Oatmeal Question- Reg vs Quick vs Instant

[HopSong]

Ok.. so I want to make an Oatmeal Stout. Looking at Palmer, he talks about Instant being best because there is no cooking necessary to gelatinize it. Quick oats have not had complete gelatinization and Regular oats have had none.

I have tons of regular rolled oats at home.. and just bought some "1 Minute Oats" at the super market. I see NOTHING labeled as Instant or Quick.. with one exception. I find Instant Oatmeal.. but only in the small individual meal packets.

Hope someone can take the time to explain this…...

I guess I can use regular rolled oats and cook it.
or
I can use the One Minute Oatmeal I just bought. IF the One Minute OM is the same as Instant OR Quick, It looks like I can simply toss it in the mash. Is this correct?

Still not sure how to use either. If I cook Regular Oatmeal.. it turns to glue. I haven't tried the One Minute.. but, my guess is it turns to mush as well.

So, this begs the question.. How do you properly cook the Rolled Oats??? Do you use the same amount of water as in making breakfast.. Or do you thin it out a lot so it's not a lump of glue?

 

[MachineShopBrewing]

one minute oats is the same as quick oats. Just throw them in your mash, no cooking required.

 

[tektonjp]

When I do oatmeal, I boil it with at least twice the normal water. I let it boil a few minutes, then turn the flame off. I cover it and let sit for 15 or more minutes. the oats are the first thing into the mash tun so that it doesn't all turn to glue. No stuck sparge!

 

[RM-MN]

Ok.. so I want to make an Oatmeal Stout. Looking at Palmer, he talks about Instant being best because there is no cooking necessary to gelatinize it. Quick oats have not had complete gelatinization and Regular oats have had none.

I have tons of regular rolled oats at home.. and just bought some "1 Minute Oats" at the super market. I see NOTHING labeled as Instant or Quick.. with one exception. I find Instant Oatmeal.. but only in the small individual meal packets.

Hope someone can take the time to explain this…...

I guess I can use regular rolled oats and cook it.
or
I can use the One Minute Oatmeal I just bought. IF the One Minute OM is the same as Instant OR Quick, It looks like I can simply toss it in the mash. Is this correct?

Still not sure how to use either. If I cook Regular Oatmeal.. it turns to glue. I haven't tried the One Minute.. but, my guess is it turns to mush as well.

So, this begs the question.. How do you properly cook the Rolled Oats??? Do you use the same amount of water as in making breakfast.. Or do you thin it out a lot so it's not a lump of glue?

When I used rolled oats I cooked them in at least twice as much water as the recipe for oatmeal called for. You want them to be kind of thin so they mix in well.

 

[MachineShopBrewing]

Don't bother with using the regular oats. You are just making more work for yourself to accomplish the same thing that the manufacturer has already done for you with the quick oats. Just throw the quick oats in your mash and you are good. There is no magic happening by using less prepared oats for brewing. You are looking for sugars, proteins, and beta-glucans, not trying to manage your glycemic index.

 

[chrisonye1]

one minute oats is the same as quick oats. Just throw them in your mash, no cooking required.

I agree with you but I'd throw them on top to avoid mash problems

 

[HopSong]

I agree with you but I'd throw them on top to avoid mash problems

That seems accurate.. either that.. or stir into the mash and let it do it's thing. I'll be using a BIAB bag in my tun.

 

[Yooper]

I've used everything from steel cut oats to instant oatmeal.

When I've used steel cut oats, and regular oatmeal, I've done both a cereal mash and simply just cooked them. Both worked fine, with no differences in the final beer- except that I got a very slightly higher efficiency doing the cereal mash.

If I had both on hand, I'd just use the 1 minute oats right in the mash and call it good as it's easier and I"m very lazy as a rule. My oatmeal stout comes out exactly the same this way, and it's quick and easy.

 

[grathan]

What happens if you just mash regular oats for an hour?

I used 2# on a 5 gallon stout recently (first time using oats). I don't perceive much flavor though perhaps a softer mouthfeel..

 

[Yooper]

What happens if you just mash regular oats for an hour?

I used 2# on a 5 gallon stout recently (first time using oats). I don't perceive much flavor though perhaps a softer mouthfeel..

I've read conflicting reports, but in generally it should be fine.

60 minutes may be a bit short, depending on how much diastatic power you have in the grainbill. I generally go 75-90 minutes when using oats or lots of adjuncts.

Oats don't really give flavor, but instead provide a silky mouthfeel that can be oily in large amounts. If you're getting a creamy soft mouthfeel, that's the oats.

You can toast oats before using to provide some toasty oat flavor to the beer. It doesn't give much flavor either, but at least some so you might be able to pick it out.

 

[TNGabe]

Rolled oats are fine to use in main mash and do not require a cereal mash. Quick oats are just chopped up rolled oats. Instant oats are quick oats that are partially cooked and then dried. Rolled oats are gelatinized during the rolling process.\

From BYO article on Oatmeal Stout:
"There are a few different kinds of oats available to the homebrewer. With flaked oats, also called rolled oats, the gelatinization is done by the manufacturer. This is done by softening the oats with steam and then passing them through heated pressure rollers into flakes. The grain husks are removed when the oats are rolled, and in this process the flake thickness can be controlled. The heat and pressure gelatinize the starches, and these grains can be added to the mash directly. The brewer does not need to cook these prior to mashing."

 

[rlmiller10]

I was a manager for the oat processing plant that makes most of the non-Quaker rolled oats in the country. The only difference between when we made regular oats and quick oats was we set the spacing on the rollers a bit closer. Same oats and same equipment, just rolled thinner.

Both are precooked, they are in a hopper with steam injected into it. They spend about an hour or a little more in this steam filled hopper as they travel from top to the rollers at the bottom.

So quick would probably be better just because they have more surface to volume area so will have more area exposed to the wort for a given mass.

 

[rlmiller10]

Rolled oats are fine to use in main mash and do not require a cereal mash. Quick oats are just chopped up rolled oats. Instant oats are quick oats that are partially cooked and then dried. Rolled oats are gelatinized during the rolling process.\ From BYO article on Oatmeal Stout: "There are a few different kinds of oats available to the homebrewer. With flaked oats, also called rolled oats, the gelatinization is done by the manufacturer. This is done by softening the oats with steam and then passing them through heated pressure rollers into flakes. The grain husks are removed when the oats are rolled, and in this process the flake thickness can be controlled. The heat and pressure gelatinize the starches, and these grains can be added to the mash directly. The brewer does not need to cook these prior to mashing."

The only error here is that husks are removed long before the oats get to the steamer or the hopper. At our plant the husks were removed then they went back to a bin. From there they could go to the steel cut machines, the rollers, or out as whole oat groats.