Poitín - Irish Moonshine

[brewing_brad]

Hi all,

I've been doing a lot of research into the Irish moonshine, called poitín (or poteen), and have come up with a recipe that I think will fit with the traditional methods that the poitínéir (moonshiner) would have used back in the day (after the 1770 whiskey tax was introduce and illegal distilling became a thing and into modern times) - Especially around Connemara.

From what I've gathered so far, one of the more popular or common recipes (in the Connemara region) used 200 weight of malted barley, 100 weight of rolled oats, an indeterminate amount of sugar, and a pound of baker's yeast. So, to scale that down to home-distilling, I've come up with this:

2kg Baird's heavly peat smoked malt*
1kg rolled oats
1kg sugar (or Dextrose)
1/2 cup baker's yeast

Using the BIAB method:
Mash the grains for an hour at around 65-70c for an hour in 25L water.
Sparge with 2L boiling water to get as much goodness out as you can.
Boil for an hour to condense the sugary goodness.
Add the sugar and stir to dissolve.
And rapidly chill to around 25c and pitch the yeast.

By my figurings, the wort/wash should come in around 1.070 - 1.080 (ish).
Ferment til dry and leave a week longer to settle.

Run through a pot still (discarding only the foreshots). Save everything else.
Run through again, taking cuts as you see fit.

Leave it to air for 24 hours, and then add distilled water to get to the desired ABV (around 40%, but up to you).

As far as I can tell, that's one traditional way of doing it. Can anyone see any glaringly obvious flaws? Bearing in mind, I'm still practically a novice when it comes to this. This is just based on historic research.

Sláinte agus go raibh maith agat.
(Cheers, and thanks)
Brad


* The old poitínéir malted their own barley and dried them over peat fires - using only very dry peat so as not to make too much smoke and avoid detection.

[brewing_brad]

Sorry, I meant 15L of water. I'I've only got an 18L still.

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[dieselduo]

Here is a recipe from the parent site http://homedistiller.org/grain/wash-grain2/poitin" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[brewing_brad]

Thanks dieselduo, I did actually read that as part of my research. They used more oats than barley, but, as the article said, oats was more expensive. So I tried emulating something more accessible. Still interesting though.

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[cuginosgrizzo]

Hi brewing_brad, what's the point of boiling it before pitching? it looks like a waste of time, energy and enzymes. You are going to distill it anyway, so even if you get a wash with a slightly lower final ABV, the total alcohol to be distilled is the same. Or else, if you don't boil, your conversion keeps going even during fermentation and you could get a better yield (some 0,0x% more)

[brewing_brad]

Hi cuginosgrizzo, I guess it's just a hang up from brewing beer. It's just what we do Boiling concentrates the wort more so you get a higher SG. But you're probably right, there'd be the same amount of sugar regardless of how much liquid is present.

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[brewing_brad]

I was just reading up on fermenting on the grain vs off. Perhaps if I added the grain to the fermenter I'd get more sugars converted to alcohol?

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[cuginosgrizzo]

I was just reading up on fermenting on the grain vs off. Perhaps if I added the grain to the fermenter I'd get more sugars converted to alcohol?

Yes, you could possibly convert more starches and have more sugar and alcohol. But I don't think it will make a lot of difference, at least not measurable. There is a recent thread by bilgriss that you could read:

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=65611

please remove the tapatalk line in your posts:

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =3&t=65167

[der wo]

With sparging and fermenting off the grain you get more alcohol out at the end than with fermenting on the grain. Fermenting on the grain gives more alcohol only, if you also distill on the grain.

[brewing_brad]

Just testing of the tapatalk line has bee removed...

[brewing_brad]

Thanks for the heads-up cuginosgrizzo!

[brewing_brad]

With sparging and fermenting off the grain you get more alcohol out at the end than with fermenting on the grain. Fermenting on the grain gives more alcohol only, if you also distill on the grain.

Thanks for the tip. I don't like the idea of distilling on the grain...you could end up with burnt flavours if you're not careful, yea?

[cuginosgrizzo]

With sparging and fermenting off the grain you get more alcohol out at the end than with fermenting on the grain. Fermenting on the grain gives more alcohol only, if you also distill on the grain.

Hi der wo, is this your empyrical observation or are saying this on some theoretical basis? why do you think it should happen this way?

[der wo]

More theoretical. But at least my observations don't prove it wrong.
The problem with fermenting on the grain and distilling off the grain is, that you don't have the option to sparge. And sparging is very effective. You get almost all sugar out of the grains. On the grain you will comparatively loose much alcohol in the grains. You could wash it out with water, but this would dilute the taste. Off the grain you can mash to a very high SG and then dilute it to a normal range with the sparge water. This way is the most efficient (except distilling on the grain).

[brewing_brad]

This may be my beer brewer talking, but don't you sparge after mashing? Is there a sparging during distiliation?

[der wo]

Since I have an agitator in my still I ferment and distill on the grain. At least corn and rye.
When I work with easy to lauter grains, like a malt whisky, I mash with two waters and ferment off the grain. The second water is similar to sparging.

[Monero Mustang]

I know this is an old post it's a dear subject to me.
I have only done a little research myself but I have made whiskey with two great uncles, now deceased, for more than 20 years in Arkansas. They never used sugar. They told me that was what was handed down to them and that went all the way back to Ulster, over 200 years. They never went by the blockader way, cheap quantity. I guess that's not a strict rule but if you truly want to call it whiskey it can't have sugar. That's what I've been told, anyway. Maybe it doesn't matter, you make what suits you to your own liking. That's what matters.
We didn't even use yeast much of the time. Wild yeast would always get in there and start working. Once the beer had enough alcohol it killed anything bad in it.
Also, you got to form that cap with rye. I heard you can do it with oatmeal but I never saw that. That cap is your airlock and your alarm clock. When it falls, it's ready to run and you have to run it as soon as you can or it will be vinegar the next day. Of course, if you use a vessel with an airlock it will keep as long as you please. Also with that rye in there your final product will hold a wonderful set of beads across the whole surface and they'll stay a longer time. A mark of good whiskey.
Whenever I hear the news mention Putin's name I always think of my uncles because that's how they mispronounced it, "Our oldes' kin call't it PUTIN."

[Fiddleford]

I heard you can do it with oatmeal but I never saw that.

I get a good cap with oatmeal, thick as shit and a good airlock. when I add oat meal its only a pound per foot of fermenter circumference due to the stuff sticking at the top. you need to add it in after your mash starts. That gives me the best results anyway.

[Monero Mustang]

I heard you can do it with oatmeal but I never saw that.

I get a good cap with oatmeal, thick as shit and a good airlock. when I add oat meal its only a pound per foot of fermenter circumference due to the stuff sticking at the top. you need to add it in after your mash starts. That gives me the best results anyway.

I'm real glad to hear about that! I always wondered about it but never got around to doing it. As far as I know that is truly the traditional way. Thanks for posting.