Household ingredients

[gibbiem]

Things like oats for porridge etc, any one use these sort of things for brewing or is it not worth it?

[mozza]

Pretty sure Seymour will weigh in on this!

Yes any oats will improve mouth feel

[gibbiem]

Would you just add them to the mash? How would you know how much to use?

[GrowlingDogBeer]

There was a brewer on here a while ago who used all sorts of different cereals. Sugar puffs, shreddies, shredded wheat etc... Not sure how good the results were.

[gibbiem]

Sugar puffs ha ha ha ha

[gibbiem]

What about crunchy nut cornflakes? I'm a crunchy nut

[joe1002]

Would you just add them to the mash? How would you know how much to use?

You would need to do a glucan rest to prevent a stuck mash I believe. They are easy to do, just a mini mash.

[seymour]

Would you just add them to the mash? How would you know how much to use?

You would need to do a glucan rest to prevent a stuck mash I believe. They are easy to do, just a mini mash.

No, don't bother with that extra process. I include oats in almost any recipe, and I've never done a mini-mash. Oats will convert at the same mash temps as barley malt, and there are sufficient enzymes in your base malts to covert any oats nearly as efficiently. If you simply don't believe me, then use flaked oats, rolled oats, or quick-cook steel-cut oats, all of which are pre-gelatinized, thus are even simpler to convert in the mash.

Other common kitchen ingredients which can be included in your brews:
any fruit, many spices, white sugar, brown sugar, molasses, marmalade, turbinado, coffee, vanilla, vanilla sugar, maple syrup, corn syrup, honey, bulgur wheat, rice, corn grits, buckwheat, whole wheat flour...basically any raw or whole cereal grains, but I avoid boxed breakfast cereals which are loaded with chemical additives, many of which will produce off-flavours in your beer.

[timothy]

Totally worth it. Add a little for mouthfeel or head retention, or a lot to brew a farmhouse-esque ale. I did a batch using 30% rolled oats, and it turned out great.

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[gibbiem]

Thanks for the replies. Think I will try it. Gonna try some fruit too, wanna make a nice strawberry beer for summer