Crow's single malt oat whiskey

[Wobblyboot]

single grain single malt oat whisky
by crow » Fri Sep 04, 2015 6:16 am

Single Malt Oat Whiskey

This is the recipe and method formulated for an 80 ltr ferment
7.8 kg malted oats , gristed
4 kg rolled oats
8 kgs sugar (not required with a good conversion)
50g yeast (safmalt is a good one but bakers yeast will work)
Method
Mash in oats and malt heated at 40' to 45' hold for 20 min. then at 50' to 54' for 20 min. then step to62 to 67' for 1/2hr and then 71' to 72' for say 45 min. Turn off and allow to cool dissolve sugar in the fermenter with hot water allow to cool .
Pitching yeast
Add mash to the fermenter and add hot or cold water to achieve 28'-32' and pitch yeast and seal up with an airlock.
I use about 20 ltrs of backset to a 80 ltr fermenter
ENZYME..........REST TEMPERATURE Celsius/Fahrenheit
Beta Glucanase......40' to 45' / 104 - 115
Potease.................50' to 54 / 122 - 129
Beta Amylase.........62' to 67' / 143 - 153
Alpha Amylase........71' to 72' / 161
Ferment additive
I always add a low carb brew enzyme (glucoamylase or Y amylase) to the ferment, you can mash with it but it will work at fermenting temps so I add it to dry the ferment right up and milk all the alcohol out I can

These are not all the enzymes but they are the ones you need to worry about. That first step is to break down gluten so as to not have a gooy mash but a lot skip this one (not me), the amount of time needed for the rest between steps can vary depending on the grain or the grist but basically 30 min is pretty safe, maybe 45 for the B Amylase rest. Some will say the last rest is better left out so as not to denature the Beta Amylase as the AA will still work slowly through out the ferment even though the optimum activation temp was not achieved. I don't go a long with this unless you are having a problem controlling temps as that rest should been complete before stepping the your final rest. Going over 72 degrees is a step call mashing out this step is only deliberately employed by beer makers as it will leave the mash with unfermentable (long chain) sugars, great for beer bit a major headache for distillers. Thing is Beta Amylase converts the starch to long chain sugars and Alpha Amylase breaks those down to short chain sugars what will ferment. "Mashing out" is the denaturing of all enzymes meaning no long chain sugars will break down during the ferment resulting in the wash having some remaining unfermentable sugars unconverted during the saccharicial mashing. This will mean a lower yield, likely puking while stilling and well may carry over an unwanted sweetish flavour to the whiskey.
I would like to add that provided you are tight with your cuts this is one seriously smooth whiskey that can be drank white dog straight from the still. however light oaking will most certainly improve it but be careful not to over oak, something that is easy to do with this
If you have done this a few times you can just go by taste, it will get sweeter and sweeter until it levels out and tastes the same as last time you checked (done) and if you've done it a few times the same you will have a fair idea how sweet that should be. The easy way is get ya self some iodine and once you think its nearly ready take some out in a shot glass and drip a drip or 2 in. if it changes to purple hold the rest for awhile longer and re-check, if after say an hr it still changes to purple (not a browny colour) you've had some sort of coke up and will need to add sugar or add more malt and repeat the last 2 steps. Taste the mash to determine how much sugar to add. You can do a single malt in any grain , I chose oats as I was told they make for the smoothest whiskey. The trick is having some idea of the diastatic power of the grain you intend to use so for instance if you wanted to make a single malt corn/maise whiskey you would need to take into account that corn has a shitful lintner degree and therefore only enough DP to convert itself so to make a single malt would require close to 100% malted corn. Some other grains have a very high DP and can convert many times there volume in grain, 6 row barely can convert something like 10 times its volume so you don't need a lot of this malt to convert a large amount of unmalted (adjuct) grain. oats is pretty good, 50/50 would be very safe and I think you might fine it is close to barley. wheat and rye are pretty good to but if planning a single malt not using 100% malt I would try to research the DP of these grains first. This is for single malts, that is just using the one variety of grain for either 100% malt or malt and same grain adjucts. Most commonly whiskeys are a bended grain bill using a high DP grain as malt and a mix of other grains for sugars and flavour
Oat mashes are fairly thick and so recording a starting gravity with a hydrometer is a bit of a nightmare, this is where a refractometer would come into its own
Spotted this in my travels, haven't seen it here and thought it might be of some interest :techie-typing:

[TasSpirits]

Im keen to give this a go, will have malt the oats myself as I cant source any. Once winter is over it will be malting time. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[EziTasting]

Nice!

While I'm struggling on with my Rum experiments, bugburner and I will be starting AG whisky experiments!
This certainly going to help us prepare for it!

[Wobblyboot]

Nice!

While I'm struggling on with my Rum experiments, bugburner and I will be starting AG whisky experiments!
This certainly going to help us prepare for it!

From what iv read about some thick messy grains, the 1st boiling point will get rid of some of the gum that makes it hard to strain :-B will be trying this straight after I do some agave :roll: but I am close :teasing-tease: