Brewing with ALL Oats - is it possible?

[kjcarroll]

Is it possible to brew with all Oats? I know of a place to get everything oats and was wondering how to incorporate them into our brewing process. I sort of looked online, but thought it would be a great idea to start here. Please advise. Thanks all!

[BDawg]

If you can get oat malt, yes, absolutely. Malted oats have plenty of diastatic power (on the order of 6 row) and can convert themselves and then some.

I'd say go for it.

[edit - don't forget to do a rest around 113-122F to break down all the glucans. And add some rice or oat hulls to help with the lautering.]

[Bugeater]

Yes it is possible and I have done it. The problem is that an all oat beer has a taste that is pretty hard to describe, but it isn't all that pleasant. If we were describing sweetness in a beer then it would be described as "cloying". With oats there is flavor almost like too much heavy cream in an undercooked bowl of oatmeal. It is the same flavor that gives oatmeal stouts, or my raisin oatmeal cookie beer that nice mouthfeel but with all oats it is way over the top. In this case, there really is too much of a good thing.

Since I started out with a huge amount of oat malt, I was able to experiment with it in several beers. It seems to work really well as long as you don't exceed about 20% of your grain bill. One thing I noticed in working with oat malt as opposed to rolled oats is that the malt has a lot more husk material than barley malt. You won't get stuck sparge problems using oat malt.

I think you should go ahead and try maybe a half batch just to see how it goes for you. I didn't try enough different recipes for an all oat beer to really work out something drinkable. It just may work for you. I did an oatmeal stout with mine. I even made two different lovibond roasted malts with it. In theory it should have worked but it wasn't anything I could drink more than about half a glass of at a time.

A couple years ago Drew Beechum wrote an article for Zymurgy about brewing with oats. We traded a few emails about oats at the time he was writing it. He definitely knows more about brewing with them than I do though I don't think he tried one that was all oats. You should look up the article.

Wayne

[kjcarroll]

Thanks! Going to do some more reading...

[spiderwrangler]

I did an oatmeal stout with mine. I even made two different lovibond roasted malts with it. In theory it should have worked but it wasn't anything I could drink more than about half a glass of at a time.

You ever try using it in a black and tan or something of that sort?

[drewbage1847]

Yeah, I've never done a 100% oat beer. I just can't bring myself to do it.

[Eamonn]

I wonder If you could cut a 100% oat beer down with adjuncts such as sugar, rice, etc to make it less cloying and more palatable

[Tom from Raleigh]

Rather than using sugar, I'd use plenty of rice hulls and some 2 or 6 row to ensure conversion. Sugar will just make the beer dry.

In the May/June 2006 issue of Zymurgy, there was an article that talked about brewing with very high percentages of rye, wheat or oats. I kept this issue because it contained an article about late hopping from some guy with a hard to pronounce name, aka Jamil. Anyway, they liked the wheat wine and the oat was OK. The author didn't like the rye beer, which must have been a huge pain to brew.