The Bar Towel

Making a stout this weekend. The recipe calls for flaked oats. From what I've read you have to be careful using oats and different kinds of oats require different procedures.

The recipe is calling for 1 lb. flaked oats. What can I use that I can source easily (i.e. from bulk barn or St. Lawrence market) and how should I go about adding it to the mash?

I once used about half a pound of raw oats & just did a regular infusion mash. It was sticky & needed stirred, but maybe that was just my bad luck.

If I did it again, I'd try a glucan rest.

I was going for something like Rogue Chocolate...

4 kg. American 2-row
.5 kg. Crystal 120
.1 kg. Crystal 70/80
.6 kg. Chocolate Malt
0.1 kg. Roasted Barley
.25 kg. Oats Flaked
.73 kg. Wheat Liquid Extract (due to my 5 Ga tun)
53 g. Amarillo (Whole, 9 %AA) boiled 45 min.
53 g. Cascade (Whole, 7 %AA) boiled 30 min.
26 g. Cascade (Whole, 7 %AA) dry
1.5 ounces chocolate extract
.1 kilograms Malto Dextrin (after-the-fact 'cause it needed some more sweetness)
Yeast : White Labs WLP005 British Ale (I had a cake, otherwise I'd use California ale)

It needed a little more hop flavour... and I'd probably do that completely differently now (maybe 60 min, 20 min, 10 min & dry?).

Probably a little light on the roasted barley for most people's impression of a stout (leaning towards a porter).

I would never dry hop a stout.

Tried it once and it just kills the subtle malt flavours... but then again the quantities are pretty low.

I found Flaked Oats at an organic store... is there anything we need to be careful for when purchasing Flaked Oats... like I found one kind that mentionned something about being modified.

Oh! And do you grind the flakes or straight-up pitch in the mash?

Thanks!

I don't think oats need to be ground prior to being added to the mash. What I'm unsure of is if (dependent on the type of oats) anything needs to be done to them prior to being added to the mash.

Here's a good read:
http://www.byo.com/stories/beer-styles/ ... meal-stout

Everything I read said that rolled/flaked oats could be added directly to the mash. But I remember cursing throughout that sparge.

With 1#, I'd probably do a mini-mash at 110F, then add the rest of the grain & bring it up to the sugar rest. Or try adding some rice hulls (I've never tried it before)?

I suspect that a deeper grain bed (like my 5 Ga vertical cooler) is a little more sensitive to these things.

Quick/instant oats have been pre-gelatinized and can be added directly to the mash. Steel-cut oats and what not need to be gelatinized first (boil them for about 15 minutes, stirring lots to keep them from scorching).

I picked up a pound of bulk rolled oats from St. Lawrence. Would these require a pre-boil or can they go straight in?

Gedge wrote:I picked up a pound of bulk rolled oats from St. Lawrence.

I hope you went to Rube's... that guy is a legend.

Is Rube the guy in the lower level that just sells bulk stuff (not the place that has candy, etc.)? That's where I went.

We brewed the stout yesterday. The grain bill was pretty big and with the oats it made extraction/lautering a bit of a hassle, but it was worth it as the beer smells great. I think this batch is going to turn out well.

So did you throw them straight into the mash?

Just out of curiousity, are you using false-bottom or a manifold? In a tall tun or a wide one?

Straight into the mash. False bottom, tall tun.

Good to hear it was only "a bit of a hassle".

I vowed to change my technique and/or equipment before I tried it again.