To kick in on this thread, We've been trying a 100% oat beer experiment using some ideas we ran into from the reenactor community, working some "kitchen" small beer recipes from the 18th century (including ginger beer, which I HIGHLY recommend). We're trying a 1 gal experimental batch using organic rolled oats, lalvin K1-V116 wine yeast, molassas, a tbl of apple cider vinegar, and several sprigs of rosemary in lieu of hops. We simmered the ingredients together for about 10 minutes, then allowed to cool and pitched the yeast, then we sat the must out, covered with a cloth but with no fermentation lock, overnight, then strained the stuff twice and put it into a fermentation bucket. At that point our sg was 1.050. We let it ferment for two days at room temperature (no real choice here, we live on a boat. The cellar is VERY damp), at which point the SG was around 1.022 giving an abv of about 3.68%, not unusual for a historic small beer. At this point we tasted a bit. The flavors were mild, slightly floral, and very pleasant, though the mouth feel was slightly viscous(carbonation might really help with that).
We did a test bottle at that point with a little sugar to spur carbonation and returned the rest to the fermenter (it still seems to be fermenting, but at a very slow rate). Will try the test bottle in a day or so.
I don't know if the rosemary has any enzymatic effect on the mash or not. Anybody?
Will let you guys know.