Hi,
Do steel cut oats need to be precooked before adding to the mash or can they be added directly in the mash?
Thanks
Yes, you need to pre-cook. Old fashioned oats are the same as flaked.
By old fashioned oats do you mean the stuff that comes in a round container with the funky pilgrim lookin’ dude on the label that we made oatmeal out of? If so, how much of a potential issue are the sodium and other additives in good old oatmeal? A number of my old brewing books from 3 decades ago list the store-bought oatmeal as a normal adjunct, I have wondered lately what the current thinking among the modern brewing community was on this matter.
By the way, great stagename “Joe”.
Old fashioned oats are just pre-gelatinized oats and should have zero sodium. Instant oats are a different beast, maybe they have sodium.
Minute or quick oats are also flaked, a little thinner than old fashioned. Check the ingredient list to be sure tho’.
I always thought that funky Pilgrim looking dude was Barbara Bush!
j/k
Old Fashioned oats are just pressure rolled (ie, flaked). I guess they don’t heat them as high as they do for the “Quick” version. I like eating the old fashioned ones better than either the instant or the quick. They have better texture and flavor, IMHO.
As far as mashing them, I just add them to the mash, same as flaked wheat, flaked barley, or flaked corn. The rolling process gets them hot enough so that they are gelatinized so you don’t have to actually cook them (e.g cereal mash them) like you would with any other unmalted grain like rice or polenta.
HTH-
I have two different brands of instant oatmeal in my kitchen, and neither contain any additional sodium in the labeled ingredients.
I don’t currently have any of BB’s old fashioned oats in the house so I couldn’t check the ingredient list. I was pretty sure I had seen some stuff other than just oats when I checked a few months ago, but I am old and my memory is worse than questionable.
I just checked the ingredients of my Barbara Bush Old Fashioned Oatmeal is:
Whole Grain Rolled Oats.
Nothing else.
That’s not a pilgrim it’s a Quaker!!! :o
but i suppose it does look like Barbara Bush. 
Yeah, the likeness is striking (and unfortunate).
Quaker has a page describing what’s in their oats and how they are processed. FWIW I’ve never cooked oats for a brew though I usually toast them lightly if it’s for a stout. The only oats I know to have sugar in them are the flavored instant oats that come in packets.
http://www.quakeroats.com/about-quaker-oats/content/quaker-faq.aspx
As for Barbara B, that meme comparing her to the Quaker Oats image is based on a comment by a political pundit in response to a political opinion the former FLOTUS shared earlier this year. Responding to a woman sharing her opinion by criticizing her appearance is up there with a second grader responding to an opinion by calling someone a poopyhead. If I am going strong at 91 I won’t care if I look like Mrs. Butterworth. You can see other, more flattering photos of BB by going to her Wikipedia page:
We have never precooked. Has always worked great. Add with the rest of the grain bill.
so has anyone tried cooking up the oats into a well cooked goo before adding it to the mash (cereal mash like)? If you do that, does the efficiency of that portion of the grist bill improve?
I use flaked oats and barley all the time and usually they just kind of disappear in the mash. When I’m doing the grainout after a brew day, I don’t see the flaked stuff sitting in the grain, it looks like it has just dissolved away for the most part.
'The Quaker Co. web site FAQ has a lot of good info regarding the oats:
http://www.quakeroats.com/about-quaker-oats/content/quaker-faq.aspx
Most of my brews include oats and most of the time I pre-cook, unless I’m using instant or quick oats. Even then, I sometimes I goo it up just to satisfy the OCD in me.
That comment about her stretches back to at least the 1990s, although it is probably older than that.
I have boiled up steel cut oatmeal and added it to the mash, mainly because I like steel cut oat meal and never have the instant stuff in the house. I cannot say that it is better or worse than using flaked oats. It does give that characteristic oatmeal silkiness to the mouth feel, which I like. If I am going to brew a stout, which is rare, I always us oatmeal.
If the oats say they can be cooked in 5 mins or less, then the starches will gelatinize and be accessible in the mash. For oats that need to be cooked longer, I recommend cooking them, but a cereal mash is not necessary IMO.
Who’s “we”, you got a turd in your pocket?
I’ve never precooked, but I’ve never used steel cut oats. Always instant or old fashioned rolled oats, I try to toast them for 20 minutes at 350F if I have time and remember to do so. Curious to see how toasting the oats will come through in low oxygen brewing…