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blanikdog wrote:My only attempt at oat whisky - back in '08 - was a success although a bit light on flavour as Holymackeral noted. I did age it on oak for quite a few months and there is no harshness. I bottled it just a few days ago and will now leave it under the house for another year or so. I'll let you know how it is in 2011.

blanik

Blanik,
I sure would like to spend a week or so under that house of yours.

In the bedroom is even worse, Wolf. Must be close to ten gallons in there as well. I decided to concentrate on wine for a while to get the spirit level down. Can always still it later if I feel the need.

Building up a goood stock when one is new and going for it. Then you always have some aged stock when ya slow down a bit.

blanik

Master, your oat whiskey due for unveiling 2011, have you "evaluated" it early. (going back over the old posts is like going back home)
c

Hey MD, have you tried the brew yet???

I've got 60L Quick Oat/Oat Bran/Sugar fermenting at the moment for a trial and was interested in your outcome.

cheers.

So ummm Blanik.......



How is it.

WalkingWolf - it is one past 2011, I am dying to know what happened to the bottled oat whiskey under your house. Did it taste awesome...

OK, y'all forced me to have a drink a bit earlier than normal. First impressions - very musty/dusty aroma of dates, That's right, dates. No idea where it came form. Maybe the old oak? No real body/guts, but smooth as the proverbial baby's bum. Best with Pepsi. Overall I'd score it as 6.5.

I doubt that I'd make it again, it's nowhere near as good as my Millet sugar UJ style.

I have an oatmeal and sugar wash on it's 3rd day of fermentation right now... Not all oatmeal this time but did one a few weeks ago that was just oatmeal and sugar... After letting it clear for several days it was the clearest wash I have ever poured into my boiler... Unfortunately, I ran it in reflux mode for neutral, which turned out to be very neutral... This one has a very small amount of All Bran in it just for the nutrients it contains... And this time around I'll be pot stilling...[/quote]


Rad, How did you prepare the wash? Did you cook the oats along with the small amount of All Bran?

thanks
stilly

Stilly wrote:

rad14701 wrote:I have an oatmeal and sugar wash on it's 3rd day of fermentation right now... Not all oatmeal this time but did one a few weeks ago that was just oatmeal and sugar... After letting it clear for several days it was the clearest wash I have ever poured into my boiler... Unfortunately, I ran it in reflux mode for neutral, which turned out to be very neutral... This one has a very small amount of All Bran in it just for the nutrients it contains... And this time around I'll be pot stilling...

Rad, How did you prepare the wash? Did you cook the oats along with the small amount of All Bran?

Yes... Pretty much the All Bran recipe with Quaker Oats used in place of the All Bran aside from roughly 1/4 cup of crushed All Bran for its additional fortified nutrients... I cook the Quaker Oats with plenty of extra water to help soften them up for nutrient release...

wineo wrote:I have made some oat whiskey,and me and 2 others have been experimenting with recipes. Use whole cleaned oats,the kind that you feed horses,and start out with 8-10Lbs of oats.You will have to run them through a grain mill and get a good crush,but where they are still intact.Put them in boiling water,and turn off the heat and cover,or even better put them in a cooler,and leave them over nite.Mash them with at least 4Lbs of 2 or 6 row malt thats been milled.Start the mash at 158f in a cooler,and leave it over nite.The next day add 8-10Lbs of sugar to the still warm mash,and put it in your fermenter.Use prestige whiskey yeast with /ag and ferment out.After the first run,save the backset,and use all of it with 8-10 Lbs of sugar on the same grain.After 3 runs add some oats,and malt or amelaze enzyme.Do stripping runs and collect down to 40%,and when you get enough ran to do a spirit run,add a 1/2 gallon of backset to all your stripped booze.Do your spirit run,and make some cuts.Be careful not to over oak it.It will be mild,but dont oak it as heavy as normal for whiskey.Just put a little color in it,and make sure its at 60-65% when you oak it.It is very easy to overdo it with the oak,so dont use much,and taste it every day,or you will overdo it. This is the no-smop method,and will give more flavor than using oatmeal,and is alot easier to rack,and deal with.
wineo

When he says "start mash at 158" does this mean that when the temperature hits 158 you add the malt to the mixture in the cooler?

Should teh malt be stirred in ?

Does the Prestige Whiskey yeast w/AG need to be treated the same as the amylase or do I just stir it in once and let it do its thing?


Thanks for the clarification

enzymes work at different temperature, they will work below specified temperature but deactivated above.
glucanase 95-113f,,,brakes up gum..(good for rye/wheat.
peptidase 113-131f brakes up proteins,and produces amino acids (yeast like this
bata amylase,131-150f,,produces maltose
alpha amylase 154-162f brakes up larger sugars into smaller ones.

you cant do this with yeast it can /will kill the yeast.
so pitch yeast at below 90f.
yeast with enzymes was made to "ketch" some of the sugars that was missed when mashing and not made to replace mashing.

Thanks dnder. If I understand correctly, I should add the malt once its cooled to 158 and add the yeast once its cooled to 90. Is this correct?

I know the yeast will die at high teperatures but i was coincerned with whether the yeast needs to be slowly stirred down into the mash day to day like Holy had said using his SMOP method.

right,, with SMOP method the mash is thick so the enzymes do not migrate threw/into it.to correct for that the enzymes are stirred in a little at a time. not the yeast. the "big boys" do this using a "rake" this gently stirs the mash this keep it from settling and compacting.

