SOS: Slow Oats & Sugar

[TDick]

Even though I've been here a few years, life got in the way, progress has been on hold so I consider myself starting over from scratch.

Needed to make a sac run for my 5 gallon copper pot.
But I have learned it's just as easy to make at least 3 pots full of mash/wash as it is just one.

I'm also limited by a small 3 gallon stock pot.
I have a 30 gallon fermenter but weather here is still up & down so relying on a 13 gallon Igloo/Esky to hold temp.

All that said, because I have oats in the pantry, I wanted to do a bastard SOS version of Ted's FFV - Slow Oats & Sugar.
So, my DESIRED recipe is:
10 gallons of water - city water dechlorinating for about 2 weeks.
600 grams Oats
14 pounds Sugar.
Epsom Salt, Gypsum, & 2 multivitamins

I've used my little Magic Bullet to bust up grain in the past - even up to 10 pounds each of corn & wheat.
I also use it to grind coffee beans so it's plenty tough.

This was just turning the oats into meal -

about 6 half-full cups took less than 10 seconds each time - less than 2 minutes TOTAL.

Since I have Alpha Amylase, I wanted to try to gelatinize & convert the oats so I borrowed from Pinto's youtube video for mashing corn with enzymes.

I stirred the ground oats into 2 gallons COLD water with
1 tsp Alpha
1 tsp Gypsum
2 multivitamins

Stirring, I brought it up to 160 F, then dumped it in the Igloo overnight.
Did a iodine test yesterday morning and it never turned at all. Then I saw it was --deCOLORIZED iodine

But with such a small amount of oats, whether or not it converted isn't a huge issue.

Because of all the open space in the cooler, the temp had already dropped to 90 F.
I heated 3 gallons of water to 100 F and added the 14 pounds of Sugar.
Stirred it well then added it to the cooler.
Then added another 3 gallons for a total of 8 gallons in the 13 gallon cooler.

Reason for only putting 8 gallons in - I wanted to make sure I was going to have plenty of head room with the idea of adding more later.
At the same time, I took some of the wash, diluted to half & added 3 packets of bread yeast. Temp was 100 F & the jar was about half full.
OG was 107.4 at 100 degrees - works out to 107.8.

I checked on my yeast about 30 minutes later & found a mess on the counter. :angry-cussing:
Pitched the yeast left in the jar, stirred to aerate & cleaned up the mess.
Several hours later no signs of life & I wondered if I had lost all the yeast down the sink.
Checked again, no improvement

I had a packet of (out of date) Red Star Bread Yeast so I sprinkled it over the top.

I don't know if the extra yeast did the trick, or if it just was slow starting.
Last night, I checked and found a cap was already forming and had a nice, but not overwhelming, aroma.
(Not NEARLY the smell of the yeast blooming, so yes I'm sure I lost quite a bit of that in the "puke")

A few minutes ago, now about 24 hours after pitching the yeast, bubbling but that cap has fallen and it looks like no danger of it foaming up and out.

So I'm wondering if I should add the additional 2 gallons of warm water to bring it to 10 gallons total.

Thanks for reading this far...

[jonnys_spirit]

Adding the extra water should be fine. You’re going to get the same amount of low wines out of it if that’s what you’re doing. I’d gauge it on how much you need for the boiler charges you want to run.

The benefit of topping up earlier would be that it’s a lower SG which will ferment cleaner stressing the yeast a bit less.

Sounds good though.

I would have thought that gelatinizing the oats in a 212*bath and adding the enzymes to convert as the temp dropped below 150 would be the way to go but oats may be different than corn. Or Is there a recommended lower temp rest/enzyme for oats before heating to conversion temp?

Cheers,
Jonny

[still_stirrin]

I would have thought that gelatinizing the oats in a 212*bath and adding the enzymes to convert as the temp dropped below 150 would be the way to go but oats may be different than corn.

Or Is there a recommended lower temp rest/enzyme for oats before heating to conversion temp?

Flaked oats are gelatinized in the flaking process. So, you don’t need to do it again. And you can mash them just like malted barley...at the same temperatures. Also, you don’t need to grind them finer than they are out of the box, as the flaking process makes them ready to mash as is. There isn’t much, if any husk left on the flakes...certainly nothing that needs to be milled or crushed.

Think of it this way...when you make oatmeal, all you do is add the flakes to boiling water and stir. Pretty much the same way for mashing flaked oats. And they’ll get nice and sweet as the enzymes convert the starch to sugars.
ss

[TDick]

I would have thought that gelatinizing the oats in a 212*bath and adding the enzymes to convert as the temp dropped below 150 would be the way to go but oats may be different than corn. Or Is there a recommended lower temp rest/enzyme for oats before heating to conversion temp?

Cheers,
Jonny

Yes, based on this Temp Table - found several places including All-Grain For Beginners oats has a much lower temp range than corn.

That was one reason I only took it up that high, along with perhaps retaining the quality of the Alpha Amalyse.
I just added 2 gallons, up to 10 total, with a 1.06 gravity.

[TDick]

An update - more of a question.
It's now been a week since I pitched my SOS & I had not checked my Igloo cooler/fermenter in a few days.
I checked my SG is still at 104 and my temp had dropped to 67 F/19 C.
We've had crazy weather fluctuating between the high 70's F/ 20s C & mid 40s about 5 C at night.
I've ordered an aquarium heater but that's about a week away.

So can the low temp stall out the ferment after several days?
So I got a quart/liter jar, filled it with water & nuked it to 135 f/57 C degrees and dropped it in.
Fingers crossed.

[TDick]

FINALLY got my heater - 200 watt - yesterday.

Wasn't anywhere in town to buy one over the counter.
I checked the temp before I put the heater in - 67 degrees, nothing going on.
Set the heater to 86 degrees.
It's now been a total of two weeks since I pitched the yeast. No funky smells at all, still sweet so didn't feel the need to check SG.

Now that it's warmed up - it's at 88 - should I stir it or leave it as is for a couple of days?
TIA

[TDick]

Forgot to update this.
After hooking up the heater it only took 4 to finish at 1.000 @ 86 F.
Smelled great when done, just like some good Silver Tequila.

Racked off 3 gallons for a sac run after having to solder repair my still.
Ran that tonight and pulled another 4 gallons to clear for a stripping run tomorrow.