Flaked oats with husks vs oats without husks?

Arrakus · Mar 4, 2019

I’m putting together the ingredients for an IPA recipe, the recipe calls for flaked oats but I’ve mistakenly bought flaked oats with husks.

I’ve not used flaked oats with husks before, can anyone with experience advise what impact it may have on the taste, abv, etc?

I’ve used rice hulls before, to reduce the amount of wort disappearing down the overflow (I brew in a Grainfather), would the oat husks do the same job?

I don’t mind experimenting but there’s a lot of expensive hops going in and I’ll be sobbing if goes wrong asad1

All help is welcome acheers.

The Baron · Mar 4, 2019

It will have nominal effect on the taste except for you may have to up the amount as you now have oat husks as well as the oats. Oat husks are used to avert a sticking mash just the same as rice husks but do not alter the taste. So you will have to guestimate how much of the oats are husks and add the extra quantity in to allow for this

Arrakus · Mar 4, 2019

Thanks Baron!

malhal · Jan 21, 2025

This homebrew shop says to use double the amount of oats with husks in a recipe that has oats.

"NOTE: If a recipe says you need 500g of oats you will need to order 1000g of this product due to the husk taking up nearly 50% of the volume."
https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/flaked-oats/

I've tried Crisps torrified oats and the husks are massive. Best not to use too much because the husks give maybe 4x better drainage than rice hulls.

hoppyscotty · Jan 21, 2025

I accidentally ordered the wrong oats for my last batch, wanted flaked, got torrified. Didn't make much of a difference, the beer turned out nice. Think with flaked oats you should get a silkier smoother mouthfeel, but in my case was only about 3% of malt bill, and was a stout (well more of a Black IPA really), so probably not enough to make much of a difference either way.

malhal · Jan 21, 2025

Easy mistake to make but not always the buyer's fault. Check this shop that has the wrong photo. The photo is of flaked oats but the listing is for torrified with husk:
https://homebrewoutlet.co.uk/shop/ols/products/flaked-rice-crisp-malting

I would describe oats as oily mouthfeel. Think the world oil helps with the explanation of oats being foam negative too.