English Whisky

[ErnieV]

Hello people.

I am a lover of Scotch Whisky, single malt and blended varieties.

So, I decided to make a keg full.

Here's my recipe and what I am proposing to do in order to fill a 20 Litre oak barrel with English Single malt. (I can't call it Scotch, I'm in England )

Using a beer brewers mash tun made from an old coolbox I mash the single pale malted barley at 65 deg C for 1.5 hours. I sparge using 70 degree water to get as much of the sugars as possible out of the mash grains.

I then ferment with bakers yeast (heaped tablespoon) at 22 degrees C.

Once fermented I pour the "beer" into the still and run it hard and fast as a stripping run. I throw away 300 Ml of foreshots (put it into my cleaning alc bottle) and save the rest right up to the point that I get to 20% and to the bottom of the tails.

Once I have done this with 3 batches I will then add those three low wines to the still for a spirit run.

It is my intention to only add the hearts to the barrel. I have 3 x 25 Kg sacks of malt and as I type this I have 1 low wines and 2 just finished ferments in the brewing cupboard ready to distill on Saturday.

I'm going to be some time only mashing and distilling on a weekend. Any input from you guys would be appreciated. I will take some photo's at the weekend and add to this thread, especially if tapatalk is fixed, it's easy with the phone whilst stilling.

[Street Machine]

I am a big fan of Jameson Irish whiskey. So I'm looking to perfect my own version of a mash. Pale malt would be a nice base and easily obtainable at any home brew store. Do you plan on filtering your distillate through any charcoal before you start aging it?

[ErnieV]

No, I hadn't planned doing that.

I am wondering whether to put any heads or tails into the barrel though, or should it be all hearts... mmm.... some input from others who have done it would be interesting.

[GuyIncognito]

Depending on how long you plan to age it, you can definitely include some early tails. The off-flavors will mature out and add some complexity to the whole thing. Not sure if you can leave things in a 20L barrel long enough for that to happen before you start over extracting oak though.

[Jimbo]

Hey Ernie,

Sounds delicious. As far as cuts. I definitely recommend including some heads and tails. You need to have a crystal ball a little bit, to forsee what will happen with age and oak. But pure hearts will be lacking in character after it ages. It will be 'too' smooth if that makes sense. A lot of the 'fruit' in a good whiskey is in the heads, it comes over early. The esters from the yeast that you want. Also a little bite, substance to the drink. The tails will add good flavors as well.

If youre nervous about making the cuts too wide and screwing up your barrel full, you could go narrow on the cuts. With some heads and tails but keep it light. Then quart up the heads and tails in seperate jars and age on some charred all around oak sticks seperately. It will be a good experiment to show you how nice they both get with age and oak also. Then you could do some blending experiments later to determine how much to add back into your main blend. You may decide in 6 months or year to add it all back in haha!

Dont charcoal filter. Its sucks all the flavors out. Jack Daniels is basically oaked neutral if you taste it side by side to a real whiskey. Flinty gunpowdery flavor and not much else.

As far as oaking, Bourbons taste sweet due to new oak. If you want a sweeter whiskey use a new barrel or put some toasted fresh new oak in the barrel. A used barrel will give you a lighter whiskey and need more time in general. Im using used Balcones barrels, but I did add some new medium dark and dark toasted American and French oak cubes to speed things along and bring more sweetness to the whiskey.

[ErnieV]

Hey Ernie,

Sounds delicious. As far as cuts. I definitely recommend including some heads and hearts. You need to have a crystal ball a little bit, to forsee what will happen with age and oak. But pure hearts will be lacking in character after it ages. It will be 'too' smooth if that makes sense. A lot of the 'fruit' in a good whiskey is in the heads, it comes over early. The esters from the yeast that you want. Also a little bite, substance to the drink. The tails will add good flavors as well.

