All grain oat vodka?

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midlife-u-turn
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All grain oat vodka?

Post by midlife-u-turn »

I've done a lot of searching and can't find much info on anyone doing an AG oat vodka. I did find a couple of commercial micro-distillers doing an all oat vodka and they describe the light creamy flavor characteristics that is usually associated with oats. I'm thinking of giving it a go and looking for suggestions on what form of un-malted oats to use. I was going to use liquid enzymes on (here's where you come in) feed grade whole oats? Hot rolled feed oats? Crimped oats? food grade rolled oats (oat cereal)? What is your experience with oat conversion, flavors, or lack of, etc? I have a couple of bags of white wheat also that I'm going to try this with and wanted an oat product for comparison. Thanks
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by Kegg_jam »

I gotta a bag of rolled oats from tractor supply. Wasn't what I was thinking. I had visions of a nice big bag of Quaker Oats. This still has the husk but it is Crimped maybe..? Anyway, I ran it through a corona mill to get a finer crack and it converts just fine with liquid enzymes or malt.

My problem was that by the time I had enough mashed and stripped i couldn't bring myself to make vodka out of it.
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by DAD300 »

At a commercial grocery I get 50lbs of food grade cereal ready rolled oats for ~$24usd. Think Quaker breakfast oats. I did my original test with Quaker oats from SAM's Club.

The enzymes work perfect...water to boil, heat off stir in 2.2 lbs of oats per gallon, stir till 190F add first enzyme, stir...rest till 150F and add second enzyme, stir occasionally til iodine shows good. Ends up SG 1.08. Rest over night and at 90F add yeast starter.

It is not the easiest to separate for still. This is the only aspect I dislike about oats. The finer it is ground, the better it will settle. If I were doing a huge batch I would grind it to flour before starting.

The distillate is great, smooth, almost has an oily mouth feel. You don't loose much to heads or tails.

Makes a great vodka, whiskey, have aged it on three dif woods and all are great.

Do the wheat and oats separately and the oats will be much smoother.
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midlife-u-turn
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by midlife-u-turn »

Great, thanks for the info!
I'm not opposed to making some oat whiskey either, and I guess if after the stripping run I really like the flavor I may go that route. I think I'll go shopping for some rolled oats and give it a go.
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bitter
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by bitter »

If you get rolled oats at the feed store some of them are steamed and then rolled. This pre-gelatenizes them to an extent and makes them easier to convert and decrease cook times.

Should make a really nice mild Vodka with some mouth feel!

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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by ben stiller »

I compared rolled versus crimped oats converted with enzymes and found them to be about equal in conversion. I now only use crimped oats because they are way easier to press and I don't get that signature rolled oat slime. Never used them for vodka. Seems like a lot of work when I can make a really nice birdwatchers or all bran neutral a lot easier. Are you guys finding the oat vodka to be superior to
sugar wash vodka? If so I will be compelled to give it a go.
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by shadylane »

I've made oat vodka a time or two.
First I made oat whiskey, then the feints were run through a CM column for oat vodka.
The whiskey and vodka was good enough do again. :thumbup:
Edited: leave a bunch more room in the fermenter for a big cap!!!!
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by midlife-u-turn »

Are you guys fermenting on the rolled oats, It's sounds like DAD300 might be? It might be a bit "cleaner" if I mash it in a bag and rack to a secondary when it's done. Appreciate all the help.
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by DAD300 »

If you mash in a bag, plan for a big loss.
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by firewater69 »

if you want to ferment off the grain I would use crimped oats, as they still have the husk on them and sparge well. have you considered malting whole oats? I have been malting them for a while now & get good conversion and pretty easy too, you could do an all oat mash if you wanted. Croweater has done well with all malted oats, search for topics here and you'll find plenty of information.
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by midlife-u-turn »

Ok, on the grain it is. I think I'm going to try the rolled oats first. I've done feed grade whole oats in a sweet feed recipe where I ran each grain separately through my malt mill and it seemed to me the oats didn't crack well and I think I would get poor conversion in an all grain 100% oat grain bill.
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by corene1 »

I have done the steam rolled oats and recleaned whole oats. I would agree that the recleaned whole oats are much easier to work with . Easier to strain by a long shot. These are the oats I use , very clean and consistent. http://www.fallbrookfertilizer.com/defa ... -oats.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by midlife-u-turn »

