Gladfields Peat Smoked Malt

[RuddyCrazy]

It's your recipe.
So if it ain't smooth, you know who I'll call :laughing-rolling:

Well I have been called a few things in my life but NEVER been called a Ghost Buster :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

[WoodyD40]

Howdy Folks

I had an awesome day on Saturday running the low wines for a nice spirit run. :happy-partydance:
I collected the first 3 litres in 250ml jars as fore shots and heads, then I changed to 5 litre demijohns for collecting - used 3 of them before swapping back to just about any kind of glass i could find as i suspected I was not far off getting to tails.
That was a good call in the end - as about 1.5 litres later, I was certainly into tails.

Being confident with the quality of the 15 litres in demijohns, I watered all of that down and had exactly enough to fill my 2 x 10 litre new American oak barrels that I had tested with water over the previous 5 days. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I then waited until this morning to start checking the heads and tails and doing the careful cuts of what was worth keeping. :-B
After careful deliberation, ended up keeping 1 liter of the last of the heads, and the first 1 litre of the start of the tails which I then combined. Watering down to 65% I have split that evenly into 2 jars and have put a small amount of 5 Star dominoes to age them.

In total - I have approx 23 litres of 65% abv heavy peat malt now on Oak, between the barrels and glass jars. I was hoping for slightly more than that - but I made a few rookie mistakes and learnt a lot during the process. I was harsh with my final cuts, and have only kept what I believe will give me quality product once aged. :music-deathmetal:

I have approx 3.5 ltires of heads/tails (feints) that i'll throw back into the next boiler run of the heavy peat grain.

As this thread of mine is all about the Gladfields Peat Smoked Malt - i'll keep adding to this thread as i go through the next 3 bags of grain I picked up last week friday. :happy-partydance:

[RobMichelle]

Nice one woody :handgestures-thumbupleft: so 23 ltrs of 65% how many bags of peat malt all up to obtain that volume ?

[WoodyD40]

Using Bryans method - i used ONE bag of gladfields malt

[WoodyD40]

I checked my 2 fermentations yesterday - and they are going so slow. Guess I better check the PH level.

[WoodyD40]

Yikes - my PH has crashed, I believe it to be PH3 :angry-banghead:

How much Bi_Carb do i need to add to a 60 litre ferment to bring it back to neutral ?

[RobMichelle]

Hi Woody, I just add a little stir and recheck

[WoodyD40]

Morning All

I have put 7 teaspoons in this morning (one at a time) and have finally got a slightly better reading on the PH. I'll let it sit for about an hour, and recheck. I suspect i'll need to add more.

[RobMichelle]

Morning woody
What stage is the ferment up to, as in almost done or had just started?
I’ve normally checked and adjusted ph before pitching yeast then leave, I did check once after 4 days and adjusted the ph and added some more yeast to no avail though then ran it.
When I do sugar wash’s which has been the last year until this all grain thing, I always had to adjust ph down, with the ag yesterday it was 5.3 so no adjustment needed any idea why that would be, same water ?

[WoodyD40]

Hi Rob

I started the fermentation 2 weeks ago - i've never checked PH levels, and have never had a problem until this batch.

So due to this ferment not going as hard as previous and i checked the SG reading expecting it to be close to finished and its barely half done, and with there being a few threads about PH levels going at the moment i thought maybe i should check :laughing-rolling:
So the PH is way down on what it should be, so i better do something about it, and give them an extra 2 weeks to be sure its all fermented out properly.

I never got back to check the PH again yesterday, but i have heaps of time today to check it multiple times until i'm happy that its back to being above 5.

[RobMichelle]

Hi Woody
How goes the ph and ferment?

[WoodyD40]

I thought its about time I fess up and let everyone know what's been going on.

After i quit my job at the end of February, I kind of lost interest a bit with the fermentations. It didn't help that the last batch of grain fermentations had a hug PH crash, and even after a couple of goes to bring the PH back up, it just wasn't working for me. :angry-banghead:

Last week I finally conceded that those two 60 litre fermentations could not be saved, so i tipped the wort down the drain, and tipped the grains into my compost bin in the back yard. :violin:

As i only had a borrowed 'mill' that was returned back to its owner (a member on this forum :handgestures-thumbupleft: ) I quickly milled the next 2 bags of heavy peated malted grain and have stored it safely into big white plastic buckets with sealed lids.

Rather than risking making whatever mistake I did last time, I have gone back to the simple WBAB wash to replenish my neutral spirits for gins. Both 60 litre fermenters seem to be going well (I bought a pool testing kit for water PH - and tested the water prior to commencement this time).

After i run these two fermentations through my still (probably easter Monday), I'll need to figure out my priorities if i cautiously go back to the whiskey grain fermentations again (most likely) or my son is starting to run low of Rum (he may need to wait :teasing-tease: )

[MarkChap]

I thought its about time I fess up and let everyone know what's been going on.
or my son is starting to run low of Rum (he may need to wait :teasing-tease: )

Bugger the Whiskey, make the boy some rum :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[RobMichelle]

Get back on the bike David don’t loose momentum buddy get thatgrain going lol
Im only just finishing running my last 23 ltr of peat smoke tonight, it seemed to stall so I left it, and whilst it was in the temperature box with 2x23 ltr ffv it came back to life lol now I’m not a religious man, but, aluliuh brother we are on again so whilst the young fella may want some rum you need ya peat smoke whiskey :obscene-drinkingdrunk: :obscene-drinkingdrunk: :-B