Multi-malt whiskey

[Musketear]

So, one of the trends in whiskey these days seems to be multiple malt whiskeys. Stranahan's in Colorado is doing it with great success and I just ran across a smaller distillery that is doing it as well. Since I have really liked what I've had so far, I was hoping to replicate it, but don't know where to start. Does anyone know what types of specialty malts (ie, Crystal, Caramel, and Chocolate malts) make for good flavors in a final whiskey? And anyone have experience with how much specialty grain (percentage wise) is typically used?

[SoMo]

Seeing how no one has answered, I'd make up my own. What do you like from those guys? Look it up and replicate. Or just start going thru catalogs finding the malt that sounds good mix and match, my favorite are wheat, barley, then corn. As far as chocolate and crystal, trial and error too big for me still. Good luck

[firewater69]

I make a barley & oat whiskey that i use chocolate malt in @ 3% of the grain bill. be careful with specialty malts a little goes a long way.

[Andy Capp]

As far as i can tell from their website, they only use 100% malted barley.
In my neck of the woods, this would make it a "single malt".
Although most single malts are aged in used barrels ( bourbon,wine,port,sherry ), these guys use new charred american white oak barrels just like bourbon producers. Would love to try this one if it ever came to Australia.
I couldn't find any mention of other grains being used.


I love their hand drawn diagram of the whiskey making process.

[Dan P.]

I wouldn't go any darker than crystal, and use sparingly.

[MichiganCornhusker]

To do my very first run, (after sac run), I cleared out my homebrew closet. My goal was just to see what a home distilled spirit was, and how well my pot still would perform.
I just ground up and threw everything I had in there: as I remember, it was about 18 lb malted barley, 5 lb crystal malt, some roasted barley, maybe 1 lb, 2 or 3 lbs Special B malt... I even think there was a couple pounds of a smoked malt.
It was a real grab bag mash, but it was meant to be just sort of a test run. The stripping run turned out really well. I can't remember now exactly how it smelled or tasted, but it was clean and clear and had no overpowering off flavors at all. Then I did another 4 batches with corn, rye, and barley recipes, no specialty malts, combined them all into one 5 gallon spirit run, and produced what people seem to think was my best spirit to date. I agree that is has flavors in it that I haven't been able to recreate since without using any specialty grains since that first batch. I would love to go back to experiment a little with specialty grains again, I'm sure they add character to the final spirit. I might start with Crystal and Special B and see where that leads. Would like to hear anyone else's ideas on this.

[Jimbo]

I might start with Crystal and Special B and see where that leads. Would like to hear anyone else's ideas on this.

Special B is pretty special stuff for sure. And its dark roasted (150L or so). Crystal covers the gamut, 10L and you might be wasting your money since the dextrines are unfermentable and there's not much caramelization. A dark crystal 70L or 120L seems would bring some nice things over from the 'mailairdization' of the grain (see related threads). Chocolate Malt is a favorite of mine for its nice roasty flavors. 'Belgian Aromatic' and 'Honey Malt' are really nice too. Just based on what they do to beer I can imagine those flavor elements in a whiskey. Would be nice.

Also, regarding unique malts. Munich Malt is a base malt but has a very unique nice flavor. A single malt on a sack of Munich I bet would be delicious.

And of course, Wheat Malt. A favorite of mine (see single malt recipe). I now use Briess tho as I dont trust the Belgian airborn bacterias that live on Dingemans. (ref Belgian Lambics, Pediococcus, Lacto, Brettanomyces Bruxellensis/Lambicus yada yada. These critters are great in Belgian Lambics, but wreak havoc on Mashes. In my humble experience.)

[MichiganCornhusker]

Thanks, Jimbo, that's great. Of all the stuff I put in that first batch, I was leaning toward the Special B as being the one that contributed the most flavor. Seems like it was kinda raisiny it the beer I had originally used it in.
I'm really intrigued by the whole Maillard reaction thing, just don't understand it well enough to use it yet, but I'll get there... I see they offer Maillard grains at the homebrew shop now, but I had never used them in the past.
I've got a buddy that just bough a house and discovered about 600 lbs of wheat in barrels in the barn out back. It's in 50# sacks, and dry and seems in good condition. I'm going to pick up a sack this weekend and see if I can malt it. Seems like the wheat would make a perfect whiskey to experiment a little with the specialty grains, no?

[Jimbo]

Seems like the wheat would make a perfect whiskey to experiment a little with the specialty grains, no?

