Irish whiskey

[bt1]

I'm prepared to give blood to any one who can find a a good bill/recipe and process for an irish whiskey.

not keen on essenses at all.

Love to find a grain bill, and process especially for a decent drop.

I lust for a Jamesons or Tully...

cheers
bt1

[crow]

:text-+1: or better still something that might resemble Bushmills malt , Seive Foys or Middletons these are my favorites love to make something that can even slightly resemble any of these . The only thing I do know is all these are triple distilled and aged in sherry casks as seems to be the method for all Irish whiskey

[cereal_killer]

If that offer of blood falls short, I have a 4 month old first born son to put on the table....

[Frank]

:think:
The sherry casks are optional as far as I know and I thought triple distillation was more to do with charge volumes than some kind of 'desireable purity of spirit' angle'? Dont get me wrong, I love Middletons too (its outrageously smooth and tasty) and the Irish made the original Whiskey but....

Anwyay I read on HD that

Irish whiskey ...uses sprouted barley dried in a closed kiln which is then mixed with unmalted barley before being ground into a grist. This can be said to account for the lightness of Irish whiskey and its 'non peaty' taste compared to Scotch.

So.... seems as though the grain mix may be 'the key' afterall....good luck :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[crow]

:think:
The sherry casks are optional as far as I know and I thought triple distillation was more to do with charge volumes than some kind of 'desireable purity of spirit'

If the Irish Distillies are to be believed they will tell you that in 1789 the world export standard for toxification and inpurities in whiskey changed . the regulators in Ireland disagreed with the change and so all Irish distillers stuck with the old standards making there whiskey the purest in the world . I myself rarely if ever get a hangover from it , other forms of whiskey nearly kill (next morning) me for instance the next closest in flavor IMO is Canadian and oh wow that stuff nearly puts me in the horrors :ymsick:

[bt1]

blokes,

other than the grain bill rough proportions and a little gleened from promo distillery web site still looking for a process..it can't be as simple as just a grain bill difference and using old ex sheery casks surely?

Any advise on process most welcome

cheers
bt1

[zwagerman9]

Best I can recommend is SS Whiskey Profile Kit, or Just ingredients for jameson off the recipe.
Personally I tend to only make up the Jameson recipe as I think its the best of the recipes and close enough on a double or triple distilled TPW.
But on the note of buying the ingredients you could probably just buy the kit at same cost. Not a terrible wasted dollar.

Cheers,

Rae

[crow]

blokes,

other than the grain bill rough proportions and a little gleened from promo distillery web site still looking for a process..it can't be as simple as just a grain bill difference and using old ex sheery casks surely

Don't know but it might be and as it is my main reason for learning to distill this will be one thread I'll keep tabs on hoping it ends with a tried and proven

[Frank]

what about this one then???? http://homedistiller.org/grain/wash-grain/recipes

basically it says

"Irish Whiskey - 10 parts malted Barley, 7 parts fresh barley grain, 1 part fresh Oats, 1 part fresh Rye, 1 part fresh Wheat. Grist & proceed. "

As an aside, does anyone know (yep, I am also interested :laughing-rolling: ) what sort of cuts/fractions methodology applies when triple distilling through a potstill.???

[crow]

I don't know but it stands to reason there'd be less wastage by just leaving all cuts to the last run :D

[zwagerman9]

Maybe DWGW with SS Jameson recipe. Thats my next test now actually, give me 2 weeks and ill review. Lol

[R-sole]

You'd make cuts on the second run and then improve them on the third. That's the poit of the extra run, to concentrate the bits you missed, at the expense of flavour.

[crow]

yeah Z9 but the essences only seem to get ya so close regardless of the base , seems almost deliberate . I have used them a couple of times to try to change the profile of rums I wasn't totally happy with , sorta worked still wasn't totally happy with it though :roll:

[bt1]

ok,

Kinda made my mind up about the grain bill and process. Having toured multiple Irish whiskey web sites seems we'll fall into three distinct types.

A moslty fresh grain (un malted) whiskey with minor malted grain content
A mostly malted grain bill with minor un malted grain content ( unpeated of course)
A blend of the two
It's intresting to see that Irish distillers don't claim to be all things to all ppl...they simply say where they sit in the above mix.

I'm keen to head down the first path mainly fresh grain path for a lighter style.

