Sparkys 100% Peated Malt Scotch Whisky

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sparky marky
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Re: Sparkys 100% Peated Malt Scotch Whisky

Post by sparky marky »

Don't get me wrong der wo, I don't think il ever be calling this a clone of lagavulin or laphroig but I'm starting to feel pretty confident iv got something that tastes authentically "Islay" in style. The combination of pre used French and American oaks iv got it sitting on are leading it in a very nice direction. Il probably steal a half bottle from the keg for drinking Christmas week and leave the rest till next summer :thumbup:
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Re: Sparkys 100% Peated Malt Scotch Whisky

Post by der wo »

cuginosgrizzo wrote:Hi dw, you are always a wealth of information, thank you!

I believe that the scotches have other aces up their sleeves. Do you know where to find data about their mash abv and their typical low wines ABV? Also, it might be that my malt taste is not so rich as theirs, not all malts are created equal! One more: I am using US-05 yeast, with a very neutral profile, I might try in the future some more estery yeast, to get some floral or fruity notes.
Thank you!
http://www.wormtub.com/distilleries.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
Look at Abelour, Ardbeg, Bowmore, Bruichladdich, Bunnahabhain, Caol Ila, Lagavulin, Laphroaig.
For example Abelour:
Strength of mash: 8.5%
Strength of low wines: 22.7%
That means for 10l mash 10 / 22.7 x 8.5 = 3.7l low wines

I don't know much about yeast, sorry.
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der wo
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Re: Sparkys 100% Peated Malt Scotch Whisky

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sparky marky wrote:Don't get me wrong der wo, I don't think il ever be calling this a clone of lagavulin or laphroig but I'm starting to feel pretty confident iv got something that tastes authentically "Islay" in style. The combination of pre used French and American oaks iv got it sitting on are leading it in a very nice direction. Il probably steal a half bottle from the keg for drinking Christmas week and leave the rest till next summer :thumbup:
Just for fun add a few drops sherry in a little sample. I find it tastes more authentically than expected. It's more easy to get an "authentic" sherry-malt than one without sherry imo.
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Re: Sparkys 100% Peated Malt Scotch Whisky

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sparky marky wrote:So... I got my hands on a 25kg sack of heavily peated malt. It had similar colour and extract stats to a lager malt but then it also has 43ppm phenol!!! At the Maltings they literally just divert a portion of their pale malt to a seperate kiln where they smoke it with peat. I have been assured that Laphroig get some of their malt from the same source which is a good sign.

Mashing - This is crazy smoky stuff and smells incredible, but at its heart is properly modified British barley malt so I mashed in as a simple single infusion mash. All 25kg went in with 70 liters of water at 69C with 5 liters each of boiling and cold water on hand for emergency temperature corrections. We are aiming for a precise 63-64C at the start of the mash. Much lower and conversion of starch to sugar might be sluggish, much higher and you will end up making complex sugars which are not fermentable (this would be good for beer but not for distilling, we want to turn as much of that starch into booze as possible!).
I insulate the mash tun and leave for 90 mins. The starch test with iodine was fine after just 30 mins but I always leave it for longer. Just because all the starch is gone doesn't mean it's done, there may still be complex sugars present that are still getting broken down to fermentables.
I ran all the mash runnings straight off the grain into the fermenter and pressed down on the grain to squeeze out more good stuff before adding another 25 liters of water to the grain at 64C and stirring the shit out of it. I left it for another 20 mins before running off the liquid into the fermenter and squeezing again. I got about 85 liters with an SG of 1.064 which gives a mash efficiency in the 75% sort of region which is ok for such a lazy mash and sparge.

Ferment - let it cool to 25C and pitched US-05. It's a clean-ish ale yeast with a little bit of estery banana which is decent in whisky. Britain got ALL of its summer at oncethjs year while this was fermenting so ambient temperature was around 25C so fermentation finished to .999 in 4 days. That gives an abv of around 8.6%. I then let it settle for another day before racking into the still.

Distilling - I single ran this in one go through 4 bubblecap plates and collected at 3.3L/hr, I took 7.5 liters in total in jars and aired for 2 days with cotton lids.

Blending and aging - I always cut ALL the heads from my whisky. Some people are ok with a little late heads but I HATE the stuff. The peat, while certainly present, was not in overwhelming amounts in flavour or aroma in the first half of the run, but it REALLY picks up the further we go into tails. I therefore made uncharacteristic deep tails cuts. I REALLY wanted that stuff in my whisky knowing full well it would take longer to age out properly. After cuts and dilution I have 6.7L at 68% aging with a blend of used French oak from a rum I did and a little used American oak from a bourbon. Im aging with around 20g of wood per liter which should be good since it's already been used on other products...


