Jimbos Single Malt AG - and deer feed

[rubelstrudel]

Now, after doing a bit of other things, I finally felt comfortable enough to try my hand at an all grain whisky. Following Jimbo's excellent guideviewtopic.php?f=96&t=48654 I went wild and purchased 30kg of peated scotch barley malt for the project. My brother in law also donated a bag of chocolate malt ... to see if I could use it for anything...

Per instructions I filled each of my 27l fermenters, all six of them, with about 7kg of malt. And to not let anything go to waste a good half kg of chocolate malt as well. From my earlier experiments I followed what I considered best practice and added a couple of spoonfuls of DAP, half a cup of powdered CC and a dollop of Epsom salts for good measure.

Then heated water to 72C and filled each fermenter to 27l. To be on the safe side I even threw in some alpha amylase after the first stirring. Things were looking good. The fermenters were snug under a big blanket, keeping each other warm. All six of them. I stirred each bucket of porridge a couple of times during the evening and in the end even added some gluco amylase to be on the safe side. Then I tucked the fermenters in for the evening.

Next morning the temperature was still about 43C and just after that stirred in two spoonfuls of EC1118. A bit hot, but should be ok.
Ferment went off like a rocket. In the afternoon bubbling like mad.

But this didn't last. After 3-4 days the ferment stopped (more or less). So I racked, squeezed and from my original 150l of fermenters, I ended up with about 90l of cleared beer two days later. Fermentation stopped. SG at 1.040. pH 4.1.- OG is unknown, to thick porridge to measure with any reliability.

What could be the problem here? Maybe chocolate malt was messing things up? Maybe I didn't get proper conversion? (No iodine to test with)

Anyway, all the spent grain was thrown in a pile in the garden, meaning to spread it out as fertilizer when the snow melts. But there really isn't much left now. Every evening now 4-6 deer have been camping in my garden eating the spent grain. Spreading their little deer marbles everywhere. At least they're happy.

[greggn]

> Then heated water to 72C

That probably denatured most of your enzymes.


> Next morning the temperature was still about 43C and just after that stirred in two spoonfuls of EC1118.

That probably killed off most of your yeast.


All in all I'd say temperatures bit you in the ass.

[StillerBoy]

Temp as mention by greggn..

Plus no mention of milling/grinding the grains.. you did add some enzymes, so there should have been some conversion.. but your main problem was probably not milling the grains enough..

Mars

[rubelstrudel]

I figure the yeast was happy enough. The yeast was going crazy, like always the first 24 hours.

But then it stopped at a very high gravity. So I figure I didn't really get proper conversion. Lots of sugars in long unfermentable chains.
Jimbo, however, has had great success with this method according to tried and true...

Anybody else with experience with Jimbo's single malt AG method?

[Swedish Pride]

I always boil water and add grains to it, last time it got a bit hot (about 70C) after the addition of grain, I'll let you know how it goes, seems happy enough atm

[rubelstrudel]

My fermenters were at 67C after pouring in hot water and stirring. That's bullseye according to Jimbo.

I really need to get some iodine to check if the starch has converted at least.

[Setsumi]

You mention snow. My opinion is that ec1118 does not like cold weather. I have bayanus, believe it is ec1118, in winter here I have to warm it with aqaroum heater. AND my winter temps are between -5 deg c and 15 deg c.

[nateboussad]

I have no idea. But I would suggest looking at the ingredients list on the store version for a hint.