I’ve been distilling sugar washes for about 18 months now, with some really good results with gins & whiskey’s, but I was keen to try my hand at all grain whiskey. So I did what a lot of us inexperienced distillers do, I read everything I could on this forum and YouTubed the crap out of the subject. So a big thanks to those that have provided their experience here on the forum.
My Grain Bill:
70% (6.67Kg) Malted corn
16% (2.134kg) malted barley
14% (1.87kg) malted rye
Equipment
60L Brewzilla gen 4 to do the mashing.
Brew bag (inside the malt pipe)
5 Star milk an double element boiler, with Vevor football pot still head
Method:
Ground all grains to what appeared to me to be of a good size & consistency.
Filled the BZ with 40L of water & adjusted the pH to 5.5.
Heated water to 72/73 deg C, added the corn & was intending to mash for 30 minutes. However as the corn was still pretty tough to chew, I let it run a a little longer
Lowered the temp to 64 deg C, & added all the other grains
Ran for a few hours as I had problems holding the temp at 64 deg. (Originally I was trying to use the PID system on the BZ but ditched this as it struggled to either reach the temps I set or blasted right past them.)
Tried to do an iodine test. Couldn't tell if it was converting (need more practice), so I took a sample & used a hydrometer (adjusting for the temp).
I ended up with 33L of wort in the fermenter at an SG of 1.067, so overall I was relatively happy for my first attempt.
Using Angle DADY I pitched 33 grams of yeast
After 3 days the pH dropped to 4.4 & a gravity of 1.012, so I pitched another 10 grams of yeast & half a dozen oyster shells (not sure why, I think I panicked:))
Kept an eye on over the next few days but the pH never changed & after 15 days the FG was 1.011, giving a potential ABV of 7.35% so I decided it was time to run it.
Finished with 1.55L at 60% ABV, sitting on 15 grams of charred oak cubes for at least the next 3 months.
Very happy with my first attempt but well aware there is some room for improvement.
Lessons learned:
Don’t put the brew bag inside the malt pipe as it restricted the flow of the re circulation pump & makes it an utter bastard to drain the liquid out of it.
Use the cooling coil correctly (that came with the BZ. (I didn’t lower the temp low enough & had to wait ages before I could pitch my yeast).
Learn more about the use if the Brewzilla (I have since done a number of trial run’s to sort out the PID & can report it’s working well)
Although I thought my corn soaked, Zac’s Cornflake wash whiskey was good, I’m very impressed with the flavour of whats aging in my jar & I don’t think I’ll be going back to sugar washes for my whiskey’s/bourbons’s.
I would be very keen to get some feedback from forum members on any suggestions or changes I should make before attempting my second all grain mash.
Again thanks to everyone on here for their experience & support (through the information found in the forum)