Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Good stuff here guys. My thanks to the pioneers. The Angel instructions call for a stir every day for the first three days. I finally saw a few pages ago what I too have been thinking.....that the stir is simply for mixing and not for oxygenation. Since this is a no boil Is this correct? I too am awaiting delivery of this magical fairy dust.

Yes just for mixing

Checked the SG on my corn ferment just now and it's still bubbling away, it's on 998 so I reckon it will go down further :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Anyway got my barely malt drying in the sun in that SS trough I use to malt the grains, I just put a damp sheet on the deck then the grains ontop to start sprouting and when it comes time to dry the grains carefully take the sheet out and just chuck the trough outside with that fresnel lens cover I made from some large fluro lights ontop. Now as the trough has a 2" drain I hooked up a 12 volt computer fan onto my 4" copper funnel and duct taped it on :handgestures-thumbupleft: Put a couple of 12 volt 5 watt PV panels out in series to get 24 volts so the fan is blowing off it's tits :laughing-rolling: and now it's mixing the hot air above the grains to help with the evaporation. With it being 39C in the shade tomorrow if the grains don't dry fully today and they aint far off I'll have to keep a check on then tomorrow as the last thing I want is toasted grains :teasing-tease: :teasing-tease:

Cheers Bryan

Well it is a hot one here today and the grains are 99% dry so every couple of hours I mix em around so the moist ones go ontop to dry. That fan is doing a great job I reackon by blowing air over and the temp gauge is showing 70C :handgestures-thumbupleft: so not too hot. After mixing the smell of malty goodness comes out so I reckon the AG mash will happen before this corn ferment finishes. Now a question for the AG guy's is it OK to use Lowans Bread Yeast with a AG or should i go buy some US-05 ?

Cheers Bryan

My limited experience has shown that, yes it works, but the flavour profile is not quite right!
Sorry, but that’s the best way I can explain it...

For me, I would look into the yeasts flavour profile before choosing your preferred yeast... there’s lots of info out there which will help. BUT it’s only 1 part of the intricate puzzle of marking a good or even great whisky!

RuddyCrazy wrote:Well it is a hot one here today and the grains are 99% dry so every couple of hours I mix em around so the moist ones go ontop to dry. That fan is doing a great job I reackon by blowing air over and the temp gauge is showing 70C :handgestures-thumbupleft: so not too hot. After mixing the smell of malty goodness comes out so I reckon the AG mash will happen before this corn ferment finishes. Now a question for the AG guy's is it OK to use Lowans Bread Yeast with a AG or should i go buy some US-05 ?

Cheers Bryan

I have not had a good yield result with US-05 and flavour is OK, fairly neutral. Safspirit Malt or American Whiskey is the go to yeast but I have not been able to get this. I have used Mangrove Jacks M42 New World Strong Ale Yeast and this has been great. Good yield, great grain taste, good flocculation after it is finished. I am going to add M12 Kveik Yeast to my next Angel ferments to try and get better flavour. It should compete well with the Angel yeast at 35C.
Cheers.

Peter I used US-05 on my first AG generation project and as far as the taste it is outstanding, I did have a look on HD and other guys have used bread yeast with good results hence me asking the question here.



Cheers Bryan

G'Day Guy's,
Starting to cool down here so came up for a look at the malt and on the third day in the sun in the hotbox I reckon it does need one more day to fully dry so with it being 42C in the shade tomorrow it should get them fully dry. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Now as plenty of members have used this angel yeast how about chiming in and saying what yeast you used so I can get a consensus on the best yeast to use.

Cheers Bryan

TBH I havent seen much done with other yeasts, I think a us05 on hd somewhere, most are just happy that it works how it dose so far, finding our way with how the different grains come across seems to be the focus of most atm.

Without doing an A-B batch at the same time there is no way of knowing if there is going to be a major difference - I dare say it will depend on which is the dominant yeast, but its still going to end up as its own variety either way.

I always used safspirit malt or American burbon yeast. I figured if gunna spend whole day mashing i dont want to stuff it by using Bakers. Cant say its a whole lot different from angel yeast.
Safspirit strains that is..

G'day Guys,
I don't mind being the guinea pig :laughing-rolling: on using that SAF-Fresh yeast the 5-star store sells and if the profile works then we have a supply of the yeast :handgestures-thumbupleft:

But if it works out crap :angry-banghead: Ill be honest I do guess if one doesn't go there one will never know and the store better NOT be out of that yeast :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

The fun is going to be putting a third moccona jar in the fridge of my yeast and i may get a :violence-smack: :violence-smack: or :violence-smack: :violence-smack: :violence-smack: but in the end I'll say well if you dont me to go upto the shed for you again let it be :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Cheers Bryan

Edit: with some posts today how about a separate thread on the discussion of the different strains of yeast along with the pros and cons. Now i'll leave it to an informed member to start the thread :handgestures-thumbupleft: but I do think the discussion will be a good one :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Gidday Bryan

