Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Have you ever tried drying it in a bbq smoker Bryan to get that smoke flavour, or do you not enjoy the Smokey whiskeys

Wellsy wrote:Have you ever tried drying it in a bbq smoker Bryan to get that smoke flavour, or do you not enjoy the Smokey whiskeys

It would help if I had a smoker mate but the way I did this last year is the same way this year is getting done except I'll be doing 20 kg's of malt barely and not using inverted sugar so in the end result it should be way better.

Yesterday decided the second batch was ready so got my shed fire raging and put the trough infront of it then once in a while put the heatgun over the grains. Put the grain thru my corona mill and as it still a tad damp I spread it out in the trough and about an hour later it was all nice and dry.

Had a nice malty smell all day and from this second batch get 2.4 kg's and with the first batch 4.2kg's, got another batch going and I have found by doing the smaller batch it much easier to process.

So getting there slowly and when I get 10kg's made I reckon I'll do a mash and keep malting away so when it comes time to do the second generation ferment I should have enough malt to go ahead and do it.

Cheers Bryan

Well I gotta say one thing by using warm water about 30C to steep the dried grains has worked nicely and the rootlets are nearly the size of the grain already, so 7 days which is Sunday my shed fire is gunna be raging again as the next batch will be ready to dry :handgestures-thumbupleft: I never thought about it until Sam mentioned it so this time I just heated some water up in my 10 litre SS stock pot to 30C then gave the grains the first steep, about 8 later the water was cold so did it again and again next morning then 24 hours after steeping and resting they were thrown into my malting trough and this time I put a sleeping bag over the lid. As the sheet was still damp from the last batch I just put it in and daily I gave the grains a spray of warm water with a spray bottle.

Ok only doing 2.5kg's at a time but if I can do this weekly it won't take too long before the mash gets done but this time I may just have to all 20 kg's and go 2 litres of water to the kg or a tad less so the grains don't overfill the mash tun.

Now as US-05 is a great yeast to use for AG would it be worth to source a supplier for a group buy as one can never have too much yeast stored in the house fridge :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Cheers Bryan

Yep
Angel yeast, 1118, and standard yeast, we might need a group buy on freezers :laughing-rolling:

Wellsy ya pretty late on the EC1118 yeast and I only just opened the second pack not that long ago :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: But I do think the US-05 is worth looking into if we can get it in 500 gram blocks

Always worth a look mate, I could not believe the difference in pricing on the EC1118 from place to place. I found a winery supplier in Melbourne smashed the prices of anywhere else.

RuddyCrazy wrote: I never thought about it until Sam mentioned it so this time I just heated some water up in my 10 litre SS stock pot to 30C then gave the grains the first steep, about 8 later the water was cold so did it again and again next morning then 24 hours after steeping and resting they were thrown into my malting trough and this time I put a sleeping bag over the lid. As the sheet was still damp from the last batch I just put it in and daily I gave the grains a spray of warm water with a spray bottle.

Glad its working for you, the warmer temp just speeds everything up. If your a brave man malting in SA at this time of year! I always try it in summer when ambient is warmer and can be easier to dry as you have already alluded to. Hows the drying going? That is always the biggest pain in the arse.

Wellsy wrote:Yep
Angel yeast, 1118, and standard yeast, we might need a group buy on freezers :laughing-rolling:

If you go to all the hassle of malting your own barley you had better go slap yourself suggesting using angel yeast :violence-smack: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Fuck EC1118 for a single malt whisky as well. Bryan is on the money with the US-05 :handgestures-thumbupleft:

G'Day Sam,
As far as drying goes with that last batch I put 2 lots on those SS plates ontop of the fire and the trough infront of the fire sitting on some offcut RHS to get the height for the best heat. I did find the grain in the trough albeit with some help from the heat gun :laughing-rolling: did dry a heap quicker than the ones on the SS tray.

Now when I put the dried grains thru my corona mill it was still a tad damp so I just put the lot back in the trough spread out for an hour and it dried it nicely :handgestures-thumbupleft:

With the current batch it's going to have wait until this weekend as this new job I started on Monday has given me a letter saying I'm a essential worker so still doing 10 hour days.

