Question for you scotch makers?

[Uncle Remus]

Not that I am really much of a scotch drinker, however I would like to try making a batch. I suppose cooking a grain mash is cooking a grain mash weather it be barley or corn.

Now should I use 100% malted barley, or would I used a couple lbs of malt for every 10lbs of barley grain (this is how I do a corn mash 2lb malt to 10lb of corn).

How about fermentation and distilling this wash ? any tips?

Thanks guys

[Tater]

read http://homedistiller.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[Yttrium]

It depends on what kind of scotch you want to make.

[Uncle Remus]

I have read the home distiller website on scotch and also Ian Smiley's book. I was looking for some comments from folks who have made scotch, what kind of mash they made, how it turned out, what they flavoured it with etc.
Thanks.

[Grayson_Stewart]

I'd be interested in hearing what anyone has to add to this topic if they have made a scotch in the past. A friend has asked me to make some for him.

I'm assuming that ALL the barley is smoked that is used in the ferment because I don't recall reading otherwise. After giving a 50 lb. bag of smaked barley the sniff test I'm wondering if this assumption may be wrong....seems to me it would make some extremely strong petey drink if all the barley is smoked.

[Fourway]

in order for what you make to be proper single malt it needs to all be the same malt.
Some scotches are made from very heavily peated malt and it shows up in the flavor... some lowland scotches are made with no peat at all and taste a bit more like irish whisky than what you normally think of as scotch.
for most folks buying commercial malt you have (if you're lucky) a choice between fawcett scottish peated malt which is solidly medium smoked and hugh baird scottish peated malt which is very heavily peated.

there is a reason that clear new make scotch is called "peatreek", the wood mitigates the smoke a great deal over the years.

the ugliest smoke flavors and smells come off on the back edge of the heart and some really pretty ones come on just after or even during the heads... the tails are foul in a way that is difficult to describe.

a few tips... use all copper if you can... you will never ever get the smell out of anything else not even stainless.

if you can, use equipment you don't mind stinking up, if you have a small copper still you don't really use make it your scotch still. consign the fermentor you use to stinking forever.

Zud cleanser will help get the smell off of copper but it leaves its own smell behind.
a mixture of tomato paste and detergent can help get the smell out of plastic.

[Uncle Remus]

Thanks Fourway. My still is all copper except the boiler, which is a stainless beer keg. If I run some scotch I will probably leave the structured packing out of the column and run it as a pot still (no reflux).

I have a sack of pale ale malt which I would use. I don't know if I can get my hands on any peated malt. I was considering maybe soaking a few lbs of the malt I have in water and throwing it in my smokehouse and dry it, maybe throwing some peat moss on the burner. Do you think this would work?

[Fourway]

I was considering maybe soaking a few lbs of the malt I have in water and throwing it in my smokehouse and dry it, maybe throwing some peat moss on the burner. Do you think this would work?

smoking your own malt will work great, but if you only smoke some of it it won't really be a single malt.
also if you soak the malt you'll lose some sugar.
as long as you're doing these steps you could go for the purist brass ring and buy unmalted grain to malt yourself and dry it over peat in your smokehouse.
that way you can control the amount of smoke and take full responsibility if it turns out good.