Whiskey! Heavy peat, Rye DP question

[Swamvoet]

Hi
I made my first whiskey with gladfields heavy peat 25kg spread over 4 fermenters. OG was around 1.060 and FG just under 1. I ended up with 4l white dog, which my greatest critic (DH) says is the best whiskey he has ever had, smoky, caramelly, vanilla, smooth. And hasn’t seen oak. I milled the grain-retrospectively I could have gone much finer- joy of being a noob- rested at 65degr C for hour and half. Stripped once and did spirit run. Now that is a ridiculous yield and I presume it is because my Digi boil leaks between the boiler and the alembic top. I am going to get silicone glue and silicone stretch tape, seal it and repeat the process. Any other insights would be appreciated. I was ready to throw out the Digi boil and give up distilling due to puking, low yield, general frustration until I tasted the whiskey. Now it is go go go!
I also plan a rye and oat whiskey, and not being very good with numbers I would appreciate help. If I assume that the oats and rye have negligible diastatic power, and distillers malt has 200 conservatively, would it be ok to use malt to a rye oat mix at a ratio of 1:6? Or 1: 5? I will do a glucan rest and amylase rest maybe even a protein rest, do I still need to add beta glucan enzymes?
My longing for a better distilling setup will have to wait until I have free cash. Might be never.
Thanks for helpful criticism.

[Swamvoet]

Thanks found a formula and it’s not that difficult.
DP of grain bill= DP of grainx weight +DP rye/oatsxweight / total weight
So DP= 240x 1kg+0x 4kg/ 5kg
= 48 and if using 5kg rye and oats =40
So any answer above 35 means adequate DP

[howard]

Thanks found a formula and it’s not that difficult.
DP of grain bill= DP of grainx weight +DP rye/oatsxweight / total weight
So DP= 240x 1kg+0x 4kg/ 5kg
= 48 and if using 5kg rye and oats =40
So any answer above 35 means adequate DP

yes, that formulae is pretty basic.
i think 35 is around the minimum, not adequate, better is 50-80 or more
you may need to mash for longer?
i use liquid enzymes on high % unmalted rye.
rye is a hard husk-less grain and not like barley, make sure it's well ground.
your grain bill will be about 70% rye?
there is some good reading around for high % rye that might help before you dive in.
rye has it's own difficulties.

there is some other reading about taking that simple formulae to the next level, i'll try and find it tomorrow.

[chipboy]

Beta glucanase will remove the necessity to do a glucan rest, thats my 5cents.

[RuddyCrazy]

Only 1060 from the Gladfield peat malt is a very poor conversion to say the least.
I use 12kg's to 25 litres of water and within an hour my refractometer is off the scale :scared-eek: then after an hour I just wrap another blanket around and leave it overnight to cool then the whole mash goes in my 60 litre fermenter. I top up the water to the 55 litre mark and no need to add sugar to get a SG of 1080 :handgestures-thumbupleft:

When mashing malt 2:1 to 3:1 of water to grain is the recommended mash and going too much water not only lowers the SG but also the quality of the mash.

By a long shot the Gladfield malt has the best DP I've ever used and here I was happy with a 1090 conversion of my own homemade malt.

So mate when mashing grain stick to what I said above and what you get is what you get from the mash, need more product then do another mash pure and simple as when we are down the rabbit hole we do want the best one can make.

Cheers Bryan

[Swamvoet]

Thanks Howard, Chipboy and Ruddycrazy! Very helpful input. I didn’t mention that I plan to use malted rye and oats. I’m not sure that that changes things much. I haven’t fully decided on percentage rye.

[bluess57]

iodine test should show if you've got full conversion

[WoodyD40]

Hi
I made my first whiskey with gladfields heavy peat 25kg spread over 4 fermenters. OG was around 1.060 and FG just under 1. I ended up with 4l white dog, which my greatest critic (DH) says is the best whiskey he has ever had, smoky, caramelly, vanilla, smooth. And hasn’t seen oak. I milled the grain-retrospectively I could have gone much finer- joy of being a noob- rested at 65degr C for hour and half. Stripped once and did spirit run. Now that is a ridiculous yield and I presume it is because my Digi boil leaks between the boiler and the alembic top. I am going to get silicone glue and silicone stretch tape, seal it and repeat the process. Any other insights would be appreciated. I was ready to throw out the Digi boil and give up distilling due to puking, low yield, general frustration until I tasted the whiskey. Now it is go go go!
Thanks for helpful criticism.

It is good to see that we have another convert to the Gladfields heavy peat malt. Congratulations. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
I always have problems with a grain mash puking - that is normal. Reducing the power to the still to keep the puke under control is the key. :-B

I have now done a total of 100 kg of the heavy peat malt.
I'm only left with 75kg of the regular distillers malt which I'll run October to Xmas - end product of that will go into a brand new 25 litre American oak barrel. I am thinking of adding some chocolate malt grain into the mix for that run. :D

[Swamvoet]

Hi WoodyD40
Thanks for the tip! I’ve ordered my second 25kg, I’ll apply the advice from here and see if my yield is better.
What breaks my heart, is that the whiskey right off the still was fantastic. I’ve kept it in glass because I don’t have enough for my 10 l cask. I tried it again last night and all the fantasticness is gone. It tastes just like whiskey. I had hoped to be a purist but if I finish the next lot and age it some and it hasn’t improved I’m going to modify it. There seems to be a lot of ongoing experimentation in that regard.

[howard]

iodine test should show if you've got full conversion

iodine test should show if you've got full conversion, of the extracted starch.
but the iodine test will not tell you if you've extracted all the available starch from the grain
(due to lack of time, PH, wrong temp & inefficient milling?)

[RuddyCrazy]

What I found when I did the mash's on the Gladfield heavy peat the iodine test was useless as for a bit of fun 10 minutes after I stopped mixing I did a iodine test and it came true with no colour change :scared-eek:

So time and heat is the guide and doing a SG test before and after I do a sparge goes from off the scale which is 1130 and it goes down to 1090, 1/2 an hour later the SG is back off the scale so I just put the top on and wrap blankets around and leave it for the night. Then in the morning I do find it's still 40C but adding water to my 60 litre fermenter get the temp down to 30C which is a great temp for the US-05 yeast to get a good start. Often I do find 4 hours later the airlock is going rampant so this method does work a treat, but like I have said before I go just over 2:1 with the water/grain which does get the best results.