Jimbo's Single Malt AG Recipe

[Jimbo]

Great! If you think its good now wait till you taste it after 6 months on oak.

[Domiz]

i finish now i have only 750 ml of body, or what i consider good, (83% ABV) and the other parts have more flavour so i don't know if they are usable. Perhaps i can use them in the apple pie moonshine recipe!

[Halfbaked]

or perhaps you might throw them in your next single malt and rerun them.

[Jimbo]

Domiz, youre not making Vodka. A little flavor, even if odd now (its young) adds character later after aging. Its needs some late heads and early tails to age into a fine whiskey. For what its worth, my average 'keep cut' is about 74%. That tells me you could probably go deeper into some tails. Maybe heads too (fruityness from the ferment). Potstill right? If youre on a reflux forget everythign I just said. But if you like it super clean, or want to drink it now, then youre fine where youre at.

[Domiz]

the 750 ml are very pure i think you are right i have to add tails and heads to recover flavour. Yes i have a pot still made with a keg.

[Jimbo]

the 750 ml are very pure i think you are right i have to add tails and heads to recover flavour. Yes i have a pot still made with a keg.

Hopefully you have the late heads and early tails in seperate jars and not all lumped together with all the heads and tails? The early heads are nasty. The late tails arent very pleasant either.

[hanon]

I finally got a 5 gallon alembic still and am looking to do a scotch style all malt recipe (pretty much all I want to do, no bourbons or sugar washes for me). I found a good supply for heavily peated malt, but I'm probably going to start with something less expensive like 2-row and Golden Promise to make sure I can distill something good before I try to make an American Lagavulin. I'm definitely going to check out those youtubes.

[Domiz]

the 750 ml are very pure i think you are right i have to add tails and heads to recover flavour. Yes i have a pot still made with a keg.

Hopefully you have the late heads and early tails in seperate jars and not all lumped together with all the heads and tails? The early heads are nasty. The late tails arent very pleasant either.

Finally i have this two babies of alcool at 83% ABV.

[Jimbo]

Domiz, are you drinking this white or aging on oak? If youre going to age on oak for a whiskey, bring it down to 62% first, and blend in some late heads and early tails. If you plan to drink it as shown, I bet its delicious (water it down tho, good lord 83% will flame out your mouth throat and stomach).

[hanon]

I saw a youtube from Laphroaig. Apparently they take the largest heads cut of any distillery (my guess is that they're going into the low 70% range) and throw it right back in the still. Interesting idea.

[Domiz]

Domiz, are you drinking this white or aging on oak? If youre going to age on oak for a whiskey, bring it down to 62% first, and blend in some late heads and early tails. If you plan to drink it as shown, I bet its delicious (water it down tho, good lord 83% will flame out your mouth throat and stomach).

I will use one bottle for apple pie moonshine and the other to do whisky! Now i'm a bit busy with beer! thanks Jimbo for the advices!

[White_Lightning_Rod]

Alright guys looking back on my post looks like I've had this on the shelf/oak since 4/2/14 a month and a half. Been eyeballing it resisting tasting it every time I walk in the room and see it. Fist of all the color is amazing... Way darker than the SF bottle next to it that's been there a month longer. In a moment of weakness tonight I pulled two shots off and cut them down to 40% poured over ice and (forgive me Jimbo I'm not a hardcore drinker) added less than a shot of Dr. Pepper to top off the glass. From there I don't know what else to say...amazing doesn't come close.... I'm raising a toast to ya Jimbo of BY FAR the finest alcohol I've ever had the pleasure of crossing my lips...It gonna be hard to wait four more months to tear into the rest of the bottle while I choke down what I thought before tonight was pretty good Sweet feed whiskey.... Thanks again for your shared knowledge..

[Jimbo]

Thats outstanding Lightning, happy you had good success. You think its good now wait 4-6 months. Really.

[Dan P.]

Dr. Pepper?? Nooooo!

[Red Rim]

White lightning is still young, (regardless of the depth of his posts), give him time to burn off the rest of his taste buds and he will crave the straight hard whisky too.

[White_Lightning_Rod]

I know I know slap my wrist I shouldn't ruin a fine whiskey by adding soda, but...

This is definately good enough for a normal person to drink neat or on the rocks, just after 15 years of using smokeless tobacco my throat cannot quite handle anything straight...

I am now a firm believer in all the hype surrounding all grain recipes. With my SF whiskey I have to cut it with soda or water with at least 2 parts soda to one part liquor. Like I said with this recipe I was able to drink it and THOUROUGHLY enjoy it cut with only 3/4 of a part soda to 3 parts liquor.

I have never been more proud of or Impressed with a liquor that I made than I am with this recipe. It is in an entirely different league than any whiskey I have made before.

Anyone who is reading this contemplating trying AG or maybe you have tried without success trust me keep on trying, all the time, effort, money, and frustration was justified 100 times over when I sipped the first taste of this recipe last night. I can only dream of how good it will become with more aging, my hope and expectation is it will smooth out enough I won't have to add the soda at all. I wouldnt be suprised at all if that happens.

[Halfbaked]

Jimbo, I know you are all about flavors and this is the recipe with the flavors. I think I know you dilute your low wines with water to do your spirit runs. Have you ever considered diluting your low wines with back set instead of water?

[Jimbo]

Hey halfbaked, no I dont dilute my low wines. They are always 30% due to my low sg washes at 8%.

