wheat dme / oatmeal / beer engine - stupid questions

[simon50]

hello,

browsing across recipes for random ales i have occasional seen a low proportion of wheat dme in that may only account for a few percent of fermentables .

can someone tell me what this may contribute, i have not used wheat before and am wondering what it may add when not going for a "wheat beer" per se.

also, steeped oatmeal features in some ?, does this really do anything, when not contributing fermentable sugars due to not mashing / sparging ?

when adding caramalts / oatmeal etc to beer engine, it seems to "think" (i think (?)) i am using them for an all grain recipe.

do you know how much (of fermentable sugars) is extracted when steeping as opposed to the number quoted in beer engine; surely it's considerably less ?

THANKS

[SchemieRadge]

browsing across recipes for random ales i have occasional seen a low proportion of wheat dme in that may only account for a few percent of fermentables .

I think this is used for head retention sometimes.

Not sure about BeerEngine - I use Beersmith which has an option for Extract brewing which means steeping is implied for added grains.

[jmc]

...
also, steeped oatmeal features in some ?, does this really do anything, when not contributing fermentable sugars due to not mashing / sparging ?
...

I use Flaked Oats regularly and Oat malt occasionally to (AG) brews
Flaked Oats and Oat Malt both add mouthfeel to a brew.
I've heard that if you add too much it can give an 'oily' mouthfeel.

If a significant amount of Flaked Oats is added to an all grain recipe, I think it benefits from a step mash with a 15 min glucinase step ~40C, to reduce gumminess / chance of stuck mash and starch haze.

Oat Malt is less problematic and I'd opt for these if you're steeping them.