Flaked Oats...Mini-mash or Steep? That is the question

Northern Brewer General
1

I’ll get by with a little help from my friends…

I purchased the NB Imperial Stout extract kit and plan to brew next weekend. My question is regarding flaked oats, of which I plan to add for a smoother mouth feel. Say about 1 pound. If I’m not worried about getting fermentables out of the oats (as this recipe already has 12 lbs. of LME), can I just add the oats to the steeping ‘specialty’ grains,’ or is this a bad idea and won’t accomplish anything? If steeping is not recommended, would you add the ‘specialty grains’ to the flaked oats during the mini-mash, or would you just steep the specialty grains and mini-mash the oats separately?

Thanks in advance for the help…I’ve never worked with flaked oats before…nor have I mini-mashed yet.

2

Mini mashing would entail some base malt. 2row, 6row, Munich, Vienna etc.

If you are going to soak the oats with 2row for 45-60min, you might as well add all the specialty grains to the mix. No reason to have them in 2 different pots.

1lb of 2row is plenty. It will add about .005 points to a 5 gallon batch.