Why is my beer better when bottled with oats?

[Jkane101]

Yup. I live aboard with my boat-hottie and my cat.
BoB

Thats how i want to retire, buy an old 30-40 footer and just permanently keep it at a slip somewhere affordable. Soon my friend....soon

 

[dontman]

Thats how i want to retire, buy an old 30-40 footer and just permanently keep it at a slip somewhere affordable. Soon my friend....soon

I did it for a year long sabbatical on a C&C 40. Sailed back and forth between the Upper Chesapeake and the Keys with jaunts to Bermuda, the Bahamas, and one trip into the Southern Caribbean. During the last two weeks of the trip it stormed 13 of 14 days and by the end of that two weeks I never wanted to see a boat again. I haven't sailed since.

Although lately I have been getting a major itch and have been considering a J24 for racing in the upper Chesapeake again.

 

[Denny]

The effect may be psychosomatic. Do a blind tasting with some friends who have a solid grasp of beer styles.

Adding oats at bottling time really sounds like a poor practice. If you want to add the slick mouthfeel and slight flavor of oats to a brew, you need to add the oats during the mash, not during conditioning.

Agreed on all points.

 

[frostyone]

I brew with oldschool, and there was definitely a difference in taste between the two beers. We still have one bottle of the "dreaded oat beer", lol; I'll be sure to set up a double blind with a number of friends, as well as oldschool, and hopefully we can settle the problem.

I think a lot of people were missing the point in regards to the sanitation problem (not all). We did this with TWO beers...not two gallons, two fermenters, or two batches, but two bottles. If it hadn't worked out, minor loss for the sake of brewing science! We discussed the sanitation issue prior to proceeding, and going off of what we were told by the fella that said we should try it, it sounded as though they simply tossed em' in, sans-sanitation. For the sake of trying to reproduce the effect, we opted for following the directions to the T. This was not an ignorant mistake, but a forewarned adventure, which so far has turned out quite well. Hopefully this is able to clarify some of what has been said.

 

[frostyone]

As far as methods to sanitize the oats, were we to try, what do people suggest? I think that boiling would change the outcome too much. I am curious about either steaming or nuking though....any thoughts? More on steaming and nuking or otherwise?

 

[Scut_Monkey]

You could try soaking them in potassium metabisulfite (campden tablet). This is a used more by wine makers but I have used it for adding fresh watermelon to a secondary. I added 1/4 of a tablet to 2.5 cups of juice and let it sit in the fridge overnight. Many people around here have posted about using campden tablets so I'm not the first to use if for beer purposes. The search function should throw you quite a few threads about it.

I think the idea of baking the oats makes more sense to me. However, if I was going to use the campden tablets I would boil a cup of water, chill it to room temp or fridge temp, add a handfull of oats and 1/4-1/8 crushed campden tablet and let it sit overnight. The next day I would drain it and keep it sanitary until I was ready to add the drained oats to the bottles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_metabisulfite

 

[camiller]

I brew with oldschool, ...

So whereabouts in Southern Indiana? I grew up in Southern Indiana myself.

 

[uglygoat]

did the oats sink to the bottom, or stay floating on the top?

just curious.

i would not put oats in my bottles all i could see them doing is adding more haze, and they'd clog the kegs up...

 

[frostyone]

So whereabouts in Southern Indiana? I grew up in Southern Indiana myself.

Are you familiar with French Lick? I just moved back (worked in Oakland City, IN for the last three years). Where did you grow up?

 

[frostyone]

did the oats sink to the bottom, or stay floating on the top?

just curious.

i would not put oats in my bottles all i could see them doing is adding more haze, and they'd clog the kegs up...

The oats sank to the bottom when we filled, and after they had conditioned, they were still at the bottom (along with the yeast sediment).

 

[camiller]

Are you familiar with French Lick? I just moved back (worked in Oakland City, IN for the last three years). Where did you grow up?

Yep, grew up in Chrisney (65 miles away). Would drive through French Lick to get to Paoli in the winter for the midnight to 6AM ski session.

 

[syd138]

This is a pretty interesting thread..

I might try this out... Im going to be brewing up a Belgian Dark Strong at about 8.8%.. so maybe the high alcohol content will prevent any infection.

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

I was linked here via another member, I have not read the thread so if this has already been stated then ignore me. Also, I am not an authority on what I am about to say.

