Oatmeal Cider

[Swissmtndog]

OK, so I've just started trying my hand at "craft cider" and am trying this mixture. Any thoughts or suggestions?

2 gallons apple cider
½ gallon Oat Milk (strained oatmeal below)
Toast oats in oven or grill until golden brown. Bring water to boil and add oats. Boil for 5 minutes. Strain the liquid off oats (1/2 gallon) and
add: 2 Cinnamon Sticks
½ tsp ginger
½ tsp nutmeg
1 oz. Pure Vanilla Extract
16 oz Dark Brown Sugar
12 oz Maple Syrup
Cook over low heat until all sugars are dissolved.
Reserve any extra oat milk to top off ½ gallon requirement.
Nottingham Yeast

Starting Gravity 1.064

 

[CoTron]

The "oat milk" will not add body if that's what you are expecting. It will just add unconverted starches. Oats need to be mashed with another grain that has some diastatic power in order to break up those long carbohydrate chains into fermentable sugars. Adding the oats like this will just make the cider cloudy. It will also water down the apple cider a lot by adding that much water to your must.

The spices, vanilla, sugar, and syrup seem way too high for so small a batch (your batch will be 2 gallons or 2.5 with the oat water.) Less is more when it comes to spices. Maybe only do a cinnamon stick and some brown sugar. I'd shoot for a half-teaspoon of ground spices total. And I would measure your vanilla extract in drops instead of ounces. You can always add more spices later when you bottle, either through an extract (store-bought or homemade) or by adding a spice "tea."

Experimenting is fun, but wasting the ingredients isn't! Best of luck with your batch though. I hope you find something that is uniquely yours.

 

[Swissmtndog]

CoTron...I've only made ciders and cysers, so I'm unfamiliar with some of the terms you used, primarily the one listed below. Can you explain how this could be broken down as you stated below? "Oats need to be mashed with another grain that has some diastatic power in order to break up those long carbohydrate chains into fermentable sugars."

 

[Brann_mac_Finnchad]

Oats do not have the enzymes needed to convert the starches into sugar through heating to a specific temperature, like barley does. So to "unlock" the sugars from your oats, you would need to mash them (keep at around 155 degrees F. for a time) with however much malted barley (I don't know the amounts--I would suggest asking on the whole grain brewing board, if you actually want sugars out of the oats)

That being said, the roasted oats, as you have them in your recipe, should add some toasty flavours, maybe nutrients, and some "chewyness" (at least in the beginning). You will get a lot more gross lees from them, so be prepared to lose extra cider.

Spices: 1 lb of brown sugar is perfectly fine for a couple gallons; the three spices are probably fine, although the suggestion of using less to begin with is certainly a good idea; 1oz of vanilla extract is a LOT--try a teaspoon, and add more to taste after racking to secondary...or use an actual vanilla bean. Personally, I would reserve the maple syrup for backsweetening, and once again add to taste--but, again, that is personal preference.

Ah, yes--and enjoy! I like the flavours you have in there--I might have to try an "oatmeal" cider one of these days, soom.

Slainte!

 

[insanim8er]

CoTron...I've only made ciders and cysers, so I'm unfamiliar with some of the terms you used, primarily the one listed below. Can you explain how this could be broken down as you stated below? "Oats need to be mashed with another grain that has some diastatic power in order to break up those long carbohydrate chains into fermentable sugars."

Diastatic power is the enzyme powers of the malt...its ability to break down starches into smaller chains, or simple sugars that can be fermented.

He's saying you have to do a mash with oats, and another grain that contains the enzymes to break the oats sugars into fermentables.