I am in the process of fermenting a 75% oats/20%peated Malt I had left over and 5% unpeated 2-row barley, on day 1 of fermentation. pretty excited to see how this turns out I used Muntons Ale yeast
will have to post after fermentation is done

How did your batch turn out? I am considering oats and trying to formulate a plan of action along with a recipe. The SMOP method does not appeal to me too much but if it is the best I might have to give it a go.

It went really well, the low wines smelled a lot like alcoholic oatmeal,but also pretty yeasty, they were also a bit cloudy as i was using a new 30L still and wasnt used to the temps and it puked. for the Second run I used my smaller 10L hand crafted still (I know I know after the second run it had a more refined smell alot like some Poitin ( i dont think that how you spell it ) I tired from ireland, as I had a bunch of heads and tail from other runs I decided to take 1 large mason jar of 65% from the 2nd run and set it aside, and took the rest of the run and abt 4 mason jars of heads and tails from previous run I had collected and run everything on a 3rd run also in the smal still, WOW, alot of flavour came through I diluted that 3rd run to 56% and put in a white oak barrel i had previously used to store some Apple/corn whiskey I made awhile back. I tried some of it last night with a few friends, out of the barrel it was still harsh on the palet with alot of wood and some apple but the Oat coats the mouth nicely, I think this will have to sit on wood for atleast another 6 months, although I may just sneak a bit during the holidays. I also took the mason jar i set aside and added an american oak spiral (Cant really afford using barrel all the time ) i let it sit 3 weeks and then added 1 Large cut up peach(no pit) and 1/4 cup of honey, I brought it over with some unages corn whiskey to a friends for a BBQ , it was sweet and potent and made a wonderful "White Manhattan" i'll put the recipie below

1.5 oz of Unaged corn whiskey ( or equivalent unaged whiskey)
.25 oz Peach/honey shine
1 dash angosutra bitters
1.5 oz white vermouth
add everything to a shaker with ice stir then strain into martini glass

ENJOY!

Resurrecting and old thread, has anyone ever tried stepped rests with oats?

yep This is my thread but there are some others, in the original recipe it included a sugar bump but with a good conversion of cause that is unnecessary
Single malt Oat whiskey

Excellent! Sounds like we are thinking along the same lines. I would be using some home malted wheat and would likely use 3x cleaned feed oats. Are you still straining in small batches by hand? I am always looking for a better way to strain and it sounds like that might be a big consideration with oats.

probably better if we further discuss that recipe in that thread so I'll answer in the thread in that link

Has anyone aged it on Oak chips and taken note of the flavor?

Yes, I use oak chips. It can be over oaked. When the tannin got a little nippy I cut it with some unoaked.

Now I prevent the over oak by charring the chips a little more.

Ghostpepperman wrote:Has anyone aged it on Oak chips and taken note of the flavor?

I made an oat aged on oak (sticks). It was literally too smooth, if that makes sense. It was like drinking warm butter. Well, that wouldnt be a bad thing.... but the hooch was ridiculously smooth. A touch earthy but no other dimension. I think there might be an art to dialing in oat whiskey, maybe a little wider cuts to get more character. I dunno. Maybe an Oat and Rye would be a good balance.

smooth for sure but I wouldn't say "lacks complexity". There really is a whole bunch of complex flavours there and it will get a more satisfying mouth feel from barrel aging rather than chip flavouring

I think youre right Crow. Pretty sure my problem was operator error. Take a couple runs to dial in cuts on oats.

The reason I first loved it was the smoooooooth character. I have also widened my cuts on oat to a lot of tails.

I think it can get it's complexity from blending, batches or with other grains or adjuncts. I saved a batch of oat whiskey I scorched ever so slightly. It is too smokey on it's own, but I blend a small amount to the new and wow.

I know this is a fairly old post but I have a question thats not really directly related to this topic and I appologize for that but im wondering if anyone has used oats in place of rye or wheat when making bourbon or "scotch". I peated my barley nicely and dont want to ruin my "scotch" if the oatd will make it taste bad or off. I read that oats provide a creamy carmel flavor to whiskey as were rye is peppery and wheat is just smooth. I have oats sitting around, im out of wheat, and I cant get rye around here so this is the reason im thinking about trying oats. I thought this was a suitable place to ask this question.

Oats won't replace wheat or rye in flavor. They might in overall fermentables. Oats however do not have a strong or distinctive flavor like rye or even wheat so it won't be the same. Using a high percentage of oats as mentioned in this post can be a real pain in the back side when it comes to separating your liquid from your grains.

But oats add a mouth feel, oiliness that other grains miss.

Not sure what you guys are on about, sounds like you are comparing beans to peas. Oats have plenty of flavour but yes it tastes different to wheat or rye just as corn is different to barley. To say oats lacks flavour is about the same as to say roast beef has no flavour because it doesn't taste like curried prawns
Oats have a very distinctive flavour, it is smooth yes but that is not to say it lacks complexity particularly as an AG or part saccharification mash and further more if you use whole grist oat berry (hulled oats) it is easier to sparge than a fine ground wheat or barley grist. Rolled or fine ground oats will be very hard to sparge, the easy fix is don't sparge and you tend to get more flavour from fermenting on the grain anyway. You will find racking oats is about the same as any grain and if not doing a piggyback pressing hulled oats is much easier than other grain