Oats aren’t an easy grain to work with. They’re relatively low in starch, which means a lower yield. On top of the yield issue, oat mash, it turns out, is a lot like a bowl of oatmeal: really sticky and gloopy. It’s impossible to separate the solids from the sugary liquid in an oat mash, so everything has to go in the still—which causes burning in certain types of stills.
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On the other hand, if you can figure out how to work with oats, they impart a pleasant, grainy aroma and creamy texture to the final spirit. That’s something a handful of modern distilleries have picked up on in recent years (more on that in a minute), but it was also known by historical distillers, especially in Ireland.
Oats were also once a common flavoring grain in single pot still whiskey, a distinctly Irish style that fell by the wayside during the 20th Century, but has begun to experience a revival more recently. Pot still whiskey is defined not by the use of a pot still, but by the use of unmalted barley along with malt, an innovation that arose as a response to a 1785 malt tax. For added flavor, small amounts of wheat and oats were also used. Those grains gave rise to a style of whiskey that was uniquely Irish, with a different range of flavors and a creamier texture than malt whiskeys.
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