Yes, like I mentioned below and in my recipes (both single malt and bourbon) wheat is a favorite of mine. Malted, unmalted, any type. I always have sacks of it around. Lucky on the 600lb find. hopefully the barrels sealed tight or youre gonna find a billion of these little peckerwoods feasting happily

bug.jpg (7.76 KiB) Viewed 8872 times

A few never hurt anything, yeast food, but too many and they can do some damage.

[MichiganCornhusker]

I make a barley & oat whiskey that i use chocolate malt in @ 3% of the grain bill. be careful with specialty malts a little goes a long way.

What character to you think the chocolate malt brings to your final spirit? Roasty? Smokey at all? Barley / Oat combo sounds nice...

[MichiganCornhusker]

Does anyone know what types of specialty malts (ie, Crystal, Caramel, and Chocolate malts) make for good flavors in a final whiskey? And anyone have experience with how much specialty grain (percentage wise) is typically used?

Musketear, I am planning to do some experimenting with specialty malts from the homebrew shop. My plan is to make several batches of wheat whiskey, all on the same day, each identical except for using a different kind of specialty malt in the recipe. Then I will ferment and distill each batch separately.

I haven't done much research yet to know which grains to try, but I will probably at least include a crystal, special B, chocolate, a roasted, and a smoked. Jimbo, I'm not familiar with 'Belgian Aromatic' and 'Honey Malt', but I will check them out for sure. Agreed on the higher Lovibond for the crystal. I'm not expecting any of the specialty grains to contribute fermentable sugars, I just want to see how they impact the character of the final spirit.

If anyone has any other suggestions, or can steer me away from something that you think would be retched, please chime in!

[zirtico]

I've got a 50% amber malt and 50% pale malt mix fermenting right now. Should be done this weekend which is when I hope to run it. Very excited!

[MichiganCornhusker]

Zirtico, did you use grain, or extract? Liquid, or dried? Sounds good, keep us posted.

[zirtico]

Michigan, I have a thread on the Novice Distiller's board, where I'll post updates, so as not hijack poor Musketear's thread

[zirtico]

Hey Musektear!

My amber/pale malt whisky is done! It's been on oak for just a few days but it came off the still real nice! It was 50/50 amber malt and pale malt extract by weight. Flavour came through strong even in the middle of the hearts. I really recommend trying mixed malt whisky, but be VERY careful with chocolate malt. I actually made a 100% chocolate malt whisky using white sugar for alcohol and its not really drinkable. Too harsh. If you're going for a traditional scotch-style whisky with a twist, I wouldn't use specialty malts for more than 50% of the grain bill because then they dominate and your whisky doesn't taste anything like a 100% barley single malt (although it may well be excellent in its own right). My spirit tastes quite different from my conventional single malt attempts, but it is very promising and can't wait to taste it once it has been adequately aged!

[Paulinka]

My first malt whiskey's grain bill was 2kg barley grit (from the feedstore), 750g Weyermann 3 EBC Bohemian Pilsner malt (L1.7) and 250g 900 EBC chocolate malt. Malts were grinded in food processor. This was mashed in 15L water and a flat tbsp. of citric acid, with the malts added later when barley released starches. I also gave it 2ml glucoamylase and fermented with Danstil-A. Took nearly two weeks to ferment out properly, then I pressed the juices and cooked it in a 17L potstill. The whiskey is nice and fruity-flowery with a harmonic taste after a month aging on charred medium oak chips.

A bit less than 10% chocolate malt is used by weight in the grain-bill, and two-third of the grains are pretty cheap, I highly recommend it.

[Fidget]

anyone else made new headway on trying different malt mixes?

[MichiganCornhusker]

I just finished up a spirit run on a batch that included Special B Malt, and Smoked Malt:

40# corn
15# malted barley
15#malted rye
5# Special B Malt
5# Smoked Barley

I think both specialty grains contributed to the character of the whiskey.
The taste of the smoked grains definitely came over. Not in an overwhelming way, just a note. Not at all smokey like a bar-b-que, or a peaty islay Scotch, just an interesting flavor that I don't have in my other whiskey.
The Special B I'm less sure of. There is definitely something on the finish, like rounded dark dark fruit. I don't know much about Brandy, but that is what comes to mind when I taste it, in a small subtle sort of way.
I just ran this last weekend, and I have it on a fairly small piece of toasted/charred oak right now, so it has a loooong ways to go, but it is already good.

My impressions so far are based on only a few sips from the jar. Looking forward to sitting down with a proper pour soon, and will update my tasting notes then.
I just wanted to post because, based on how this turned out, I would say you could safely experiment with any specialty malts at this ratio, about 7% of total fermentable grain bill, and get substantial character without overwhelming the spirit.
I think I will do another batch like this soon, and might include some Chocolate Malt, based on Jimbo's suggestion above, and maybe add some darker Crystal malt as well.

