Irish Shine - Barley/Oat/Potato

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Irish_Shiner
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Irish Shine - Barley/Oat/Potato

Post by Irish_Shiner »

Hey guys/gals, looking to run my first NON-tried and true recipe in the next couple weeks as temps rise (Northern US). It's my take on Poitin (Irish Moonshine). I'm sticking with what would have been available to a mid-millennium farmer during the time, barley and oats, with potatoes for feel. Forgive my lack of peat notes in this recipe, which are pretty standard in efforts to recreate traditional Poitin.

Grain Bill
25 lb Irish Distillers Malted Barley (2-Row) (~76%)
6 lb Steel Cut Irish Oats (~18%)
2 lb dried potato slices (~6%)
15 gallons water (~2.2 lb/g ratio)

*Drying the potato slices to increase potency prior to mashing, given normal potatoes are essentially mostly water. I'm primarily adding them for potential mouthfeel and because they were plenty available in the region post-1600, so it would make sense they'd find their way into some Irish shining pots. I understand their affect on the product may be limited, but not worried about it. I will also be including alpha and gluco enzymes to support mashing process, simply because I have some sitting around.

Mashing in a 30 gallon tub, fermenting in three 6.5 gallon fermentation buckets (sealed lids, air locks).

Mashing Process:
1) Cook oats w/ 3 gallons of water 15 minutes to saturate and gelatinize the oats
2) Bring to ~110*F, add to tub with 2lbs of barley, hold for 30 minutes (Glucan Rest, barley added for enzyme support)
3) Add 2 gallons @ 187*F to raise temp to ~138*F, add potatoes, add gluco-amylase, hold for 90 min (1st Sacch rest, enzymes added for support)
4) Add 10 gallons @ 160*F to raise temp to ~150*F, add remaining barley, add alpha-amylase, hold for 90 min (2nd Sacch rest)
5) Cover and let cool till pitch temp ~88-90*F, expecting a SG around 1.075
6) Separate into fermentation buckets, pitch RedStar DADY, ferment on grain (will cover buckets and use heated seedling mat for temp maintenance)

After fermentation and straining out grain using mop wringer and straining bags, going to do 3 stripping runs (one run per bucket), and a spirit run through a 9.6 gallon pot still setup. Nothing fancy.

Any initial thoughts or suggestions on the process? Based on all my reading, potatoes seem to be avoided like the plague (no Irish famine pun intended) around here because of their inefficiency and cost, but I'm interested to see if/what impact might come through for the final product here.
WithOrWithoutU2
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Re: Irish Shine - Barley/Oat/Potato

Post by WithOrWithoutU2 »

Seems solid. But I'm still learning and have less than 20 Spirit runs under my belt.

Report back how it goes.
nesster71
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Re: Irish Shine - Barley/Oat/Potato

Post by nesster71 »

Please let us know how this turns out for you, sounds interesting.
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