Traditional porters were made with a portion of sour beer. My guess is that this technique is an attempt to replicate a bit of that souring by introducing a bacterial culture from raw oats.

That said, maybe it works maybe it doesn't. To me it seems like a very inconsistent and undesireable way to do it. There are many ways to make a traditional porter with a partial sour mash, I would look into those.

Else, keep doing it if you like the results.

I can't believe the botulism and aluminum cards were played in this thread.... wow. Neither are a concern.

 

[EvilTOJ]

someone said that there are beer scientists doing research all the time. where and who is doing this research?

Oregon State University has a brewery science course. Yes, you can get your major in Fermentation Science.

I don't think I'd ever add oats to my beer in the bottle. If for nothing else because the sticky goop that'd happen would probably squick me out a bit. If it all settles out in the end with the yeast sediment I may try a few bottles just for snitzengiggles.

 

[dontman]

Are you familiar with French Lick?

Don't they sell those in gas station bathrooms? "For Her Pleasure!"

(Sorry, couldn't resist. Bet you've never heard that one before.)

 

[frostyone]

Don't they sell those in gas station bathrooms? "For Her Pleasure!"

(Sorry, couldn't resist. Bet you've never heard that one before.)

You'd be surprised just how many I've heard. When I first got the internet and was chatting a lot, I found that mentioning where I was from generally ended the conversation due to the fact that people thought I was a weirdo. I got upset a lot then and tried to explain...anymore, I don't really care. I believe what you are referring to is the "French Tickler" though, lol.

 

[Seabee John]

Are you familiar with French Lick?

Please tell me you are not brewing with that "special" water from the springs are you?
I visited the hotel there for a convention in 03... gotta say it was the worst smelling hotel I've ever been in.

 

[frostyone]

Please tell me you are not brewing with that "special" water from the springs are you?
I visited the hotel there for a convention in 03... gotta say it was the worst smelling hotel I've ever been in.

HAHAHA! Hell no, I try to stay the hell away from the Pluto Water (natural mineral water that has a high amount of sulfur so it reeks of rotten eggs...and gives you the screaming sh*ts if you drink much of it....it is a natural laxative). People used to come from miles around for its nonexistent magical properties as an elixir. It mostly just acted like mega colon blow, lol. People drank it, bathed in it, got rub downs with the stuff, etc...I never thought it smelled that bad at either of the resorts except around some of the courtyards where the stuff comes to the surface.

Bet you didn't know that the PGA tour is going to be here next year....we have a population of 2500 in French Lick and three golf courses...they just reconditioned two courses, and built a new one. The new one was built by Pete Dye; out of the other two, one is a Donald Ross course and the other is a links course built by a no-name (and the only one I can afford). The Dye course package starts at $810 (one night stay during the week at a 4-star and two rounds of golf...price is per person and a caddy is required). They are considering building another course...it'd make 4!

 

[Yooper]

I thought that a town near me had the worse name ever- "Spread Eagle, Wisconsin" but French Lick has it beat.

 

[dontman]

I thought that a town near me had the worse name ever- "Spread Eagle, Wisconsin" but French Lick has it beat.

Sounds like the two towns should get together. Seems like a natural fit, so to speak.

 

[Denny]

I still don't know how you can be sure that the oats did anything. Can you taste the bottled version with oats side by side the same beer un-oated? I'll bet it has more to do with the beer just conditioning.

This is very true. I can't think of any reason oats would have the effect claimed. Until I can either get an explanation or the results of a blind triangle tasting, I'm afraid I'll remain skeptical.

 

[oldschool]

I had two bombers of this porter left from the "oat" batch. One of them had 5 oats dropped in when bottled and one without. You may think that Just me and my brew buddy are not an adequate test panel but I believe it. We waited as long as we could, it's been almost 6 months since it was fermented. We used two identical glasses, put a post-it note one the bottom of each.one with a mark to identify the oat bottled beer. After I poured some in each glass my friend turned his back as i mixed the two glasses, then he did the same thing. We took turns sniffing and trading back and fourth, comparing what we thought. Then did the tasting. The aroma on one of them was far better, and richer with malt complexity than the other. When we tasted, one had a taste that i can't really describe, but it was sweeter and smoother. We both enjoy good porters and thought it was a better beer. I swore to him that the better beer would be the one "without" the oats, he swore the opposite. We came to a conclusion on which one was the better beer, then looked.........i'll be damned if the beer with oats in the bottle wasn't far better! I'm brewing a porter next and i'm going to try it again. If you guys still don't believe me you should really try it. Sorry for the dissapointing news. school

 

[electric_beer]

Where would brewing be without the Belgians?

