Using oats in pale beer

[Stig]

Anyone ever done this? What happens?

I'm quite limited as to the beer recipes I can use due to having a wheat-allergic other half, and torrefied wheat tends to crop up in so many recipes, so I must admit I do tend to ignore recipes and bung things in just to see what happens.

Today I was after a golden ale of some sort, cascade hopped but not an APA as I've started with maris otter. Anything vaguely along these lines had the wheat in the recipe, hence the experiment.

After a swift google there does seem to be the odd pale oat beer about, mainly Scottish, so it's not unheard of.

So, this is what I've done:

5kg maris otter
250g light crystal
250g crushed (not malted) oats

15g cascade @ 60mins
20g cascade+ 20g Bobek @ 15 mins
50g cascade @ 0mins

20 litres at finish: OG 1.054.

I'll report back.

[brewzone]

Just ensure You gelatinise the oats by cooking them as You would porridge and then adding the cooked 'porridge' to the main mash as per normal.

It should provide a smooth mouthfeel.

Look forward to hearing how it goes.

BZ

[DarloDave]

TBH, i'd just skip that part of the beer, and add an extra 200G pale malt

[Stig]

That's what I normally do, but where's the excitement and danger in that?

[DarloDave]

anything for an easy life

[Eric]

Go for it, you've little to lose.
I'm intolerant of gluten to the degree where I avoid beers with a high wheat content. There's gluten in barley too but the effect on me is now minimal. Oats also contain gluten but for some reason it doesn't normally cause people problems.
The early books I read suggested keeping clear of oats but with the local water being very hard I experimented with lots of adjuncts to try and get a decent mash pH. Oats was one and while I never used it in great quantities it added delicate flavours. Cook it in advance in 3 times its own volume of water and stir thoroughly.

[Stig]

We don't know exactly what him indoors's intolerance is, but it seems to be just wheat, thankfully. Giving up beer would be an unthinkable horror for him.

I hadn't thought of cooking it first, D'oh! But I will next time!
I don't think it's a ruinous mistake as it's only 200g, so the rest will hold it up.

It's looking a lot darker than I thought it would - but could still be classed as dark golden by someone generous.

[Hawkinspm]

My local microbrewery used malted oats in a recent beer that was a dark golden colour. Chatting to them they were using around 10% oats. Has to be said the beer was bloody lovely and has tempted me to do something similar.

[mysterio]

Bake the oats in the oven a little if you want to taste them.

[Stig]

Bake the oats in the oven a little if you want to taste them.

I will do exactly that next time!