Want to make Single malt Whisky - only malted barley grain

[Nakiman]

Hi everyone

I am a newbe and just did my first ever distillation & 2 ferments. Still waiting to strip one batch and then do a spirit run. I used 5.5 kg malted barley with 3 kg sugar for each batch. The taste of the stripped hearts was pretty nice. Far better than some of the cheap blended Scotch in the market.

I would to know from people who have been making Scotch style malt whisky.

1. What are the types of malted barley you use? Ale Malt, Distiller's malt, peated malt, Pilsner malt, German Pilsner malt, Crystal malt, Aurora malt, Lagar malt etc.?
2. What types NOT to use? this is very important so I do not make a basic mistake. For example the dark chocolate malts do not seem like a good idea.
3. What yeast? Distillers Whisky yeast, Fermentis Safale US-05, E1118 champagne yeast, Angel yellow label yeast, Pinnacle M,

Any specific detail or issue to be careful about.

Cheers & greetings from Aotearoa New Zealand :-D

[The Stig]

Sorry I can’t help with the malt but what I can say is stay away from EC1118 yeast for anything other than fruit mash’s .

[Wellsy]

Hello Nakiman
Just be aware mate that there is no such thing as strip run hearts. Stripping runs are just to condense the alcohol. If you keep tasting strip runs you might throw out some potentially excellent spirit later on just because it did not taste good at stripping. And no one wants that to happen :laughing-rolling:

Even if you taste some poor hearts after a spirit run don’t throw them out. Throw them on oak and wait a couple of years as you will be very surprised.

As for the best grains it is a bit like what is the best malt to use in beer, it is all super subjective. We have guys hear who have malted their own barley to make whiskey. Use what you can get your hands on mate or be like me and get the cheapest lol.

I have a lot of malt left over from bear making so it will all be mixed up to make a never repeatable whiskey. That is the joy of the hobby :)

[bluc]

Ale or pilsner malts are good choice for scotch choose a good ale yeast and ferment colder to get traditional scotch flavours. Distillers malt is high diastatic power, designed to be used as enzymatic power for non malted adjuncts, corn rye oats etc with no diastatic power. It does not impart a lot of flavour my preference is ale :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[The Stig]

Or go milled barley and Angel Yellow

[bluess57]

Have used Bairds Heavy Peated malt with either some pilsner malt/Simpsons Marris Otter (pale ale) at 25% of the grain mash bill
The peated smokiness of the malt was only lightly carried over into the spirit. If your after an Islay whisky style go big on peated malt.
IIRC used Safspirit M1 yeast

As Stig mention, don't bother with EC1118 yeast in grain ferments

[Nakiman]

My next mash is as follows

5Kg Pilsner malt
5kg Ale malt
3kg Aurora malt
2kg Manuka smoked
2kg Crystal Malt
3kg Toffee malt
TOTAL 20 kg in about 90 lit water = 70 lit final ferment volume
AM1 yeast
I am hoping for OG 1.065

Only my 3rd fermentation