Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

There was some smokyness in the stripped wash and I did go deep into the tails on the spirit run. No idea where it went. Maybe it'll come back after aging?....

Pat / Clay... what ratio's of smoked did you use?

I have just gotten the 65L Brewzilla, and also purchased 75kg of barley (50kg Golden Promise/25kg Distillers malt) and the HBS owner threw in 1kg of each UK Heavy Peated and NZ Manuka smoked. I also purchased M1 whiskey yeast and have Alpha and Gluco amylase to play with as well for first time...

I popped my cherry yesterday morning with my first AG run, I played it safe with 10kg grain to total water of 65L

The above batch ended at 1.053 (temp corrected) with 48Ltrs; I'm going to ferment on grain and I pitched 40gms of M1 along with 4gms of Glucoamylase late yesterday and man the thing is going brilliantly so far... once again playing it safe I went with max recommended for yeast... given the takeoff I will bring it down next run.

Batch 2 will be up around max capacity (limit is 16kg) but this time i'll hopefully remember :violence-smack: to add some of the Alpha amylase when mashing in and will once again use the gluco with yeast.

My third batch is when i'll play with the peated/smoked... wondering if 1kg of either in a full size batch for this machine will even show up :think:

Nice.

Be interesting to see if the brewzilla makes a worthwhile difference....

It’s a nice bit of kit, but the cost can be high

Pedro1970 wrote:Pat / Clay... what ratio's of smoked did you use?

I have just gotten the 65L Brewzilla, and also purchased 75kg of barley (50kg Golden Promise/25kg Distillers malt) and the HBS owner threw in 1kg of each UK Heavy Peated and NZ Manuka smoked. I also purchased M1 whiskey yeast and have Alpha and Gluco amylase to play with as well for first time...

I popped my cherry yesterday morning with my first AG run, I played it safe with 10kg grain to total water of 65L

The above batch ended at 1.053 (temp corrected) with 48Ltrs; I'm going to ferment on grain and I pitched 40gms of M1 along with 4gms of Glucoamylase late yesterday and man the thing is going brilliantly so far... once again playing it safe I went with max recommended for yeast... given the takeoff I will bring it down next run.

Batch 2 will be up around max capacity (limit is 16kg) but this time i'll hopefully remember :violence-smack: to add some of the Alpha amylase when mashing in and will once again use the gluco with yeast.

My third batch is when i'll play with the peated/smoked... wondering if 1kg of either in a full size batch for this machine will even show up :think:

I did 100% medium peat grain and I thought it was a nice drop. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Silly question bluc butif you did a 100% single grain would that make it a single malt ?

Or have I misunderstood what a single malt is

Wellsy wrote:Silly question bluc butif you did a 100% single grain would that make it a single malt ?

Or have I misunderstood what a single malt is

Single malt means that 100% of the mash bill is malt barley, and the finished product is the result of that and not "blended" with grain nuetrel spirit ;-)

Thanks Sam
So I take it that was a yes given Bluc only used the 1 grain :-D

Wellsy wrote:Thanks Sam
So I take it that was a yes given Bluc only used the 1 grain :-D

Yes correct but the better term would have been malt, grain implies it hasn't been malted...

Hi pedro1970,

I used all Manuka smoked malt. 7kg to 25l of wash. All ferments foamed horribly - walls, floor, everywhere! Tried to puke while distilling as well. Left a weird shiny coating in the top of the boiler too. Smokiness only came through in the tails on the spirit run. Just went into the barrel. I guess I'll find out how it goes in a couple of months.

Yea all grain loves to puke prob only thing worse then rum :laughing-rolling:

so my excitement was a bit premature then with thinking the 1kg freebie was a good score :teasing-tease:

Maybe i'll mix them together (1kg of ea Heavy Peat & Manuka) and do a 30ltr ferment and see how the flavour goes... no point doing a 65Ltr batch I dare say :wtf:

Pedro1970 wrote:so my excitement was a bit premature then with thinking the 1kg freebie was a good score :teasing-tease:

Maybe i'll mix them together (1kg of ea Heavy Peat & Manuka) and do a 30ltr ferment and see how the flavour goes... no point doing a 65Ltr batch I dare say :wtf:

Yeah, you probably won't even notice it in the final product. There's not really much point doing a single peated run as you need to recycle the feints to build up the peat levels enough, especially if you're after an Islay style whisky.

Thanks tubbsy.... I'll just put it aside somewhere dry until I can get my hands on a 25kg sack of peated...

Just checked my batch I put down on Thursday morning and to my surprise it's finished... SG of 0.98 @23C - 5 days and it's done! Not sure if it was the M1 yeast or adding the gluco amylase; or both combined :think:

Off to sanitise my racking barrels so I can get another batch into the big fermenter this arvo :-D

Hey guys
Yet another newbie question. I understand racking to allow the sediment to settle to help control puking. Where I get lost is how do you run generations when your backset is obviously not available at time of starting the ferment. Do you simply add it later to the ferment, or do you do do generations with all grain recipes ?

I thought that backset was first used hot out of the still to mash the next fermentation to save money and effort and that they then found improved the flavour. .

so did I wynum hence my question about how is it used when racking.

wynnum1 wrote:I thought that backset was first used hot out of the still to mash the next fermentation to save money and effort and that they then found improved the flavour. .

Yea that or you can freeze it if not starting straight away. gens sour mash is traditionally only for burbon tennessee whiskey but someone here other day says its builds peat up in wash :handgestures-thumbupleft:

You mean this one?

tubbsy wrote:

Pedro1970 wrote:so my excitement was a bit premature then with thinking the 1kg freebie was a good score :teasing-tease:

Maybe i'll mix them together (1kg of ea Heavy Peat & Manuka) and do a 30ltr ferment and see how the flavour goes... no point doing a 65Ltr batch I dare say :wtf:

Yeah, you probably won't even notice it in the final product. There's not really much point doing a single peated run as you need to recycle the feints to build up the peat levels enough, especially if you're after an Islay style whisky.

oh he said "feints" backset would also work.. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Pedro1970 wrote:Thanks tubbsy.... I'll just put it aside somewhere dry until I can get my hands on a 25kg sack of peated...

Just checked my batch I put down on Thursday morning and to my surprise it's finished... SG of 0.98 @23C - 5 days and it's done! Not sure if it was the M1 yeast or adding the gluco amylase; or both combined :think:

Off to sanitise my racking barrels so I can get another batch into the big fermenter this arvo :-D

Hey Pedro it’s the M1 yeast it gets the wash super dry especially if you can keep the temp in the low 20’s, you’ll end up with some good product after a few years!