Getting started

[der wo]

Of course you have to dilute before tasting. But you don't have to match a particular abv exactly in my opinion. But the most choose a low abv for testing. An easy way is to give a few ml on a tablespoon, drip a bit cold water into and taste it. Cold water, because the temperature would be unnatural high after diluting, that would irritate the taste. I always can't stand it to spit it out. Probably it would be important, if you want to taste many jars successively. I always taste only one jar or two and after a few hours the same again or a different one. The jars are my pets for a few days...
I normally do a provisional mix before I do the final decision for the last heads and first tails-jar.

[raketemensch]

I generally use this calc and a spirit refractometer:

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

Taking lots of notes on your first few rounds of cuts is a very good idea. We may not all have a fully developed vocabulary around what we're tasting, but if you develop your own and are consistent with it, it can make a very big difference -- especially on when you notice heads/tails, and on where you personally decide to make your cuts.

It's not like there's a clear dividing line, and even your own preferences will change as you gain experience. Early on you tend to want to have something drinkable sooner so you'll make tighter cuts, but as you get to the point where you have enough to age, you can go a little wider.

[robb]

I find adding a touch of water when I am debating Feints jar or keep immediately identifies which way to go.

[Beerdude]

Took some tastings over the days and come to the decision that i mix cuts number 2,3,4,5 and a bit of number 6.
Diluted to about 45%. Way better than the cheap vodka you can get here for 5€/bottle. End product is one 0,7L bottle and a non full 0,2L bottle.

For my first run, im very satisfied =)

Now i have to decide what to do with this stuff. Like some flavor in my drinks

Tanks for your help guys

[Beerdude]

Today i stripped the "wineos plain ol sugar wash". Fermented dry, temperature of 27-28°C really helped.

From 15L wash with 8-8.5% i got about 2700 mL of lowwines.

0: 80 mL Fores
1: 500 mL 48%
2: 500 mL 45%
3: 500 mL 40%
4: 350 mL 34%
5: 550 mL 30%
6: 300 mL x% (mixed with nr.1 to 40%)

should be 39% when mixed. Got distraced, maybe some numbers are wrong. Confusing results. Nevermind.

Thinking of keeping 2 and 3 as they are to make fruit-liqueur with raspberries and sugar. Or would it be better to run it all together again?

With the birdwatchers, i did a "Odins Easy Gin" which is really awesome. So keep to the point... my first ... drink from my own homemade spirit
Amazing how much better this stuff is than those spirits you can buy from big distilleries, not thats not only for the cheapest stuff

[der wo]

Plausible results. You stopped the stripping early. But that's good for neutrals with a potstill.
I would distill it again all together, I'm sure, it will improve much. But fill a small amount of jar 2 in a bottle, so you can compare it with that from the second run.

[Beerdude]

What is a spirit made of sugar only called? Vodka? Just neutral sounds...lame

I would like to start my first real whisky.

So after some reading, i decided to make it simple:

For 15L of volume into fermenter:

50% 2-row Malt [2,2 kg]
50% flaked barley [2,2 kg]
SG ~ 1.061 / 15°P
No sparging (simpler, lazy)
Mashing in with ~20L of water at 65°C

Mashing at about 63°C for 90-120 minutes, maybe with a mashout at 78°C for some minutes. Then lauter the wort, sperarting the solids from the luquids. (like any beer, done a hundred times)
Not cooking with hops, just let it cool down to about 20°C and fermenting with a rather clean ale yeast. Then strippig run followed by a spirit run, resulting in some mixed (cuts etc.) spirit with 60% and letting it sit on some oak chips, medium toasted (bought this way), which have been spent a week+ on sherry or red wine. Dont know how many oak chips and for what time (time - taste it once a week should work to find out when its enough). Surface of these oak chips is rather high, so better not let the whisky sit on them for too long.

[der wo]

Oh dude, you want the easy way?

You will loose much sugar in the draff and get a high FG.

If you want more complete conversion and more yield:
Heat up 11l water to 60°C, put in the grain (coarse milled as for beer), wait 2h, then lauter. Now heat up 8l water to 75°C, put in the grain again, wait 2h, boil it, lauter it. Then pour the second sparge to the first while constantly stirring, the temp must not exceed 55°C. Close the fermenting vessel and let cool overnight. Next day stir in O² and add yeast.
You will get 17-18l SG 1.055-1.060. After fermentation 7.5%. After stripping 30%.

And there are better options than chips. You could do a research here for oak sticks.

[Beerdude]

I cant see why i should mash below 60°C as for the enzymatic conversion for highest fermentable sugars (maltose) from grain is in the lower 60´s like 61-63°C, if i mash in at 60°C i will have a mash-temperature at about 58°C.
Sparging is a thing i could consider though.
Why only boil one part of the mash, and why on the grains? Same reason as for doing decoction-mash with beer? Again, why 55°C - thats a temperature ideal for the proteins. Well, some of those are good for fermentation and i´m using a lot of umalted barley. Cooking the grains is good for gelatination, but hot steam rolled flaked barley already went through a similar process.

I understand that a whisky-mash is a bit different than beer, you want the highest fermentability.

I will look for oak sticks, maybe i can try both and compare results.

[der wo]

Even with 100% malt it's better to have as much as possible dp saved into fermentation. That's the reason for the low temperature of the first water. It's a long way from starches to a beer-like mix of fermentables and unfermentables, but it's a much more longer way to 100% fermentable sugars. Of course the low pH and the low temp while fermentation slows down the work of the enzymes much, but it's still there and they have a few days.
If you boil the second sparge, you extract more starch and get a better lautering. You don't need the enzymes of the second sparge, when you have saved the enzymes from the first.

