oat whisky

[midwest shinner]

So i really want to do an oat whisky, i know oats are supposed to be an aquired or subtle flavor in whisky, but I'm a fan and now want to do a 100% oat batch. I'm not yet sure if it will be an AG or a sugarhead, but even when i do make sugarheads they generally end up being partial mashes as the least. the only reason I'm considering a partial mash is I've heard oats are low in starch and hence low in sugars. anyway I'm looking at a 15 gal batch(approximately ) and I've got more than enough rolled oats(about 25 lbs) and 8lbs oat malt. plus plenty of enzymes as a back up if conversion isn't good. Right now I'm thinking of doing the 25lbs of rolled oats with 8lbs oat malt in 15 gal water with a bit of gypsum and the yeast type is still undecided. I've got d.a.d.y , bakers and at least 4 different ale yeasts. anyone with experience making oat whisky? I've read all the oat whisky posts and am just looking for some feedback. I've made sweetfeed "whisky" before and a 60/40 rye/oat ag batch before but this will be my first 100% oat batch...

[Halfbaked]

Id like to make me some AG oat whiskey. If I have a vote I say AG. It sounds all good to me. I like it.

[BayouShine]

If you plan to go the AG route, use more water. Rolled oats will get VERY thick once you dissolve the starch and are damn near impossible to stir at that grain/water ratio. The oats have plenty enough starch to convert and make a good mash.

Leave plenty of head space as the oats will make a thick cap in your fermenter. Any of the yeasts you listed will do fine for an AG oat mash.

Aside from that, where did you find malted oats?

[midwest shinner]

I believe midwest brewer is where i found the oat malt, and Bayoushine,what are you saying? Maybe 1.5 lbs grain/ gal or less than that?i usually do about 2 lbs/gal and I'm really just using the malt cause i like the flavor of malted grains, i could use all enzymes if i wanted to, but all right i will try the ag first and if the sg is too low i will add just a few lbs of sugar to bring the sg to a respectable level, like between 8-10% abv. but like i said this is my first oat whisky and I'm very open to suggestions...

[BayouShine]

You can try your normal 2lb/gal if you want. I'm not telling you not to. I'm just speaking from my last experience with oats. It's a shoulder workout.

The only problem that I see is that oat malt has a zero DP. It won't convert your starches. You will have to use your enzymes, unless you have other malts handy. I'm not sure how much conversion you'll get with just amylase. I know you wanted to do 100% oats, but 5.5lbs of 2row barley would take care of the enzymes in your 25lb batch.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

[Jimbo]

Midwest. I can get you bags of Steel Rolled oats for $12/ 50lbs from teh feedstore out by me, Boiling water at 2-2.5lbs/gallon and use the HT enzymes at 185F. It will thin right out before it turns into thick oatmeal. Then use the SebSuper at 145. 100% oats. Cheap. If that what youre after. This is exactly what I plan to do with a bag I have right now.

[corene1]

Midwest. I can get you bags of Steel Rolled oats for $12/ 50lbs from teh feedstore out by me, Boiling water at 2-2.5lbs/gallon and use the HT enzymes at 185F. It will thin right out before it turns into thick oatmeal. Then use the SebSuper at 145. 100% oats. Cheap. If that what youre after. This is exactly what I plan to do with a bag I have right now.

Here is a question . You mention the SEB Super or the HT. Where can you find it for sale?

[midwest shinner]

That sounds like what i was planning Jimbo, i was reading the old oat whisky thread and it seems some prefer adding some sugar so i was just contemplating, but i think ill stick to the AG unless something goes horribly wrong. but i would like to use the oat malt since I've got em, i guess i will add em in around when i add my sebmalt super. That is a great price for oats though, depending on how this goes i may take you up on that, I've been saving up oats that got damaged for a while to keep my cost down on this one. And Corene, unfortunately the enzymes aren't for sale retail, but they do sell to breweries and distilleries. Jimbo and i were lucky enough to get some from a friend. but our friend did have to buy like 25 kilos of the enzymes which I'm sure was pretty pricey. I mean you only need like .2 grams for full conversion

[Jimbo]

SpecialtyEnzymes needs to wake up. They could sell the hell out of that stuff to homebrewers and stillers. The regular enzymes are ok, I can do that with malt, but the high temp stuff is awesome when gelatinizing a load of raw grain. No thick goopy porridge to stir. Gonna miss it when I run out.

Maybe its time to go into the enzyme reseller biznass

[midwest shinner]

Oh yeah and Bayoushine thank you for the input and feedback. i always appreciate someone elses opinion especially when they have experience with the topic at hand

[BayouShine]

No problem Midwest. I'm glad to give my $.02 if I can help someone out. Never know when I might need your help someday.

[goinbroke2]

Hmm..well reading this I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in since I'm in the middle of a rolled oats/flaked rye all-grain batch. Waiting for it to cool to pitching temp.
So, (gotta love pictures)
10lb's of rolled oats and 10lb's of flaked rye;



Put in keggle and put about 7-8 gallons of 140* water from the tap in and mix with mortar mixer;

[goinbroke2]

Whip it up good and check temp;




Add boiling water from the kettle to reach 150* - 155*

[goinbroke2]

Ah! Getting there;



Top up to a total of about 13 gallons

[goinbroke2]

Let sit while I watch a movie with the ol lady (about 3 hours, had to walk the dogs too)





Add enzimes;


Wrap it up for the night, should be at pitching temp by morning.

