My all grain malt whiskey experiment.

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My all grain malt whiskey experiment.

Postby ed9362 » Tue Dec 19, 2017 1:35 pm

So I thought I would let you guys know what I have been working for the last few weeks.

I decided that I would like to have a go at making a scotch style malt whiskey. I decided on all grain because why not.
I didn't want to spend up on brewing equipment so I made do with what I had.

I insulated my pure distilling 30 litre boiler with some stuff from Clark rubber and filled it up to 23 litres. I put 3 kilos of distillers malt and 2 kilos of peated malt into a grain bag and once the water in the boiler was up to 69 degrees I threw the grain into the boiler.

I let it sit there for and hour and a half then pulled the grain out rinsed it off with some water from the kettle and i boiler my wort for ten minutes.

Once the boil was finished I threw the whole lot into a 20l container i got from bunnings and sealed it up real tight.

I did this twice and now both containers are sitting in the shed waiting to be fermented which I will hopefully do next week.

I was surprised how straight forward the process is and how little equipment you really need.

I'm not expecting a huge yield from what I got but it will be all grain malt whiskey which has been a goal for a while.

Maybe we need a no chill BIAB recepie in the tried and proven section.
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Re: My all grain malt whiskey experiment.

Postby bluc » Tue Dec 19, 2017 1:58 pm

What is your gravity before fermenting? 5kg seems a bit light on..
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Re: My all grain malt whiskey experiment.

Postby ed9362 » Tue Dec 19, 2017 3:05 pm

1.058.

Yeah next time i will try more grain. This was an ssxperiment to see how I would go with the equipment I had.
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Re: My all grain malt whiskey experiment.

Postby crow » Tue Dec 19, 2017 3:34 pm

Fermented right out you may get 8.8% pretty darn OK in my books.
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Re: My all grain malt whiskey experiment.

Postby ed9362 » Tue Dec 19, 2017 4:19 pm

I hope it goes right out. I thought I could only expect it to go to about 1.014 or so. Hope it goes lower
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Posts: 197
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equipment: Pure distilling reflux still kit. A few extra fermenters
2" pot still

Re: My all grain malt whiskey experiment.

Postby bluc » Tue Dec 19, 2017 6:01 pm

Cool. What be interested to hear final gravity and hearts collection volume. I only kept a smidge over 2l 45l wash sg about 1.067 fg 1.015ish.
Maybe my ferments are just crap and need to look at temp control etc
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equipment: 2" pot with 2" shotty 400mm long 5x 1/2" on a t500 boiler.
50l keg boiler 4" still mount 4" sight glass 1" drain..
4 plate 4" bubbler, 600mm packed section

Re: My all grain malt whiskey experiment.

Postby crow » Tue Dec 19, 2017 11:14 pm

Should get to around .990 unless unfermentable carbs and holding it higher. .990 would give you a yield of just over 8.5% , pretty respectable
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Re: My all grain malt whiskey experiment.

Postby ed9362 » Sun Dec 24, 2017 1:42 pm

So I have progressed my all grain experiment.

I put both of my no chill cubes into fermenters along with a packet each of still spirits whiskey yeast(guy at the HBS assured me it isnt anything like turbo yeast). I wacked them in my temp control fridge and in about 3 days the hydrometer was reading .990 on both which should give be about 8%. I was a bit impatient and run it today after it had only finished fermenting a few days ago. During the stripping run I had huge problems with puking. I ended up throwing some distilling conditioner in and using my power controller to drop the heat to about 50%. At the end of the first run i had about 4l at about 35%.

I think I will let the other one sit for a few weeks before I run it. I'm planning on doing a few more washes until I have enough low wines for a spirit run.

I was thinking I will make up some more wort cubes and just throw each one onto the trub from the previous ferment(does this sound ok)
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2" pot still

Re: My all grain malt whiskey experiment.

Postby wynnum1 » Sun Dec 24, 2017 7:48 pm

Put it in the fridge for a week to settle if too big a quantity of yeast is used i think it can strip flavor but reusing the yeast is a good idea or do a small batch and pitch into a bigger batch like a yeast starter.
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Re: My all grain malt whiskey experiment.

Postby bluc » Mon Dec 25, 2017 6:48 pm

Ed do you temp control your ferment? I have had one down to 1.008 but that was with american whiskey yeast malt yeast lowest I have had is 1.015 8-}
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4 plate 4" bubbler, 600mm packed section

Re: My all grain malt whiskey experiment.

Postby ed9362 » Tue Dec 26, 2017 7:34 am

I don't usually for whiskey washes but this one I did. Usually the temp controlled fridge is reserved for beer but I had a gap so I put it in
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2" pot still

Re: My all grain malt whiskey experiment.

Postby wynnum1 » Tue Dec 26, 2017 9:35 am

Temp control is probably a good idea as far as keeping the yeast happy but i think it needs a higher temperature then when making beer but not heat wave temperature but at a higher temperature is going to ferment quicker then beer at a lower temperature.
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Re: My all grain malt whiskey experiment.

Postby coffe addict » Thu Dec 28, 2017 9:42 am

It's important to remember that the final gravity is restricted mostly by the grain that goes into the wash.
Anything darker than a distillers or pilsener will keep your final gravity higher.
I usually added some brown ale malt and some caramalt to my otherwise ale malt ferments which has unfermentable sugars as a result of the kilning to achieve a different flavour profile. As a result my fg is usually around 1.015 with a starting gravity around 1.070

With straight distillers malt .990 is easily achievable. Brewers friend has calculators for this.
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Re: My all grain malt whiskey experiment.

Postby coffe addict » Thu Dec 28, 2017 9:45 am

With using distillers yeast the temp is less critical and through most of the non summer months doesn't need any temp control.
I try to run all my whiskey in the cooler months and This time of year is the perfect time to run rum as it likes it hotter
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