Scotch Whisky talk

[Heffers]

Just tip into boiling water and turn heat off, I dont keep it boiling.

No grinding, just use cracked corn from the stock feed shop, and I dont do malting.

It just a variant of UJSSM ;)

If I wanted to make a scoth whiskey instead of a bourbon whisky, would it just be a matter of replacing the corn and wheat with malted barly?

Cheers Heffers

[MacStill]

I've never gone down the scotch road Heffers, so cant really say, but if that's what they make scotch out of I cant see why it wouldnt work.

Cheers.

[reknaw]

With scotch you need the peat aspect as well don't you?

[Heffers]

Did a little bit of research this morning and there are a two different ways to make scotch. The one that I'll be going for is a single malt version. It is basically distilling a very rudimentary version of beer made from malted barley. The peat comes into the equation in some malt houses where they dry the semi-germinated barley using heat provided by burning peat. This gives a smokey flavour to the wort which can be carried over during distillation. ( this may or may not be entirely correct but it is what I took away from my research). My favourite drop of scotch (Lagavulin) uses malted barley that is dried this way.

The other way is a mixed grain version with similar ingredients to McStill's recipe in this thread.

[reknaw]

Good stuff, might have to try some of the stuff you make one day :)

I would be intersted in making a good scotch.

[Jimmy1]

Hey Heffers,
You are pretty well spot on with the way scotch is made. I was wondering myself if you could only use peat to smoke the malt or could you use a woodchip... say oak from an old whisky barrel. If you work out a good recipe I would love to hear it.
Jimmy

[Heffers]

The selection of malted barley available to micro brewers is fairly extensive. Unfortunately I'm not really sure where to start. Depending on how the barley was malted will depend on the colour and flavour of the wort that it will produce. Malted barley varies from very light (pilsners) to very dark (stouts or porters). I think that I'll start somewhere in the middle (golden ales) and go from there. I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks to McStill for splitting this off from your Whiskey thread and I apologise for hijacking.

Cheers, Heffers

[Jimmy1]

I use caramalt grains when steeping in my beers and they are pretty well in the middle of the spectrum, I think that they are brewcraft from the HBS. But they cost about $6 a kilo from where i get them but it never bothered me until now you have got me thinking about scotch.

[reknaw]

I can get barley for about 60 c a kg, I have read about malting barley but have never done it. Anyone inerested in having a go at it? :)

I might have to do a bit more reading on it.

[maheel]

Heffers if your interested in going all-grain trying for scotch it's much easier than you think,

i all-grain brew beer and have just ordered some more malted grain to try all-grain scotch and bourban.

i intend to mix the malted grain and unmalted corn, rice and barley to "extend" the malted grain. The enzemyes in the malted stuff will convert the extra grains.

the basic principle is to heat some water to about 65' C and soak your grain mix in it for about 1hr (or 1.5hrs etc) the trick is to ensure the water stays at that temp (or very close) the whole time. if you have a big esky, with a bung that can be your mash turn.

adding the peat smoke might be as easy as smoking some unmalted grain in a BBQ or weber, you just need to get the peat.

great brisbane local malted grain supplier is craftbrewer
http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/defa ... sPageSize=

here is a "smoked malt"
http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=809

a possible unmalted barley filler might be
http://berniesproduce.com/index.php?mai ... ucts_id=33

based on buying in bulk the grain will work out to about $1.50 a kilo (real malted grains start about $2kg in bulk)
http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=869

I have some malt i was going to do an experimental batch tomorrow night, i can do about 15L of all-grain "wash" on the stove upstairs :)
if you have time Google BIAB brew in a bag http://www.biabrewer.info/ a very simple and cheap method to go all grain.

