Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Firstly hello from a mid term lurker - I've been reading and reading - and sipping away on commercial product. Trying to learn what I can before diving in.

Not sure if this is really a beginners question but anyway.

When making malt whiskies, how do you decide which malts and yeasts to work with - in order to hit a desired flavour profile?

+1....


Furthermore - when making your own Whisky, how do you influence the flavours so you get 'Chocolate' or 'Toffee' or any of the other flavours?
I understand it has something to do with the maturation (Oaking!?!) process...

Is there a guide or does anyone have any idea??

There's no shortcut to experience I'm afraid.

All my comments are made with single malt in mind.

You'll need to experiment with different mash/sparge protocols, yeast strains, still operation, cuts ranges, low-wines & high-wines policy, barrel policies, aging environment etc

Think of starting in that order, produce a beer with a similar character to the whisky you want to make. If you don't know what I mean then you'll just need to start the journey and gather the experience and knowledge as you go. Once you've done a few mashes and you know what you do and don't like your on your way.

Don't try to copy someone else, you'll fail. You're not them, you are you. Embrace your uniqueness.
There is no right or wrong way, just different ways to get there.

Have an end goal of characteristics in mind and then begin.

Cheers,

Mech.

My plan is to experiment until i find something i like as i slowly move/change the bwko recipe. still need to start though :))

Start with one of the AG recipes over in the mash tun section, based on a grain bill similar in style to something you like to drink/want to create.
viewforum.php?f=12

I don't know what it is you're trying to make so I can't offer any suggestions.

Once you know what it is you're trying to make, very little research is required to determine a few suitable yeast strains to start playing with.

Wait, wait, what?
You mean there are other yeasts apart from Lowans bread yeast?
:teasing-tease:

Thanks for the replies :-)

Finding a shortcut wasn't the goal - I'm one of those people that likes to know "how it works" in theory at least :-)

Same when I was learning to skydive - I just had to learn how that flipping parachute was packed - and was qualified to pack them before I had completed the jump course.

There's certainly no substitute for getting your knees in the breeze - or mash in the tun it seems :-)

I just wondered if there was some broad strokes "do X to get Y characteristic" kind of thing.

malt whiskies they get flavor from used oak barrels .

navarre wrote:I just wondered if there was some broad strokes "do X to get Y characteristic" kind of thing.

YES!+1 for those of you that have years under the belt it may seem needy but it would assist us with getting onto our journey...

TheMechwarrior wrote:There's no shortcut to experience I'm afraid.

All my comments are made with single malt in mind.

You'll need to experiment with different mash/sparge protocols, yeast strains, still operation, cuts ranges, low-wines & high-wines policy, barrel policies, aging environment etc

Think of starting in that order, produce a beer with a similar character to the whisky you want to make. If you don't know what I mean then you'll just need to start the journey and gather the experience and knowledge as you go. Once you've done a few mashes and you know what you do and don't like your on your way.

Don't try to copy someone else, you'll fail. You're not them, you are you. Embrace your uniqueness.
There is no right or wrong way, just different ways to get there.

Have an end goal of characteristics in mind and then begin.

Cheers,

Mech.

Thank you, I think.

When I drink beer (not very often) I choose the lemon or lime infused light beers. I find them refreshing and easy to drink ... problem I have is they make me feel bloated.
As I've just started my Whisky journey, trying to figure out what I like and don't like - I feel that they aren't necessarily in correlation! To explain myself, lemon beer (say Han Radler or Millers Chill) are nothing like the Whisky I like (examples of Whiskies I like: Balvenie Double wood, GlenLivet, Lagavulin or Limeburners)... Granted, these vary quite a bit from one another ...

Am I misinterpreting your comment above?

Not at all, you'll understand though once you start making all grain whisky and you taste your wort.

This talk of beer might have you confused, what whisky excites you? Find out what goes into it and anything else you can.
Your list is too broad a target to hit, but based on that I suspect you'll like just about any whisky you care to make...but first you need to start with anything, and go from there.

TheMechwarrior wrote:...but based on that I suspect you'll like just about any whisky you care to make...but first you need to start with anything, and go from there.

Hahaha thank you; I think you've hit the nail on the head! I NEED to start!