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I realize that but the brupaks grain guide, which I usually use as my quick reference go to, says you can only use a maximum of 5%. Which is obviously wrong going by the links you've posted

Yes, that's what the guides say but Koyt was this ratio and the link I posted was for a 100% mailed oats brew.

My plan is to do it sometime next week. Looking forward to it.
 
I realize that but the brupaks grain guide, which I usually use as my quick reference go to, says you can only use a maximum of 5%. Which is obviously wrong going by the links you've posted

I realise it's not the same but I didn't have any issues with my only foray into brewing with oats to date...

Pale Malt: 3kg (73%)
Oats, Flaked: 325g (8%)
Black Malt: 325g (8%)
Crystal Malt (100L): 250g (6%)
Low Colour Chocolate Malt: 200g (5%)

Someone else posted this up somewhere & I bookmarked it because it was interesting.
https://www.love2brew.com/Articles.asp?ID=496
"... if you go above 10% oats, the gummy stuff (beta-glucans) can interfere with your sparge effectiveness. In plain terms, you might get a stuck sparge or a slow sparge, which could impact your sugar extraction (efficiency). So it’s not really necessary from a chemical standpoint, it’s more about having an effective process. And of course, if you for some reason went up to 30% oats, then yes I fully imagine you would not be able to complete your sparge unless you did the beta-glucan rest, which lowers the amount of gummy stuff in the oats.

Personally, I wouldn’t worry about it until I hit 20% because I’m adventurous like that. ..."

 
So it's done. Mixed bag (pun already, it was also large and heavy).

My first foray into stepped brewing.

Things I learned :-

You have to lift the bag out of the wort to raise the temperature if you are doing it in the boiler otherwise the boiler cuts out.

The grains cool down fast when they are out of the wort (particularly when the ambient is about 4c) so you have to increase to a much higher temperature than your target and pour wort over them whilst it is heating up to counteract the chill effect when the bag goes back in. I went about 5c over which was about right.

The oat grains were only lightly crushed which I am assuming contributed to the low yield. The schedule was 20 mins at 45 (to reduce gloopyness) and then the main rest at 62 for 30 minutes. After the 30 minute saccharination rest the gravity was less than 1030. So I bumped the wort to 67, turned the timer off and went and did some bottling. Eventually got the gravity to about 1040. As this was supposed to be 1064 I decided against topping the boiler up to full volume and went ahead with the boil reducing the hops a bit. Post boil it was 1054 and I had about 15 litres of wort.

So it was complicated and missed my OG by quite a way but on the positive side there was no gloop (like I've had with a rye) so I don't think sparging would have been a problem at all. Probably because there is so much husk. Malted oats smell delicious by the way.

If I was to do this again I'd get a mill first and mill the malted oats myself. I'd probably also extend the main rest to anything up to 2 hours as I read someone had to do that to get a decent yield.

Pitched with a double dose of Gervin GV12 it was bubbling away the next morning.
 
Great stuff. I suppose you expect some glitches when you try something new and at least you learned a lot. Hope it's worth the effort at the end. :thumb:
 
Well, here it is...

koyt-474.jpg


FG was 1.020 so around 4.5% ABV.

Very dark, brown head, tastes very much like a porter. This missus didn't like it.

Nice but filling, I don't think you could drink many at a time.
 
What made it so dark? In theory it was supposed to be golden coloured. Would you do it again, or was that an interesting experiment and move on.
 
What made it so dark? In theory it was supposed to be golden coloured. Would you do it again, or was that an interesting experiment and move on.

The wheat malt was very dark, darker than I expected.

In terms of doing it again the issue is getting the oat malt crushed. The LHBS didn't really want to do it as he was worried about his crusher. I'd do something similar if I had my own crusher (which is on my wish list).

I'd do one with unmalted oats as a large part of the grist. I'd need to know what the maximum would be as it would be relying on the diastatic power of the malted ingredients.
 
Bottle arrived in one piece, thanks very much. Will keep it a while to settle etc before I open it. The Laphroig container got me excited :lol:
 
I just opened the bottle. Treacle toffee aroma on first sniff. Roastiness not too pronounced, would possibly mellow with time, really tastes like there's treacle in it, reminiscent of Old Peculiar. I get the silkiness that you find with wheat beers. very thick mouthfeel, I assume the oats contribute that. Doesn't really taste sweet but leaves a kind of stickiness in the mouth. I quite like it but wouldn't be able to drink more than one at a time :-).
 
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