Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999 14:29:25 -0500
From: Jeff Renner <nerenner at umich.edu>
Subject: oat malt report and recipes
An update on this rare and overlooked ingredient:
My oat malt brown ale (1.051, 30 IBU, see recipe at end) has really come
into form at nine weeks now. The 11% malted oats really do make a
distinctive flavor and almost oily mouthfeel contribution, which is much
more evident in the midieval Domesday Ale (50% home malted oats, 24% malted
wheat, 24% malted barley, 2% chocolate, first runnings only, O.G. 1.096, no
hops, no bottle priming), now bottle aging for the millenium. The brown ale
took some time to clear and is still slightly hazy, probably because of the
beta glucans.
The Domesday Ale is still very hazy (probably home malted oats are worse
than commercial?), but in the 12th C, ale was drunk from opaque vessels, so
who cares. This ale is thick! About 10W40, I'd guess. Sweet, still, not
very complex this young, some diacetyl and caramel, chocolate and oat malt
aroma and flavor. We'll see how it is after a year in the bottle.
The only maltster I know of that malts oats is Thomas Fawcett and Sons
http://www.fawcett-maltsters.co.uk/welcom.htm . The importer for Fawcett is
Claude Bechard, North Country Malt Supply, 12 Stewart St, PO Box 665, Rouses
Point, NY, 12979, 518-297-2604 (yada, yada). I was very pleased with the
quality of this apparently unique malt, and wish I'd had it for the Domesday
Ale.
Malted oats would seem to be an ideal ingredient for an English or Scottish
stout. Here the haze doesn't matter. The only commercial malted oat brew I
am aware of is Maclays Oat Malt Stout, which is available in the U.S.,
although I haven't tried it. (Arcadian of Battle Creek, MI has an oatmalt
stout, but it is made with flakes, and it is unclear to me after email
exchange with the English maltster that they are definitely malted. They
definitely are non-diastatic.)
Protz's _Real Ale Almanac_ has this about Maclay's: 1.045 OG, ABV 4.5%, 50
deg. color EBC [roughly 25L], 35 IBU. 70% Marris Otter pale ale malt, 22%
malted oats, 6% roast barley, 2% chocolate; Fuggles whole hops. He calls it
a "Luscious, silky stout based on an 1895 recipe."
I hope someone will try brewing this this winter (I have too many others
planned). I don't know what yeast Maclay's uses, but any of the more
characterful British ones would do well, I'd think. I like Strathcona (see
below).
Anyone who brews this please report back.
