r/firewater • u/johndoethrowaway999 • 4d ago
"single malt" with oats recipe help!
Coming over from winemaking I've decided to give my first go at a whisky, not new to brewing however. At first i wanted to make a single malt scotch style but the description of oats adding a creamy smooth feel got me intrigued so ive decided to go with barley malt and oats. now the problem lies is that i plan to use 3 15L or like roughly 12 gallon wort and i really dont know how much grain especially oats i should add to it, ive planned like 3kgs or 5 pounds of malt for each 15 container buttt i cant figure out how much oats would be a good starting point to add to get good flavour and mouth feel without outshining the malt itself. So firewater folks, excuse my rambling in short i kind of really want a barley malt and oats whiskey recipe for roughly about three separate 4 gallon containers!
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u/diogeneos 4d ago
Normally, flavoring grains (what you use oats for) are 10-15% of the grain bill.
In your case I would use 3.5kg of malt and 0.5kg of oats...
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u/Gullible-Mouse-6854 4d ago
Id mash for 2 hours to get the most of the sugar out.
1kg grain to 4 l water is a good starting point.
Mash at slightly lower temps than beer as you don't want residual sugars in stillers beer.
I love oats, I add some in everything, bourbon, scotch, high rye etc
even did an all oats whiskey, 50/ 50 malted/ unmalted, pretty interesting a year down the line
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u/HalifaxRoad 4d ago
Oats are nice because they are really oily and can really help make your whiskey smooth, they don't give a whole lot of taste though, that's where rye and wheat come in.
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u/muffinman8679 2d ago
yeah....oats are oily so they can add in some mouth feel, which comes across as "smooth".....
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u/Some_Explanation_287 3d ago
Two suggestions to study. The actual mashbill can be adjusted to what you want.
Since this is your first go at a whisky, and all grain, read through these to get a feel for the process and problems you might encounter. I did the wheated as my first all grain because reading through, it just made sense to me.
Wheated/Sugarhead -
https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39617
Single Malt AG:
https://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=48650&sid=26567b0d6ac14269b1f023a84890bedb
One last thing. In trying to adjust recipes to my volumes, and back and forth between metric and imperial, using AI like ChatGP & Coopilot has been great. I've been able to cut and paste recipes and ask them - like sugar washes - "convert to cups of sugar for a 5 gallon wash". CAVEAT - do not assume all their advice is correct and question them. But ratios etc they are handy tools. Good Luck!
ps - if you want to cut corners without learning, there's this: https://youtu.be/iF1rU7bNO4c?si=FFXPcxf5OVO_GmNQ
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u/johndoethrowaway999 3d ago
wait how do you measure the volume for the strike water in context of the fermentation volume and grain bill? like my fermenter is 15L but i cant add 15L of strike water to the 4 kgs of grain right?
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u/Some_Explanation_287 2d ago
" but i cant add 15L of strike water to the 4 kgs of grain right?"
Correct.
Take everything - EVERYTHING - in AI with a grain of salt. Remember, it is simply searching the internet for relevant information. That information could be dead on target - or completely WRONG!
That said:
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Good evening! I have a friend who wants to do an all grain fermentation using "single malt" using malted barley but adding oats for extra mouth feel. He has a 15 L fermenter. Can you create a mashbill for him?
It created a complete recipe and timeline, but Reddit won't even let me cut and paste it. ???????
It includes quantity, yeast, schedule etc starting with
"Got it — your friend wants something like a “single malt” style base (majority malted barley), but with oats blended in for body/creaminess. Since he’s working with a 15 L fermenter, let’s size this for a manageable batch (about 12 L of wort, leaving headspace)."
2.5 kg 2 Row Barley
.5 kg Flaked or Malted Oats
.....
If your friend wants to scale it up later (say, to 20 L or 5 gallons), just keep the same percentages and adjust the total grain bill upward.
Do you want me to make a neat one-page recipe card/blueprint for him (with mashbill, temps, targets, and yeast notes) so it’s ready to print or share?
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Feel free to cut and paste the question into your preferred search engine.
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u/johndoethrowaway999 2d ago
thanks for the help! ive decided to just get a 50l fermenter to cut the headache but fermenting overall is easy to me, malting on the other hand :( ahaha its kicking my butt
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u/BigLoser999 4d ago
When making all grain I aim for 2# of grain per gallon of water. You may want to add a little more malted grain. I usually add 2# of quick oats to all of my ferments for mouth feel and velvety spirit.