West Tex Smoked Whiskey

[Cottensound]

So after my inaugural single malt rye, which actually after all its trials turned out to be pretty good imo. I backed up a bit and did a rum batch based on the tried and true wisdom here which turned out really good. (I split it into a white, black, and spiced...need to work on my spice receipe though.) I felt ready to take on a grain whiskey again. So not being a fan of Scotch (not a fan of the peet flavor, when I eat dirt I prefer it to be in my grandkids' mud pies from the back yard. ) I was planning on just a barley grain bill I was looking for Irish barely. But while browsing at my local brewshop and came across a local barely which has been smoked with Mesquite. For those across the pond and might not know, Mequite is an American Southwest "tree" (or shrub more like it.) It is renowned for its distinct sharp smoke flavor in BBQ. So wheels a turning and never one to do the same ole thing I quickly came up with the following based on Scotch but without the Peeted barley.

West Tex Smoked Whiskey

9 lbs of 2-row Barley (basic)
4 lbs of Mesquite Smoked Barley

5 gal of water
Strike Temp of 113
Acid Rest 15 minutes
heat to 134
Rest for 15 minutes
heat to 150
mash at 150 for one hour

Drain grains, take time, Sparge with .88 gal (two boil pots) at 160.

Bring to Boil just enough to re-sanitize pump and wort Chiller +/- 2 minutes

Then add water to 6.5 gal and drop temp to 75 move to fermenter and pitch Still Spirit Whiskey Yeast

Plan to ferment then clear for 24 hours with Still Spirit Turbo Clear 2 part
Starting gravity 1.031 at 76.5 degree f = 1.033

Since this is a new barley for me, never even used it in beer, I stole a sip from my test tube for the Hydrometer...You can taste that distinct mesquite smoke otherwise just a plain barley.

Seemed unique so I thought I'd share. I'll check back after I distill it through my pot still using a stripping and spirit run only. I plan on aging/proofing it on some medium toast french oak chips, I have some dark as well but I'm concerned about killing the smoke flavor rather than drawing it out.

[freefall]

That sounds like it will be really good.
Keep us updated please.

[Cottensound]

Well my abv is really, really low. 4.02. For my next stab at it I ended up with 6.5 gal and probably should have boiled it down to 5. I also may try and up my grain bill a lb. (This is limited because of my robobrew set up.) or option #3 adding some LME or DME.... The stripping run is heating up now so before I make any real desicsions I want to see how the flavor profile works out after I do my cuts later today. Bottom line I'm not making this to 1) save money, 2) get blasted, or 3) sell so if it taste right and only makes a little so be it.

[Cottensound]

Well this is turning out disapointing...Oh well my first two where okay, even the first "disaster" fermite. LOL
I think I may have cut a "tail" in that I shouldn't have. Has a bit of an off flavor. I think my major problem is that I started with way too low a grain bill to start. So I only ended up with a little over 1.5l after proofing. I went ahead and put the oak chips in and will let it smooth out a while. I guess I'll see how it ends up.

Here's the rest of my "process"

Stripping run down to 10% or so. About 1 Gallon

Spirit run cuts w/ Parrot... heads up to Jar #8 91c 59.5abv at 100ml
hearts up to Jar #11 95c 41.2abv at 150ml
tails up to Jar #14 98c 26.2abv at 100ml I also did a taste/smell test. Jar #14 is where the wet cardboard first comes through. (put leftover in parrot in Feints jar.)

Proof to 40abv
Starting 54.4abv 850ml

put on French oak, medium toast chips.

Also didn't really taste any of the mesquite, which might in fact be the off taste I was getting....

any thoughts?