Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Hello fellow distillers,
I'm about to have a crack at making a AG single malt for the first time.
Could somebody with AG knowledge just confirm that my recipe/method is correct.

12kg total grain (8kg 2 row 4kg heavy peated) 40lt wash
20lt strike water at 75 degrees
Mash at 64 Degreas for 90 mins with 2x4g packs of enzyme (in esky)
Sparge at least twice for a total of 40lt in fermenter
Chill to pitching temp and add yeast (Safspirit Malt Whiskey yeast)

Does this sound Correct?

I'd go a bit more strike water maybe 30 litres. 12kg of grain into 20 litres will be a thick mush.
Others may have a different opinion.
Good luck with it :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Thanks Markus, 30lt strike it is.

I was debating weather or not to ferment on the grain, the more i think about it the more i like the idea.
Is there any disadvantage to fermenting on grain?

Thinking of doing the same ordered grain couple days ago.. have heard fermenting on grain increases tannins whick increases astringency but i think that is more from a beer making perspective. Not sure if it applies to distilling..

I have read posts by 2 commercial distillers on this forum that state they brew on grain.
One said that if improves flavor, he makes American whisky so i don't know if that has any bearing on things.

Why would you not ferment on the grain, you want as much flavour in the was as you can get.
I always thought that was the whole point of generations with the BWKO, CFW and other such grain based sugar washes.

Seems like a waste of money as well to not fully use all the grain you can.

Having said that, beer makers, from what I've seen (and things could be or have changed) they extract the wash from the grain, hence the 'Sparging' of the grains... before fermentation!

Your right scythe, every sugarhead I've ever done is on grain and I haven't had any issues.
The only reason I was thinking of sparging is because its mentioned in all grain recipes.
No sparging, I'll brew on grain.

EziTasting wrote:Having said that, beer makers, from what I've seen (and things could be or have changed) they extract the wash from the grain, hence the 'Sparging' of the grains... before fermentation!

almost correct...sparging before the boil to get as much fermentable sugar as possible out of the grain and into the brew kettle, which is then boiled to concentrate and reduce volume. When the grain/husk is boiled it makes the resulting beer very astringent - undesirable in a beer.

And grain is kept away from the ferment as this is a major cause of infection in beer brewing.

I started this recepie yesterday, ended up using a 12.5kg grain bill for a 40lt wash
7.5kg 2row barly malt
5kg Bairds heavy peated
2 x 3g enzyme packs
All grain ground to a flour

I mashed at 63° for 8hrs
My SG1.110 so i added about another 10lt of water to end up with 50lt and a SG1.080
Pitched whisky yeast at 30°

It will be interesting to see how it turns out, i was only aiming for a SG1.060
Do i need to reduce the total gain bill or reduce mash time to get a SG1.060 next time?

what SG does the all grain finish at? 990 or a little higher?

just looking at that wash calculator page :-D

Higher I'm hoping, it's currently a 10% wash if it finishes at 1.000.
I don't know where the grain finishes as I've only ever used it in suger heads before.

The malts are -
https://www.beerco.com.au/product/malt/ ... istillers/
http://www.bairds-malt.co.uk/Bairds-Mal ... PeatedMalt

I just had one finnish at 1.022 running now not sure if it fermented out properly or if lots unfermentable will get better idea from the yield me thinks. Second attempt at all grain .first was a total flop... i did 8kg grain in 25l total volume 35l fermented on the grain..

Thanks for the info bluc.
I have been following your thread with great interest.
Did you let yours mash for so long purely to get the SG up where you wanted it?

That was the idea but it was a flop. I rekon i will be lucky to get a litre..

Crazy krausen

http://s1135.photobucket.com/user/Chatc ... sort=3&o=0

http://s1135.photobucket.com/user/Chatc ... sort=3&o=1

I'll probably get the chance to run this tomorrow, 4plates and I'll try to run it off in the 80% abv.

cols, how did you go ?

Didn't get to run this wash till yesterday, it went really well.
Run with 4plates fast, kept the take off 85-90%.
I ended up with 8 x 300ml jars before switching to pot mode and running out the tails.

I kept 5 jars, the fist one was early heads and the last one was tails.
The tails tasted much better than sugarhead tails, alot of flavour and the musty taste held off.

The spirit is strong malty tasting with little peat flavour, just have to wait 12mths and see how it develops.
I have 3lt at 65% with ex-bwko american oak at 7g per liter.



I've taken some backset from this run and watered down my sugar head scotch feints with it. I'm hoping this will impart the same flavour into the run...I'll report back

cheers mate,
any smokyness coming through yet ? I noticed you had ~40% of the heavy peated Bairds malt in your mash. I am big fan of heavily peated islay scotch, so trying to replicate something similar.
thanks,
RS

Hi RS,
Hardly any smokeyness in what came off the still, from everything I've read it takes time to come through.
I'll do a test taste every couple of months and put a post in this thread.
Are you planning on making a malt wkisky?

The spirit has more flavor, is slightly smoother (for new make) and dosent have that sugar sweet taste compared to a sugerhead.