Home Distiller

I've read a lot about making a whiskey with corn/rye/millet and also oats. I've heard many people mention rolled oats, but never crimped oats. I was in the local feed store today and saw a bag of "crimped oats" about 10 feet down the way from the cracked corn (good likker makin's)...are these crimped oats what I'm looking for or do I need to purchase some rolled oats, if there's a difference???

OMP, I don't know if you can use crimped, but I got bulk rolled oats in the amish store, and converted them w 6-row barley malt...worked great.
theholymackerel has used several different styles for oat whiskey...so he says.

OldManP, Use whatever oats you can get cheapest that smell good. Try and stay away from the "fast cooking oats", they have less scent and taste.

My local homebrew store sells rolled oats for 1.49$ per pound. The local market sells 3lb cannisters of Quaker oats for less than 2$ and the Quaker oats taste way better. The best oat whiskey I ever made was from oats I bought at the local Hippy-dippy Co-op market. They were locally grown, oily, and rich in scent and flavour. They also were cheap at 49 cents per pound. Possum got bulk rolled oats from the Amish store... so he says. ( )

Are you going theholymackerel way, using 6-row, or are you going to malt your own oats. I'm pretty sure that crimped oats and rolled oats are the same thing. I would avoid animal feed oats. The fresher the oats, the better the whiskey so I would go with local grown oats they should be fresher then store bought and are often cheaper just search around.

Also if you are going to malt your own oats you'll have to find hole oats because rolled oats have been steamed and flattened.

Use feed oats if ya can find them.Some are whole others are crimped or rolled .Rolled oats are used as feed too . Also oatmeal like ya eat for breakfast are rolled oats.ROLLED OATS are oat groats that have been rolled into flat flakes under heavy rollers. The oat, like some other cereals, has a hard, inedible outer hull that must be removed before the grain can be eaten. After the hulls have been removed from the bran-covered oat grains, the remainder is called oat groats. Oat groats can be used as cereal, but since the bran layer makes the grains tough to chew and contains an enzyme that can cause the oats to go rancid, oat groats are usually steam-treated to soften them and denature the enzymes. Steel-cut oats are oat groats that have been chopped into smaller pieces and retain bits of the bran layer.

Rolled oats sold as oatmeal usually, but not always, have had the tough bran removed. They have often been lightly baked or pressure-cooked. Thick-rolled oats are large whole flakes, and thin-rolled oats are smaller, fragmented flakes. Oat flakes that have simply had the bran removed can be cooked and eaten as "old-fashioned" oatmeal, but more highly fragmented rolled oats absorb water much more easily and therefore cook faster, so they are sometimes called "quick" or "instant" oatmeal. Oatmeal can be further processed into coarse powder, which, when cooked, becomes a thick broth. Finer oatmeal powder is often used as baby food.CRIMPED OATS/GRAINS Traditionally, grain is not harvested until it is dry enough to be ground by a hammer mill. Moist grain often cannot be ground or stored without machine drying and using preservatives, which always increases costs.

In crimping, the grain is combined moist and run through the crimper machine, which will break and flatten the grains. Additives, such as certain preservatives or molasses and water (if necessary) can be added in order to ensure the protection of nutrients.

Crimped grain is stored in storage silos as a silage.

Crimped grain is dustless, thus covenient to handle, does not require any further processing, and is often preferred by the animals to drier and dustier feeds.

Practical experiments by farming and livestock research institutions in Finland, Sweden, UK and elsewhere have confirmed, that crimped feed has higher nutritional values, it increases the animals' growth and milk production, improves milk quality and the animals' health, and in addition, helps cut costs.

An important point is, that crimping home-grown grain and processing the feed on the spot at the farm, the feed ingredients can be controlled and are fully traceable, thus helping in prevention of diseases, such as BSE.

Thanks tater,sounds like youve got the scoop,on the oats. Ive been trying to find out as much as I can about oat whiskey,before making it,and your info has helped me deside what kind to use.{rolled feed oats}Going to mash with american 2row pale ale,and amelaze enzyme,and some corn backset. Its next on my list.Got 2 buckets of UJSM corn/malt going,and will wait till I get my whiskey stock built up first.Also got a wheat germ/dme ready to run .thanks for the insight.
wineo