Using oats

[Halyard]

hi folks,

Following on from a query on another post, how are you handling the use of oats? I am planning a Breakfast Stout recipe I got from Northern Brewer, and was just gong to treat the flaked oats like a speciality grain and steep them with the roasted barley and remove before the boil.

But, do I need to mash them in a mini-mash to get the full flavour/effect of oats, in which case, could I just mash the oats in a small pot on their own, adding the resultant 'oat wort' to the wort prepared from the extracts+liquor?

This article from Brew Your Magazine doesn't really help the extract brewer
http://www.byo.com/stories/beer-styles/ ... tout-style

Quick edit: I have seen this process suggested
Place specialty grains in strainer bag. Place rolled oats in separate strainer bag. Add to 2.5 gals. water in brewing kettle. At boil remove speciality grains but continue to boil rolled oats for about 10 minutes. Remove bag of rolled oats. Proceed with adding extracts and hop boil.

Cheers,

Halyard

[Halyard]

Me again,

I realise my first question was a bit odd, as it made it seem like I could mash rolled oats all by themselves.

This thread has answered many of my questions
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=36120&p=386474&hili ... ts#p386474

But two questions still remain.
What, if any effect will just steeping flaked oats have (or malted oats for that matter?)

Malted oats or just rolled? I suspect that if one was just steeping, then an addition of malted oats (instead of flaked) would be a superior way to brew an oatmeal stout and avoid a partial mash step because, as is stated in the thread above: "One tidbit about malted oats is that oat diastase (the group of enzymes that that catalyze starch-degrading reactions) contains almost exclusively beta amylase, which means they are converted best at a somewhat lower temperature (140–
145 °F/60–63 °C) than malted barley, and when mashed, tend to produce a very fermentable wort.” You'd get some conversion on the way to the boil with malted oats, but with flaked which has not been mashed and has no enzymes, there would be no conversion unless you did a full-on partial mash with some malted barley in there.

Halyard

[Rigg3r]

Use pinhead oats instead of flaked oats. Pinhead oats will not break down as easily and are therefore less likley to make a porridge out of your brew.

I just did a brew a few days ago using pinhead oats, I toasted the pinhead oats lightly in a pan before hand just to give them some aroma, then I put them in a muslin bag along with my crushed grains. I steeped the lot for 30 mins at 68 degrees C.

Then went onto adding my LME and boiling my hops etc etc.

Smells alright to me, also no issues with the grains creating a sludgy mess.

Well thats my two cents anyway.