Author: Brian Hall

The use of cereal grains other than barley in beer production has been getting more attention lately due to the growing popularity of New England IPA (NEIPA), a style known for its hazy appearance. Of the many unique components involved in brewing NEIPA, the relatively heavy use of adjuncts seems a key contributor to this haziness. It would appear flaked oats has become commonplace among many brewers of NEIPA, though I’ve seen some recipes that include a portion of wheat malt in the grist, either as the sole adjunct or in combination with others. While this usage may increase haziness, many advocates of the style would contend that’s not the intended goal, but that the haze is merely a byproduct of a process targeted at achieving a creamy mouthfeel.

Similar in many respects, such as possessing higher amounts of beta glucan and proteins, flaked oats and wheat malt differ in ways as well, perhaps the most obvious being that flaked oats aren’t malted. Very simply put, the malting process is responsible for developing the enzymes that ultimately convert the starches in grain into fermentable sugar during the mash– whereas flaked oats cannot self-convert, wheat malt can as it possesses diastatic power similar to barley. Another difference is lipid levels with oats containing more than any other cereal grain, which is purported to impact ester concentrations in the finished beer among other things.

My initial interest in comparing flaked oats to wheat malt in a NEIPA was to see if either created a beer that was perceptibly different in aroma, flavor, or mouthfeel. However, there’s been growing discussion of the alleged fragile nature of this style with photos surfacing of beers that have changed color and flavor within days of being packaged. Given the mounting evidence that oxidation is the culprit, there’s been some speculation the rapidity at which it occurs may be a function of the high proportion of flaked oats often used when making NEIPA. Contradicting claims that flaked oats can actually improve the shelf stability of beer, I became even more curious about how it would compare to the same beer made with wheat malt and decided to put it to the test!

| PURPOSE |

To evaluate the differences between a NEIPA brewed using the same proportion of either flaked oats or wheat malt.

| METHODS |

In order to isolate the impact of the variable as much as possible, I designed a recipe with a simple grist a pretty standard NEIPA hop schedule.

Opacity

Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV 5.5 gal 60 min 53.3 IBUs 3.4 SRM 1.055 1.014 5.3 % Actuals 1.055 1.012 5.6 % Fermentables Name Amount % Pale Malt (2 Row) US 8 lbs 72.73 Flaked Oats OR Wheat Malt 3 lbs 27.27 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % Magnum 10 g 60 min Boil Pellet 12 Citra 32 g 5 min Boil Pellet 12.3 Mandarina Bavaria 32 g 5 min Boil Pellet 9.2 Citra 30 g 20 min Aroma Pellet 12.3 Mandarina Bavaria 30 g 20 min Aroma Pellet 9.2 Citra 70 g 7 days Dry Hop Pellet 12 Mandarina Bavaria 70 g 7 days Dry Hop Pellet 9.2 Citra 32 g 2 days Dry Hop Pellet 12 Mandarina Bavaria 32 g 2 days Dry Hop Pellet 9.2 Yeast Name Lab Attenuation Temperature London Ale III (1318) Wyeast Labs 73% 64°F - 74°F Notes Water Profile: Ca 126 | Mg 0 | Na 0 | SO4 118 | Cl 135 Download Download this recipe's BeerXML file

I made a starter of Wyeast 1318 London Ale III yeast the afternoon prior to brewing.

Later that evening, I ran the full volume of water through my RO filter then adjusted it to my target profile.

I started my brew day by plugging in my HotRod Heat Stick to heat the water for the flaked oats batch to strike temperature. Since this variable would require separate mashes, I delayed the start of the wheat malt batch by 20 minutes.

As the water was heating, I called on my faithful assistant for help weighing out and milling the grains directly into BIAB fabric filters.

Once strike temperature was reached, the bags of milled grain were submersed and gently stirred to homogenize.

A check of mash temperatures showed both hit my intended target.

While waiting for the mashes to finish, I measured out the kettle hop additions for both batches.