If youre nervous about making the cuts too wide and screwing up your barrel full, you could go narrow on the cuts. With some heads and tails but keep it light. Then quart up the heads and tails in seperate jars and age on some charred all around oak sticks seperately. It will be a good experiment to show you how nice they both get with age and oak also. Then you could do some blending experiments later to determine how much to add back into your main blend. You may decide in 6 months or year to add it all back in haha!

Dont charcoal filter. Its sucks all the flavors out. Jack Daniels is basically oaked neutral if you taste it side by side to a real whiskey. Flinty gunpowdery flavor and not much else.

As far as oaking, Bourbons taste sweet due to new oak. If you want a sweeter whiskey use a new barrel or put some toasted fresh new oak in the barrel. A used barrel will give you a lighter whiskey and need more time in general. Im using used Balcones barrels, but I did add some new medium dark and dark toasted American and French oak cubes to speed things along and bring more sweetness to the whiskey.

Thanks for the reply Jimdo64.

You're right about being nervous about adding heads and tails to my barrel and screwing it all up. I too really like Jameson's Irish Whiskey and would love to replicate that.

Having said that, all tastes are acquired, so all I need to do is make my whisky and drink enough to "love it"

The only problem I have with ageing in a jar with sticks is that they are not available here in the UK. A quick search on e-bay found loads in the USA, but none here and the postage is quite expensive. I may look at toasting my own, we'll see.

With reference to the yeast flavours, I'm using plain old bakers yeast (fresh of course) and I don't think it carries any flavour over. I might be mistaken.

At the moment I'm drinking neutral with shop bought flavouring, which is actually surprisingly good. Certainly better than nothing anyway.

[Jimbo]

If you cant find ready prepared oak from your brew supply (cubes better than chips) just go to your local woodworking supply. Im sure you can get some white oak. American, French or Hungarian are reportely the best. But as long as its Quercus Alba White Oak, not Red oak. Then cut it into strips and toast the strips in your oven for 2 hours at 400F. After baking char them lightly all around with a torch (propane torch, not flashlight ) Nice thing is you dont need much, a wood supply may even give you some cutoffs free.

Im becoming more and more partial to new unused oak. Its full of sweetness and vanillans. Youll get that from used oak eventually too but it takes longer and more of it.

[ErnieV]

Thanks Jim.

I actually have some oak skirting board in my garage, it's left over from when I re-furbished my kitchen. It's certainly a light oak and doesn't have any finishing on it. So, I may simply cut a bit off with the old circular saw and toast it in the oven. Wife should be chuffed

Flashlight Like it

[Jimbo]

Makes the kitchen smell wonderful.

[WV Shine]

Ernie, do you know if the skirting was white oak? Unfortunately, all oaks were not created equal lol It probably wont make tooooo much difference, but you may want to search around on the site for other's experiences before ya take the plunge.

[okie]

I've read that oak needs to dry out over a year before being used in barrels so I would expect the same for placing pieces in a jar with whisky. I know fresh oak is full of sap and other nasty tasting things.

Ernie, I want to do the same thing. Here it's 5 gallon barrels or 10 gallon. I don't know if I have the patience to fill a 10 gallon.

Good luck with this project.

[ErnieV]

okie, if you are in the states then 10 us gallons is 37.85 litres.

I don't know if I have the patience for that either. Mine is going to be 20 litres which is just over 5 us gallons.

I'm mashing twice in a weekend 20 litres of wash per mash and then stripping it through the pot still dumping 300 ml of foreshots.

I haven't done a spirit run yet with my new set up but may get the chance at the weekend.

Ernie, do you know if the skirting was white oak? Unfortunately, all oaks were not created equal lol It probably wont make tooooo much difference, but you may want to search around on the site for other's experiences before ya take the plunge.

Urm, I don't know, but it's been drying out in my garage for the past 4 or 5 years or so. I'll take a picture of a piece to see if anyone can identify it. I suppose the worst that could happen would be I have to run it with a neutral and make a vodka out of it.

Here's a picture of it actually doing it's proper job in the kitchen.