How are you milling your whole oats? Maybe it' s not the issue I think it is?
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by corene1 »

midlife-u-turn wrote:How are you milling your whole oats? Maybe it' s not the issue I think it is?
I use a small grain mill with an electric drill. It is a great investment if you are wanting to do all grain ferments. I have a Millars B3 and it works well on everything but corn. I buy my corn already cracked.
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by midlife-u-turn »

corene1 wrote:
midlife-u-turn wrote:How are you milling your whole oats? Maybe it' s not the issue I think it is?
I use a small grain mill with an electric drill. It is a great investment if you are wanting to do all grain ferments. I have a Millars B3 and it works well on everything but corn. I buy my corn already cracked.
Thanks, I have a mill, and it works great on everything but oats. Even on a tight setting the hulls seem to roll through relatively unscathed. Looking at the various types of oats I would think steamed crimped oats might be the route to go. Hulls are pre-cracked and steamed for ease of mashing.
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by MichiganCornhusker »

I had same problem with whole oats in my corona mill, it was a no go.
Crimped mill just fine, can easily take them down to flour if you want with a corona.

I've tried malting twice and my oats won't sprout. Still looking for a supplier of viable oats for malting.

This sounds good, and I just got my steam stripper and flute running, might be a perfect time to go out and buy a bag a yoats.
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by corene1 »

Never tried malting these oats , might be worth a try. I know the wheat I get from them sprouts easily. Looks like another project for the weekend.
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by FullySilenced »

Oat vodka can be exceptional. ..a pain at times but worth it... :thumbup:
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by ben stiller »

Crap. Have a bag of rolled oats and enzymes. You people are making me go all grain for a vodka. Project for the coming weeks!
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by shadylane »

corene1 wrote:Never tried malting these oats , might be worth a try. I know the wheat I get from them sprouts easily. Looks like another project for the weekend.
My experiments malting, feed grade oats, has been dismal. :oops:
Wheat is just the opposite, it's difficult to stop it from germinating.
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by jb-texshine »

No comparison really,but i ve been subbing in 1/3 steamed rolled oats in my ujssm for a while now. It makes for a hell of a lot smoother drink young and white.
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by jb-texshine »

No comparison really,but i ve been subbing in 1/3 steamed rolled oats in my ujssm for a while now. It makes for a hell of a lot smoother drink young and white.
Remember not to blow yourself up,you only get to forget once!


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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by shadylane »

ben stiller wrote:Crap. Have a bag of rolled oats and enzymes. You people are making me go all grain for a vodka. Project for the coming weeks!
There you go, alpha and gluco enzymes are the way to go.
Guaranteed starch to sugar conversion and they even make failed malt experiments work.
Or better yet, allow you to make malt for flavor profile instead of diastic power :thumbup:
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by firewater69 »

so far oats have been really easy to malt, much easier than corn. only takes about four days from soak to drying, now if I could find a source for whole wheat I'd give it a go.
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by MichiganCornhusker »

Picked up 40# of steam crimped oats and 40# of rolled oats today.
I've got enzymes and a steam stripper and I'm gettin real thirsty from all this talk!
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by DSM Loki »

Let me know if you want a hand sometime MCH
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by Kegg_jam »

Just put down some oats tonight. Small batch to test some green barley malt for conversion.
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by midlife-u-turn »

Those of you that are running a batch of this now let us know if you have any helpful suggestions or possible problems that might pop up. I came down with the flu, but am hoping to get a batch going later this week. Thanks
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by MichiganCornhusker »

I'm not doing a vodka, but I am using a bunch of oats in my latest whiskey.
I'll say this about the bags of oats I bought.

The "steam crimped oats" seem to come with all of the husk material still on the oats. This made it more difficult for me to grind, and I feel like I'm paying for a lot of husk material in a 40# bag.

The "steam rolled oats" seem to have all the husk material removed, and they ground up into flour with no problem. The bag cost a few bucks more, but I think I'm getting a lot more fermentable product in a 40# bag.

I will say that oats, corn, and wheat, when all mashed together, make a wonderful smell, and a great tasting sweet wort.
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Re: All grain oat vodka?

Post by firewater69 »

the crimped oats I use are crimped pretty flat and I use them as is, I step mash them with the rest of my grain in my kettle. they seem to break up pretty fine during the mash and with all the malted barley that I use conversion is no problem, and I'm running my paddle the whole time as well. I also sparge and the husks make a good grain bed. edit: Sorry to drift of topic (no vodka for me) but I do love oats!
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