Wattle Seed

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Wattle Seed

Postby hjubm2 » Mon Mar 08, 2021 11:18 am

Has anyone had any experience using Wattle Seed to make a whiskey? Had the Adelaide Hills Distillery Native Grain Project the other day & loved the taste so want to look at making a similar product. Any idea how much Wattle Seed would need to be added to a Malted Barley mash to get the flavour to carry over?
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Re: Wattle Seed

Postby RC Al » Mon Mar 08, 2021 3:43 pm

Pretty sure your on your own there mate

A bit of a read says small amounts and mentions roasting. Your going to have to take a tour and glean as much as you can or experiment it out yourself. The distillery seems a pioneer in using native grains and wants to encourage it, they might be generous with some info, but highly unlikely
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Re: Wattle Seed

Postby BSC_Kilby » Fri Mar 12, 2021 8:36 am

Wattleseed is sold mostly roasted, so you'll have no problem on that front. It tastes mostly of coffee. I've used it a fair bit in gin (ground roasted wattleseed) and it doesn't take much at all to get the flavor I'm after. Think around 0.05g/L
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Re: Wattle Seed

Postby hjubm2 » Sun Mar 14, 2021 9:59 am

Thanks for the replies guys.

As RC AL mentioned, it looks like they use roasted wattle seed but as was also mentioned the only comment I have been able to find is that they "found that small portions of the expensive seed could be roasted and integrated into a barley mash".

Going by this I going to have a chat with a local mob that grow/farm the wattle seeds & sell them roasted/ground. From what I can tell they look to be ground quite fine (kind of like wheat germ) so I'll have to see if that causes problems.

I have found a few grain bills for wattle seed beer with some using wattle seed essence (boiling the wattle seed as a tea and adding the liquid when bottling) but most add the wattle seed as you would hops, anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes towards the end of the boil. Amount wise, most seem to be using below 1% of the other grains added. I'm not sure if you would get a stronger taste from it being added during the boil as opposed to at the lower temperature of a whiskey mash and I'm also not sure how the aging process will effect it.

Because of all this I am thinking of starting out simple. I'm thinking I will use a lighter malt grain such as the Joe White Pilsner which I have been using lately. I think I'll do my usual profile of of running it at 53 degrees for 30 mins, 65 degrees for 90 mins then 71 degrees for 30 mins along with a 10L sparge at 65 degrees. Using 5kg of grain it should give me about 25L @ 1.06 SG. I also think I will try 5% (250g) wattle seed. A bit higher then most beers but due to the different processes etc it should be a good starting point. I just have to work out when I add it to the wash, either at the start with the rest of the grain (most likely way I'll do it) or later on, say halfway through the 65 degree part. I will also use my usual whiskey yeast of SafSpirit M1 (15g) which should match it well.

Hopefully this should give a good base to work from. Anything I have missed?
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Re: Wattle Seed

Postby BSC_Kilby » Mon Mar 15, 2021 6:07 am

You'll probably find that the flavour will be stronger than if you were making a beer as the boil also blows off a fair chunk of volatile aroma and flavour compounds. An analogy would be try boiling coffee for an hour and see if it still tastes as good as it does closer to minutes 2-5. Hot tip it tastes like s*#t. I recon you'll be fine for flavour closer to 1%, but i'd be adding the ground, roasted wattleseed at towards the end of your primary mash in. It's ground fine and doesn't need a long steep or high temps. If you're lucky and you're sparging you might get some to clarify out on transfer, but i'd be expecting it to be fine enough to hit the fermenter but it should settle out.
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Re: Wattle Seed

Postby hjubm2 » Mon Mar 15, 2021 6:53 am

Thanks BSC_Kilby for the thoughts. I might try a couple varying amounts of Wattle Seed (1% as suggested & maybe a bit more/less either side of that) and see how they all turn out/what I prefer after aging. The other points you mentioned makes sense so I'll also try adding it later in the process and see how we go.
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Re: Wattle Seed

Postby bluc » Mon Mar 15, 2021 7:14 am

Where do you buy wattle seed?
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Re: Wattle Seed

Postby hjubm2 » Mon Mar 15, 2021 7:23 am

bluc wrote:Where do you buy wattle seed?


Got a mob a couple of towns over that do them. Haven't used them yet but going to order a kg or so through them. See how we go.

http://www.footesidefarm.com/products/wattle-seed/
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Re: Wattle Seed

Postby bluc » Mon Mar 15, 2021 8:03 am

Thanks for the link bit excy but might try it as one off :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: Wattle Seed

Postby hjubm2 » Mon Mar 15, 2021 10:05 am

Looks like they can do a bulk lot for $90/kg shipped so might be able to divide a bit off & send it on for a bit lower price if your keen for some bluc? Makes it a bit cheaper if you want to try it...
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Re: Wattle Seed

Postby hjubm2 » Mon Mar 15, 2021 10:24 am

So the mob I'm going to get the Wattle Seed through can do it however I like (eg a courser grind or whole seeds). Any thoughts on what the best way to proceed for a whiskey would be? I'm thinking of just getting them whole & sending them through the mill with the grain. Think it would cause less problems later on as I can easily filter them out before putting it all in the boiler compared to a fine flour.
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Re: Wattle Seed

Postby BSC_Kilby » Mon Mar 15, 2021 10:43 am

Sounds like a plan.
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Re: Wattle Seed

Postby hjubm2 » Tue Mar 23, 2021 9:10 pm

Received the Wattle Seeds last week. Went with the whole, roasted seeds. On Sunday I did up a basic mash, 5kg Pilsner malt, 100g wattle seed (roughly crushed) & 15g of SafSpirits M1. Got a SG of 1.061. One of the most vigorous ferments I've had in awhile, 22.5L in a 30L ferment & still had it hitting the top of the fermenter. It's bubbling away nicely & the way it's going it should be done within the next couple days. Had a great smell/taste so will be interesting to see how it turns out. Only decision left is what type of oak etc I use to age it...
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Re: Wattle Seed

Postby northernbrewer » Wed Jul 13, 2022 10:42 am

hey hjubm2, how did this turn out?
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Re: Wattle Seed

Postby hjubm2 » Wed Jul 13, 2022 11:34 am

northernbrewer wrote:hey hjubm2, how did this turn out?


Hey mate, turned out well.most of it aged for about a year & after that time it was quite good. Had a fairly distinctive taste from the wattle seed which was almost overpowering though. Not saying it was unpleasant or anything but I was wanting more of the barley flavour to shine through.

I fermented & stripped another batch a few weeks ago, juat have to do the spirit run on it still. This time I fermented and distilled on the grain, used a different barley variety (but still pilsner malt like the last batch) & used half the amount of wattle seed. We'll see how this batch turns out once I get the spirit run done.

It was definitely worth it though, turned out to be one of my favourite whiskeys so far!
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