Here's a picture of my skirting board, actually in the kitchen

[WV Shine]

Ernie, I did some lookin... It may be red oak, but it may not matter... Here's a site that has tips for telling the two apart:

http://www.wood-database.com/wood-artic ... white-oak/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Here's a thread from HD that mentions the two as well:

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4150

The last post has some good info.

I suppose the worst that could happen would be I have to run it with a neutral and make a vodka out of it.

+1

I'd say toast it up and give it a shot. Just let us know how it goes

[ErnieV]

Thanks WV shine some really good info there.

I will try the tips to see what I have. I may toast some anyway just to try it out.

Got another 40 litres in the fermenting cupboard ready for a stripping run on Saturday

[okie]

I don't know about England, but here in the US almost all oak they sell in our lumber yards is red oak. The white oak is taken up by the barrel makers mostly and I asked my lumber guy about white and he said I had to order it.

So I bought red oak for my step project. I wanted white and couldn't find any in stock.

[Jimbo]

Here's a place that carries it. Great place and very accomodating, I buy various hardwoods here. They would probably be happy to ship you a flat rate box stuffed full.

http://www.owlhardwood.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[ErnieV]

Thanks Jimdo64, I appreciate the link, but being in England, the cost of the shipping is more than the oak is worth.

I have two 20 litre fermenters in the brewing cupboard which are getting near to their completion and ready for the stripping run, and another two at the weekend ready for next weekends strip...

Given the size of the barrel I think it's going to be filled with hearts, and tested after about 3 months. If unsatisfactory, I will experiment further

[Jimbo]

Oh sorry Ernie, yes I know youre in England. The post was a response to Okie just before. I should have quoted for clarity. Yes international shipping is extortionist. Odin and I were looking into it for JD staves.

[ErnieV]

No problem, cheers.

I have a friend in Ohio who sent me some BBQ sauce that we liked. I think it ended up costing him about $20.00 to send the $5.00 sauce

It was better than anything we get here though. I aught to speak to the manufacturers about making it here under license

[Jimbo]

Haha, 20 bucks to send 5 dollar sauce. Thats a good friend and I know that feeling too. I mail my friends drink on occasion around the country and its $16 to mail a few beers or a bottle. Its not about economy at that point

Cheers

[ErnieV]

No, you're right, but that's the cost and when I'm on a budget that's the way it has to be I'm afraid.

[ErnieV]

Seven years on, I am back, and this project is starting to take shape. Got diagnosed with cancer and went down a rabbit hole, had surgery last year and got the all clear.

The 50L barrel is ordered, 10 x 25kg malt now resides in my garage am doing the first mash tomorrow.

Will post pictures

[SpeakEasy]

Seven years on, I am back, and this project is starting to take shape. Got diagnosed with cancer and went down a rabbit hole, had surgery last year and got the all clear.

Glad you got the all clear!

[dunluce]

Seven years on, I am back, and this project is starting to take shape. Got diagnosed with cancer and went down a rabbit hole, had surgery last year and got the all clear.

The 50L barrel is ordered, 10 x 25kg malt now resides in my garage am doing the first mash tomorrow.

Will post pictures

Congratulations on the good health. Pics are always great.

[Twisted Brick]

Mash on, Ernie!

[Jstroke]

I salute, you get major points for Can Do, and sticktoitness.

Keep on keeping on.

J

[SassyFrass]

Congratulations on the all clear Ernie. Welcome back.
SF

[Prairiepiss]

Man congrats on the all clear. And on the finally getting started on this quest. Good luck to you. May your barrel be easily filled.

[cob]

Best or luck on the rest of the journey Ernie.

[ErnieV]

Thanks guys. I was going to do the first mash today, then had a family crisis, so, it didn't happen. However, the yeast starter is now complete, and instead of a bakers yeast that I no longer have access to, it's a safale dried brewers yeast. Multiplied in a starter culture, I'm sure it will be OK.

I'm really going to need help with the cuts, so will be posting here once I've done my "spirit" run, and all 20+ bottles are present.

Kind Regards
ErnieV