Stout Saturday beer #2 is Samuel Smith’s Tadcaster Oatmeal Stout. What do oats do? Thread!

When it comes right down to it, stouts are pretty simple beers. Lots of pale malt, a dash of black malt, a fistful of earthy hops, and a little bit of time--boom, you're in business.

But while simple is beautiful--and there is certainly beauty in the simplicity of a Murphy's or a Beamish--a blank canvas wants paint. Samuel Smith, as it happens, paints with oats.

Oats make beers thicker which, despite my previous thread, is very desirable in a stout.

(Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am vast, I contain multitudes.)

Now, when I say "oats makes beer thicker", the way that is typically experienced is with a mouthfeel that can be described as "velvety" or "creamy". The specific compounds responsible for this effect are lipids.

Now, most brewers HATE brewing with oats (although not more than they LOVE drinking oatmeal stout). When hot water is added to oats, you get oatmeal. Oatmeal gums up the brewing works if you're not careful with it--and even when you are, oats are just messy.