As long as you store the bottles in a safe location (in case of bottle bombs, although highly unlikely) then this should make for a good experiment. Even if you do get lacto, as long as your beer finished relatively low and was drank in a few months then you shouldn't be concerned. Plenty of great beer have been soured. Not to mention "bugs" don't like to ferment under 75 degrees very well.

 

[oldschool]

I've had sour beer, this was far from it. I'm really being honest i wouldn't spend my time publishing false results. The bottle that did not contain oats had more carbonation, not sure why and it may not have it just seemed that way to me.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

I can't believe the botulism and aluminum cards were played in this thread.... wow.

Considering the closed-mindedness and dismissive nature of some of this thread it doesn't surprise me at all. I'm surprised at some of the responses and even more surprised by who gave them (I thought they'd be much more scientific and open-minded).

I want to know 'why' it works (after I verify it does work). The contamination issue is probably fixable if that's even desired. But to just poo-poo it without ever trying it...wow indeed.

 

[remilard]

This is very true. I can't think of any reason oats would have the effect claimed. Until I can either get an explanation or the results of a blind triangle tasting, I'm afraid I'll remain skeptical.

I did not read this whole thread, and I do not think the update is convincing as there was a 25% chance they would both choose the oated beer at random (although I guess it is persuasive evidence that the oats did not ruin the beer).

However, here is my shot at an explanation (I neither believe this to be valid nor believe it to be invalid, it is vaguely plausible I think).

Maybe it is like putting a potato in a stew that you seasoned too much. The oats are absorbing some flavor compounds and the OP and his friend prefer the beer with less of those flavor compounds.

 

[oldschool]

All i can say is just try it. From all the "debbie downers" in this thread i was convinced that the "OATED" beer would have either become infected, or be hardly any difference at all. The LARGEST difference both of us noted was the aroma was fuller and richer in the oated beer, it did have some better taste but the aroma was a far greater difference. Just try it on your next porter, what do you have to loose? one beer?

 

[Brewsmith]

/Debbie Downer chiming in

All I can say at this point is that if you like the flavor the oats contribute, then add it to the grain bill in the first place. I don't refute that something DID happen. My biggest point is that adding raw, unsanitized/pasteurized grain into finished beer is a bad idea. Just because something didn't happen this time, doesn't mean it can't in the future.

Raw grain is covered in Lactobacillus and all kinds of other bacteria. It's a sure fast way to sour your beer.

And for the record, adding oats to a porter does sound like a good idea. It works well with stouts and I can see how the oats would add to the beer.

/DD signing out

 

[remilard]

/Debbie Downer chiming in

All I can say at this point is that if you like the flavor the oats contribute, then add it to the grain bill in the first place. I don't refute that something DID happen. My biggest point is that adding raw, unsanitized/pasteurized grain into finished beer is a bad idea. Just because something didn't happen this time, doesn't mean it can't in the future.

Raw grain is covered in Lactobacillus and all kinds of other bacteria. It's a sure fast way to sour your beer.

And for the record, adding oats to a porter does sound like a good idea. It works well with stouts and I can see how the oats would add to the beer.

/DD signing out

Adding them to the recipe would probably not have the same effect, if there is an effect.

Lacto won't grow in most finished beer, that isn't to say that other stuff isn't on the oats.

 

[tbrink]

i read this thread with some interest and decided "why not?". i recently made a batch of dunkelwiezen and when i bottled, i added about 5 oat flakes before filling with beer to a small sample batch of a dozen bottles.

like some others around here, i like to taste 1 beer a week just to keep track of the taste as it matures, and 1 week after bottling i couldn't resist and popped open one of my oatybrews.

i was astounded at the flavor!

well i can't very well judge it against nothing, so i had to crack open a regular bottle just to see the difference, and it was exactly how i expected the oaty one to taste--green and not at 100%.
needless to say, i was disappointed. don't get me wrong, the beer is good, but that oat sample was in a league of its own.

so take it from yet another internet stranger--DON'T BE AFRAID TO EXPERIMENT!! you just might like what happens. now i'm kind of wishing i hadn't been so conservative with my experiment.