Am brewing up my wit again in a few batches, and was thinking, what about toasting the oats for this style? Yes, no, maybe?
Do you mean wheat, or oats?
Either way, I think it sounds great (might not work for BJCP comps, unless entered as a specialty beer).
toasting the oats.
yeah, not worried about style on this one in particular.
I don’t use Oats in my witbier, so I vote no.
Oats are a good old fashioned witbier addition.
If you’re going to toast them (and why the hell not), give them a week to outgas after toasting before using.
in re “outgassing”–good point, Drew. I remember reading that somewhere.
But, I don’t remember why it is important to do that? Anybody know why that is recommended?
I say go for it Paul. I think it might add some interesting characer to it. How much do you plan to use, in the 5% range?
I recently toasted oats for an oatmeal stout and used them same day. The resulting brew had an amazing nose but was undrinkable due to astringency.
Letting them rest before using lets the nasty volatiles blow off before they get in your beer. I think I’ve read the same thing in regards to toasting your own malt in Palmer. I also seem to remember a method where you let them sit in a paper bag for a couple of weeks.
Brian
+1. Sounds interesting!
Re: outgassing. What, why, and how?
I went ahead and made it on Saturday - the boil smelled so interesting - oatmeal cookies are orange zest. I toasted the oats at 300 turning every 15 min for 1 hour, then put them in a paper bag for a week.
I toast my own grains all the time. The first time I toasted and went right into batch and was not real good. Now I do a week before and put into a brown paper bag for a week and I make a mean toasted brown ale ;D
HOW DO WE GET MORE SMILEYS ???