I'm expecting this to take a least a year to age properly but will taste at intervals to see how it's getting on. This will NOT be a peat beast like Lagavulin or Laphroig because it went through the bubble plates but from how it tastes now I'm expecting "medium-high" peatiness in the final product (if that means anything!?! :econfused:)
How did you get a FG of 0.999 with an ale yeast ?
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Re: Sparkys 100% Peated Malt Scotch Whisky

Post by still_stirrin »

guest5234 wrote:How did you get a FG of 0.999 with an ale yeast ?
It's all in the mash temps and times....it's in "the process". If you don't understand this, then perhaps some reading on a home brewer's website might help you with the mashing processes and protocol.
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Re: Sparkys 100% Peated Malt Scotch Whisky

Post by gabtrac »

Hi Sparky,
Wondering if you'd do anything different in your process if you chose to ferment on the grain?
I've read about fermenting on the grain, but why would YOU think I shouldn't?

AND... how's it tasting?
Cheers!
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Re: Sparkys 100% Peated Malt Scotch Whisky

Post by MichiganCornhusker »

MichiganCornhusker wrote:If you like Islay smoke I don't think we can overdo the peat with the barley that's available to us.
I take it back.
I just got into my scotch I made with 100% Baird's heavily peated malt.

Holy smokes, what a punch in the kisser.
If ya like mega peat this is great, but I thing I could cut it in half and still be happy.

The taste isn't unpleasant, just so much of it.
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Re: Sparkys 100% Peated Malt Scotch Whisky

Post by sparky marky »

gabtrac wrote:Hi Sparky,
Wondering if you'd do anything different in your process if you chose to ferment on the grain?
I've read about fermenting on the grain, but why would YOU think I shouldn't?

AND... how's it tasting?
Cheers!
Iv fermented corn mashes on the grain but never an all barley mash. This is simply because I have this great big mash tun already that does a great job of separating barley from sugary wort. Also, the Scottish whisky makers don't ferment on the grain, if im aiming for a scotch style product I may as well keep my process as authentic as my equipment will allow...

That being said I don't see any problem fermenting on the grain and separating later.
MichiganCornhusker wrote:
MichiganCornhusker wrote:If you like Islay smoke I don't think we can overdo the peat with the barley that's available to us.
I take it back.
I just got into my scotch I made with 100% Baird's heavily peated malt.

Holy smokes, what a punch in the kisser.
If ya like mega peat this is great, but I thing I could cut it in half and still be happy.

The taste isn't unpleasant, just so much of it.
I agree, it's not unpleasant but It definitely kicks doesn't it?
I spiked a regular barley malt whisky with about 15% heavily peated whisky by volume. It's been aging for 3 months now and for my palate that's gonna turn out just perfect by next summer. Still... it's sort of fun to have something ludicrously peaty lying around right?
der wo wrote: Just for fun add a few drops sherry in a little sample. I find it tastes more authentically than expected. It's more easy to get an "authentic" sherry-malt than one without sherry imo.
Iv just done this. Prompted by a purchase of a nice 28 year old that has big up front sherry i bought a bottle of a Perez ximenes sherry and have added some to sample of my own and the result is a more familiar, commercial, high end scotch flavour.
Good tip, a few clubs from the rest of the bottle may end up in the main barrel :ebiggrin:
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Re: Sparkys 100% Peated Malt Scotch Whisky

Post by gabtrac »

Hi Sparky,
Thanks for the reply!
Well, I just acquired a full sack of Simpsons Peated Malt, and I'm going to follow your directions/process.
Like you, I appreciate a heavy peat and am excited about the prospect of making a drinkable peated single malt.
re: Sherry - I thought I might soak some of my charred oak in some cherry - thoughts?
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Re: Sparkys 100% Peated Malt Scotch Whisky

Post by sparky marky »

Cool sounds good. And pre soaking your oak in sherry sounds perfectly reasonable to me. If your oak is new and hasn't been used to age anything before perhaps the sherry will leech out a bit of that new oak caramel sweetness which for me doesn't really fit in a scotch style whisky.
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Re: Sparkys 100% Peated Malt Scotch Whisky

Post by der wo »

gabtrac wrote:Sherry - I thought I might soak some of my charred oak in some cherry - thoughts?
Yes. But it will result very sweet. Better would be IMO, if the oak is leached out by a bit high proof before. BTW sherry casks are not charred, they are toasted.
Put the stick still wet from the sherry into the malt whisky. And perhaps carve the stick like a spoon, so you get more sherry into the malt without cheating. :wink:
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Re: Sparkys 100% Peated Malt Scotch Whisky

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Small update.

