Malted Oats

[shadylane]

I haven't tried malting oats yet, so figured it was time for some experiments.
Bought 50 lbs of whole oats at the feed store for $13
Now I've got to figure out how to sprout grain in the dead of winter.
Found this while researching, it's about mashing an oat beer.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... 0487.x/pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
http://kadivar.iut.ac.ir/sites/kadivar. ... of_oat.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[skow69]

Some excellent information, there, shady. Thanks. Let us know how it goes.

[Buccaneer Bob]

Cool stuff.

I really found it interesting how much lower the acetaldehyde, ethyl acetate, etc., are in an oat ferment compared to a barley ferment. It's like half. That means half as much heads from an oat ferment compared to a barley ferment.

And the extra hulls would help with sparging/draining a lot of different adjuncts.

Thanks for sharing.

[shadylane]

I'll start by rinsing the dirt and debris from the Oats.
Then steep the grain with water changes every 8 - 12 hours, using 70 - 75f tap water.
I'm not sure how long to let it soak, so I'll keep doing it for 48 hours or until the grain begins to chit.
The shop is too cold for malting, so I'll have to do it inside the house.
Hopefully the smell from malting oats isn't too bad.
Other wise, there's a good chance my wife will be reminding me, it's also too cold to be sleeping in the shop.

Keeping the malt moist is going to be a problem. The humidity in the house is very low and the malt will dry out fast.
I'll attempt to malt in plastic garbage bags. That way the humidity can be kept high, the oats can be turned easily. And the smell will be contained. Haven't tried this before. Hopefully the oats won't have any problems with mold.
If I think mold is getting started, I'll dry the malt at what ever stage of modification it made it to and use enzymes.

Buccaneer, I hope your right about the oat hulls helping with sparging/draining, I'd like to ferment this off the grain.

[Dan P.]

Have you tried malted vs. unmalted oats?
I find unmalted oats preferable in a spirit. The malting seems to give them a musty, farinaceous taste, whereas unmalted come across as creamy and, er, oaty.
I find this true of malted vs. unmalted rye as well, so maybe it's just me, though I prefer malted to unmalted barley.

[thecroweater]

Very cool imfo you found shady, i would have killed for that a couple of years ago. i will be re-reading it thoroughly and it may well make a difference to how I mash single malt oats in the future
Here is my thread on malting oats

[thecroweater]

Have you tried malted vs. unmalted oats?
I find unmalted oats preferable in a spirit. The malting seems to give them a musty, farinaceous taste, whereas unmalted come across as creamy and, er, oaty.
I find this true of malted vs. unmalted rye as well, so maybe it's just me, though I prefer malted to unmalted barley.

I would not agree with this Dan P, i know taste being subjective and all but an aged single malt oat has similar characteristics any other single malt but with an oat flavour, single grain single malt oats is very different from a barley but very nice in its own right, not the least bit starchy. A sugar head of oats is very bland as you might expect from such a mild flavoured grain and might lend itself well to a easy grain vodka wash

[Dan P.]

It must be a question of taste. I find wheat and barley lend their flvours well to malting, becoming dry, biscuity, slightly more pungent versions of their former selves, oats and rye not. I would put it down to operator error except that it is consistently the case; oats and rye malt give me a musty, almost flowery (and floury) taste. Weirdly, and inversely, unmalted barley and wheat have a more musty taste to me, though I would describe it as "earthy", and it is mild and can be a pleasant adjunct flavour.
I also keep my AG exclusively in the white- again, my own taste and personal preference.

[shadylane]

Some were around 35 lbs of oats are now steeping. The other 12 or 13 lbs are for use as an unmalted experiment.
I'd estimate 2 or 3 pounds of the oats floated when soaked in water.
Half of which would have probably germinated. A little horse named buttercup likes the oats that float.

[Brutal]

Nice project. Never thought about malting oats. I think a 30% oats bourbon style recipe is in my future. You know, right after the three other ag/steam batches I have planned. First 100lbs corn and enzymes, then 75/25 corn and 4 other grains I have laying around, then Jimbo style corn/red wheat, and now the corn/oats. Looking forward to your malting success and resulting taste test.

[DAD300]

I was drinking oat whiskey tonight...all oat. It is very good. Oat on maple wood and oat on cherry for the last seven months.

[shadylane]

Needed something to malt on, so I took the legs off a homemade table, turned it upside down on a pair of saw horses and covered it with plastic. Wife has evicted the malt from the house, I'm now in the shop office. Here's what 35 pounds of oat malt looks like.

[midwest shinner]

Looking good there shady! I made an AG oat whisky a while back from rolled oats and oat malt, it turned out pretty tasty. Oats seem to give a nice smooth somewhat subtle grain flavor IMHO, so definitely be cautious with the oaking cause its easy to overdo it

[shadylane]

I haven't fermented with oats yet. They seem to have good quality's.
Their cheap, available, have a husk for laudering and apparently have a good taste.
But their not commonly used ? Has to be something about them that's bad

[shadylane]

I've been soaking the grain for a total of 36 hours at this point. It's been drained, aired and the water replaced 4 times.
From what I've read, once the malt has lots of chits it's time to move it to the malting floor.
The malt is just beginning to show a few chits, so back in the buckets for a couple more hours of steeping.
There's no signs of mold or off smells, the grain is soft, chewy and tastes good.
Wish I knew what the moisture content of the malt is.