Only on my third ferment with angel and only a variation of the BWKO. Mine take a few weeks to ferment out and I have not done a stripping run yet mate, off the still the taste of AG is miles above sugar washes. I suspect I am going to end up with a hybrid compromise to get a better yield than I am currently getting. Hoping to free up my second fermenter tomorrow to start a half malt barley and half straight barley AG tomorrow. Sorry mate I am miles off comparing yeasts such is the life of a newbie :)

Nuther experiment added safspirit american whiskey yeast equal amount as angel yeast and i have had 20l bucket backset sitting at room temp since about november in sealed container vesides lacto looked and smelled fine sp chucked it in. Is about gen 9 backset. Will see how it goes.

I got my first "no mash required" underway on Saturday/Sunday and man the smell is soooo bad, somewhere between the incitec fertilizer plant and vomit. It is fading tho. It is bubbling away merrily so we will see what becomes of it.

Dude wrote:I got my first "no mash required" underway on Saturday/Sunday and man the smell is soooo bad, somewhere between the incitec fertilizer plant and vomit. It is fading tho. It is bubbling away merrily so we will see what becomes of it.

Strange mate :scared-eek: I opened up my first all corn wash today to do a PH test as it's been going for 20 days and it's still bubbling. The PH was 3.9 so I added some baking soda and got the PH to 4.5 and gave it a good mix. The wash smells pretty nice and after giving it a good mix the airlock is back to showing more action

Ruddy, I think that I may have got a sour mash start to it as it had to be left overnight to cool after pouring boiling water on the grains to sterilize them ( obviously that didnt work) so will let it run its course and see what comes out the other end.

My last experiment was to run this Angel yeast with rice to see what it tasted like with the original grain it was designed for. I gristed 20kg of long grain jasmine rice, 60L hot water and 100g Angel yeast in my large Esky and left it for 3 weeks. Fermented out nicely, smelt OK. The mix did not separate any better than the other grains so I racked off 30L and the rest I scooped up and put in a BIAB bag then squeezed the liquid out. Ran it on 4 plates. Got 200ml Fores, 1 litre heads 4.5 litres hearts and 1.5 litres tails. Tastes OK , a bit cleaner than my barley and corn runs but still a distinctive taste on it.

I took some of my corn run hearts and put them on oak chips to see how they might come up but I am not impressed. Don't get any sweet grainy taste and a bit funky, not like bourbon at all. I think I will put it all through my reflux still and turn it all into neutral.

My next experiment is to do another batch of corn and add extra Kveik yeast which likes 35C and see how that goes. Will keep you all posted.
Cheers.

PeterC wrote:My last experiment was to run this Angel yeast with rice to see what it tasted like with the original grain it was designed for. I gristed 20kg of long grain jasmine rice, 60L hot water and 100g Angel yeast in my large Esky and left it for 3 weeks. Fermented out nicely, smelt OK. The mix did not separate any better than the other grains so I racked off 30L and the rest I scooped up and put in a BIAB bag then squeezed the liquid out. Ran it on 4 plates. Got 200ml Fores, 1 litre heads 4.5 litres hearts and 1.5 litres tails. Tastes OK , a bit cleaner than my barley and corn runs but still a distinctive taste on it.

I took some of my corn run hearts and put them on oak chips to see how they might come up but I am not impressed. Don't get any sweet grainy taste and a bit funky, not like bourbon at all. I think I will put it all through my reflux still and turn it all into neutral.

My next experiment is to do another batch of corn and add extra Kveik yeast which likes 35C and see how that goes. Will keep you all posted.
Cheers.

What do you pay for the rice because do not think is a cheap grain to use and when i cook rice using the same ratio it absorbs all the water into the rice and may be lacking liquid until it starts converting the starch to sugars.

wynnum1 wrote:What do you pay for the rice because do not think is a cheap grain to use and when i cook rice using the same ratio it absorbs all the water into the rice and may be lacking liquid until it starts converting the starch to sugars.

I paid $28 for a 20kg bag. It was just a trial. Japanese Sake makers grow a mould on a seed quantity of cooked rice (called Koji) to inoculate the rest of the rice along with yeast to make their Sake. This is the mould enzyme that is in the Angel yeast. I just wanted to try and see what it was like. I did not notice any take up of water with the rice it behaved similar to barley and corn with them going from a heavy grain bed initially and within 12 hours being noticeably lighter when mixing.

Last night I started a 20kg corn batch. I mixed it with 60L hot water let it cool to 40C and pitched in some Kveik yeast. Let it cool to 35C and the yeast was already working so there must have been a few fermentable sugars present. I then pitched the Angel and this morning it was bubbling away a bit more vigorously than usual. Temperature sitting on 37C. So will see how this goes.

Koji is different
Angel uses Rhizopus oryzae and phytase, not Aspergillus oryzae