Oats in place of flaked barley?

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Minimasher

Oats in place of flaked barley?

Post by Minimasher » Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:05 am

A man goes in to a homebrew shop and asks the man behind the counter for some flaked barley. The homebrewer is keen on Guinness and wants to make the AG recipie for Guinness Extra Stout from the Graham Wheeler book.

The man behind the counter says "Flaked Barley? It's been a long time since anyone asked me for that! I don't have any, if it's stout you are making just use porridge oats instead".

'But Guinness isn't an Oatmeal Stout' thinks the confused homebrewer.

Trying to do things the right way the homebrewer nods in blind agreement and leaves the shop empty handed. He sits in the car for a moment scratching his head. 'Can oats be a replacement for barley?' he wonders.

Later that night the homebrewer is wracked with confusion. There isn't any oatmeal in any of the recipes in Wheeler, so what should he do? Determined to carry on with his quest he resolves to order some flaked barley from an online shop and ask some freindly cyber brewers what they think?

Do oats offer a substitute for flaked barley?
Does anyone have an oatmeal stout recipe they can give him, so he can make it to compare?

The homebrewer is grateful in advance.

oblivious

Re: Oats in place of flaked barley?

Post by oblivious » Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:29 am

If your are using them in the 10% range that Guinness uses for flaked barely then I think there will be a difference

But health food shop regular carry flaked barley

WishboneBrewery
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Re: Oats in place of flaked barley?

Post by WishboneBrewery » Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:39 am

Why not brew a Real Stout like 'Hop Back Entire Stout', the recipe is on www.hopandgrain.com it worked fantastically for my first Extract brew (ended up about 6% mind you!!) so I can only dream that a full AG brew of the same would be Úber-fantastique! ....and you won't find any Flaked barley is needed. ;)

Hop Back Brewery Entire Stout

5 gallon batch
OG 1043
170 units of colour.

MARIS OTTER PALE MALT 3640 gms
CRYSTAL MALT 160 gms
CHOCOLATE MALT 160 gms
ROAST BARLEY 160 gms

HOPS boil time 90 minutes 33EBU
CHALLENGER 36 gms

Add 20 gms EAST KENT GOLDINGS last 15 minutes.

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Eric
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Re: Oats in place of flaked barley?

Post by Eric » Wed Aug 26, 2009 6:24 pm

While being in favour of using oats in beer, I'd have to agree that isn't the route to take in this instance.
The alternative recipe given above seems very much worth a try, but for my own taste I'd use less chocolate malt and increase the roast barley.
Whatever you do, you'll end up with beer.
Without patience, life becomes difficult and the sooner it's finished, the better.

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