New to Oats...

[younger96]

Need some help with a few oatmeal stout recipes I'm looking at. Doing extract and steeping the specialty grains/oats, but I have no directions or experience with the oats. Are these flaked oats ready to go into the mash/steep or do they need to be milled/ground like grains? I don't recall seeing flaked oats at my LHBS, is there an alternative? Seen some recipes called for toasting in the oven for a period... is this really necessary??

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Sawdustguy]

Seen some recipes called for toasting in the oven for a period... is this really necessary??

Depends on what flavor profile you are after.....Only you know what you are trying to achive. Is it absolutely necessary? No, but it may give a taste that you may like better. The only way of knowing is to try it or not.

 

[Bob]

Don't forget one important thing: Flaked grains of any type are useless unless mashed. There are many ingredients which can be steeped to full effect. Oats are not one of them. If you just steep them, all you'll get out of them is haze and foam-killing fats.

Flaked oats need not be milled. The process of turning the grains into flakes smashes them flat, into, well, flakes. Just toss 'em into the mash as-is.

Cheers!

Bob

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

I don't recall seeing flaked oats at my LHBS, is there an alternative? .

You can use any brand of quick oats from the supermarket. They have to be 1-minute oats though. Something about the process in making them. (Can't remember what exactly)

 

[HairyDogBrewing]

You can use any brand of quick oats from the supermarket. They have to be 1-minute oats though. Something about the process in making them. (Can't remember what exactly)

Ordinary oatmeal would require a separate 'cereal mash' to liberate the starches so that the malt enzymes can convert them to sugars.
Quick and instant oats have been pre-cooked enough so that you can skip the cereal mash.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

Ordinary oatmeal would require a separate 'cereal mash' to liberate the starches so that the malt enzymes can convert them to sugars.
Quick and instant oats have been pre-cooked enough so that you can skip the cereal mash.

Thanks. I always er on the side of stupid.

 

[younger96]

Well, I'm going to brew in the morning and this has not given me a warm fuzzy. My LHB store did not have flaked oats, but I do have quaker quick oats in the house... so I guess I'll have to give it a go with them. Wish me luck. The "mash" comment makes be a bit concerned, the recipe I have calls for the oats to be steeped for 20 min at 150 F with the specialty grains, I'm not doing a partial mash.

 

[Ølbart]

Many recipes are crap. Recipes that tell you to steep oats with specialty grains are among those.

I've steeped oats myself, and all I got from it was a nasty blow-out during fermentation. No flavour, no mouthfeel, no better head retention.

 

[younger96]

Well, brew day is over... and here is how it went down. The recipe called for baking the oats for 75 mins at 325 prior to the steep. The recipe had a total of 1.75 lbs of specialty grains including the oats. Brew went off without a hitch, but I decided to use a blow-off tube on the primary vs. an airlock like I normally use... 5 gal in a 7.5 gal fermenter so typically never a problem. She's sitting at 70 F and bubbling away about 3 hours after pitching. Wort tasted good... could detect the oatmeal so I must have got some flavor out of the steep.

Update in a few weeks with progress.