[Beerdude]

If you boil the second sparge, you extract more starch and get a better lautering. You don't need the enzymes of the second sparge, when you have saved the enzymes from the first.

Ok, thats pretty much the same for a decoction mash.

Even with 100% malt it's better to have as much as possible dp saved into fermentation. That's the reason for the low temperature of the first water.

dp? Whats that standing for? ( i know of DAP - diamoniumphosphat and FAN - free amino nitrogen; both important/helpful for healthy fermentation)

Thanks for your input

[der wo]

dp = diastatic power

[Beerdude]

Mashed this pretty much as you recommended, der wo. Didnt went that good, bad efficiency and at the end i got little burning on the bottom of my mashtun, dont know why, never happend before. Mash was slimy, maybe thats the reason. Got about 12L with ~13° Brix (1.050 SG), pretty bad. Added little sugar.

However, i already distilled it and its now sitting on oak. After cuts, i got 400 mL of hearts left with 70% abv. Will see how it turns out.

Other thing i did was to distill "Odin´s Cornflakes Whiskey", which is pretty nice already. Did some nuke-oaking with Jack-Daniels oak chips with one half, the other will sit on the chips for some weeks.

[der wo]

It scorched?
I recommend, never to heat the mash, when you want to safe the dp. Only heat up the water, shut down, put in the grain and wait and stir.
When you want to do the heat up of the second sparge, of which you don't need the dp, of course you have to stir constantly with something, what can scrape at the bottom of your mashing pot.

You only got 12l from 11 + 8 = 19 liter?
If you would write more details, perhaps I would find the mistake.

[Beerdude]

Heat up 11l water to 60°C, put in the grain (coarse milled as for beer), wait 2h, then lauter. Now heat up 8l water to 75°C, put in the grain again, wait 2h, boil it, lauter it. Then pour the second sparge to the first while constantly stirring, the temp must not exceed 55°C. Close the fermenting vessel and let cool overnight. Next day stir in O² and add yeast.

It scorched?
I recommend, never to heat the mash, when you want to safe the dp. Only heat up the water, shut down, put in the grain and wait and stir.
When you want to do the heat up of the second sparge, of which you don't need the dp, of course you have to stir constantly with something, what can scrape at the bottom of your mashing pot.

Did it like this, mashing temp was a little bit higher with the first 11l. About 61-62°C. Ofc i stirred during the boiling of the second part. It must have to do with the consistency of the mash. I boiled a grain mash for beer a lot of times (decoctionmash) and it never happened, but the consistency of a normal beermash is different.

You will get 17-18l SG 1.055-1.060.

That volume shouldnt be possible from my grainbill with 19L total water, as there is generally 1L/kg water sticking with the grains; so from 4,4 kg of grains with 19L water, 15L are maximum (+/-). With this mash, there could have been some more wort (1L at least) in the grains left, that i probably could have drained out, but it was so massively slimy it would have taken to long and was a big mess anyway, so i just dumped it.

[der wo]

61-62°C kills a lot of b-Amylase in 2 hours.

How I mash 3kg malt:
First water 7.5l 60°C. When the grain is in, it's 55°C and of course it drops further while the 2h.
Second water 5.5l 75°C
(Total 13l water)
Mash volume after lautering is 12l.
In my 3kg remain only 1l of liquid.

You have to overthink your lautering method. We don't need a clear wash like the brewers want.
I use fine curtain and pour the mash through. When it's blocked, I take the malt with gloves out and squeeze it over the curtain and give it beside a few times. And then I pour in the next few litres. 10min I need for 3kg.

You used 50% flaked unmalted barley again? Unmalted flaked barley for animals produces much more slime than malted barley for beer production. But I thought it would be ok (because I have mashed flaked barley, horsefeed). Did you mill it? If you lauter with a curtain and you don't want a clear mash, you can mill everything relatively fine.

With a spatula scraping at the bottom of the pot I never had a scorched mash.

I am sorry, that it worked not that good.

[Beerdude]

Well, lets see what it will taste like, if its good, everything is good. Its a hobby, as long as it tastes good, the yield is secondary. I´m here to produce good stuff, quality > quantity

Next time i will use more malt (ain´t that expensive with <30€ per 25kg online distribution).

And i just found out, that i can get raw cane molasses for ~30€ per 10L. Thought it would be much to pay for more with my first research. This is adding rum to my production list in the future

Question on the feints i collected so far. 0.8L of all grain barley whiskey, 0.8L from sugar washes and 0.4 from Cornflakes Whiskey (which is sugar containing).
What to do best with these? Mix all together and run it? (Collect some more volume before i run it). Or collect more of each and run alone?
Collected them separately.

[der wo]

Yes, all malt barley is better and easier.

It depends on your future plans, what you can do with the feints. If you think, you will make again cornflakes whiskey, I would add the conflakes feints to the next cornflakes spirit run. Or to a bourbon spirit run, because it's similar. I would not do an all feints run for a whiskey. Only for neutral with a reflux still.

[Beerdude]

I finally got my voltage regulator (4000W SCR) wired together.

I did mostly Gin for the last runs. Thought of building a reflux column (Bokakob) to get neutrals from it for Gin and Fruit-Mixes, vodka. Not quite sure if this makes sense though. Would use my 21L stock pot, put with a 2" SS pipe and fittings, some welding used. Cooling coil with 6 mm (outer diameter, or more?) copper pipe. If the column is unpacked and the valve (needle) full opened, does it behave like a pot still? Or do i need to use a shortened column as well?