Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

bluc wrote:Absolutely it can. My last all grain (choc scotch) failed but sugarheads were good :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thanks mate, well there is my next sugarhead coming up :happy-partydance:

bluc wrote:I have 45l at 1.078 is that gvravity ok to ferment? Not to high? Still sparging smells like choc and smoke and cigats in here :D

1078 is fine. Thats right around a nice belgian triple.

Awesome will get a starter happening..

What yeast you using bluc?

Safspirit malt

Very interested to see how this goes. I have a bunch of base malt, and a ton of toffee malt, and some random adjuncts im keen to mix together into a throw together malt whisky.

The sugarheads i made last time round were real nice have high hopes for it. This time is peated and bit less choc

I done 50 litres with 12.5 kgs today, sparged with about 10-12 litres and ended up with around 50 litres at 1060
A bit low but still happy.
My starters after an hour or so.
Safale us05

That was what I was aiming for, about 8%. Very happy with the outcome. The big distilleries seem to prefer about 8%

markus wrote:I done 50 litres with 12.5 kgs today, sparged with about 10-12 litres and ended up with around 50 litres at 1060
A bit low but still happy.
My starters after an hour or so.
Safale us05

Lot better than my effort 16kg(+1kg adjunct) 45l at 1.07 ish

Have you considered a sugarhead with the spent grain then blending the two runs?

Already done :handgestures-thumbupleft: wont be blending them. Looking forward to some all grain whiskey

orcy wrote:Have you considered a sugarhead with the spent grain then blending the two runs?

:scared-eek:


I am going to run my feints with my next NGW though

I just picked up a 30L french oak barrel. Just working out the most efficient way to fill it. Was thinking that sugarheads on each mash run would double my output without sacrificing too much flavour.

Then every 12 months i could bottle half and refill with 100 percent malt whisky. Kinda like a single barrel solera.

Hah, now there’s a plan! Still trying to get ourselves sorted with our mashing system... but then, all bets are off!

Were you get a french 30l barrel?

Easybarrels in victoria. My sour beer group organised a group buy. About 40 percent off retail.

orcy wrote:Easybarrels in victoria. My sour beer group organised a group buy. About 40 percent off retail.

Next time, post that in here... I might even put in for myself! With permission of the mods, that is!?!

EziTasting wrote:

orcy wrote:Easybarrels in victoria. My sour beer group organised a group buy. About 40 percent off retail.

Next time, post that in here... I might even put in for myself! With permission of the mods, that is!?!

It was something that cane together very quickly on facebook. But i can ask if they will do it again, ir better yet one of the mods or admins coukd approach the company and ask for a deal. If i remember we only needed to buy 10 units of any size, or 7 of one size to get a discount.

Tldr:
Strike water 85.3c dumped into mash tun temp 69.6c. Added grain stirred till temp 64c sealed up.2 hours later another quick stir. Sealed up for another 3hrs.after 5hrs temp 61c. Batch sparged to 1.010. approx. 65l wort collected 45l at 1.078. and a further 20-25l at unknown gravity.


I thought I would share more detailed info on my seemingly successful mash yesterday.
I followed the rule of thumb mashing guides that were provided by coffee addict and tipsy and stuff I have read elsewhere round the internet.. There is probably a million different ways of doing things but this is what I did. Rules are as follows:
Final volume 4l/kg /Strike water 3l/kg(trying 2.4l/kg) water for strike water/strike temp 5 degrees c above target/grist 1.2mm mill gap./ 63c rest, sparge to 1.010.
I wasn’t super strict following the guides but I used them for the most part. I have only a smallish tun so went for a slightly thicker mash at 2.4l/kg so I could get more grain into my mash tun. Here is a pic of how I had it set up.




Transferring water while retaining heat is not something I have done successfully yet so for the next bit I flew by the seat of my pants.
I heated the water up and once it got to 85.3 I figured this would give me enough head room for temp drop when transferring the water. Open the valve and added 40.8l plus an extra 3l for the dead space in my tun under the perforated bottom. Once all the water was added the temp was 69.6c. I stirred the grain in thoroughly making sure there was no clumps of grain(dough balls). I stirred for approx. 10mins and the temp was now 64c. I put the lid on and left it alone for 2hrs. I opened it and gave it another quick stir and the temp dropped to 63c. The lid went back on and I left it for another 3hrs as I got unexpected visitors. After 5hrs I took a small sample and it was very sweet so I knew conversion had happened. Didn’t take an iodine test just went with my gut feeling.
I drained off about 8l of wort which I poured back in the top of mash tun while continuing to drain into a second bucket. To give myself some room to batch sparge I drained about 15l of wort out which went into my fermenter. Since my boiler outlet was right over the mash tun I tried just opening the valve and let it run in, but I thought it was not doing a very good job so I put about 8l water into a bucket and dumped it in the top I did this 3 times. Kept collect wort till it was at 1.010 coming out bottom of mash tun. I have a keg boiler so I split off first 45l into one fermenter and the dregs about 20l went into a second fermenter.
The first fermenter I have a gravity of 1.078 which I will keep separate as an all grain scotch.
The second fermenter I forgot to grab a gravity as I was racing to finish to try and beat a storm. So I had 20l wort would have been lower proof and I added 7kg sugar and a 10l bucket full of the spent grain then topped up to 60l. I will do 5 gens of sugar heads adding 7-8kg sugar each time which I will melt with backset. Really looking forward to trying this once it is finished and sitting on oak for a good while..