Pale ale with oatmeal?

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Brown beer
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Pale ale with oatmeal?

Post by Brown beer » Mon Jan 07, 2019 8:52 pm

Hi all. Returned to brewing (BIAB) after 5 Yr break. Read recently that adding oatmeal to brews in general improves mouthfeel. The article said that the person writing it used it in every brew it was that good....

Anyone have any experience with this? Thinking of doing a pale ale with light hopping. Nothing crazy as not a massive fan of over hopped ales. What quantity should I be trying? Any issues?

Thanks

Robwalkeragain
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Re: Pale ale with oatmeal?

Post by Robwalkeragain » Mon Jan 07, 2019 8:57 pm

Yeah Siren Undercurrent is a good example. It definitely adds something, to me its a sort of smooth slightly roastiness that brings out the nuttiness. Think about the taste of porridge, but not overbearing.
Just sub 10%-20% of your pale malt for flaked oats. Mix them well into the grain to avoid stickiness issues. Enjoy!

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Re: Pale ale with oatmeal?

Post by Brown beer » Mon Jan 07, 2019 9:43 pm

Great thanks, definitely going to try it now! No need to "cook" the oats first?

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Re: Pale ale with oatmeal?

Post by Northern Brewer » Tue Jan 08, 2019 4:29 am

See this article for a good overview of the science - http://scottjanish.com/case-brewing-oats/

Short version - there's lots of good things can happen, but the mouthfeel benefits may only kick in above 18% oats and you've got to beware sticky mashes. I seem to be quite sensitive to the flavour of oats, and even fairly low levels come across as porridgey to my taste (but not it seems to others). The porridge does seem to go away to some extent with conditioning.

The 2017 Champion Beer of Britain, Goat's Milk, is a 3.8% beer that has some oats in, which may serve as some inspiration.

Brown beer
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Re: Pale ale with oatmeal?

Post by Brown beer » Fri Jan 11, 2019 8:52 pm

It's been recommended that I use oat malt? Anyone have experience with this? Was thinking about 10% with marris otter mainly and some caramel malt? Northern brewer & cascade with safale so4?

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Re: Pale ale with oatmeal?

Post by Rookie » Sat Jan 12, 2019 1:09 am

I've never brewed one but several years ago I had an IPA brewed with oatmeal that was pretty good.
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HTH1975
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Re: Pale ale with oatmeal?

Post by HTH1975 » Sat Jan 12, 2019 1:50 pm

You want pre-gelatinised ‘instant’ oats so you can just add them to the mash. I just use Moonflakes from Aldi. Cheap and cheerful.

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charliemartin
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Re: Pale ale with oatmeal?

Post by charliemartin » Sat Jan 12, 2019 3:22 pm

I frequently use oats in my brews. Just use cheap porridge oats. Can't say I have noticed any flavour issues.

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Robwalkeragain
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Re: Pale ale with oatmeal?

Post by Robwalkeragain » Sat Jan 12, 2019 11:41 pm

Did one with reddy brek once! Not sure if the vitamin/mineral additions might have adjusted the water chemistry but the beer was great!

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Re: Pale ale with oatmeal?

Post by j444fog » Mon Jan 14, 2019 1:43 pm

Plain porridge oats have always worked fine for me, used multiple times in Seymour Citra recipe. You could try adding Torrified Wheat, as that adds mouth feel also.

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CestrIan
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Re: Pale ale with oatmeal?

Post by CestrIan » Sun Feb 03, 2019 8:32 pm

Oats in pale ale seems to be quite popular at the moment and i've seen quite a lot of craft beers that look very cloudy on my travels. Not just dry hop cloudy. This style is New England IPA or NEIPA, where they don't add any crystal malts but use wheat or oats or both to add smooth mouthfeel and they are typically low bitterness with massive hop flavour and are cloudy or hazy. The hops they use in this style tend to be tropical, juicy, stone fruit type hops; mosaic, galaxy, nelson sauvin, amarillo, el dorado, citra, rather than the piney/citrus hop combos of West coast IPAs. The other difference is NEIPAs are low bitterness and still like west coast IPAs heavy late hop additions and big dry hop.
I am still experimenting with this style, but I like a little light crystal in with the oats and I have added anwhere from 200g to 1Kg of oats in a 5 gallon brew. I've used cheap flaked oats from the supermarket and flaked oats from the home brew suppliers. I can't taste any difference.

Yeast type for this style is important and wants to be something that lets the fruity flavours come to the forefront; i've used WLP067, but you could also use WLP007, imperial A38 or Wyeast 1318.
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