Oat Malt

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jwynia

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So, in doing some digging for historic beers, I ran across this little section in a book:

http://yfrog.com/h63bvp

Given my love of beers from the British Isles, especially all things Scottish and Irish, I was intrigued by the idea.

I've been working on an all oat recipe that I plan to brew in the next few weeks. It's based on 3 variations of oats: oat malt, Simpson's Naked Oats and rolled oats.

Because there aren't the wide variety of specialty versions of oat malt, I've toasted some of each in the oven to get some of the flavors you'd get from specialty grains and hopefully a bit of color.

I filled a baking sheet with each malt and put them in a 350F oven for about 45 minutes. The Simpson's Naked Oats darkened up nicely. The "base" malt didn't change color much, but I could definitely smell a nutty odor coming off of it. The rolled oats toasted nicely, but I've done that in regular cooking, so that was completely expected.

Here's a shot of the base oat malt roasted: http://yfrog.com/h366ymwj

I'd like to take a stab at "crystal" oat malt too, but only did dry roasting/toasting this time 'round.

Now, for those who immediately assumed that oat malt works the same as rolled oats (i.e. makes a sticky mess), I found plenty of folks who indicate that oat MALT works much like barley malt. It has a husk for filtering ability and has diastatic power (though not quite as much as 2 row). In short malted oats are as different from rolled oats as 2 row malt is from flaked barley.

Technique-wise, I do brew in a bag, so, while I'll probably add some rice hulls anyway, I'm not worried at all about a stuck mash.

Here's the base recipe I'm planning on:

7 lbs oat malt
1 lb toasted oat malt
1 lb Simpson's Golden Naked Oats
1 lb toasted Simpson's Golden Naked Oats
1 lb toasted rolled oats.

1 oz East Kent Goldings for 60 min
WhiteLabs Edinburgh yeast

I'm wondering what anyone thinks about that recipe as well as the thought I've been having of adding 0.5-1lb of dark Belgian candi sugar syrup. To get the most out of this batch, if I do the candi sugar syrup, I should probably split the batch and only add it to one of the halves. That way, I know what the 100% oat base beer tastes like and what its color is.

Thoughts?
 
I am very interested in collecting the oats that grow in NorCal, left behind by the Franciscan Monks, and malting them myself into beer. Keep us posted on your results.:mug:
 
Good job trying something new. Be sure to update with the results.

I have just two comments. First, I'm pretty sure the golden naked oats are a "crystal" oat malt, so unless you really want to make your own crystal oat malt, using the GNO should do. Secondly, I used a high proportion of oat malt in a medieval ale I made (the rest of the grist being barley and wheat) and it gave the ale a thick, kind of oily, almost unpleasantly rich mouthfeel. This will probably be even more noticeable in a 100% oat beer. Don't let that dissuade you though, it's good to experiment.
 
A few months ago I decided to do something just like this but bmw was all out of oat malt and I haven't since tried. I'm really interested in hearing how this turns out.
 
I found conflicting information on golden naked oats, but it being "crystal" seems to make sense given how it acted when I toasted it.

I did read about your oat beer and the mouthfeel. I am the guy who needs to try it himself to believe it though. Also, my tastes tend not to match up with what others like (i.e. I can't stand IPA's/hoppy beers, which clearly appeal to lots of other people).

I'm also intrigued by the fact that 100+ years ago, they clearly made this stuff and liked it. That leads me to believe there's a way to make it meet some standard of "good".

Given the "thick" mouthfeel problem, maybe the sugar is a good idea to improve dryness.
 
Brewed this today with a tweaked recipe:

9 lbs oat malt
1 lb toasted oat malt
1 lb toasted golden naked oats
1 lb toasted flaked oats

Did brew in a bag like I normally do. 90 minute boil.

Ended up REALLY cloudy/murky. My plan is to split the batches in a couple of days into 2 small carboys and add the candi sugar syrup to one of the halves. Hopefully, quite a bit of the crud will settle out in those first few days.

Had some weirdness with my burner/regulator/propane tank. For half of the boil, I had a hard time even keeping it boiling given the wind. Then, with no change in the wind, it suddenly took off and I ended up with a boilover.

I pitched yeast about an hour ago.
 
I'm interested in this as well since my wife has a gluten sensitivity and oats are gluten free. They might not be labeled as such depending on where they are processed but she's not allergic, just gets digestive unrest when she eats bread and the like.
 
And just how does an all-oat beer taste like ?

