Oats - mash or steep

[karlos_1984]

I've used oats in a couple brews with good results. Both times I've basically steeped in just water then added dry malt prior to the boil and hop schedule.

I've been told various things on here about how to use oats in a brew, apparently what I've done in the past is not best practice for different reasons.

I'm going to brew an extract dark ale with CCA yeast, but thought of toasting some oats first and adding that. Wasn't planning on any other grains or hops. Just a K& K with the toasted oats. What's the best way to get the most flavour, steep or mash with some of the malt?

[Otto Von Blotto]

If you're going to mash, you need some actual base malt grains. You can't do a mash with extract because it has no enzymes to convert starch.

[karlos_1984]

So I guess I'll be steeping then...🤣

[Otto Von Blotto]

I guess so

[karlos_1984]

Oats are a massive PITA to steep in a bag though, so gluggy and the bag clogs so easily, takes so long to drain thru

[Otto Von Blotto]

It's probably the starches causing that. You could always get 1-1.5kg of milled pale malt to mash them with in future, obviously this would make up part of the fermentables so you'd use less extract to make up the batch to the desired OG, but at least you wouldn't end up with a heap of starch in your beer. 

[BlackSands]

17 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

It's probably the starches causing that. You could always get 1-1.5kg of milled pale malt to mash them with in future, obviously this would make up part of the fermentables so you'd use less extract to make up the batch to the desired OG, but at least you wouldn't end up with a heap of starch in your beer. 

The OP doesn't actually mention the quantity of oats used, but yeah...   something like a 2:1 ratio with a suitable base malt with good diastatic power would work.  A handful of husks added as an option wouldn't hurt either. 

[karlos_1984]

I'm probably only going to use 200g of oats max. It's only a 20 ltr beer.