[DFitz]

Midwest. I can get you bags of Steel Rolled oats for $12/ 50lbs from teh feedstore out by me, Boiling water at 2-2.5lbs/gallon and use the HT enzymes at 185F. It will thin right out before it turns into thick oatmeal. Then use the SebSuper at 145. 100% oats. Cheap. If that what youre after. This is exactly what I plan to do with a bag I have right now.

Here is a question . You mention the SEB Super or the HT. Where can you find it for sale?

http://www.enzymash.com/ProductDetails. ... de=4OZSTAR" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Try this

[goinbroke2]

In the morning I'll to a iodine test to check conversion but I'm quite sure it'll be fine.
Forgot to add one thing, after adding the enzimes I crushed up 5 beano tablets and mixed that in too.

In the morning I'm pitching "liquor quick whisky pure" yeast with amyloglucosidase added to it.

So with all those enzimes..it'll convert. (I realize without beta there might be some extra unconvertable sugars but that's ok)

[goinbroke2]

Well, went to bed at 12:44 and back up at 5:10 to start up the still. (and they say drugs are addictive...)

I'm off today and normally get up at 5 anyway so it's all good.
So, I did an iodine test, all converted. Did a SG check and it's around 5-6%. Not the best but I'll take it.
Did up the yeast in a bucket of the stuff and then pitched it all back in 25 min later.
Covered it up, let her go.

At the same time I plugged in the still and let it warm as I was doing both at the same time. Lyne arm is just getting warm. I've got about 45-50L of wash to strip.

Middle of this post and fores started, took off fores and was hooking up the parrot and I heard the ol lady get in the shower. Uh oh, IT'S AWAKE!!!!

Strip of a 12% sugar wash;



Dribbling away....

[thecroweater]

My effort

[Brendan]

Love the pictures GB, but will you put the damn toilet seat down!

[goinbroke2]

Love the pictures GB, but will you put the damn toilet seat down!

Yes dear....

Actually I always argue, there's three males and one female in this house. since guys never "fall in" because we always check first, why should SHE have to leave it UP for us and put in down for herself???

But then the old adage kicks in of "if mama ain't happy, ain't NOBODY happy".

[goinbroke2]

Croweater, read your whole thread, wow you do a lot more than I do or am inclined to do.
I figure if I take it to 150 or so while stirring the heck out of it with the mortar mixer and then leave it for 2-4hr's just to gel it, it will give up the starches. By then the temp has dropped to 140 or so and I add the enzimes (stiring them in with the mixer too) and wrap it and let it sit all night (min 6-8hr's) it will have lots of time to convert even if it is working slower.
This morning it was around 95-100 and converted to 5-6%. Could it have been higher with more work? Possibly, but I'm not spending hours and hours "hands on" just to get 1-2% more.
Plus, I've been using whisky yeast which has amylglucodase enzimes in it to convert while it's fermenting as well so in the end it will probably end up 6-8% which is fine for me.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's great what your doing and no doubt your getting a better conversion, I just have to justify the time/conversion formula. (if it takes too long, mama gets complaining, if it takes less time mama don't complain even if it has a bit less yield)

Heck if I'm that concerned with it being too low I could always throw in some sugar I suppose!

[goinbroke2]

Speaking of which, I just checked it when I got home a few minutes ago and it's got a MASSIVE cap on it and it's gurgling away!

[biker geek]

I just did a beer with 5lb oat malt, 5lb wheat malt, .25 pale chocolate malt, and 1lb rye malt for a six gallon batch. Unfortunately my Sg was only 1.037 after step mashing at 125 f and 150 f. My advice would be to use 2.5 to 3 lb/gallon at least.

[goinbroke2]

Had to go look, I just go by 5% or 6% etc. Mine was 1.040 or so which is a hair over 5%. Doing the calculations, I was only at 1.5lb's per gallon. So I guess for that I had good conversion.
I guess that's why I find it strange when people say it was like thick porridge and mine is "gloopy" but not "porridge like".
Maybe I'll let it go a day or so and then add a couple kilo's of sugar.

But, point taken biker geek, I think I will try 2.5lb's per gallon next time and maybe 3 after that depending on how the 2.5 turns out.

[midwest shinner]

Very nice goingbroke, my first AG likker was a 60/40 batch of oats/rye and was fantastic. I'm sad i didn't do a larger batch at the time, but i started out doing loads of small batches to find out what i liked best. Will be starting the 100.% oat batch any day, but may do some more work with rye in the near future

[midwest shinner]

So I'm finally starting my oat whisky batch tonite. It won't be 100% oats since I'm using 1 gal corn whisky backset in place of some water(15 gal liquid total) and 1.5 lbs of the total 34 lbs of grain is a mix of rolled rye,barley, and wheat to add some complexity to the flavo, but the rest is all oats, mostly rolled, but a bit of oat malt since I've got it here anyway. I will be using enzymes for conversion. I'm not 100% on which yeast ill use just yet as I've got a wide selection, but ill figure that out soon here. I'm super stoked as I've been wanting to do an oat whisky for at least a year now. Sorry i don't have lots of nice pics, but y'all get the idea anyway I'm sure

[BayouShine]

Keep us posted on how this one turns out. I'm still enjoying the last oat whiskey I made and will be doing another soon.

[Windy City]

Looking forward to seeing how this works out (and how it tastes)
Mash at 190f with the HT for 1 to 3 hours until you get total conversion then crash to 146 and add the Super to finish breaking it down. About 60/90 min

Good Luck
My Friend
Windy City

[woodshed]

Been waiting for this Midwest shinner. Keep us posted.