Oat beer recipe

[Fido97]

Hi, I am thinking of experimenting with a beer using only oats - probably mixture of malted and plain. Anyone tried this and care to share your experience? Cheers,

[DeGarre]

You might get gelatinous glue in the process!

[Blackaddler]

[6470zzy]

Hi, I am thinking of experimenting with a beer using only oats - probably mixture of malted and plain. Anyone tried this and care to share your experience? Cheers,

The most that I have done thus far is 60% malted oats and the remaining 40% was 6 row to help with the conversion.

The finished product was ok, however nothing to get too lathered up over so to speak. Don't get me wrong the beer was quite drinkable but I think that next time I shall add a quantity of Golden Naked Oats to help with the body a bit. I will indeed be brewing with malted oats again. The really great thing about malted oats is the amount of husk material that they have, you NEVER have to fret about a stuck mash when using them, unlike when you are using a large quantity of porridge oats. By all means experiment

[DaveyT]

I've just done a beer with 6% oat malt and it's very filling. It's making me rethink using oat malt. Is there a chance this might happen to your intended brew?
I mashed the oats at 71 C, though. Would that account for the body? (It was only my second ever mash and I over estimated the strike temp.)

[Barley Water]

I have read in more than one place that once you get over a certain percentage (if I remember correctly about 30%) then the beer will start to get an astringent. Having never tried it myself though take that for what it's worth.

[6470zzy]

I have read in more than one place that once you get over a certain percentage (if I remember correctly about 30%) then the beer will start to get an astringent. Having never tried it myself though take that for what it's worth.

That has not been my experience, then again people are constantly saying that you will get a stuck sparge with a large percentage of oat malt in your mash, simply myth

Cheers

[zgoda]

I once brewed beer with ~40% oat malt and it had this grainy, husky astringency. Then in next brew i lowered amount to ~10%, upped with rye and spelt and this one went fine. I guess if you use flaked oats the astringency will not be an issue.

[englishchrissy]

I have today brewed an Oat Malt Stout recipe from the Durden Park Old British Beers book. It is recipe 102 in that book. Original Oatmalt Stout (1895) Maclay's, Alloa.

73.7% Pale Oat Malt
12.1% Maris Otter Pale Malt
7.9% Dark Crystal Malt
6.2% Amber Malt

I added 800g (50L brew) Carafa Special 3 to the top of the sparge to give it a dark colour. I have no idea what the original colour was so I darkened it as it is a Stout. The Oat malt seemed to absorb more water than Barley malt but mashed fine with no problems. The wort tasted good but that does not really give any indication of what the final beer will be like. It's now in the fermenter with White Labs WLP004 Irish Ale yeast so a 2 week wait to bottling. Should be interesting to taste what it is like. I have never tasted an Oat malt beer or know anyone who has.

[6470zzy]

What temperature did you mash at?

[Fido97]

Having started this topic I never did get round to it but hopefully will find the time soon. I was interested to see englishchrissys post ref the oat stout (please update us when you have tasted it) - did you add any hops and what about mash temps? Cheers,

[englishchrissy]

For the Oat Malt Stout I brewed yesterday, I wanted to mash at 67 degrees C but got 66 degrees so quite close. I sparged at 79 degrees C. The Oats seem to absorb more of the hot liquer that Barley Malt and consequently I had to sparge longer to collect the required volume. The batch size of the brew was 50L. I added 150g Fuggles to the wort as soon as the wort covered the electric heating element in the Copper so they were in for the entire 2 hour boil to provide bitterness. I then cooled the wort to 80 degrees C and added a further 150g Fuggles and recirculated the wort for 10 minutes. This was for the aroma.
I checked the brew 12 hours later before leaving for work and there was a nice strong fermentation going. I will keep you guys posted on progress but expect the fermentation to take upto 2 week. So a bit of a wait till I get to taste it. I expect it will improve a lot after bottling/kegging so will get another taste after 3 weeks in the bottle.

[Fido97]

Ok cheers for the info. Is that book worth buying? Sounds interesting anyway. Will keep a lookout for updates on tasting.

[englishchrissy]

Yes Fido97, I think the Durden Park book is definitely worth buying. All the recipes I have tried have turned out superb. The latest Oat Malt Stout is no exception. I bottled a week late so have just tasted the first bottle. It's been bottled just 1 week but the condition is good and the taste rich and malty coffee/chocolate! Very yummy and I know it will improve loads in the coming weeks/months. I put 20 liters in my Oak Pin so that should have a lovely oak flavour as well. I would say it is safe to say that this brew is a success! Don't be afraid to use Oat Malt!

[Fido97]

Finally I am ready to make this beer having procured 5kg oat malt. I was going to follow the Durden park beer circle recipe for the stout but because I have done a few stouts recently am going to modify to a pale beer. On the hops I was thinking Fuggles for bittering but then throwing in something a bit citrusy late on. A bit left field I know but what the hell.....will publish an update later if anyone interested.