For process, I'm settled on a strip run, second run with cuts, final rutheless cuts run.
Timber will be very lightly toasted for reduced colour American oak pre soaked in Sherry for 1 month
Blending water will be pre boiled and cooled rain water

Grain bill looks like
1.5lt fresh plain barley
1lt malted Pale Ale type barley ( low colour/EDB)
250gm Wheat (for flatness/earthy front of palate)
250gm Rye (depth/ some spice)
All ground coursely, looking at same ratio 10% change overs each wash.
4lt inverted sugar
Hot start with sugars straight onto grain bed to maximise any conversion/soften, then cool

Yeast will be a proper Larger yeast, yep that's right slow and steady type to run at about 9c- 12c ...Hey it's winter...to maximise exposure to grains and flavour development..expecting 3-4 weeks plus for fermentation.

Yeast choice
http://www.fermentis.com/FO/pdf/HB/EN/Saflager_S-23_HB.pdf

Right I'm set...would like to know where other folk will head so we can compare notes.

Let's make sure as Crow said we get this thread to the tried and proven...one day...

Cheers
bt1

[bt1]

Hello all,

A few changes here ...Using Lowans yeast HBS out of stock of larger yeast...winter who would have guessed...those beer blokes spoil all the fun...

Way too much grain...once ground up, swelled and settled it takes up about 6lt in volume...see suggested new grain bill.

Pitched hot 36c as Lowans loves a fast start...12 hours later its belting...yet to turn on heaters and it's sitting at 34c this morning.


The Bill...
1.5L Fresh barley, washed
.75L Pale Ale malted
.25L Rye
.25L wheat
All grain ground up to a medium course grind
4 KG sugar, inverted
1/2 lemon med for inverting
Added about 7lt near boiling water (in addtion to sugars) to get temp up
1 heaped teaspoon Dap, expecting a mid week feed also
1 teaspoon Epsom salts, salts Dap pre dissolved
ph was fine no need to adjust
Total fermenter volume 28lt each
pitch temp 36c
start phase lag <15mins
Run temp 34C

Will continue to run at 34c reckon it'll be a done deal by next Friday night...ready for the first run.


cheers
bt1

[crow]

Bt : Pretty sure you can/could buy flagons of orlando sherry cheap at Dan's , reckon I'd go a medium to give ya a dollar each way :twocents-mytwocents: The expense will come with the bottles of whiskey you'll need to buy for comparison :Bushmills Malt (not black bush as thats a bourbon bend and shit) Seive Foys , Jamesons , tullys , finnegens and paddy's are the affordable bench marks . There's a few more in the much dearer range and some lest common cheapies but I don't think you'd want to aim lower than paddy's standards (getting close to a bodgy cheap scotch) ;-)

[grumpthehermit]

With the soaking of American oak in Sherry ...

What is the plan after soaking it?

Do you pull it out and put it straight into your new whisky?

Do you rinse it off and let it dry out then put it in?

Just wondering ... :-D

Watching this thread with much interested.

Cheers
GTH

[crow]

Sure you'd loose the point rinsing , I doubt the Irish would let the barrels dry as this would mean reconditioning them ,my just tip it out leave a day of 2 redrain and your off . Thats my thoughts anyway

[bt1]

Guys,

Are you suggesting i go out and buy a Bushmills Good man! :D I will..only cos you mentioned it!

On the timber I'm trying for an extremely light coloured grain whiskey ...min toast no char. Figured sherry cos several irish distilleries specifically mention the preference for ex sherry casks for grain whiskeys as against ex port, bourbons for the malted type whiskeys.

Had planned on soaking as mentioned in sherry then straight into a well aired spirit at 65 abv at very low timber rate max 2 sticks I reckon 15cm x1cm x1cm per 10lt spirit....happy to take any advice on this however.
Hoping the grain bill flavour dominates rather than timber and its a light "Jamiesons" type finish.

Oops! :whistle: forgot to mention in previous post I had increased grain bill so re post on qtys is as per orginal...wish I'd stuck to that but hey have another 3 -4 brews to do so will balance up.

cheers
bt1

[Frank]

I bought 8l of cheap DRY sherry and let it soak/sloshed it around a bit/rotated in my 25l oak barrel for about 4 weeks (I think).
Then I poured it off and filled to half with DWWG-wash based spirit that'd been soaking on charred sticks @65% for that month (I am after peaty/smoky Scotch afterall).....
I put the sherry though the airstill :o twice and the results were also chucked into the barrel. Seemed to work for me. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

The only issue is you might wish to consider giving the barrel a good water soaking and rinse or two BEFORE the sherry.