Author: Brian Hall

A hallmark of New England IPA is its smooth drinkability and creamy mouthfeel, which many view as being the main characteristic that separates a good version from poor examples as well as other variants of IPA. One of the most common adjuncts used for this purpose is oats, a cereal grain rich in beta-glucans that increase the viscosity beer, ostensibly contributing increased body and a silky smooth texture.

Oats are available in various forms– whole, steel cut, flaked, and malted. Whereas whole and steel cut oats require a cereal mash, flaked and malted oats can be added directly to the mash because their sugars have been made easily accessible by the flaking and malting process, making them more appealing to many brewers. When it comes to NEIPA, recipes often call for the use of 15-30% oats, and while it seems flaked oats receive the most attention, some brewers have reported positive results with oat malt.

I’ve enjoyed brewing many variations of NEIPA over the last few years, experimenting with different hop combinations and yeast strains, though I’ve tended to rely largely on flaked oats. While I’ve been pleased with the beers I’ve made, I was curious what I might be missing and sought out a bag of oat malt so that I could test it out for myself!

| PURPOSE |

To evaluate the difference between a NEIPA made with flaked oats and one made with the same proportion of malted oats.

| METHODS |

The recipe I designed for this xBmt was quite simple, my hope being to allow any differences to shine through.

OpAciTy²

Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV 5.5 gal 60 min 29.2 IBUs 5.8 SRM 1.061 1.015 6.1 % Actuals 1.061 1.013 6.4 % Fermentables Name Amount % Lamonta American Style Pale Malt (Mecca Grade) 9.003 lbs 67.93 Oats, Malted (Thomas Fawcett) 3 lbs 22.64 Vanora Vienna-style Malt (Mecca Grade) 1.25 lbs 9.43 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % Magnum 7.1 g 60 min Boil Pellet 12 Citra 28.3 g 5 min Boil Pellet 12 El Dorado 21.3 g 5 min Boil Pellet 15 Mosaic (HBC 369) 7.1 g 5 min Boil Pellet 12.3 El Dorado 42.5 g 1 min Boil Pellet 15 Citra 42.5 g 0 min Boil Pellet 12 Mosaic (HBC 369) 14.2 g 0 min Boil Pellet 12.3 Citra 21 g 7 days Dry Hop Pellet 12 El Dorado 21 g 7 days Dry Hop Pellet 15 Mosaic (HBC 369) 7 g 7 days Dry Hop Pellet 12.3 Citra 28 g 3 days Dry Hop Pellet 12 El Dorado 21 g 3 days Dry Hop Pellet 15 Mosaic (HBC 369) 7 g 3 days Dry Hop Pellet 12.3 Notes Water Profile: Ca 117 | Mg 3 | Na 10 | SO4 84 | Cl 168 Download Download this recipe's BeerXML file

I started my brew day by collecting the full volume of water for both batches through my RO filter, adjusting it to my desired profile, then using my heat stick to bring it to strike temperature.

While the water was heating up, I weighed out and milled the grains for each batch, though held off on milling the flaked oats.

When the water was adequately heated, I split it between identical kettles and mashed in on the flaked oats batch about 10 minutes before the malted oats batch, which I held at strike temperature with my heat stick. After fully incorporating the grains, I measured the mash temperature.

I measured out the kettle hop additions for both batches during the mash rest.

Once the 60 minute mash rests were finished, I removed the bags and brought the worts to a boil, adding hops as stated in the recipe.

At the completion of each 60 minute boil, I quickly chilled the worts with my immersion chiller before taking hydrometer measurements that revealed an early difference between the batches.

I racked equal volumes of wort to separate sanitized Brew Buckets then direct pitched a pouch of Imperial Yeast A38 Juice into each one.

I then hit both worts with an equal dose of pure oxygen.

The worts were left to ferment at 66°F/19°C for a few days before I added the dry hop additions. With signs of fermentation absent 8 days post-pitch, I took hydrometer measurements showing differences in FG.

I prepared for packaging by purging kegs of oxygen.

I then kegged the beers under pressure to avoid the negative effects of cold-side oxidation.

The kegs were then placed in my cool keezer and burst carbonated. After a few days of cold conditioning, they were ready to serve to participants.

| RESULTS |

A total of 21 people of varying levels of experience participated in this xBmt. Each participant was served 1 sample of the beer made with flaked oats and 2 samples of the one made with oat malt then asked to identify the sample that was unique. At this sample size, 12 tasters (p<0.05) would have had to correctly identify the flaked oats beer as being different in order to reach statistical significance. In the end, only 7 tasters (p=0.58) accurately identified the unique sample, indicating participants in this xBmt were unable to reliably distinguish a NEIPA made with flaked oats from one made with the same amount of oat malt.

My Impressions: This isn’t modest, but having brewed a lot of NEIPA successfully, it was no surprise to me this beer came back delightfully delicious. I’m not a huge mosaic fan, so I suspect I’d like it even more without the addition, but I’m slowly trying to work my way through a pound of it. I recently did this exact same batch with just Citra and Enigma and found it to be the best NEIPA I’ve brewed to date: bottom line, this recipe is a keeper. However, despite my own knowledge of the variable, and the notion in my head the malted oats beer might be somewhat smoother… I was still unable to isolate the odd beer out.

|DISCUSSION |

Flaked and malted oats are used regularly by brewers, though the former seems to have gained popularity among those crafting lusciously hazy NEIPA. The process used to produce both is certainly unique and results in a different product– whereas flaked oats are flattened between hot rollers that expose the starchy endosperm and denatures enzymes, malted oats retain enzymes while also possessing sugars and starches. While these differences might be presumed to lead to a perceptible impact, the fact tasters in this xBmt were unable to reliably tell apart a NEIPA made with flaked oats from one made with an equal proportion of malted oats suggests otherwise.

Even with the apparent lack of a perceptible difference, there was some objectively observable between-batch variation. I’m not entirely sure why the flaked oats wort clocked in at 0.007 SG points higher than the one made with malted oats, but given their characteristic similarities, I’m inclined to use flaked over malted oats because it’s quite a bit cheaper and easier to find. It should be noted that, despite the disparity in OG, the apparent attenuation of both batches was 78%, resulting in beers that had a 0.4% difference in ABV. Finally, the the malted oats beer maintained slightly more haze than the beer made with flaked oats, which I thought was curious given the malting process reduces starch content.

While I’m definitely not ready to hang up my hat on the idea that adjunct malts are unneeded for this particular style, I’d have to say the non-significant results of past xBmts on adjunct grain usage in NEIPA are making me wary of how critical this ingredient is. Perhaps this style is really the sum of many small parts that work together to create liquid perfection, and I look forward to continued exploration!

If you have any thoughts about this xBmt, please do not hesitate to share in the comments section below!

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