Blonde roastoat in a brown ale?

[rmr9]

Hey all, I’m planning to brew a British brown ale in the next couple weeks. It’s been a really long time since I’ve brewed a brown so I’m looking for a bit of feedback. I’m planning to do something like 80%MO, 5% uk Crystal 70ish, 5% pale chocolate, fermented with West Yorkshire yeast.

Now comes the question: 10% blonde roastoat malt? Would this work well in the recipe? I’ve never used it before but I saw basically this recipe on a YouTube channel so I thought maybe it’s worth a go. Anyone have experience with this? I plan to serve it from cask on a beer engine if that makes any difference. Thanks!

 

[3 Dawg Night]

You have probably already seen it, but you can take a look at the malt profile on Briess' website. Sounds like it will impart a light toasty/nutty note. I say try it and see what you think. Be sure to report back to us after you taste it!

 

[AlexKay]

I just recently used ~20% RoastOat in a porter, and it came out very well. Certainly not overpowering even at that level, and a nice mouthfeel.

 

[PCABrewing]

Sounds like it will impart a light toasty/nutty note. I say try it and see what you think. Be sure to report back to us after you taste it!

That sounds kinda nice for a brown

 

[rmr9]

Ingredients purchased so I’ll give it a shot and try to remember to post my experience. First time brewing with any form of oat. Any need for rice hulls? I know flaked oats can cause some issues with a stuck mash, don’t know if that applies to oat malt as well.

 

[3 Dawg Night]

Ingredients purchased so I’ll give it a shot and try to remember to post my experience. First time brewing with any form of oat. Any need for rice hulls? I know flaked oats can cause some issues with a stuck mash, don’t know if that applies to oat malt as well.

I've only used flaked oats, but I wouldn't think rice hulls would be necessary with the oats only making up 10% of your grain bill. Briess' website says that since it's malted, it needs to be crushed, but you'll likely have to use a smaller setting than with barley. I'd crush the oats first so that you can adjust your mill and run them through again if needed. Then, crush your barley on your usual mill setting.

I look forward to hearing how it turns out!

 

[AlexKay]

++ on needing to get the mill gap very, very tight.

 

[rmr9]

Brewed this batch up on Saturday, no issues at all with stuck sparge from the oat malt, so my worry there was unfounded. I decided to try an open fermentation with wyeast 1469 with yeast rousing and beating the yeast back into the fermenting wort. It dropped from 1.050 on Saturday afternoon to 1.012 Tuesday morning. Super fast ferment and a super fruity aroma. My whole basement smells like a fruitcake. If anyone plans to try this yeast I heavily recommend trying open fermentation.

 

[rmr9]

Moved this batch into the cask tonight with 2oz priming sugar. Samples have a really nice toasty nutty flavor. Hopefully it carries through once it’s conditioned for a couple weeks!

 

[imjim]

Any update on this brew? How did it turn out?

 

[rmr9]

I think it came out pretty well. I let it condition in the cask for about 2 weeks before I tapped it. I’m not sure what the blonde roastoat malt added to it, I really can’t pick out something specific from it but it was a good beer! I think the wyeast 1469 was a good choice and I’m really looking forward to trying it in a bitter. Probably MO EKG SMaSH or something along those lines.

 

[rmr9]

The toasty nutty flavors definitely carried through. When it warms up a touch you can get some hints of toffee from the crystal. Had just enough bitterness to balance, though I had to cut the later addition of EKG because my challenger hops only had like 4% AA which seemed weirdly low to me.