Toasted Oats Ale - With Pics!

[floydmeddler]

I brewed an oatmeal stout a few weeks back and was annoyed with myself that I didn't toast the oats. So, today, I planned to do something a little bit different and brewed up a light brown coloured ale with the addition of toasted oats. I also wanted something a bit generously hopped so went for it at 'flame out'. At the same time though, I wanted the malt/toasted oats to take center stage so, naturally, WLP005 jumped out at me when selecting from my yeast bank.

Here is the recipe:

Size: 25 L
Efficiency: 78.0%

Alcohol: 5.11% (4.6% - 6.2%)
Bitterness: 35.1 (30.0 - 50.0)

Ingredients:
4500 g Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt
370 g British Crystal 55°L
400 g Oats (Toasted)
100 g Torrified Wheat
18 g Challenger (7.98%) - added during boil, boiled 90 m
10.0 g Fuggle (6.1%) - added during boil, boiled 90 m
22 g Northdown (6.64%) - added during boil, boiled 90 m
10 g East Kent Goldings (5.7%) - steeped after boil
15.0 g Fuggle (6.1%) - steeped after boil
35 g Bobek (3.8%) - steeped after boil
1 L White Labs WLP005 British Ale

The ingredients:



Heating the strike water:



Here are the oats. I toasted them 2 days ago and allowed them to air out prior to mashing today. Are they a little over done? Hope not!!



The beautiful mash. The toasted oats aroma was very powerful. I'm hoping that amazing aroma transforms into flavour in the final beer. I knew at this point that this brew was a good decision...





Hot break:



The boil:



Gravity 1.049



Transferring to the fermenter:



Finished wort:



Mmmm...



Fingers crossed this turns out nice! Watch this space...

[Spud395]

Fantastic clear wort and colour.
Planning an oatmeal stout I better get roasting

[Beer O'Clock]

Wow ! Clear as.....a really clear thing

[WishboneBrewery]

Nice one, I've just done a Toasted Oatmeal Stout today... I'll try get a thread up tomorrow.

[orlando]

Impressive brew floydmeddler.

Can you give me a little more info on the oats. I plan to do this next up and am a little concerned about the oats part.

Where did you get them, how long you toasted them, how and at what temp. sort of thing.

p.s. Does anyone skim the hot break? I was amazed at the caliuty of the wort. how did you do it?

[floydmeddler]

Impressive brew floydmeddler.

Can you give me a little more info on the oats. I plan to do this next up and am a little concerned about the oats part.

Where did you get them, how long you toasted them, how and at what temp. sort of thing.

p.s. Does anyone skim the hot break? I was amazed at the caliuty of the wort. how did you do it?

Hey Orlando,

I bought the rolled oats at Tescos - own brand. I toasted them at 200c until they reached the point that they might start burning. Perhaps a little too much, but we'll see!

I used to recirculate the mash for around 30 mins with a pump and thought that it was this process that gave me clear wort. However, I've stopped doing this now. In fact, I only recirculate around 2L using a jug then start draining off into the boiler. I chuck in 1 protoflac tablet for the last 20 mins of the boil then crash cool using an immersion chiller. Here's the important bit - I allow the boiler to sit for 30 mins so that the break can fall to the bottom of the boiler. Then I open the tap and drain. It's cloudy for the first few litres but after that it's crystal clear.

Hope that helps!

[bellebouche]

Excellent pics and write up - bravo!

Your technique looks very similar to mine - I still do a wort recirc for 10/15 mins with a pump at the end of the mash cycle and as I start to add the sparge water as I know it contributes to the wort clarity going into the boil but I've also found that the constant rinsing ups efficiency and flavour a touch.

The cold crashing and getting the cold break out (and not into the FV!) also helps improve beer quality. It's been nearly two years since I started this and the beers I'm producing now are streets ahead of where they used to be.

Onwards and upwards - keep on brewing great beer!

[Spikesdad]

Look good to me fm. Mind made up... gonna do a toasted oat stout v soon.

[6470zzy]

Great pictures, thanks for sharing your brew-day. What sort of a container did you make your boiler out of? Obviously it was some sort of a food container, just curious what sort of food it was.

[floydmeddler]

Great pictures, thanks for sharing your brew-day. What sort of a container did you make your boiler out of? Obviously it was some sort of a food container, just curious what sort of food it was.

It's a mango chutney drum. Your local Indian restaurant might have one.

[jimp2003]

Great post and pics!

You can't beat that baked cookie smell you get when using toasted oats. I will be really interested to hear how this one turns out for you.

Cheers!

Jim

[floydmeddler]

This is at 1018 at the minute. Taking a bit longer than usual. I reckon it's because the fermenting cupboard is at 18c. Hoping it drops to around 1012. Will rouse daily.

Tasting pretty promising. Difficult to detect the oats at this stage though as it's still very sweet.

[jmc]

Sounds like a lovely brew.
Tell us how it works out. Interested to hear how much 'toastiess' remains in the beer.
ATB John

[Spud395]

You got my arse in gear on this one FM, toasted 500g of oats yesterday
Been meaning to do it for so long now

[floydmeddler]

I will do John.

Glad to hear it Spud. Do a brewday post if you can!