Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

I don’t have your equipment but discovered (by accident) that soaking (for me over night) increased the SG dramatically...

What I would want to test is how step mashing affects the out come!!! Activate Beta-amylase then drop the temp and activate the Alpha-amylase...

coffe addict wrote:I've found the us05 to be more fruity and complex. The safspirit was quite one dimensional but lots of malt flavour.

I've actually used the same yeast in my AG, so im interested to see how it turns out. A fruity aspect to my whiskey has me intrigued!

Ezi,
I would be happy to try the step mashing if you could come up with the temps and rest times.
Have just ordered 50kg of Gladfield Distillers Malt and it should arrive by weeks end. Will be out of action for two weeks as we have Southerners coming up to enjoy the sunshine.
I could leave a soak overnight with the PID in control say set to 63deg C but not too sure how well the temp would distribute through out the mash with thr circulating pump off, may be ok with a thinner mash.

If you need more than an hour to fully convert gladfield distillers malt at 63c, perhaps all grain isn't for you.

orcy wrote:If you need more than an hour to fully convert gladfield distillers malt at 63c, perhaps all grain isn't for you.

For me it's a learning curve and can only go by articles I have read, I intend to try several variations over time and am enjoying the experience.

Personally am working through alternative methods to see what actually works... :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Last brews have finished at 1.010 not great this might be the time to test out the uvaferm 43. At moment Its only 5% if I can get it to .990 would give me 8%. Nothing to lose will add some...

I've found that the majority of the conversion happens in the first hr but as my grain stash is getting older it's dragging out and definitely benefits from a full three hr mash.
The fruity smells are predominantly in the wort, the whisky is still too young to know about a finish flavour profile.
My last mash also didn't finish as dry, wondering if it's cold related or pitch rate...

Added uvaferm43 and 15ish mins later is bubbling strong. Will be interesting to see what it finishs at :handgestures-thumbupleft:

tested 3 days later than again at 5 days after adding, it has only dropped to 1.006 was hoping for more oh well worth a try will run later in week :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Have now racked-off all 4 ferments, 1,3 and 4 finished at .980 but #2 finished at 1.100.
One thing that did happen with #2 was when I milled the grain a lid was jammed under the mill and about half the grain was over milled to almost flour so maybe this had an effect on the fermentation process. Maybe if the grain is milled too fine it effects the yeast and how it works.

When I can empty the fermenters will try some step mashing. I read an article that claimed 45 minutes is enough mash time so will try a quick one as well.

Never had one finish at .980 :-B generally you get bigger yield when you grind fine, seems nothing is the same 100% of the time.. :D

Good head on this beer


All grain heating up. Finished a 1.006

Flavour off the still is awesome choc and caramel notes. I reakon about 4l hearts at 65% not fantastastic but was not expecting miracles.. :D lots puking foam..

Something thats been bugging me. I now have rims/mash controller. I heated water to 60 then added grain and set controller to 63 thinking it would heat mash tun volume grain bed to 63c....it didnt :angry-banghead: mash tun volume sat at 55c temp leaving rims was 63c i think this played big part in poor conversion. This time will add grain at 68c should bring mash tun closer to 63c rater than 55c :twisted: also gunna have 5kg fresh grain . Mine is getting on..next week will be mashing again :D

Good work bluc!
Got a bit of foaming happening there... at least you can see it coming with the sightglass :laughing-rolling:
Would a protein rest when mashing help this much?

I dont know but def something I am gunna experiment with once I get my proper controller.. :-B crazy foam looked like boiler was full of whipped cream :laughing-rolling:

I actually thought it looks like the top of a lemon meringue pie!
I would like to try a protein rest in my next mash, but not totally sure how to easily achieve this using a esky tun without spending too much.

Here we go again

Lot 2 through rims.
22kg barret burston 5kg of which is fresh grain
3l/kg mash thickness
Strike water /temp 66l 68c
Added grain temp 61.5
Controller set to 64
Recirc started 8.20
after 5 hours brix at 19 og 1.078
Steady at 1.078
25l sparge water added at 70c.
Raised grain bed temp to 63.88 from 59c. Then kept sparging with cold water until collected an additional 30l @ gives a
total of 90l.
60l@ 14.5 brix 1.059 and 30 @ 8 brix 1.031. If I combine the two I get 90l at

"1.059 -1.031=0.028

Total volum is 90l

Liquid one 2/3 66.66%

liquid 2 1/3 33.3%

66.6% of .028 = 0.018

1.031 + .018=1.049 65% efficiency.."
Tomorrow I will mix two sample. 1:2 see how accurate that math is.
Soooo this time round I added grain @ 68degrees rather than 60 and had controller on 64 and I stired three times througout the mash, all for 1 extra point on final gravity. I found this chart .according to beersmith forum comes from a reputable source.

I did 3l/kg and came out 1brix low which is not terrible bout 0.003sg low.
so it must be my sparge letting me down. I sparged slow about 1h 15min to collect 90l i used combination warm and cold water 68 degrees but still came out under. Think I need to work things out accurately losses/ grain absorbtion etc, and sparge with all warm water.. :handgestures-thumbdown:

Just trying to get my head around how to work out efficiency... i cant seem to figure out how you got 65% out of 1.049...
Im sorta guessing you used that table to work out what you should of got in a perfect world , but when i do it i can only get 57.7% so i must be doing something wrong.