[maheel]

spud that barley your buying do you have the "stats" on it ? on the bag does it have any sort of information about carbs / protien etc?

as brewers we need high carbs low protein. Some feed is high Protein.

i get my malt on the weekend :)

one issue is beer wash is normally low ABV 5-7% which means yields are lower, but if it's good.....
a 23L wash takes about 5-6KG of grain normally

[reknaw]

No idea on the stats for it, I got the last bag from the stock feed place. There is nothing on the bag apart from "barley", I can ask but I don't think they'll know. I know it's intended for stock feed though, they have a lot of different grains. They had some stuff I had never heard of, I thought about getting a bag and throwing it in a wash to see what it turned out like.

I'll get a price list next time I go out there, mollasses is going up shortly, apparently it's going to be a big price increase (nothing new there I suppose)

[Heffers]

Thanks Maheel, that's given me a few places to start. I was out at Carftbrewer the other day and was very impressed at their operation there.

I want to go down the single malt road instead of the mixed grain. I think that I'll have plenty of research ahead of me starting with all grain mash beer brewing I think (seeing as how that's basically what the wort is anyway).

Will be watching this space intently to see how your trial goes.

Cheers, Heffers

[Frank]

My favourite drop of scotch (Lagavulin) uses malted barley that is dried this way.

Hey Heffers just a quick note to say that one day I too hope to make Islay Whiskey substitute from home distilling and I agree that Lagavulin is a VERY fine way of spending $. Good luck and please keep us all posted on your results...Re flavouring (if its at all part of your experiment here) have you looked at the Still Spirits Whiskey Profile Kit?

[maheel]

anyone got the skinny on some real "peat" (know where to get some?)

thinking i could smoke some grain in the BBQ and add it to my all grain experiments ?

[Heffers]

My favourite drop of scotch (Lagavulin) uses malted barley that is dried this way.

Hey Heffers just a quick note to say that one day I too hope to make Islay Whiskey substitute from home distilling and I agree that Lagavulin is a VERY fine way of spending $. Good luck and please keep us all posted on your results...Re flavouring (if its at all part of your experiment here) have you looked at the Still Spirits Whiskey Profile Kit?

I have seen it but never invested. I have heard some good comments about it so I think that it may be one of my next purchases to play with while I'm researching the best way to go about making a single malt of my own.

How about you Frank, have you had a play around with the profile kit? If so, what were your thoughts.

Cheers, Heffers

[Frank]

Hey Heffers, no I haven't bought a profile kit yet but I certainly intend to ;) . FYI, you can find an online copy of the recipe book which comes with the kit (eg www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/.../SS%20W ... 20Book.pdf) and it makes for interesting reading regarding choices etc. I've also read MANY favourable web forum reviews regarding the kit and most of its ingredients (eg Still Smart forum). At the moment, I am trying to work out what type of whiskey I want using flavours I've bought mainly on speculation/ LHBS advice. I've tried them individually and mixed them myself (eg I found the SS Smokey malt whiskey to be just smokey and too strong on its own but put a few ml of this flavour with, say, an Edwards Greens Creek whiskey flavour spirit mix and its a winner). Anyway, you'll know more when I do :)

[Sam.]

Its been a while since this thread was acitve but has anyone tried this scotch recipe yet? Very interested because I love my scotch 8-)

I have used the whisky profile kit a lot to make their version of Glen Feddich, it is actually very close to the real thing surpirisingly. Also in the kits (and you can buy it seperate) is a bottle of Peat flavouring which is quite potent. If you were to make a scotch you could always add this later for that hint of peat.

[R-sole]

I have made plenty of UJSM style scotchish spirit.

I use a mixture of barley, malt barley, wheat and triticale. Bourbon Girl's best mate is a cheap scotch drinker and i make it for her. i've never bothered with peat but she still prefers it to store bought scotch.

If you want to add peat, do a search for Harry's Essence of Peatreeek on AD or Yahoo.

[maheel]

i have some grain crushed ready to go to try a all grain batch

50% malted barley
50% un-malted

gotta pull my finger out.... and get it mashed