Oatmeal stout questions

This is my first attempt at an oatmeal stout and I have a few questions.
Can I use regular long cooking breakfast oats like red mill Bob's Red Mill*::*Oats*::*Regular Rolled Oats?
Sample Beersmith recipes call for adding oats at flame out, is this all I do is throw them into the hot wort and leave them in the fermenter?
Thanks

 

I ran into this with my second extract kit. So far as I know, oats need to be mashed, otherwise all they'll do is add starch and cloudiness to your beer. If you're doing partial mash or all grain already just put them right in with the mash. If you're doing extract, I'm not sure there's much that can be done for a satisfactory oatmeal stout.

 

I've read that you want quick or instant oats. If you are using them as a specialty grain in an extract recipe it shouldn't matter too much though.

you want to have them in for the boil for multiple reasons. One, oats can harbor types of fungus that could compromise your brew and even poison you. YOu want to make sure anything there is good and dead. Two, if you are looking to free sugars in the oats you need to steep them. Since this occurs prior to the boil that means it gets boiled.

 

agreed. throw em in the boil with your grains. i would just include as if it was one of your regular barleys.

your old school oats should be fine, uncle charlie calls for flaked oats, which is the same thing as "old fashioned rolled oats" ya know? quaker style? just be sure you dont use some fast cooking oats, you want the ones the guy on it who, creepily enough, looks like my grandmother and the "dia-bee-tus" walrus guy had a baby.

 

It's old fashioned rolled oats you want, not instant. They're similar to flaked oats, which most LHBS sell (I think it's mainly just slight differences on how the oats are pressed for being labeled "rolled" or "flaked").

Also, be sure not to have grains in your extract when you're doing a boil. I've normally done oatmeal stouts all grain, but I've always just mashed the oats in with my malt (so at no point are my grains getting to boiling temp...they're mainly at 153 and then get mashed out at 168). So with extract, I would assume you can either steep with the rest of your specialty grains (when I was extract, I'd steep all my specialty grains at about 153 for 30 mins). Or if you elect to throw them during flame out, I'd put them in a straining bag and keep them in the wort for 10 minutes or so (flaked oats take longer to extract then instant) Just as long as it's in a warm wort for a bit, it's going to get most its flavors extracted. Grains in boiling wort is frowned upon because it can add astrengent tannins.

 

Not an AG expert, I do partial mashes BUT my oats are mixed in with my grains

Also... ... I use a thicking agent with my stouts... .... any oatmeal stout recipe I have done is not as thick as my palette feels like it should be: BUT the viscosity question needs to be commented upon by a more experienced brewer (I am just a laborer)