Swap oats for wheat malt?

[2bluewagons]

Hi all,

To combat limited brewing time lately, I've been doing double batch days by doing a single mash for two different beers. The challenge has been to come up with beers that will work well with each other in this setup while keeping it pretty simple. I usually make one beer that gets specialty malts steeped in the kettle and the other just whatever grains went into the mash itself. So sometimes I've had to make small compromises in recipes so that the main mash will work for both beers.

Long explanation for asking whether you think swapping out 6% white wheat malt for flaked oats will have an appreciable effect on a 6.5 abv American brown ale recipe.

2-row and oats would be the main mash and grist for a pale ale, with pale choc, c40, and a tiny bit of roast steeped in the kettle for the brown.

I am thinking the difference will be minimal, but hoping for some opinions.

Thanks!


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[ianw58]

No ore so than swapping strawberries for lemons in lemon meringue pie.

Oats are going to affect the mouth feel where wheat won't as much. Oats are a soft grain while wheat, particularly winter varieties are hard.

Will the grain bill work? Probably. But substituting oats for wheat is not a substitution; it's a major change.

 

[2bluewagons]

Ok, I agree it's not a substitution, fair point. What do you mean by soft vs. hard grain? And I took a look at it again, we are talking about only 5% of the grist. I think the wheat was originally in there just for head retention, so won't oats provide a similar effect, even if it comes with the more "silky" mouthfeel attributable to oats?

Also, the brown is one that I've found like to have a few months of age on it before it comes into its own. Any difference in aging effects on flavor or mouthfeel between oats and wheat?

With the roast I have in there, which is discernable in the flavor profile, the brown ale already has some stoutiness to it, so I could think of it as a brown ale/oatmeal stout hybrid I suppose...

Thanks,