Oats in lager?

[bigdave]

I'm planning my first proper lager and wondered what the general consensus is on adding rolled oats for head retention and mouth feel?

Research tells me that oats and torrified wheat can add a haze to light ales and lagers but I usually add 300g to the bill for a 20l brew length when brewing ales and have never had a hazing issue with pale ales.

Any advice greatly received.

[Mr. Dripping]

I think oats would be out of place in a lager.....I wouldn't want the silkiness in the mouth that oats bring. To me a lager should be crisp, not chewy.
Maybe add a touch of pale wheat malt if you are worried about head retention.....or carbonate well and get one of those nucleating glasses

[bigdave]

Good point. 100% lager malt it is then!!... unless that 1/2 used bag of munich gets the better of me. lol.

[Barley Water]

What exactly do you mean when you refer to a "proper lager"? I get the impression you are talking about fizzy yellow beer rather than any beer fermented cold with a lager yeast which is what homebrewers over here mean by "proper lager". If I guessed correctly then I would say you could do a couple of things if you want more body and head retention. First, you can mash hotter leaving you with a beer that has a higher terminal gravity because of the increased dextrins. The other thing you could do is add some carapils, it's a very light crystal malt type product which also will boost the body of the beer without supposedly adding any flavor per se. Also, adding a bit of malted wheat as the previous poster mentioned will help the head as well and just a little won't cause haze problems.

[bigdave]

By proper lager I mean lager malt, hopped to around 17ibu, fermented at 13ºC (55F) with lager yeast followed by a diacetyl rest at 16ºC (61F) and 4-8 week lagering at 3-5ºC (37-41F).

[Barley Water]

Ok, then I guessed correctly, it's just semantics. Anyway, the closest thing I make to a beer like that is a Munich Helles. When doing that style you want the beer to dry out but at the same time you want fairly big malt flavors. I add a bit of melonodin malt and a touch of Munich malt as well. Of course doing that is going to darken the beer up a little but yellow/gold is ok. I would generally use pils malt which I suspect is a little bit different than British lager malt (unavailable over here) but not having brewed with it I'm not sure what to expect. Do you guys add adjucts to a beer like that (similar to Bud/Miller/Coors over here)?

[john luc]

Deffo a no no on using oats in a Lager. Tasted one at a homebrew tasting recently and it was a just because you can you should'nt kind of thing. brings the wrong taste to the type of beer you are drinking.