Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

I recently moved home to now be in the heart of NZ’s wheat and barley production region so have been experimenting with both. Angel yellow with wheat racing along, very active head so lots of room left in fermenter and loose lid for first 3 days . I also did a hot mash with liquid enzymes with very similar action when added to fermenter with DADY. An all grain wheat vodka is the target.

I have found warm water is best with Angel and keeping ferment temp around 28c ticks it alone nicely.

Hot mash is done in my Robobrew so ferment is then done off the grain. Happy with. 1.058 to 1.062 SG

Just ran my first all grain wash the other night. Wasn't sure what to expect as I usually just deal with molasses.
Resipe was for a wheat whiskey..
2.2kg corn milled
4.24kg wheat milled
1kg barley milled
(4.16kg in sugar all up i worked out)
Topped up to 25ltrs volume in fermenter, 40g angel yeast. Took ages to ferment out lol.
Ran through 4 plates. Tossed first 120ml. Took 9 x 200ml cut jars knowing I was well and truly into tails. Cut off reflux and the vapour temp at the top went from 81' to 100' over 200ml lol. Guess I got it ALL! Nicest smelling stuff to come off my still. From smell, I'm guessing 2 jars heads, 3-4 of hearts, rest tails. Does this sound about normal for wash size ect? I'm used to getting a lot more out of a rum wash, but I'm usually adding feints as well..
Ash.

Also have a 100% wheat wash ready to run also. 8.3kg of wheat, 25ltrs total wash volume.
Ash.

My mop squeeze bucket sux. But my thicker mash is a winner got 7.4l from last two mashs.. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

rash wrote:Just ran my first all grain wash the other night. Wasn't sure what to expect as I usually just deal with molasses.
Resipe was for a wheat whiskey..
2.2kg corn milled
4.24kg wheat milled
1kg barley milled
(4.16kg in sugar all up i worked out)
Topped up to 25ltrs volume in fermenter, 40g angel yeast. Took ages to ferment out lol.
Ran through 4 plates. Tossed first 120ml. Took 9 x 200ml cut jars knowing I was well and truly into tails. Cut off reflux and the vapour temp at the top went from 81' to 100' over 200ml lol. Guess I got it ALL! Nicest smelling stuff to come off my still. From smell, I'm guessing 2 jars heads, 3-4 of hearts, rest tails. Does this sound about normal for wash size ect? I'm used to getting a lot more out of a rum wash, but I'm usually adding feints as well..
Ash.

4 plates and reflux(dephleg I assume) I'm guessing you are going to get a very clean tasting drop. Probably drinkable as white dog.
How did it taste after blending ?
If your a rum drinker you might want to ditch a plate or two or no dephleg for a stronger flavours on the other hand for a first run maybe best to go for a cleaner drop.
Volume is only a fraction lower than I get but I rarely use corn. More of a irish/scotch guy myself.

Jesse from StillIt just released a video on his YouTube channel in relation to this well worth a view


https://youtu.be/bmvaVWaFFUM

Awesome jessie rocks.
Keep chasing the craft.
PS if your the teddysad who brought us tffv then you are a legend, love that stuff.

Thanks Reedy, haven't blended yet, but will post up results when I do. Glad I'm not too far off for efficiency then :handgestures-thumbupleft: .I prefer scotch style to corn as well, might try a barley wash after I run the full wheat ferment :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Ash

Reedy wrote:Awesome jessie rocks.
Keep chasing the craft.
PS if your the teddysad who brought us tffv then you are a legend, love that stuff.

That is I (he says modestly)

Just read all 27 pages on this wet miserable Brisbane Sunday morning. What a great read with really good info from many people, thank you ALL. :text-thankyoublue:

The trick Dude is to make sure you get the correct angel yeast.
Once you get that let the party start

Look for a silver packaging with a yellow square on the front at about the 9 o'clock position

As has already been said teddy, you are a legend mate
Thanks for sharing all this information

My AG mash is bubbling away for the last 20 days, slowly but no sign of stopping soon. It will probably keep going for a months. There are so many variables that sometimes I never dare say. Each of us live in different places on this planet with very different climate. On my side the difference in temperature between day and night is sometimes more than 20 degrees Celsius in mid summer and if stormy or rainy weather even more. At 1753m altitude during the day the temperature reaches 33 degrees and only 15 degrees at night. no wander that my mash keeps fermenting forever. I installed a digital thermostat in the supply of the panel heater in my small fermentation room and the temperature is now constant at 27 degrees, I hope this will speed up the fermentation.

The wheat mash finally stopped bubbling and I racked off the majority of the liquid. Decided to be clever and use my honey strainer to squeeze out every last drop. Lined it with an old pillow case and threw in the slops.

Unfortunately it did not work as planned. Too much pressure was created and little streams of liquid came out everywhere. Decided to get rid of the pillow case and just rely on the screen mesh.

It worked a treat. Only took a couple of minutes. Ended up with 21 1/2 litres. Popped the fermenter in the fridge to cold crash it and see if some of the yeast and particles settle out. Will be keen to strip this wash in a day or so.

Just running a stripping run on the wheat ferment. RC Al, looks like you are close to the money as far as the alcohol content is concerned. The higher than normal starting temp. Indicated a low % of good stuff. Tasted what was coming off the pot. Wow, that was nice. Very dry, earthy and wheat flavours coming through in the middle of the run. This will make a nice vodka or neutral for gin. Will report back later with final numbers.

Just finished the run. Ended up with 3.65l @ 31% (temp corrected) from 19.5l of wash. Calculated the wash was at about 5.7%. Time to increase the grain content and make some larger washes.

Hey Les,
Did the cold crashing help? Did you have any problems with scorching?
I have 20kg crushed barley, 80L water, 100g Angel yeast in an esky for 4 weeks. Got about 30L off the top then it was wring out the spent grain getting another 40L of murky stuff. It smells very sour. Loaded into my boiler that has two 2000W elements. Have my finger crossed. Running on 4 plates.

Hi Peter

Cold crashed for 24 hours. The wash cleared slightly but a lot of yeast settled out of suspension. As it was only a small ferment, I ran it in a 30l boiler with concealed elements. Would be interested to hear how your run goes as I’ll be facing the same dilemma when I up scale a bit.

Been running another experiment lately. I have some UJSSM that’s been on oak for about nine months now and it’s turned out to be a pleasant drop. Had an idea a couple of weeks ago about using a combined grain and sugar wash combo using Angel yeast to get it all going. I made a 26l wash with 2kg of cracked corn (broken down a bit more through the mill) and 3.5kg of sugar. Added 6l of backset that I had frozen and about 40 grams of Angel and away it went. Let it ferment slowly to aid the souring of the wash and did a stripping run earlier today. Ended up with 6l @ 39%. Looks like I could have reduced the sugar content just slightly. Half way through a small spirit run at the moment. Tastes awesome so this process may work out well. Will put it on some oak chips for a short period of time to see what it tastes like. Nothing beats a slow oaking/ aging but I hope this gives me some idea of its potential.