Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

I was at a mates yesterday and was chatting about whiskey and what not and he said he had this fancy grain called spelt that he'd like me to have a crack at making whiskey from so I said yeah why not :laughing-rolling:

Anyway turns out it's some type of old school wheat cross triticalie.

Now I've done sweet FA ag (1 pretty unsuccessful try) but thought it would be best to give this stuff a bit better treatment than a sugarhead but really can't be stuffed malting any so I was toying with the idea of using packet enzymes. I haven't found any info on the forum about spelt so I went googling and found a bit about spelt beer but the mashing info gave me a headache :laughing-rolling: so I think I'll base it on some info on here about wheat whiskey.

I'm not sure how well this will work if at all and if I get any real flavor out of a unmalted spelt but I'll give it a crack.

As said above I'm a complete noob at ag stuff so any hints or tips welcome :handgestures-thumbupleft:

The most affordable way to buy enzymes is when it's in grain!
If it was me I'd be doing 2/3 spelt with 1/3 malted barley and mash as per the advice in the all grain threads.

Spelt is fantastic in bread alot more flavour than wheat which for many generations has been selectively cultivated to produce more gluten and more carbs. So I suspect you're looking at a tasty drop but if it doesn't produce enough flavour it'll make an excellent sipping vodka!
Enjoy.

Would the barley flavor take over? I really want this first one to be 100% spelt so I can get a good idea of what flavor it's gonna produce. As a raw grain it's got a bit of a nutty taste that I think might be interesting.

Hi, 1st post!

Do you have malted or unmalted grain?

Quick look at bestmalz spelt malt specs - diastatic power is not listed at all. For beer they recommend up to 60% of grain bill.

I don't think you can use this grain for 100% of the bill and get any conversion without adding enzymes as you said or adding another grain with high diastatic power such as a pale/pilsner/other base malt.

G'day shmuk, welcome.

Thanks for the input. It's unmalted cause I can't be bothered malting. I found info somewhere saying its diastatic power is slightly higher than wheat but still not good enough (even if it was malted grain I was using) . I guess I'm trying to cheat a little :handgestures-thumbupleft:

How about popping into the welcome centre and telling us a bit about yourself, sounds like you have some brewing knowledge which is a good start :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I could never be bothered to malt my own grain either to be honest

You’re right, I should. Spent a long time lurking around reading through this forum!

Go enzymes if you want to do 100% and dont want to malt..someone did 100% rye and couple have done 100% corn look to those threads if ya need to find enzymes. I know pintoshine from hd does enzymes but you would need to import..

If you were to use a distillers malt or any very light malt I doubt it would take over but there's only one way to know for sure.
If money isn't really a consideration then buy enzymes but last time I looked into it the cost put me off. Plus I quite like barley :laughing-rolling:

Not much Beta Amylase about, but Alpha you can (seemingly) get from anywhere ... Google shows several options, but perhaps check your local HBS shop...

Funny how they only come in 4g packets...

From one of the links:
"Alpha Amylase Enzyme

To use this -
Make up a soup with 15 L of water and 4 kg of starch.
Add the 4 g sachet of Alpha Amylase and keep at 50-60 degrees C overnight and your starch will be converted to sugar.
Measure using a refractometer or simply taste for sweetness.
To be used with Distiller's Yeasts when starch is used in your recipe."

So this'll help you figure out how many sachets you need...

Keep this thread going! I'd like to do more 'off-the-beaten-track stuff as well, like Millet.

Cheers Ezy

So what yeast do you all recon I should try with this?

woodduck wrote:Cheers Ezy

So what yeast do you all recon I should try with this?

Mate I’m keen for you to have a crack! Can you do 2? One 100% Spelt with enzymes & one with a Barley/Spelt ...


That’s not to malign you or the subject, I’m just keen to see us “expand” beyond our current view!
Just think on that Goat farmer that’s using the Whey to make Whisky!!!

I was thinking of trying both. It would be interesting to see if the barley does impart much flavor and if it's better or worse that the enzymes. I personally think the one with barley will probably taste better but who knows?

Been trying to find a vid of a boutique distillery in NY where they do 100% of a variety of cereals (grains) and they (obviously) do commercial quantities so everything went in by the bags, including the enzymes!

I want to say Koval but I’m not sure that’s correct...

I've got some of Pintoshines enzymes floating about from some experiments, they work well on unmalted grains, if you get stuck let me know. I would try US-05 or American whiskey yeast, they should let the grain flavour shine. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Cheers Tas :handgestures-thumbupleft:

https://youtu.be/BOIG0pK0sIU

Think this is the vid (appart from a lengthy intro) - they start mixing things @ 3 minute mark... not very informative, but interesting nonetheless less!