Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Keep going hard, just watch your ph
You could strain out half your bed and replace if your worried about flavor, although im currently trying to get a 8 gen NGW to turn into a neutral wash - no backset or new grains for 3 gens, it isnt working out too well so far, still plenty of flavour left :D
SBB has uj that is at 70+ gens now

I think the sour mash bourbon flavour only starts around gen 6. It can be funky but ages well. I have had 8 gen sugarhead whiskey with more "bourbon" flavour then sweet mash all grain corn whiskey.. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

bluc wrote: I have had 8 gen sugarhead whiskey with more "bourbon" flavour then sweet mash all grain corn whiskey.. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Like CFW or similar ?

Yea sorry shoulda looked at thread tittle. But should be same putting the backset in will compound flavour and give it a more "authentic" flavour..

Sorry guys, I may have led the off topic just thought the principle would be the same regardless of the type of wash. Did not know whether to stop the CFW run to start a MacWhisky. From advice in previous posts will continue with the CFW generations and grab another fermenter and start a MacWhisky run. Looking forward to trying oak toasted, charred, soak in sherry etc
Not sure if I can keep up with trying all the variations to taste :)

Hi all, I'm wanting to try out this recipe and have also been offered a few tins of this Caramalt LME for zero $, as it's out of date! I've got some new tins also from HBS.

Has anyone had any experience with this product out of date, and would you know what the issues are being out of date, is it a taste thing of active ingredients?

Cheers,

Chocko.

I doubt it would make a difference. Such high sugar content doubt it would spoil..

Might start to crystallize with age but will dissolve fine, I would assume because it’s for human consumption would need a best before date :-B

Thanks fellas, appreciate it. Having never used it before I just need to learn more about it.

Cheers!

Well just ran this through the bubbler. Not sure what flavours I am looking for but for sure it has the most flavour of anything I have put through the bubbler and oddly I am loving the taste more deep in the tails at 70%! Will be adding a fair bit of tails with this one. Can’t wait to try it after a few months on oak. I just followed the recipe exactly but I had whole grain Pilsner grains

That's tipped me over the line to put a fermenter of this down. I tried some of this that was aged for 4 years on American oak and was amazing.

Do it, you won’t be disappointed. Could have had a few glasses of the wash when it went down

Never trust advice from brewing shops.
I badly wanted to try the MacWhisky but I could not find Caramalt LME. Went to the store closest to me and they advised me to buy Muntons Amber Malt Extract (1.5kg) because it is the same thing.
I started the wash more than a months ago and today I had time for distillation. I run the potstill very slowly and after discarding the first 200ml I started to collect. After the first 1l the alcohol percentage was 60% and I decided to taste it. I dropped a sample to 40% and it had a nice malty taste but a bit bitter. After the second 1l jug I am at 54% alcohol, tasted it again and the bitterness increases and kept going higher and higher till the end. I collected 5l of alcohol and the mixture has 50% alcohol.
Now I am very disappointed and try to find what caused the bitter taste. Guess what, on the webpage of the supplier of the Muntons Amber Malt Extract (1.5kg) there is a description of the product: Made from a blend of pale and crystal malts this product provides the ideal building block for Ale and Bitter style beers. You can figure where the bitterness came from.
Now I am stuck with 5l low wine and I do not know if it is worth doing the spirit run. What would you do with it?
I have other 4x 27l washes bubbling away and they will be ready in 2 weeks, this time I used the LME from the recipee.

You've not really got much to lose so you could do your spirit run and hope the bitterness subsides with time on oak. Otherwise you could try running it through a reflux still as neutral.

virge wrote:Never trust advice from brewing shops.
Guess what, on the webpage of the supplier of the Muntons Amber Malt Extract (1.5kg) there is a description of the product: Made from a blend of pale and crystal malts this product provides the ideal building block for Ale and Bitter style beers. You can figure where the bitterness came from.

Huh ? bitterness should only come from hops using an extract. The product desc. for the Amber Malt extract makes no mention of hops.

I don't think the bitterness came from the Muntons extract.

Is this what you used?
https://www.muntons.com/home_brewing/muntons-amber-malt-extract/

Thanks for reply guys, I guess I can do the spirit run on it although it will be difficult to properly separate the hearts with all the bitterness present. I can maybe use it as a shandy or beer fortifier. I can also run it in reflux config but I already have some very good neutral.
I am sure the bitterness comes from the LME, it doesnt say it is unhopped on the tin and on top of it, it was sold 1 year after the expiration date.

ok so I've been reading reading and more reading, all im doing is getting further confused, could someone please clarify,

my local HBS doesn't have caramalt liquid extract, they do have powdered malt extract, and a number of different ones at that, can someone please tell me which is the correct one, https://nationalhomebrew.com.au/search?search=extract or should I use caramel grain, once again if I go that route, how much do I use and which grain would you use https://nationalhomebrew.com.au/search?search=caramel

ale or pilsner malt, there are a few types, im guessing this is where you experiment a little? do I need to crack the malt first (run it through a blender) and do I need to cook it first?

sorry of these seem like stupid questions, haven't ever done a recipe like this and REALLY want to.

thanks

If you’re using grains it needs to be crushed otherwise the hull will protect the malt from being extracted!
Blender is probably not your best choice, although, in a pinch, it may work.
Boiling is for making beer, so not necessary for making whisky....

ok, so , once again might sound stupid, but how do you crush the grains? or do you buy them like that?

are any of the malt powders I linked above the correct ones to use?

Yes you can buy pre cracked grain. If your making sugarhead whiskey(,bwko,cornflakes etc) you dont have to be particular just bust it up your sugar is coming from table sugar not grain. Malt extract powder you mention or liquid extract like in mcwhiskey its grain sugar but already ready to go add water to adjust gravity or just follow the supplied recipe(mcwhiskey). For mcwhiskey you really need the lme. It is converted and concentrated grain sugar. You would need to do a full mash(all grain) to get same flavour..