So I've been brewing/fermenting beer/wine/mead for 10 years now as well as doing some neutral infusions mostly aquavit. 5 months I ago bought the brewhause PSII still and adapted it work with the brewer's edge mash and boil (1000w or1600w settings) pic below
I've done 4 TBW batches and produced a vodka i'm very happy with. I decided to do a whisky with my father-in-law, who is a huge scotch fan and tried to to worry too much about yield and focus on the process and having fun. That being said I would really love to hear some feedback from the forum.
Here are my notes....
BIAB AG Recipe:
5 kilos english 2 row
2 kilos english peated malt
1.5 tsp gypsum
1 pack Belgian Ale M41 Mangrove Jack's (works well at high temps here in brazil)
Mashed for 1 hour @ 66C
OG:1.050 (mash was too thick and my efficiency was off)
FG: 1.006 (ABV 5.87%)
I did not ferment on the grain, just seemed simpler not to.
Final Volume into still 21L
Started heating at 17:20 21 liters of 5.7% wash with about 30cm rolled copper mesh in the column.
Reflux valve at 1/3 open
Had a small boil over, shut off still and then reheated more slowly.
Foreshots were cloudy then tossed 150mls and started collecting at 80.4C
Heads/Hearts/Tails
1. 80.4 - 81.2 60mls (tossed)
2. 81.2 - 81.8 100mls 78%
3. 82.0 - 82.3 100mls 78%
4. 82.5- 82.6 100mls 75%
5. 83.1- 82.2 100mls 75%
6. 82.2-83.1 150mls 73%
7. 83.1 - 82.7 150mls 72%
8. 82.7- 84.2 100mls 72%
9. 84.2- 85.2 110mls 71% very smoky
10. 83.5 - 85.6 100mls 67%
11. 85.7- 87.0 150mls 64%
12. 87.0- 87.3 100mls 62%
13. 87.3-93 120mls 53%
14. Left until temp 94 150mls
I blended most of the hearts diluted to 65% and ended up with about 1100ml for aging with 20g medium toast french oak chips. The heads and tails i put together with the heads and tails of my TBW runs. Tasted 15mls diluted with 10mls filtered water and tasted very smokey. 7 days week later tasted same amount, had a nice color already from the oak and from the taste it seems like it has great potential.
I have the malt to do another wash and run so would love to improve if possible. Also, i feel like my runs go too fast in general so any thoughts on that would be welcome.
Thanks again
Chris!