will be.

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I'm going for a very big, bold, imperial stout with a lot of body and caramel backbone on the first beer. I've never tried using that much chocolate or caramel so I'm curious how it will turn out.

For the second, I want a thick, nourishing, lighter-ABV stout. I've never used lactose before though so maybe I'll scale that down to .5 lb.

explosivebeer said:

Then the second batch (a 5-gallon batch) will come from the sparges. To that batch I'll also be adding:
4 lbs Pale 2-row
1 lb Crystal 120L
2 lbs Oats
1 lb Lactose

Click to expand...

Are you doing a separate mash for this addition, or adding these grains to the original mash after you drain off the first batch?

Just guessing here, but if you get 45-50% efficiency on your first runnings, your OG for the imperial stout would be ~1.072-1.080. If you then got another 15-20% on the spargings, your OG for the 2nd batch would be ~1.036-1.048, without any of these additions. Adding another 7 lbs of grain seems like it will make that 2nd beer pretty big (unless you're expecting much lower efficiency than what I guessed...in which case your first beer wll be pretty small). Maybe skip the extra grains and just adjust your 2nd gravity as needed with DME?

Most of the raved-about RIS recipes here (see BrewPastor's entries here and here in the database, and the 08-08-08 recipe here) keep the chocolate and crystal each around 5-10% of the grain bill -- I'd think about cutting them back, and also adding some roasted barley. I think that much crystal and choclate malt will be especially overwhelming in your 2nd beer.