Just curious if anyone here has ever tried adding some flaked oats to an AIPA for a bit of body and smoothness? If so, how did it turn out? What effect did it have on the finished beer? What did you learn or what would you change in future etc?
Not yet, but planning to for the BrewUnited challenge. I would keep the percentage relatively low just like Carafoam. Maybe 0.5# or less for a 5 gallon batch.
May be flaked barley is a better option. Use about 8-10%.
I have and it’s awesome. One of the best APA’s I’ve had is Tired Hands Hop Hands and they use massive amounts of oats with clone recipes suggesting close to 20% flaked oats.
I wouldn’t use much in a typical dry west coast pale ale but it’s perfect for the newer Northeast/Vermont style hoppy ales that tend to have a silky smooth body (usually low ibu’s, very hazy, dry hopped like a 2xIPA, more chloride and less sulfate than usual, oats or wheat isn’t unusual, and an expressive yeast like Conan or London Ale III instead of Chico).
Can I ask why you would suggest barley instead of oats? What would be the differences to expect?
What % did you use in yours? It sounds awesome.
Do you have any target numbers for these starting from distilled?
It will still gives you body but less silky. But that is just my opinion. Keep on brewing.
Liam & Johnny -
Malt: My last batch was 83% Base 2-row, 15% Flaked Oats, 2% Acid Malt (purely for pH)… very hazy.
Hops: I usually target only 25-30ibus for a pale ale then I add ½ oz/gallon at a 170f hop stand followed by an oz or more per gallon of dry hopping.
Water: I blend somewhere around 85% distilled water with philly tap water then add gypsum (usually around 7grams) and CaCl (usually around 5grams). Basically I’m targeting a pH around 5.3, S04 of 150, and Chloride of 100. Normally IPA’s seem to target a lot higher on the S04 and lower on Chloride.
Yeast: Either an English strain fermented cool or Conan (I’ve used The Yeast Bay Vermont Ale or East Coast Yeasts version) seem to work a bit better with this style than Chico.
I’m still tweaking a lot and hawking other peoples cloning attempts but this style of APA/IPA has quickly become my favorite kind of beer. The last Hop Hands clone recipe I saw was 18% oats.
I have done a few iterations of an oat pale ale that used flaked oats, oat malt, and golden naked oats up to about 25% of the grist that I could never get quite right. I think I used 10-12% flaked oats with good success as far as that is concerned. The oat malt and golden naked oats seemed to give it a strange character that I didn’t care for. I have never had an issue with clarifying it…
If I ever do it again, I will only use oats in the form of flaked.
I’m planning on trying 10% or so in my next APA. I’ve used up to 12% in my last couple of Saisons and am pleased with the results.
I think it’s gotta be flaked wheat for that comp, right?
i must say this is a remarkable IPA and i used 10% flaked oats. i agree with Liam its great in that northeast/Vermont type IPA and a must for using the conan (Giga Vermont IPA strain) . This was a clone out of one of the mags it is Delicious!
Recipe: Riverwards IPA
Brewer: Quattlebaum
Asst Brewer:
Style: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)
Recipe Specifications
Boil Size: 5.42 gal
Post Boil Volume: 4.42 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 3.75 gal
Bottling Volume: 3.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.060 SG
Estimated Color: 3.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 67.8 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 73.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 82.7 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients:
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
6 lbs 10.4 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 79.7 %
13.5 oz Oats, Flaked (Briess) (1.4 SRM) Grain 2 10.1 %
13.5 oz White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 3 10.1 %
0.20 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [15.20 %] - First Wo Hop 4 15.3 IBUs
0.94 oz Amarillo Gold [8.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 5 6.9 IBUs
0.94 oz Citra [14.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 6 12.4 IBUs
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.00 %] - Steep/Whirlpool Hop 7 14.1 IBUs
0.75 oz Citra [14.50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 30.0 Hop 8 19.1 IBUs
1.0 pkg Vermont IPA (GigaYeast #Gy054) Yeast 9 -
1.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.00 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Day Hop 10 0.0 IBUs
1.50 oz Citra [14.50 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days Hop 11 0.0 IBUs
0.50 oz Simcoe [12.20 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days Hop 12 0.0 IBUs
Mash Schedule: (208) Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out, Fly
Total Grain Weight: 8 lbs 5.5 oz
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 3.65 gal of water at 162.1 F 150.0 F 60 min
Sparge: Fly sparge with 2.77 gal water at 168.0 F
Notes:
chill to 190F then do WP x 30min
I tried flaked barley in an APA and will never use it again in a pale beer. I get a raw, grassy flavor from it that I just didn’t care for.
Are you sure that came from the flaked barley? Ive used it on a number of accassions and never had that flavor.
I did not have that experience. I used it in pale English beer about 5 SRM.
+1. I use it pale beers sometimes at ~ 2% and don’t notice that. But I would hesitate to use more in a pale beer. Now stout or brown ale, that’s another story.
I’m pretty sure. I was trying to add body to a session beer, and added about 5% flaked barley to my existing recipe. I never got that flavor in any previous versions of the beer, just the one with flaked barley.
I experimented extensively with flaked barley in pale beers and can confirm that it does produce an undesirable raw flavor that does not meld with pale beers. I think it works in roasty beers because the roast flavor overwhelms everything else from the raw barley.
I know that Lewis mentions in his book on Stout that oats in a stout produced a poor, astringent flavor. I don’t understand why he found that, but I guess its possible. To me, it seems that oats are just another cereal grain and should produce a similar result. But maybe there is some other compound in oats that tastes worse than other grains???
When it comes to body building in beers, I’ve settled on using flaked wheat. I find that its flavor is fairly complimentary and only a percent or two adds a huge amount of head building capability in my beers.
By the way, raw barley has 10 times more beta-glucan than raw wheat, so I guess that using a much lower quantity of flaked barley might work effectively without flavor effects. I just never got that low.
For once in my life, I pretty much agree with Lewis. I have never found oats to give me the purported body and foam that others report. I seem to get thin, astringent beer when I use them.
Once I made a Scottish ale without specialty malts. This resulted in blond beer with 5% flaked oats. Result was more body. I did not detect any negative effects. And let me tell you. People LOVED it. All 15 BBLs of it.
May be this is due flake barley brand or pH of mash.