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bwomp313

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So we are in the middle of brewing a 100% oat beer. Using:

8 lbs Thomas Fawcett Oat Malt
3/4 lb Simpsons Golden Naked Oats
1/2 lb flaked oats
Hopping with brewer's gold from my uncle in law's garden.
pitching a small slurry of Wyeast 1968 London ESB.

We're in our mash and after 60 minutes got a positive iodine test. This is disappointing. Never had a positive iodine test before. Is this from low enzymes in the oat malt? We started at about 155 and we're down to around 149 right now. Stirred it up good and letting it mash longer. Wish us luck!!!
 
Just found out, German would be Hafer Bier. Anyway, boiling that baby up now. Way more liquid then intended. Boiling off extra. Very buzzed.
 
Yeah I forgot to mention that i used like a half pound of rice hulls. She had a nice krausen last night but now this morning it appears like it's falling already.
 
with no base malt like Pilser or Vienna Malt, or even Pale malt you are most likey going to have a problem there i think
 
Everything I've read states that the malted oats have enough enzymes to convert itself but I suppose we'll have to see
 
They TECHNICALLY do have enough to convert themselves but it takes a VERY long time. I have seen posts of people spending 3+ hours trying to get the stuff to convert. If there is a stuck fermentation you might have to use amylase enzymes. Good luck, it should be an interesting beer. I had terrible luck with that oat stuff btw... two stuck fermentations and the only difference was I added oat malt.
 
Yikes. Thanks for the heads up asterix404 I'll definitely check the gravity soon then and pick up some bean-o if need be. Hopefully that won't dry it out too much.
 
Oh! Don't use bean-o, apparently you can actually get amylase enzymes. This is exactly what is contained in the grain which converts the starches. This way you don't need to stop the fermentation or something. I don't know about this though, I just bought the enzymes.
 
krausen only lasted for like a day. it's still cloudy as all hell. took a gravity just now and it's at 1.020. Hopefully it's gonna go another 6 points or so
 
This is interesting. What does this look like? Any real color to it? I'm curious to hear how this turns out.
 
it's still like milky cloudy tan ish. Hopefully, it keeps going though from last night's gravity check because at that point it's only 2.88% abv. I can't have that. I'll check it again in a couple of days and if it's still around there I'll have to grab me some beano. But then I'd be worried it'd dry out too much.
 
I checked the gravity a few days ago and it was down to 1.018. That only puts her at 3.3%. She's sitting at a nice 58 degrees. Clearing up nice by the looks of it. I'll definitely give me info when available. She's waiting in line to be kegged. I only have a 2 tap system.
 
I felt I should respond since I'm in the middle of a beer much like this, just stronger (my goal is to make an oatwine).
grain bill for 2.5 gallons was:
9.5 lbs oat malt
2 lbs flaked oats
1lb brown sugar
Wyeast 1056

My OG was low compared to what I expected; ended up at 1.080. Wort was cloudy as hell and remained so through active fermentation. After that (3-4 days) it settled out some. After 8 days I got curious and took a gravity sample/taste test. Was still at 1.030. Since it has been visually inactive for a few days, I didn't have confidence that leaving it alone would drop the gravity, so I added some more brown sugar, yeast nutrient/energizer and amalyse enzyme (not sure if I needed all that, but I had it so figured it couldn't hurt).
Taste was interesting; certainly drinkable...thought it seemed rather boozy even though it really isn't yet. Was also thinner then I expected it would be (maybe cause of the sugar). Will need a lot of secondary time, but all my kegs are filled, so that's not a problem. Gonna be patient with it.
 
I felt I should respond since I'm in the middle of a beer much like this, just stronger (my goal is to make an oatwine).
grain bill for 2.5 gallons was:
9.5 lbs oat malt
2 lbs flaked oats
1lb brown sugar
Wyeast 1056

My OG was low compared to what I expected; ended up at 1.080. Wort was cloudy as hell and remained so through active fermentation. After that (3-4 days) it settled out some. After 8 days I got curious and took a gravity sample/taste test. Was still at 1.030. Since it has been visually inactive for a few days, I didn't have confidence that leaving it alone would drop the gravity, so I added some more brown sugar, yeast nutrient/energizer and amalyse enzyme (not sure if I needed all that, but I had it so figured it couldn't hurt).
Taste was interesting; certainly drinkable...thought it seemed rather boozy even though it really isn't yet. Was also thinner then I expected it would be (maybe cause of the sugar). Will need a lot of secondary time, but all my kegs are filled, so that's not a problem. Gonna be patient with it.

I was definitely considering adding the amylase as well but decided not to. What was your mash temp for it?
 
It was like 152-153 (I don't have the best thermometer so that's a ballpark). Also have honestly never done an iodine test nut will from now on.
 
When I first started all grain I was always very anal with doing iodine tests. Never ever had a positive with a 60-90 minute mash. In normal all barley mashes I don't think it's necessary with how well converted modern malts are. With this beast however, I think iodine was necessary. I ended up mashing for over 90 minutes and I was still getting a positive. Then I just said screw it and went to the brew kettle with it.
 
Just transferred her to keg/bottles. She finished at 1.017 which sits her at 3.4%ABV. Smells great, caramelly and tasted pretty good. Straw gold color. I'll try and post pics once she's drinkable. I'm thinking maybe it'd be interesting to do a decoction with an all oat beer since it's not the most modified malt in the world and also because decoction mashes are fun.
 
Nice to hear it's progressing well.
As for mine, after adding the demerera sugar, enzyme and yeast nutrient, it got down to 1.010 (from an adjusted OG of ~1.090)! Sitting in secondary until I get a free keg.
 
2011-12-21_21-49-14_206.jpg
 
2011-12-21_21-50-09_572.jpg


It came out quite a bit clearer than expected. It's hard to tell in the pics but it's only a little cloudy
 
Tasting notes: aroma is very much of honey and peach. tastes extremely crisp, slight maltiness up front, finishes very dry and crisp. I think it's a great session beer. it finished at 1.017 but it tastes like a beer that finished at like 1.006
 
Awesome, looks great! Is there anything you would do differently if you made it again? Im thinking of doing this soon.
 
definitely would've planned for at least a 2 hour mash. sadly i think it might be a good idea to add at least a pound of barley to make up for the lack of enzymes. otherwise i think it came out pretty good. would've also made it a bit higher of a gravity so that maybe there was a little more to it.
 
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