Edited: Crow, thanks for the link

[thecroweater]

Not bad, difficult/not so cost effective. They can turn to porridge and could make a mess of large mash tuns also in 1973 the Uk changed the way it taxed malt (to but volume) before that time oat malt was fairly common but due to the increased volume of malted oats they became unviable. Then last oat whiskey ceased in Ireland in 1975 and probably was not done again until Koval distillery in around 2010 http://www.koval-distillery.com/newsite/whiskey/oat" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[firewater69]

I use crimped oats (with the hulls) in most of my recipes, i've been wanting to malt some oats just havent tried it yet. good luck with it shady!

[shadylane]

Update, The oat malting experiment is a bust.
Zero germination, the oats haven't shown any signs of coming alive.
I was wrong when I thought there was some of the grain beginning to chit.
When I began the experiment, I threw in a hand full of corn because I wanted a comparison.
Almost every kernel corn is sprouting.
There's not any mold yet, so I'm doing something right anyway.
I'll try again with oats from a different source in the future.

[MichiganCornhusker]

Sorry to hear that, Shady, I just picked up 50# of whole oats hoping to follow your lead. Do you think it was just the supplier? Anyone know why this wouldn't have worked?

[DAD300]

Don't throw them away! Dry them or go straight to cooking them.
Take the oats and cook them. Use some other malt or enzymes. The starch is still there!

[shadylane]

I'm 99% sure it was the oats.
The handful corn mixed in is doing fine.
This makes me wonder if the oats was dried at too high of a temp.
But some of the oats still had a little bit of green showing, so that can't be right.

Posting at the same time as Dad.
That's what I was thinking.

[firewater69]

Sorry about the oats Shady, like Dad said, cook the snot out of em and add some malt or emzymes.

[thecroweater]

My humble apologies for being some what incapable of reading back (shined up) but was the oats winowed. Hulled oats won't grow simple as that, throw it to the citters or if like me yard just can't waste it get some malt or enzymes

[Halfbaked]

Sorry Shady. Don't give up on malting. The problem could have been they were dried at to high of a heat.and for sure hulled oats won't grow as Crow said.

[shadylane]

The oats are drying and will be used with alpha and gluco amylase.
The oats looked good and still had their husks on.
Don't know what went wrong but I'll try again in the near future.

[MichiganCornhusker]

The oats are drying and will be used with alpha and gluco amylase.
The oats looked good and still had their husks on.
Don't know what went wrong but I'll try again in the near future.

Or Buttercup gets a nice Sunday feast....

[shadylane]

Given the chance, Buttercup and Echo would eat until they foundered.
If the failed malting experiment isn't good enough to ferment, the horses aren't going to get to eat it.
There's four generations of woman on the farm that would cloud up and rain on me if the horses got sick.

[Buccaneer Bob]

Sorry to hear the malting hasn't worked for you, yet, Shadylane.

I'll start by rinsing the dirt and debris from the Oats.
Then steep the grain with water changes every 8 - 12 hours, using 70 - 75f tap water.
I'm not sure how long to let it soak, so I'll keep doing it for 48 hours or until the grain begins to chit.

When I first started malting barley and wheat, I followed online instructions and wound up "drowning" my first few batches.

Then I backed way off of the steeping to 6 hours soaking, 8-12 hours of "breathing" under a damp cotton cloth (well-drained, of course) and 3 more hours of soaking.

After that, it was just breathing under a damp cotton cloth, sprinkled with water as needed, and stirred around a few times per day until germination was complete.

Once I started doing it that way, I had great success with my malting.

Anywho, the other day I saw your soaking plan, and I was thinking it seemed like too much soaking and not enough breathing, but I didn't say anything because I really don't know that much about oats.

But I'm wondering if you backed off of the soaking, something like what I've been doing for barley and wheat, maybe you might have more luck on the next batch.

Just a thought.

[MichiganCornhusker]

When I first started malting barley and wheat, I followed online instructions and wound up "drowning" my first few batches.

I had the same experience when I first malted corn. A lot of methods called for soaking the corn for 24 hrs or more. I think I was drowning my corn because I would only get about 10% sprouting. I cut back to about 12 hrs of soak, with a lot of rinsing to keep them damp after that, but not submerged, and now almost everything sprouts. Not sure how that would translate to oats.
The fact that NONE of the oat sprouted might just show that the stuff wasn't alive anymore.

[shadylane]

The oats were dead. Tried sprouting some from the 15 Lbs that was left over and had zero germination.
The handful of corn that was thrown into the oats germinated very well.
Found another source of whole oats, this time I'll make damn sure the grain is viable before trying to malt it.

As Buccaneer Bob pointed out, I'll be soaking the oats less and letting it breath more on the next batch.
Edited: thanks for the write up Bob, I'll be using your malting protocol on the next batch.