Cheers Bryan

Only problem I can see is the crack consistency may be different if it is cracked damp then dried if your using a traditional mash/lauter/sparge. If doing a BIAB then all sweet :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Sam. wrote:Only problem I can see is the crack consistency may be different if it is cracked damp then dried if your using a traditional mash/lauter/sparge. If doing a BIAB then all sweet :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I did have the setting on the corona mill pretty loose but every grain was cracked and over 50% ended up close to flour. This is how my first batch was done and the way it has turned out it is the best drop I've made, now this years batch won't use any white sugar so it will be even better than last years.

It is a heap of work but in the end next winter on a cold dram night a dram of this stuff will soon warm one up pronto.

If it works it works mate :handgestures-thumbupleft:

G'Day Guy's,
Well finally got up to my shed this morning and got a look at the grains and just like i though a few had sprouted :scared-eek: now on looking at the whole of them it isn't a ride off :handgestures-thumbupleft: so in the quest to get them dry I got my 2 ring crab burner on a low setting under the trough and infront of the fire. Man the smell of malty goodness is filling the shed :handgestures-thumbupleft: and the moisture is a rising with a steamy look :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Got another batch soaking in warm water to get it started tomorrow night so getting thru this 20 kg bag of barely :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Cheers Bryan

Man I gotta say this SS trough is one handy item for malting and although I'm only doing 2.5kg's a batch it's working nicely. Now after I steep 2.5 kg of grain in warm water and use 4 or 5 rinses with warm water so the grains can soak up enough to all sprout at the same time. I just wet a blanket and put in the trough then the grains go ontop, when it is time to dry the grains I take the sheet out then put the trough infront of my shed fire. Today when I got to the grains they were well on the way so i put my 2 ring crab under and man in 4 hours all the grains are dead but with still moisture in them they have the arvo infront of the fire to dry fully.

With me starting this new job I just left the grains for 6 days and man the malty goodness is close to over powering :scared-eek:

Cheers Bryan

How do you seperate the shoots from the grains Bryan ?

Wellsy wrote:How do you seperate the shoots from the grains Bryan ?

Just roll them thru my hands then use some fine SS mesh to separate them, now with todays run they aren't fully dry so they will go into my hotbox for the week and next weekend I'll see how they are.

With me working 10 hour shifts it doesn't give me any time in the shed but I am happy with what I did with the grains today as they are 90% there so I just put the cover over the trough to stop the mice having a feed :handgestures-thumbupleft:

After this batch is done I'm going to do a mash next weekend and see how it goes, now as I'll only have about 9kg I may have to bump it up like I did last year to get a full 60 litres.

I have done some research on the US-05 yeast and to get a discount on the $103 price I need to buy a hundred of them to get $5 off :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: So looks like I'll just do an afterpay on a 500 gram brick :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Cheers Bryan

I found a wholesalers in Melb mate and I am begging them to let us do an order , they have not even given me a price yet , but they are saying they don’t normally do retail sales.
I told them I am looking to open an online shop, well this is online and we will be selling lol
Fingers crossed but I am trying to get a price on 10kg, I assume it is 20x 500g

cool mate get this going so we can get a group buy going :handgestures-thumbupleft: now the best price I saw on research was that $103 for a 500 gram brick so if you can do better then go for it :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft:

RuddyCrazy wrote:cool mate get this going so we can get a group buy going :handgestures-thumbupleft: now the best price I saw on research was that $103 for a 500 gram brick so if you can do better then go for it :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft: :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Have you tried Winequip in adelaide?

G'Day Guy's,
Well got today off work but gotta go in tomorrow :angry-banghead: so after doing all the jobbies it's time to start this mash :handgestures-thumbupleft: when i grabbed the US-05 yeast I also grabbed a couple of kg's of malt grain so the total malt will be 10 kg's for this mash :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Going for a strike temp of 75C with 30 litres of water and I'll put my 2 ring crab burner under the tun to keep the temp right for the mash.

A man just has to have some fun once a week after I got told Bryan get used to this place being your new home at work and 10 -12 hour shifts does take a toll. I said the most I'll do tomorrow is 8 hours so it won't be a bad take as I'll be on double time for the whole day :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Cheers Bryan