peat water for whisky

[guerrila distilla]

i'm interested in making a malt type whisky as my next project. the question i have is how do i get the strong peat soil flavour that some scotch whiskeys have (i.e. lagavulin/laphroig/bowmore). i know a lot of the islay malts use water coming off the peat hills above the distilleries. would this give adequate flavour? is there a process of condensing the peat flavours

the first approach i thought of was to simply take some water from a peat stream (plenty of peaty moorland close to my house). the second, to dig up some water saturated peat and drain, clean and filter the water. i have heard of people using bbq smoke flavouring but i would like to do it all naturally.

i have been given a 10L oak keg used to store port in. this was a rare find. i work in the hotel industry and part of my job is keeping a good relationship with the wine suppliers. having met one of the directors at a wine tasting, we ended up on the topic of whisky. this, coupled with me forgetting to spit the wine out for most of the night (oops ), ended up on the subject of my "hobby". the guy turned out to be a nice guy and offered a swap. a 10l oak port barrel for a bottle of my finished product (no matter how long it takes). how's that for a deal. apparently it is unusual to see these small barrels for port.

i have seen some limited edition whiskies being matured in port casks but i understand that this is at the end of the maturation process and not for the full duration. i think it would be interesting to see what would happen. maybe i could soak the whisky in some toasted oak chips for a while to bypass the first stage of maturation.

any ideas guys?

all good things come to those who wait, if you cant wait, just brew up a fresh batch

[Dnderhead]

They dry the malt over peat fire. the best I could do is to dampen malt and " smoke" over slow peat fire.

[duds2u]

Peated malt barley is available at quite a few home brew shops. You'll need that to get the flavour as peated water just wont have enough.

[guerrila distilla]

i didn't know they dried the malt over a peat fire, thanks guys. looks like i'll have to get digging and drying some peat blocks . could i place the grain over the peat fire (not too close i guess) on a mesh and dry it like that or is there a certain method to use? how do you tell when the malt is dry enough? this is my first time making a whisky and i've got a few recipes to try, can anyone advise on their "tried and trusted" whiskey mash recipes. thanks again guys

[Dnderhead]

Weigh a set amount ( 1 cup/ liter)--dampen grain-smoke/dry, when grain reaches same weight as before you know its dry.and if you are going to use right away it does not matter

[punkin]

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 86&start=0

Enough info here in Uncle Remus's post to keep you going till the finnished product is produced.
Should answer all your questions.







ThisPlaceIsAConstantSourceOfKnowledgePunkin

[violentblue]

now port barrels are toasted not charred, If you were to to give the inside of your barrel a charrl, might make for a little more smokey flavor