Brewers Insights Friday 18th September. Siren Oats on oats on oats and what oats contribute to the final beer.
Hello welcome to our video, this week I am drinking Oats on oats on oats by Siren Craft Brew. Siren have their brewery and taproom located just off the M4 near Reading and handily there is another brewery just next door, Andy Parker’s, Elusive Brew Co., so it makes for a great afternoon out, you can have a few beers from each brewery and take some home as well.
So this beer is an 8% double IPA, brewed with Nelson Sauvin and Motueka from New Zeeland, Citra from the US plus Mandarina Baveria and Hallertau Blanc, these last two are from the tradition hop growing area in Baveria. When I first looked at the hop selection for this beer I understood the Motueka, Nelson and Citra, these are hugely fruity, like smack in the face dominant, the flavours that you would expect. However, the German hops somewhat less so. Well luckily we do have somewhat of a relationship with Siren so were able to get a bit more of an incite into both how and why.
Both the German hops, each pretty unique are used to add layers of flavour, it builds on the punchy more forward flavoured hops. The orange that the Mandarina brings really is present in the lingering “on your tongue” flavour. It was used both early in the boil and at whirlpool. Interestingly and this is the first time that I have heard this, they whirl-pooled at 87c, the thinking behind this is that it produces a more dominant fruit flavour, whereas whirl-pooling at a lower, more accepted temperature, say 75c promotes the grassy intensity that is called for in some styles but not this one. This higher temperature whirl-pool is something that we will definitely try here and I would be very interested in your thoughts.
Let’s have a look at the malt bill,
Golden Promise 44% This is a recurring theme, we are seeing more and more breweries choose Golden promise over any other pale malt, especially for the NEIPA style.
Malted Oats at 37%
Flaked Oats at 13%
Chitmalt at 4%
Obviously with the name Oats on oats on oats we were expecting a fair dose of oats within the grist but 50% oats was surprising. So what are they adding to this beer. The style is as much about mouth feel, as flavour, it has to have texture, be vicious. The protein contained in the oats helps create this rocky, lasting head, they add slickness, almost oily sensation that makes this beer so soft on the palette, remember this beer is 8%, very little alcohol heat, it drinks so easily.
Flaked oats are made by steaming the oats, this cooks them, they are then passed between rollers this flattens them. The cooking part is important as it makes them much easier to mash, the starches have been made soluble.
Oat malt is different in that it is malted in the same way as barley and has it’s husk intact, when we mill it, and by the way it needs milling on a far finer setting than barley, it releases the oat which is quite powdery and leave the husk more or less in tact.
The breakdown of flaked oats and malted oats in interesting, I would think that the percentage of flaked oats is lower as they can cause issues with run off, the malted oats contain husks which greatly aid wort separation.
The Chit malt provides the dextrins, this is also about building the body within the beer, it leaves residual sweetness, although by no means a sweet beer it balances the massive hop hit. It also helps the starch conversion in the high percentage of oats in the mash.
So, one beer, one email to brewer, asking a few questions and a huge amount learnt. If you take just one thing away from viewing this video please make it be this, ask questions and keep learning. The brewing world is constantly evolving, not just with new ingredients and equipment but with methods and it seems to be the industry standard to share information, let us all make the most of it so as brewers, we can make the best beer possible.
