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Oats are a fringe grain in brewing. We at the club have however had quite a few good oatmeal stouts over the past year. That indicate that even if it is a fringe grain we still all enjoy a good beer using oats. The earliest use of oats was most likely in the early 1300's in Flanders. Some of the Belgian brewers added wheat and or oats to their Antwerp style beer. This eventually evolved into the Belgian Wit style that we have today. Today we have good examples of this style in the offerings of Celis. Another good example of the use of oatmeal today is the Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout and Young's Oatmeal stout. The taste of the stout is tempered with the smoothing taste of the oats. These present the consumer two drastically different tastes.
The Oat is a member of the grass family like barley. Oats add a creaminess and a portion of oil to the beverage being brewed. They also are very well as a clarifying agent in the beer they are used in. Oats are 61 percent starch and 14 percent protein in composition. The most common form of oats used in brewing is the flaked oats. Rolled oats are also used but not as often as the flaked version. Oatmeal is the easiest form of oats to use. You simply mix the flakes in with the barley and mash. Oat flour has been used but should be used with caution since it can lump and clog the sparging of the grains. Raw oats can be used in your beer but need to be milled to a medium to coarse grist to prevent haze from forming. The chrushed oats should be cooked between 185 and 194 for 15 minutes to gelatinize the starches in about two quarts of water. This mixture should then be allowed to cool to around 157 and then added to the barley mash slowly to prevent scourching or excess oxidation.