When the 60 minute mash rests were complete, the bags were removed and the worts were brought to a boil with hops added as stated in the recipe.

At the end of each 60 minute boil, I quickly chilled the worts to 182°F/83°C and added a charge of hops that I left alone for a 20 minute hop stand.

Once the hop stands were done, I finished chilling the worts to my desired pitching temperature of 64°F/18°C then transferred 5.5 gallons/21 liters of each to separate 6.5 gallon glass carboys.

Refractometer readings at this point showed the wort made with flaked oats had a slightly lower OG than the one made with wheat malt.

With both carboys placed next to each other in an area that maintains a steady 60°F/16°C, I evenly split the yeast starter between them. Both beers were actively fermenting 16 hours later with no observable differences. I added the biotransformation dry hop addition 2 days later when both beers were at high kräusen.

The beers were then moved to an environment controlled to 68°F/20°C and left to continue fermented for 6 more days, at which point I added another large dry hop charge to both. Hydrometer measurements taken 2 days later, 10 since the beers were brewed, indicated both were done fermenting.

I racked equal amounts of each beer to its own CO2 purged keg under light pressure, careful not to transfer too much trub.

The kegs were then placed in my cool keezer where they were allowed to chill overnight before being burst carbonated. After 5 days of cold conditioning, the beers were ready to serve to participants. Similar to my observation of wort color, the wheat malt beer was ever so slightly darker than the one made with flaked oats.

| 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 wheat 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 wheat malt.

My Impressions: I’ve always considered flaked oats an essential part of New England IPA thus expecting a night and day difference between these beers, but I was shocked by how similar they were. While I could’ve sworn I perceived a difference in earlier samples, my triangle test performance proved otherwise as I was only correct on 1 out of the 6 attempts. Thankfully, both beers were deliciously hoppy, something I’d been craving for awhile.

|DISCUSSION |

A fairly commonly held idea held among brewers is that beers made with a high proportion of wheat malt tend to have a subtle yet noticeable tangy characteristic to them, not tart like a sour beer, just a slight sharpness not typically found in all barley malt beers. Having experienced this myself, I had little doubt participants in this xBmt would be able to reliably tell apart a NEIPA made with flaked oats from one made with wheat malt. Needless to say, I was legitimately shocked when the results didn’t confirm my expectations and even more so that my performance on multiple triangles, despite being completely aware of the variable, was so poor.

Considering prior xBmt results showing tasters couldn’t reliably distinguish a NEIPA made with flaked oats from one made without any adjunct, I’m more curious than ever about the impact wheat malt has on the flavor of other beer styles it’s commonly used in. Would a Blonde Ale made with 80% wheat malt and 20% Pale malt taste noticeably different than the same beer made with 100% Pale malt? I also wonder if the purported benefits these types of cereal grains are said to have on head retention actually hold up.

With all the talk lately about NEIPA being more sensitive to oxidation than other styles, which some have hypothesized is due to the presence of certain metal ions, namely manganese. Whereas the manganese content in barley is about 1.2 mg per 100 g, wheat contains 3.9 mg per 100 g and oats have an even higher 4.9 mg per 100 g. To see if there was a difference in oxidation effects between the flaked oats and wheat malt beers, I collected samples of each beer in PET bottles once they were ready to serve and placed them in a room temperature environment for observation over 5 days.

I was surprised to observe basically no color change in either beer. For the sake of comparison, I pulled a couple glasses of each beer from the tap as well.

It’s entirely possible that given enough time, at least one of these beers would begin to darken, as they were both only 10 days out from being kegged at the last the comparison. Here’s the real kicker– to test the extreme, I left a sample of the flaked oats beer in an uncovered cup over 4 days and began documenting the changes after 48 hours.

I’ve left many a half full glasses of beer out over the years and never have I witnessed such a drastic change. Wow. Regrettably, I didn’t think to run this test with the wheat malt beer, though it’s certainly something I plan to do in the future. I’ll likely continue using flaked oats when making NEIPA…

If you have thoughts about this xBmt, please feel free to share in the comments section below!

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