My first whisky.(All grain)

[dmacnz]

Tomorrow is a big day!

I’m attempted my first whisky.

I have a 70L mashtun and conical fermenter which I normally use for beer. Tomorrow it will be making whisky mash.

My plans.
11kg distillers malt
4kg peated malt
1kg chocolate malt
0.5kg honey malt.

Sitting around 9% speciality malts, a bit of peat as would like a touch of smoke. The chocolate and honey malt to add some flavour....hopefully!!

I will throw all in the mashtun and plan to mash for 60mins at 66 degrees Celsius and then 75 degrees for 15min. Sparge to hit 50L at around 1.080.

Transfer through a counterflow cooler and should end up in the fermenter at around 25 degrees. Ready for pitching some redstar dady yeast. I have set my fermenter to start around 24 degrees and ramp up to 28 degrees over 4 days. I will run it under pressure at around 10psi.


Does anyone see anything wrong or anything to add so far?

I’m not sure if I should do a few minute boil or not as yet...??!

Once it’s ready, I plan to do a stripping run, add that to the remain low wines (as I only have a 30L still) and run slow pot still.
I have a new charred oak barrel which is currently full with port. I figured it needed to be hydrated and why not add some flavour at the same time!!

I know it’s a hell of a first attempt and nothing simple.

But any tips or suggestions would be amazing!
Thanks
Dan

[jonnys_spirit]

Sounds yummy! I’d go a little lighter on the peat and chocolate just to blend it with the honey more subtly but sounds like a good drop in any case.

No need to boil since it’s not beer but shouldn’t hurt as long as you keep the SG not too high.

Cheers!
-j

[8Ball]

If it were me, I’d cut the specialty malts in half and replace the difference with more peated and maybe even a little malted rye.

I see you are planning on using a new charred oak barrel for your malt whiskey. That probably isn’t a good idea. You might want to do a first fill or two with bourbon and rum, then do an all malt like this one for a third fill.

Either way, its your call and you did ask for input.

[tombombadil]

Why not collect more and get higher efficiency ? You've got the space in your fermenter...

[Twisted Brick]

If it were me, I’d cut the specialty malts in half and replace the difference with more peated and maybe even a little malted rye.

I see you are planning on using a new charred oak barrel for your malt whiskey. That probably isn’t a good idea. You might want to do a first fill or two with bourbon and rum, then do an all malt like this one for a third fill.

Either way, its your call and you did ask for input.

Sound advice. Since this is your first mash, just know that all peated malt is not the same. Peated malt is measured in phenol PPM, and depending on what you bought, you may not be happy with the results.

It would be a shame to commit a barrel's volume to a spirit that didn't come out the way you wanted it to.

[dmacnz]

Thanks for the input guys. Really appreciate it.

The peated malt is 50PPL. Which I have no idea if that’s strong or weakly smoked.

The reasoning behind doing a 50L mash is that I only have a 30L still and figure a slight higher abv and less volume makes for less stripping runs. 2 x25L stripping instead of 3 runs.

I did think about the barrel soaking in burning first but wanted to try port. I though I read something about the Scott’s being cheap and using what ever used battles they could get there hands on!

Regarding the malt. I don’t have any rye. I have a heap more honey, 2 row or victory malt. (Only 4kg of peated). I live in a place where it’s all got to be ordered in from overseas!
Perhaps I’m better off ditching all the specialty malt and just go 2 row and the 4kg of peat?

Thanks

[The Baker]

dmacnz said, 'perhaps I’m better off ditching all the specialty malt and just go 2 row and the 4 kg of peat?'

Hi,

As a general principle I ditch nothing.

Geoff

[dmacnz]

dmacnz said, 'perhaps I’m better off ditching all the specialty malt and just go 2 row and the 4 kg of peat?'

Hi,

As a general principle I ditch nothing.

Geoff

Right oh... will be crush mash in a hour or so....... as it is then!

[dmacnz]

Bit of a update on how my first whisky went.


Mash went without issue. I used the
14kg distiller malt
0.5 chocolate
0.5 honey
4kg peat.

Mashing
Missed my OG target a bit but I put this down to my wart sprayer/mister not working properly and the grain at the top not remaining wet enough and/or warm Enough.
OG Ended up at 1.065
Transferred into my fermenter.
Pitched redstar dady yeast. (Which is insane compared to ale yeast)
Around 4 days later it was stable at 1.002 giving be just over 8% abv


I transferred through a course filter into my 30L still.
I ended up doing 3x stripping runs with max power (1800watts). Once up to temp each run took around 1 hour and came out starting at 60% and ending up around 20-25.

Distilling.
I had around 5L of low wines left in the fermenter for the final spirit run. So mixed this with the spirit from the stripping runs.

Ran very slowly(around 700watts) and output started at 88% and ended up at around 70 when temp got to 95 degrees so I called it quits there.

I took cuts initially every few hundreds milliliters and towards the middle the cuts were larger (approx 400-600ml).
They have been sitting now over night, so will get my taste buds fired up and go through and see how it went.

On initial tastes during the run some of the smoke still remains for the peat and some grain flavour.

My own problem now is. I’m guessing I will have around 7ish L of product at cask strength.
I have a 5L or a 10L oak barrel.
Could I use the 10L only 3/4 full?!
Or should I use the 5L barrel and put the left over in glass with a oak spiral?!(I have a wooded lid for a 5L glass, my attempt to get it to breath in glass)

Cheers

[Deplorable]

I'd fill the 5L and stick the remainder, using it to replace the angels share.

[rubberduck71]

I'd fill the 5L and stick the remainder, using it to replace the angels share.

+1 to this. Be warned that evap in partially filled barrels can be alarmingly high!