I thought oats added bitterness when used in stouts, would that not make a beer made only from oats undrinkable :confused:
 
The original old book that inspired me to try this said this about it:

The Scotch oats are preferred, and the ale made from them are said to be of a soft healing quality and is of great repute in Englend, where it is not common.

Flaked oats in stouts, etc. is usually there to add the creamy mouthfeel and as an aid to head retention. That's why KingBrianI's result of an "oily" mouthfeel is a definite possibility in this recipe. I can't yet speak for the finished beer, but the wort was most definitely not overly bitter at all.
 
Brewed this today with a tweaked recipe:

9 lbs oat malt
1 lb toasted oat malt
1 lb toasted golden naked oats
1 lb toasted flaked oats

Did brew in a bag like I normally do. 90 minute boil.

Ended up REALLY cloudy/murky. My plan is to split the batches in a couple of days into 2 small carboys and add the candi sugar syrup to one of the halves. Hopefully, quite a bit of the crud will settle out in those first few days.

Had some weirdness with my burner/regulator/propane tank. For half of the boil, I had a hard time even keeping it boiling given the wind. Then, with no change in the wind, it suddenly took off and I ended up with a boilover.

I pitched yeast about an hour ago.

Very cool experiment, I'm curious to know how this turns out; especially as it's a BIAB recipe. Be sure to keep us posted. Regards, GF.
 
I'm bummed out at this point. I pitched yeast on Sunday evening and here on Tuesday morning, there's no sign of fermentation whatsoever.

To me, that means that one of the following is true:

1. Yeast wasn't any good. (If this is true, repitching tonight will fix the problem)
2. The mash didn't convert.

The second one is something I worried about while I was mashing and did a full 2 hour mash, but I didn't have any iodine on hand to do a starch test. However, given no fermentation and the fact that the wort is still REALLY cloudy, I'm beginning to think that #2 is likely. I'll still pitch more yeast in case that's the problem, but I think this may need to be re-brewed again, possibly with enzymes added and certainly with a starch test being required before stopping the mash.
 
if you got an OG of 1.058 then you got conversion. in any case, you could just buy some amylase at your LHBS (its cheap) and add it into the fermenter to break it down more vs re-brewing if it'll put your mind at ease. Hopefully it starts up soon for you
 
The original old book that inspired me to try this said this about it:

The Scotch oats are preferred, and the ale made from them are said to be of a soft healing quality and is of great repute in Englend, where it is not common.

Flaked oats in stouts, etc. is usually there to add the creamy mouthfeel and as an aid to head retention. That's why KingBrianI's result of an "oily" mouthfeel is a definite possibility in this recipe. I can't yet speak for the finished beer, but the wort was most definitely not overly bitter at all.

That sure sounds good, and a very cool experiment I must agree.

Hope it takes of soon.

Keep us posted
 
Bought amylase and more Edinburgh yeast over lunch today. Hopefully, when I get home, neither is needed, but better safe than sorry.
 
And just how does an all-oat beer taste like ?

I thought oats added bitterness when used in stouts, would that not make a beer made only from oats undrinkable :confused:

Recently i brewed a beer with 25% of oat malt. It has distinctive flavor, it's hazy, and oats yield very unpleasant bitterness. It's still young (2 wks) so i guess i have to wait some more time to mature to get real taste of this beer.

But i'm not sure i'll try this ever again.
 
Thinking of trying something like this. Anyone want to chime back with longer-term results?
 
Wonder Twins powers activate!
Form of...thread necromancy!

jwynia, what happened with this brew?
 
It stayed a starchy mess.

I'm going to attempt it again, though. This time, going to add a bunch of amylase to the mash to stand in for what is missing from barley. The maltsters say oat malt self-converts, but either they're wrong or I'm a brewing idiot. Either way, extra amylase should take care of the problem and get proper conversion and we'll see what results.
 
I brewed an all oat malt beer myself about a year ago. I used 8 lbs oat malt, .75 lb golden naked oats and a half lb flaked oats. I got 1.043 og and 1.017 fg. mashed at 154 for like 90 min. i think the key with doing all oat malt is a verrrrrrrryyyy long mash, and stir often. i thought it came out very tasty but if I was gonna do it again I'd give myself more time so I could mash for several hours and keep adding hot water to even out the temp. I can't remember but I probably used an asston of rice hulls as well
 
given the stuck mash I had on my recent sweet potato and pecan beer, I'll definitely be using an "asston of rice hulls". Though, that raises the question:

a metric asston or Imperial?
 
I really don't remember it tasting bitter at all and I used a decent amount of brewers gold hops in it as well. And it was an imperial asston. The beer tasted quite nice
 
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