Oats in beer question

[sborz22]

Hello all,

I decided to try my first shot at a super creamy oatmeal porter. I ended up using about 28 percent oats in the hope of creating a super creamy head.

Today I took my final gravity reading and subsequent taste test and I really though the body was lackluster from what I was expecting. 154 Mash Temp, Irish Ale Yeast and all of that oat in the mash. Now I am afraid that even though I added all of that oat that perhaps I won’t get the creamy head I was after.

My question is does the oatmeal creaminess completely rely on the carbonation or did I screw something up?

 

[RM-MN]

The oatmeal tends to give you a slick mouthfeel but it will be less heading than expected because of the oils in the oats. To get the creamy head you need something like flaked barley or flaked wheat.

 

[Jag75]

Maybe putting it on beer gas would help

 

[sborz22]

The oatmeal tends to give you a slick mouthfeel but it will be less heading than expected because of the oils in the oats. To get the creamy head you need something like flaked barley or flaked wheat.

So really I am probably going to end up with supbar head because of the oils. Damn.

Thanks for the explanation, I’m not sure why I had not heard this before!

 

[Sailingeric]

Look on the bright side, it will be a beer that lowers your cholesterol.

 

[thehaze]

For me oats give a slicker mouthfeel, but not that much body. When I want a bigger body, I want to end up with an FG upwards of 1.020 and will boil at least for 120 minutes. And a higher ABV also helps.

 

[Miraculix]

Slicker mouth feel and taste impact might be more based on psychological reasons than on physical ones (at least below 20% oats in the grist).

If you want a creamy head, use some wheat or malted wheat. Don't carbonate too high and I read that a prolonged mashout should also affect head in a positive way, holding it at 76c for 15 minutes. Haven't checked the mashout trick myself, the beer I tried it with is currently carbonating.

I use about 10% oats in every beer as they are cheap, neutral and boost yeast health and beer stability.
Read everything about oats here:

http://scottjanish.com/case-brewing-oats/

Did experiments myself and can confirm what he writes from my own experience.

 

[schmurf]

For me oats give a slicker mouthfeel, but not that much body. When I want a bigger body, I want to end up with an FG upwards of 1.020 and will boil at least for 120 minutes. And a higher ABV also helps.

Can you elaborate this, in what way will a longer boil be beneficial for a bigger body?

 

[dmtaylor]

Oats in beer are not very exciting. I've tasted a couple of 100% oat beers before and both were less than mediocre, and I didn't notice any unusual body or head from them.

 

[thehaze]

Longer boil will usually produce a thicker/syrupy beer, which most will interpret at full body. Dextrins found in beers with an FG of 1.020 and upwards of 1.030-1.035 will also contribute to the overall body and mouthfeel of a beer.

Oats are kinda head retention negative, or so I experienced. I usually paid with flaked barkey, flaked wheat.

 

[Dland]

Sorry if a little off topic, but does anyone else correlate high FGs with head pain the day after?

Of course that would not apply as much to those who only drink moderately.

 

[thehaze]

I've never experienced that myself, nor have I heard anyone complain or connect the two things together.

I've heard one person saying that they get a headache from warm fermentation, like a belgian or anything over 20C/68F. But I called " ******** " on it as we a few times we drank some of my beers, which were fermented at 70-85F ( hefe, belgian dubbel, saison ) and he never had any headache the next day. I never told him that the beers were fermented " that " warm.

 

[dmtaylor]

Sorry if a little off topic, but does anyone else correlate high FGs with head pain the day after?

No.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I'm not sure if my Scots heritage makes me super-sensitive to oats but I have a working hypothesis that beer using them needs time to condition if they're not to come across as really porridgey. It was really noticeable when Goats Milk was made Champion Beer of Britain - I had one that presumably came from a cask brewed before the award and which wasn't porridgey, but a few weeks later they were presumably knocking it out as fast as they could brew it, and it was a totally different beer - more raw in general but porridgey in particular. I had it again recently, and the porridge wasn't there.

Of course, oats tend to get used in super-hoppy beers that people don't want to leave to condition, but I'm not sure it really works from a grist point of view.