National Homebrew Club Ireland

Right, I'm embarrassed to be asking this question, I should know this already. But here goes..

Which oats do I use for brewing? Is it the "progress" type, or the regular type? I seem to remember reading something about "pre-gelatinization".

Ta.

Flaked oats have already been gelanitised, so you can just throw them straight into the mash. Whole oats first need to be boiled to start the conversion process. I'm a little foggy on which is which, so I always just get "flaked oats" from the homebrew stores. I think the progress oats are the same thing, but maybe someone else can speak up there.

EDIT: Found this online:
"While mashing malted barley is fairly easy, the starches in oats are harder to get at and need to be gelatinised first.

Fortunately for home brewers, rolled oats and instant oats have already had this done to them. In manufacture they're heated and broken down into something that can be added directly to the mash tun.

Mashing Tips

Oats don't include any enzymes so mash them with a malted grain (e.g. pale ale malt) for the starch conversion to work.

Smaller cut oats work better as they have a larger surface area for the water to work with. This same logic explains why you grind malt before mashing."

Just buy oats from the shop. The sort you would make porridge with (as long as they don't say "instant" on the package) are absolutely fine. AFAIK the enzymes in your base grain will be more than adequate to convert the starches in your oats.

That said, I know nothing about this "gelatinised" malarky...

 Odlems

Quoteas long as they don't say "instant" on the package

What the difference is compared to regular rolled oats?

I thought, in short,  you could use any oats as long as they had heat applied to pre- gelatinise them. By rolling them or processing them in some way.

As far as I can remember, Dungarvan use the Flahavans Rolled Oats for their Coffee and Oatmeal Stout and just bung them into the mash.

Quote from: irish_goat on March 10, 2016, 12:06:37 PM
As far as I can remember, Dungarvan use the Flahavans Rolled Oats for their Coffee and Oatmeal Stout and just bung them into the mash.

Do ye not toast them first to extract oils?

Don't tell him anything. Asks loads of questions and does a runner with all the medals after 😉

Quote from: nigel_c on March 10, 2016, 12:37:25 PM
Don't tell him anything. Asks loads of questions and does a runner with all the medals after 😉

:D :D

Thanks everyone for the replies. So any kind of flat/rolled oats are fine seems to be the consensus. Cool.

Rolled have been steamed and gelatinised. If you were using raw oats you would need to do a cereal mash separately then add back to the main mash.
Quick are the way to go.

What do oats add to the final beer?

Body. Silkiness. Oatmeal IPA is the latest hipster style.

Quote from: Bubbles on March 12, 2016, 11:02:11 AM
Body. Silkiness. Oatmeal IPA is the latest hipster style.

Is that what you're brewing?? I have one boiling as we speak.

No lad. Just planning a few tweaks to an American stout recipe that I've done before. Needs a bit more smoothness.

Needs more Barry white

If Barry were a grain, he'd probably be Chateau Cafe.

Evening all,

I'm putting together a spiced porter recipe that requires oats - do I need to roast them or can I put them straight into the mash as Dungarvan do?

Does roasting them add anything special?

Cheers

It brings out the oaty flavour and aroma a bit more