Whisky from specialty malts

[zirtico]

So far, my scotch made from pale malt extract has been excellent. To try something new, I was thinking of using some specialty malts like amber malt for example. Has anyone made a whisky from pure amber malt? I'm assuming it should be perfectly drinkable and have more intense notes of toffee and caramel. Is there any reason not to do it? I'm really curious and want to see how this turns out but if someone has had bad experiences, then I'd like to know. Thanks!

[bearriver]

Specialty malts go a long way. Most people recommend only using 10%-20% of a grain bill as specialty malt.

Check out Ryemageddon from Corsair
75% malted rye
25% chocolate rye
100% Delicious

[zirtico]

Interesting. I don't have access to Corsair spirits where I live unfortunately but sounds like a good idea. Not a huge fan of rye unfortunately. 25% chocolate rye is still a smaller percentage. I want to do 100% amber malt!

[srs787]

Hi zirtico. Do you plan on using amber malt extract, like the pale malt extract you have used but darker from more kilning, this should work. But 20% amber malted grain in your all-grain mash is max due to unfermentable sugars, I agree with bearriver. I hope this helps. srs

[MDH]

A recipe from a long time ago

40% 2-Row
40% White Flour, Lightly Roasted
10% Cornmeal, Roasted to varying degrees
7% Chocolate Rye Malt
3% Black Patent Malt
Fermented to dryness with WYEAST Ringwood Ale and finished with MX Yeast.

Be wary of black patent that's too smoky - smoke and chocolate unfortunately do not work so well together in a Whisky.

[zirtico]

I started the batch yesterday with 50% amber malt extract and 50% pale malt. When I was googling the internet to find information about the fermentability of different malts, I found tons of amber malts which contain quantities of pale, crystal and munich malt and are 80% fermentable. Obviously I assume the pale and the munich malts are more fermentable while the crystal is less so. In any case, we shall see what happens when I run the batch this weekend.

[Usge]

Thing you have to be aware of is that a lot of speciality malts have been denatured of their enzymes to varying degrees or another in order to achieve their attributes. ie., they "cook" malt to make crystal malt. They are primarily "flavoring" malts. Mostly (if not entirely) devoid of enzymes, they add squat to a mash in terms of conversion. Such processing of the malt may also produce mostly unfermentable sugars which you'll mostly leave behind when you distill it. For beer, they add flavoring and color since you are drinking the ferment. But, for distillation, the contribution would be zero for color and probably small in terms of any notable flavor influence on the final distillate.

You can certainly try it. But, if you do...don't count it as part of your malt/enzyme amount in an AG mash. Might work better in a sugar wash.

[MDH]

But, for distillation, the contribution would be zero for color and probably small in terms of any notable flavor influence on the final distillate. .

This is not true; specialty malts certainly do add a lot of character to distilled spirits. You only need 5-8% chocolate malts in any given mash to impart character. Experimentally, I tried distilling a mash of 1kg of 2-row with 1kg of Chocolate Malt. The spirit was so powerfully characteristic of chocolate malt that adding only a few drops of it to a jar of any given Whisky would drastically change it. In all I found chocolate malt to be too overpowering for most Whisky, and limited it to only less than ten percent of any mash I made.

[goose eye]

Ole boys got some kind of dark liquid malt extract. It tasted scorched
When it come across an it gonna wanna puke real bad.

So I'm tole

[Usge]

I had the same experience with it too goose. MDH, yes, you are most certainly right that peated malts, heavily charred, smoked, or roasted malts, etc..will impart flavor influence into distillate. Just not the color, mouthfeel, nor sweetness from any residual sugars like they do in beer. That's more what I meant to say. ie., there are certain attributes from some speciality malts that are used in beer, that won't carry over or will be minimal in influence when it's distilled. Sorry for any confusion!

[heartcut]

I did a 10% crystal 90% 2-row that was nice, could really taste the crystal.
With malt grain or (especially) extract 1/2 tsp olive oil in 12 gal wash keeps it from puking. Couldn't taste it.

[goose eye]

Ole boys was workin off all extract with just
enough water to get it goin.
helluva mess


So I'm tole

[zirtico]

Thanks for the feedback. I did a chocolate malt + sugar wash experiment one time. After oaking, was still undrinkable neat, but still interesting and definitely mixable with coke, though not my preferred method of consumption. From what I read, there are amber malt extracts which are almost as fermentable as pure pale malt extracts, so I just went for a 50/50 mix aiming for a 9% potential ABV. The fermentation has been going strong so far and I expect it'll stop in a couple of days at which point I'll be interested to check SG and see how far it fermented out.

@heartcut - any idea why 1/2 tsp olive oil prevented the wash from puking? Can't think of why it might, but there must be a reason. I might just give it a try when I run this batch this weekend...

[rager]

@heartcut - any idea why 1/2 tsp olive oil prevented the wash from puking? Can't think of why it might, but there must be a reason. I might just give it a try when I run this batch this weekend...

same reason you add it to boiling water when making pasta

its heavier and breaks the service tension or something like that


i was thinking about going 80% wheat malt and 20% chocolate malt

[zirtico]

Yeah I figured it would but I would have thought boiling chips would help with surface tension. Anyway...

Wheat malt and chocolate malt would be interesting. Wheat malt makes a very light whisky and it would be well-complemented by chocolate malt. Glenmorangie's Signet is made with 20% chocolate malt and is supposed to be a great dram.

Gosh I can't wait till this fermentation is over so I can find out what this malt mix finally tastes like!

[zirtico]

Update:

I ran this batch earlier this weekend. The results were very interesting. I stripped down my first run till about 27% overall, and then did my spirit run. Unfortunately, I should have collected the heads in smaller jars because one of my jars has 2/3 hearts, 1/3 heads. I've got that jar airing out for a while and the heads-y smell has already reduced a lot. Anyway, the hearts were very nice and aromatic. The amber malt flavour came all the way through. Cuts were a little challenging because I had no baseline as to what they might taste like. I kept referring back to the "pure hearts" jar to compare what was coming out of the still. I included a small amount of early tails in my final spirit too, but not too much, as I like to drink neat or with a little ice. It's unusual and noticeably different, but I think after some time on oak, I'll be able to sample my regular pale malt single malt and compare it to this "blend" and see how they compare. Certainly looks promising at the moment though!