[Halfbaked]

OK Would you ever consider diluting less than 30% with backset for extra flavor?

[Jimbo]

I dunno. If someone else did and reported great results I would. But any backset I save usually goes to souring up bourbon mashes.

[Dan P.]

I don't know how others run theirs, but on a strip run, I strip the bejayzus out of my wash, so any backset will be (should be) pretty free of volatiles, i.e. won't add much to the flavour.

[Jimbo]

I don't know how others run theirs, but on a strip run, I strip the bejayzus out of my wash, so any backset will be (should be) pretty free of volatiles, i.e. won't add much to the flavour.

Same. Bejayzus is about right. I go till my stillhead is at 210/211F and its running at 18%. You?

[Dan P.]

I don't know how others run theirs, but on a strip run, I strip the bejayzus out of my wash, so any backset will be (should be) pretty free of volatiles, i.e. won't add much to the flavour.

Same. Bejayzus is about right. I go till my stillhead is at 210/211F and its running at 18%. You?

Well, if we're talking about a strip run, I will literally (metaphorically speaking) run the arse out of it, so down to 5% or less. I get propane pretty cheap, and my washes are usually pretty weak, so I see no reason not to. I couldn't tell you what temperature.

[Jimbo]

Wow, thats more bejaysuses that I do. I figgered when the distillate is running at 18% ish Its pretty depleted. But Ill give this a shot and see how goes. It might be a habit I need to change now that Im on electric, because when I ran propane, Ididnt get it cheap, Was tired of swapping tanks at 20 bucks a pop far too often

[Dan P.]

Wow, thats more bejaysuses that I do. I figgered when the distillate is running at 18% ish Its pretty depleted. But Ill give this a shot and see how goes. It might be a habit I need to change now that Im on electric, because when I ran propane, Ididnt get it cheap, Was tired of swapping tanks at 20 bucks a pop far too often

Well, obviously one has to find the balance, economically speaking, and I'm probably wasting a little fuel, but another consideration is that when I collect down to where I do, the spirit charge is usually pretty much exactly right in line with what I see for the scotch malt distillers doing, 25%-ish, no adjustment needed. Actually, I think they collect really down to zilch, giving a low-wine abv of around 22%, which they then adjust up with feints to around 25-30%. But you get the idea.

[Dan P.]

PS certainly for peated malt you want to scrape the last drop out, as the peat is a very much bottom-heavy aroma.

[Jimbo]

Yup yup to all said. End of the day im not far off from what youre doing. My low wines are 29-30% pretty consistently. Considering the end of the run is mostly water the difference in volume is probably slight.

[Notta Number]

Well Jimbo, I'm on my second attempt to produce an AG based on your recipe. I've changed it slightly to downscale it, and I don't have a backset that is usable yet, but the wash is busy bubbling away now (please God let this one work). My first batch was a disaster for a couple of reasons, you may remember reading recently. I've tried to address the problems I believe I had (an infection in the wash, and poor temp control) by boiling post mashing, using the gypsum full strength in the mash water, plus I bought a RSC based on recommendations in the Temp Control thread. I wanted the variac, but the RSC is so much cheaper I thought I'd try that route first. Several people have had good luck with them.

I plan on much better temp control in the distillation, and will limit my volume to 6 gal in my 8 gal potstill. Hopefully I'll get complete attenuation out of my CA Ale Yeast 01 (if not I plan on pitching some champagne yeast) to reduce sugar content and the risk of another set of pukes.

What should the finished wash taste like immediately prior to distillation? Post distill prior to aging? Can you describe it so I can see if I'm in the ballpark? This time I cut out the peated barley just so I have less variables to worry about. But that is definitely something I want to add back in once my process is under control. I LOVE peat in a fine whisky, and my American version of peated whiskey will eventually have loads!

I'll keep you posted.

p.s. My fam thinks the mashing process is stinky....wtf? I think it smells divine, makes me think of a liquid bread factory and enjoyment of a fine homebrew while watching a football game (not soccer!).

[Notta Number]

By the way Jimbo, I love your signature line.....ain't it the truth!

[Jimbo]

Hey Notta,

If you mashed in the 140's to favor beta amylase it will go very dry since beta makes fermentable sugars. So it will should taste crisp, dry and slightly tangy from the low pH. Basically taste like a very plain flat beer. But it should taste good too. Nothin funky or pukey. If you mashed in the 150's, it will have the attributes above but taste sweeter from the alpha amylase enzymes making unfermentable sugars. So more beer like, but still a very plain boring beer.

The distillate, after cuts, but before aging will taste different depending on your particular tastes and cuts, but Ill give you mine and how mine tastes. Remember youre not making vodka, it wont, and shouldnt taste clean off the still. Whiskey needs a little bit of late heads to add a little punch, character. Trust me a whiskey can be too smooth after aging if only the middle hearts are kept. After aging on oak middle hearts cut whiskey will seem insipid, lacking character or backbone. So anyway, I keep a little of the heads. Same with tails. Tails off the still taste like wet cardboard. Terrible. But unlike heads which really dont change much with age, tails change completely. Wet cardboard turns into a smooth grain flavor. Adds depth, complexity and dimension. So, I keep some early tails as well. Mix it all up, age it for 6+ months (4 minimum! no touchy before 4 months) and youll have a smooth complex drop with enough kick and depth to balance and compliment the caramel and vanilla from the toasted and charred oak.

This is the world according to Jim, your mileage (and preferences) may vary.

Good luck,

Jimbo