[heartcut]

Using Jimbo's no-boil corn gelatinization process, I made some wheat malt, 3.5L barley malt and cracked corn whiskey a while back and it's turning out a keeper. Had good luck in the past sticking in leftover Crystal, Chocolate and/or Special B to all pale mashes and they've been tasty.

[Jimbo]

Sounds delicious MC, making me thirsty!

[jedneck]

I'm getting ready to do a corn, white wheat and oat whisky all malted. Waiting on malt to dry.

[Eucyblues]

I'll add my 2 cents worth to this discussion

Firstly a good book to give some ideas is 'Alt Whiskeys' by Darek Bell - check Amazon - It has some way-out-there brews- some award winning

Secondly, having started with the aim of working my way through all the readily available barleys, I've been going for 2 years and am only a small way there - However, I decided early on that mixed grain bills were not the answer to what I wanted because I wasn't able to tell what grain added which taste/aroma component to the whisky, and the percentage options were infinite...SO:

What I do now is batch each type of barley separately then age in various ways (french/american oak, plain/port/sherry soaked, charred/toasted etc)

Then mix'n match to taste - This way you can try small additions of the heavier malts to the lighter ones without stuffing up a full batch - This still results in a single malt whisky

Tried so far in order of roast-
pale malt - the standard base type/s used by most small distilleries in Aus (often obtained from breweries)
Golden Promise, Maris Otter, similar to one another - GP is Scottish, MO English- GP used in Macallan
Bohemian Pilsner,
Ale Malt,
Munich 1, Munich 2,
And one of my favourites....
Bairds Heavily Peated,
I have broken my rule and used Crystal Malt (DIY) with Maris Otter - delicious Milo smell but a lot of that impact was lost in the still-maybe need to revert to my rule and do a full batch of Crystal

I won't go further (darker) than Munich 2 as a full batch because it is VERY heavy/malty and even after 18 months is too heavy to drink by itself, but as an adjunct it adds great depth and chewiness to a mix

The peated brews give me 2 types - early hearts are flavoursome with very little peat
late hearts/early tails give the smoky/peaty flavour - Much like Bowmore

Hope this helps

[Fidget]

That's a really inspirational idea...build up a collection of individual speciality malt whiskeys, the mix and blend later.....splendid idea indeed, you'd have a pallet like an artist then.

[BoomTown]

I'm getting ready to do a corn, white wheat and oat whisky all malted. Waiting on malt to dry.

How'd that turn out Jed?

[jedneck]

I'm getting ready to do a corn, white wheat and oat whisky all malted. Waiting on malt to dry.

How'd that turn out Jed?

Corn started molding on me and haven't started another batch malting yet. To damn bizzy

[BoomTown]

I'm getting ready to do a corn, white wheat and oat whisky all malted. Waiting on malt to dry.

How'd that turn out Jed?

Corn started molding on me and haven't started another batch malting yet. To damn bizzy

My guess is that's why the Ulstermen dried their malts over a charcole/peat fire. Needed to get the grain dry before the molds took it. Just my guess.

[Dan P.]

I'm getting ready to do a corn, white wheat and oat whisky all malted. Waiting on malt to dry.

How'd that turn out Jed?

Corn started molding on me and haven't started another batch malting yet. To damn bizzy

My guess is that's why the Ulstermen dried their malts over a charcole/peat fire. Needed to get the grain dry before the molds took it. Just my guess.

Trying to dry malted grain without external heat source in these here beautiful, cold, rain-drenched, islands is not something people try more than once.

[jedneck]

I'm gonna give it another try after the hollydays. I have an old fridge that I use as a smoker that I'm gonna use as a dryer also. Just gotta get it done. Not enuf hours in a day. There could be 50 in a day and I would still not have enuf time to get everything done.

[MichiganCornhusker]

Resurrecting this thread with my latest recipe.
I really like the idea of experimenting with specialty grains/malts.
The whiskey I made with "special B malt", listed in this thread, turned out to be one of my favorites so far.
I have several whiskeys from a variety of kilned, toasted, and roasted malts aging right now and I'll be adding this one to the shelf soon.

20# dried ear corn
10# malted barley
10# malted rye
5# cut oats
5# corn malt
3# roasted wheat malt
25 gallons water
yeast = US-05

I'm using high temp enzymes for gelling and breaking down the starches in the raw grains, and using the malts for conversion.

[firewater69]

On Sunday I mashed my go to recipe, but went all malt this time. 10# 2row, 10# British pale, 8# corn malt & 8# oat malt in 15 gallons of water (after sparge). now I'm thinking of toasting some of the corn & oats, any experience with toasting home malts?