Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

if your trying to keep cost down try finding a secondhand 100 to 150L eski they are cheap and hold temp very well 4 hrs and there was stuff all drop in the temp and very good conversion as a result. a 100L pot ontop of a three ring burner for mash water heating would be very handy as my 50L keg isn't big enough so had to add 45L boiling and some cold to the tun to get strike temp right.

there's lots of different ways to skin a squirrel though

Will do coffee. Looks like my mash has finished on 1.022 wont get much from that, but the sugarheads will give me plenty..start 1.056 end 1.020 approx abv of 4.64 :cry:

Tested again today its the same running now. Chocolate malt really does taste like chocolate :-B i thought there might have been a hint but its like chewing on a cadbury chocolate bar.. :laughing-rolling:

Yield not down as much as i thought normally get 4.5l low wines when i stop at 20%abv with this i got 4.5 but went down to 16abv will now do my spirit run..

Choc whisky huh might be a new craze! Can you taste the caramalt?

Yea but the brew was a flop had no guts started at 65ish and fell away fast be lucky to get a litre I reckon :angry-banghead: oh well maybe better luck with the sugarheads..

Bluc, how long did you leave the wash before distilling? I think form my research only American Whiskey is fermented on the grain, I could be wrong :think:

5th day i distilled weird i collected down to 17% and got 4.5l but nothing in spirit run talking 400ml fores heads 400 hearts then cloudy tails. Maybe i had a leak i missed...

With whiskey you want a reasonable amount of the tails as they have alot of flavour, even so your yield does seem low.
As approx I ended up with about 15L @63% from 200L. Did you use a calc to work out what efficiency you got? From memory you had more % adjunct grain than I did which doesn't add anything for yield but bumps up the sg and fg readings.

Alot of commercial distilleries collect down below 1% on strip so they don't loose flavour or alcohol.

Is chocolate and caramalt adjunct? I was under the impression that adjuncts were more like oats corn/maize etc. Isnt caramalt and chocolate malt just roasted barley malt..

bluc wrote:Is chocolate and caramalt adjunct? I was under the impression that adjuncts were more like oats corn/maize etc. Isnt caramalt and chocolate malt just roasted barley malt..

Choc malt has no enzymes left after being kilned at a high temp, so it is classed as an adjunct. The caramalt would have bumped up your SG, it also doesn't have any enzymes. Its got me beat what has gone wrong with your mash :think: Did you to conversion test? Maybe try fermenting off the grain next time, then using the grain for a sugar head :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I have sugarhead going now looks normal, yea has me beat, the strip looked reasonable i got 4.5l but went lower abv than normal. But just nothing in spirit run straight from heads to tails. Literally one stubby between heads and cloudy tails..

Choc malt has no dp also no fermentable sugars left as a result of the roasting. With caramalt again no dp but not roasted as hot or as long so still has some fermentable sugars the amount will vary with different manufacturers and roast levels.
Both add to the sg and fg there was still enough regular malt for a reasonable yield.
Not sure what the issue is here fingers crossed for your next try.

Cheers coffee :handgestures-thumbupleft:

The all grain was a flop but boy the sugar head is good gen 2 and 3 awesome rich choc and caramel, gen 4 on oak and gen 5 just around the corner :handgestures-thumbupleft: :teasing-tease: just used enough backset to dissolve the sugar about 5l. 8kg grain 6 pilsner kilo each of caramalt and chocolate and 8kg sugar 60l total per gen :handgestures-thumbupleft:

After looking at the grain bill, I reckon it's going to be delicious :happy-partydance:
Good luck buddy and keep us up to speed with the progress and of course the final tasting.
Something special for the oak barrel I imagine :music-deathmetal:

I only read page 1 LOL

Hey Bluc,

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but when you do the sugar head for this, did you add sugar, backseat and fresh grains, or the spent grains as in the NGW?

Spent grain. Added some backset and sugar topped up with water and away it went. Did 5 gens. Looking forward to christmas have a flagon tuckked away..next all grain maybe sat week will be a peated choc scotch. Gunna leave out caramalt though.. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

bluc wrote:Spent grain. Added some backset and sugar topped up with water and away it went. Did 5 gens. Looking forward to christmas have a flagon tuckked away..next all grain maybe sat week will be a peated choc scotch. Gunna leave out caramalt though.. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Sounds interesting, peated choc scotch. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Might do the same with our AG once we mash it. Do you think a sugarhead could be started without any backset? We weren't looking at fermenting on the grain because we only have 23l fermenters. Too much wasted space :D

Yep for sure. I never use it for gen 1. Then once i do 5 gens i mix all the spirit together..balances the flavour across the generations..