The first peated whisky I did in July came from malt with a reported phenol level of 43ppm fermented with US05. I diluted enough to fill a 500ml bottle at 43% and took it back home for xmas. Reports from family were overwhelmingly positive. what do you expect, they're family! Although, everybody immediately came back for more and the bottle disappeared in about 20 minutes

Before taking it home I tasted a sample side by side with the whisky I made from the 52ppm Minch malt in October with wlp013 London ale yeast.

The differences were really intesting. I was expecting the younger one to be a little rougher (naturally) but I wasn't expecting them to be so VERY different in flavour. They were made with the same procedure and on the same still. The yields were about the same. Aged on the same type/amount of oak. The only differences were the malt and the yeast but the one made from the Minch malt was many MANY times more smoky than the other. So much so after tasting the Minch malt whisky I could no longer taste the peat in the older whisky. I wonder if it's just the grain or if the yeast is somehow intensifying my perception of the peat?

I'm not saying I dislike the intensity, in fact I think il go and order another couple of sacks of grain...further research is obviously needed. :roll:
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Re: Sparkys 100% Peated Malt Scotch Whisky

Post by vernue »

Der Wo - have you written more about your airing/evaporation approach somewhere - i'd like to read more and understand the theory behind it.
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Re: Sparkys 100% Peated Malt Scotch Whisky

Post by der wo »

Here, including a picture:
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 0#p7415064

Not many members do this like me. I cut almost zero foreshots and heads, but let evaporate 20% of the Whisky during the sticks aging. This needs one year. Perhaps per liter low wines I cut 2ml (this is probably the lowest number you will find here). The new make is really headsy this way, but my angels share cures this easily. Those 2ml are very concentrated, because I use a packed column.
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Re: Sparkys 100% Peated Malt Scotch Whisky

Post by sparky marky »

Pseudo update- interesting method der wo. Im coming up on 11 months now and my all peated scotch is delicious. It hasn't really changed noticeably for 3 months or so. While it is smooth and tasty there is also a certain flavour note that appears in ALL commercial scotch whisky that is missing from my whiskies. It's that sharp but smooth and mellow aged heads flavour.

Next time I do whisky I might run a load of late heads into the keeping stock and take the gaskets off my corny kegs (to encourage an angels share)

See what happens.....
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Re: Sparkys 100% Peated Malt Scotch Whisky

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sparky marky wrote:Next time I do whisky I might run a load of late heads into the keeping stock and take the gaskets off my corny kegs (to encourage an angels share)

See what happens.....
Yes. There is absolutely no need to fear too much heads. You can always let evaporate them. Maybe you will not asses it very efficient, because you loose something good too. Or maybe you will think I am wrong, because you will not find a benefit of airing over strict cutting. But for sure you will not ruin a batch.
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Re: Sparkys 100% Peated Malt Scotch Whisky

Post by vernue »

I would think that what's evaporating is nearly pure alcohol, but that would leave the cogeners that produce the less desirable aspects of heads. do you think the added oxidation changes something?
Both me and my whiskey are ageing. I hope my whiskey finishes first.
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Re: Sparkys 100% Peated Malt Scotch Whisky

Post by der wo »

vernue wrote:I would think that what's evaporating is nearly pure alcohol, but that would leave the cogeners that produce the less desirable aspects of heads. But why it works with barrels? Or has long barrel aged whisky this problem? do you think the added oxidation changes something? I don't know. I only want to copy barrel aging without using a barrel. Perhaps it's still not 100% the same. But for sure the evaporation and/or oxidation helps.
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Re: Sparkys 100% Peated Malt Scotch Whisky

Post by RockinRockies »

I plan to fill a 30 gallon used barrel this offseason with 100% Simpsons Peter from my LHBS.

Der.. do you think if I follow your style of making really wide cuts, that 6 years will be sufficient to produce a strong and complex peated Ila which will evaporate the heads? I'm assuming 6/10 to be close to 30/55 barrel size ratio.

I've got a 6 gallon test batch that I'm going to run through my air still and follow your style with airing quite a bit over the next year on a hopefully half gallon I can get out of it on my used bourbon sticks.
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