Smoked oats or barley for stout

[fuzzy2133]

I am going to make a smoked stout and got to wondering if any one has cold smoked oats? Would cold smoked oats have any different character than cold smoked barley?

I have found all kinds of info for smoking grain (cold and hot), coffee and all kinds of snacks. Not much on oats directly other than they absorb the smoke flavor like barley.



Mods please move if there is a better section. Thanks.

 

[ColeVet67]

i am interested in this... Has anyone tried this.>? What was the outcome.. ?

 

[RonPopeil]

Crazy idea. I would never want to smoke a stout. If I did attempt something like this I would use a mild smoke and have a good amount of roasted malts to make the idea cohesive. You'll definitely want chocolate and black patent in a fair amount to cover this up a bit. I would try to push the smoke to the back or else you'll be drinking remnants of a charcoal grill.

 

[fuzzy2133]

The only reason for a stout is my LHBS has a decent recipe that works good as the base for experimentation.

My plans is to treat the oats like you would barley (spry them with some water and cold smoke for 30min). I'll smoke them this weekend (or Friday night) and let them mellow for about a week before brewing. Probably make 1lb so I can make some oatmeal every few days to check if the flavor is good or bad.

Ron now you have me thinking about smoking them hot (~180) so they also get some toasted nutty flavors.

Edit: Forgot to mention I will use cherry wood.

 

[fuzzy2133]

I found 2 people who were able to give some insight at the LHBS. The idea/thought is that the grain (oat or barley) is only acting as the vehicle to get the smoke compounds to the wort. They both predicted that using oats would not change how the smoke gets transfered to the wort. The owner also pointed out the economics of using a portion of the thousands of pounds of base malt they already have and could use for smoking compared to buying oats for the job (makes sense why only smoked barley/adjuncts are on the market). Another point was smoking will expose the grain to heat and even cold smoking 80-90F could slightly add flavor to the oats.

Right now I am thinking just for fun using the alaskan smoked porter recipe from BYO's clone brew's then substituting the 1lb of smoked munich with the smoked grain in question.

Thoughts?

 

[RonPopeil]

I'm willing to bet a pound of rolled oats is cheaper than a pound of grain from LHBS.

 

[Malty_Dog]

I've toasted oats in the oven with very positive results in a stout. I'd think smoking some oats would accomplish a light toasting along with smoke flavor. Intriguing. Probably don't want to smoke it to kingdom come, but maybe stay a little on the subtler side. Just my 2 cents.

 

[HopSong]

Yes, but it is VERY easy to over toast the oats. I only toasted mine for about 12 minutes and.. BLECHHHHHH.

 

[fuzzy2133]

12 min at what temp? All the info i found says 300-350 for 25-30 min in the oven (I always assumed middle of oven and not top).

Decided to split the brewing recipe in half to see how different toasting the methods are. Toasted 9oz of flaked oats at 250 for 35 min in the oven. Then took another 9oz, toasted in the smoker, temp bounced between 240-260, kept the time to 35 min and sprayed with spring water ever 5 min for the first 20 min. The oats from the smoker are a slight shade darker (post a pic shortly).

Both sets of oats smell and tasted fine letting them mellow in paper bags till next week.


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[fuzzy2133]

Forgot a pic of the toasted results

 

[fuzzy2133]

I have not forgotten about this project. Hoping to get this brewed during the week in 1 gallon batches to solve some space issues I am currently having. Post a recipe today or tomorrow want to be sure the differences do not get masked.

 

[Malty_Dog]

Cool - look forward to hearing about the results!

 

[Dixon9717]

I am curious on this topic as I love all things smoked. Looking fwd to hearing your results.


Does gravity affect gravity? Would all beer be lite on the moon?

 

[fuzzy2133]

I do have one fermentation question with smoked beers. Does the smoke flavor and aroma get effected buy a vigorous fermentation like how the aroma/flavor compounds from hops off gas with the rapid escape of CO2?

Going to use Yoopers Oatmeal Stout scaled to 1 gallon and yes all 9oz of oats will be used in hopes that the difference in flavor they have will stand out.

I do not have all the ingredients yet.
Ingredients:
------------
1 lbs 5.0 oz Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 54.6 %
9.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 2 23.3 %
2.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.2 %
1.5 oz Black Barley (Stout) (500.0 SRM) Grain 4 3.9 %
1.5 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 5 3.9 %
1.5 oz Pale Chocolate Malt (200.0 SRM) Grain 6 3.9 %
1.5 oz Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 7 3.9 %
0.5 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 8 1.2 %
0.15 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 9 27.6 IBUs
0.5 pkg SafAle English Ale (DCL/Fermentis #S-04) Yeast 10 -


Mash Schedule: BIAB, Full Body at 156.0 F for 60 min

 

[fuzzy2133]

Got the grain. Just need to dig all my brewing gear out. We got a new couch and it arrived in half of what we got told the minimum time would be.

 

[fuzzy2133]

Finally got the batch brewed with the oats that were toasted in the smoker.

 

[fuzzy2133]

Been bottled for 2 weeks. The smoked flavor is faint and not noticed in aroma. Poured hard and developed a small head that vanished fast.

I'll share a couple after 4 weeks in bottle and see if anyone notices the smoked flavor.

 

[fuzzy2133]

I need to amend my tasting notes a bit from last night.

After about 15min of warming up the apple smoke flavor and aroma started coming through more. Tastes fine however the apple smoke does not really add anything to the stout recipe. I'll post more if this batch changes noticeably good or bad down the road.

Cheers