Jimbo's Single Malt AG Recipe

[Durhommer]

Peat smells great doesn't it

[GreenEnvy22]

This morning is still 105F. corrected SG looks to be about 1.065.
I may have gotten less sugars than you'd expect from 40 lbs of malt because of the specialty malts.

So I may adjust how much more water I add, to keep it in the 6-7 % alcohol range.

[StuNY]

Don’t go to high with the SG though, I run my single malts at a pretty consistent 1.062 and find that ideal.you don’t want to stress the yeast on a tasty single malt!

[GreenEnvy22]

Yea I will aim for around there. I'll do another SG reading once the wort has cooled down a bit more, before I add water.

[Durhommer]

So I'm finally ready for this batch of golden promise and peat to run thru it's been done I only now have had free time to run it so here we go. Think I'll be brave and go for a corn mix recipe next

[GreenEnvy22]

Well I tested it later in the day, and it was up to around 1.074. I added around 3 and 1/2 gallons, and now it's at 1.062.
Three packets of us05 yeast pitched, and it's tucked away being held at a constant 68 Fahrenheit

[Durhommer]

Green envy us05 is a great Choice of yeast

[StuNY]

Well I tested it later in the day, and it was up to around 1.074. I added around 3 and 1/2 gallons, and now it's at 1.062.
Three packets of us05 yeast pitched, and it's tucked away being held at a constant 68 Fahrenheit

Perfect! You are going to like it. I use same yeast for my single malts and that temperature is important so you have it covered.

[Durhommer]

I used Abbaye yeast this time around

[Durhommer]

So the cut is done I lost a quart in heads and a quart in tails and have one gallon of 58% whitedog that smells nice with a peat nose

[StuNY]

So the cut is done I lost a quart in heads and a quart in tails and have one gallon of 58% whitedog that smells nice with a peat nose

You going to age it Durhommer? I have been going more and more into heads and tails now since my cuts used to be pretty conservative and I found after aging 6mo-1yr weren't as full flavored as I was after. For ratio reference, my usual spirit runs are yielding 3.5 gallons at 62% to keep for aging. After throwing out the first 200 ml of foreshots, I end up with less than 2 quarts total of heads and tails in the feints jar to put in the next batch. Definitely a little headsy and musty when white but after aging gets really good! Many of these are now hitting 6 months and I am finding them much better than when I was just aging the prime hearts. A lot of the great peat flavors are down low in the tails too- I keep a couple jars of the cloudy tails in my final mix.

[Deplorable]

So the cut is done I lost a quart in heads and a quart in tails and have one gallon of 58% whitedog that smells nice with a peat nose

You going to age it Durhommer? I have been going more and more into heads and tails now since my cuts used to be pretty conservative and I found after aging 6mo-1yr weren't as full flavored as I was after. For ratio reference, my usual spirit runs are yielding 3.5 gallons at 62% to keep for aging. After throwing out the first 200 ml of foreshots, I end up with less than 2 quarts total of heads and tails in the feints jar to put in the next batch. Definitely a little headsy and musty when white but after aging gets really good! Many of these are now hitting 6 months and I am finding them much better than when I was just aging the prime hearts. A lot of the great peat flavors are down low in the tails too- I keep a couple jars of the cloudy tails in my final mix.

What size mashes are you making?

[Durhommer]

I was making 23to 30 gallon mashes but dropped to6 to 8 gallon mashes due to budget constraints I save up lowines until I have the spirit run

[StuNY]

So the cut is done I lost a quart in heads and a quart in tails and have one gallon of 58% whitedog that smells nice with a peat nose

You going to age it Durhommer? I have been going more and more into heads and tails now since my cuts used to be pretty conservative and I found after aging 6mo-1yr weren't as full flavored as I was after. For ratio reference, my usual spirit runs are yielding 3.5 gallons at 62% to keep for aging. After throwing out the first 200 ml of foreshots, I end up with less than 2 quarts total of heads and tails in the feints jar to put in the next batch. Definitely a little headsy and musty when white but after aging gets really good! Many of these are now hitting 6 months and I am finding them much better than when I was just aging the prime hearts. A lot of the great peat flavors are down low in the tails too- I keep a couple jars of the cloudy tails in my final mix.

What size mashes are you making?

I'm doing 42 gal/84lb batches now split into two 32 gallon Brutes. Doesn't take much longer than small batches and insures I have enough in a batch for some to actually make it to 12 months on oak haha!

[Deplorable]

Thanks. I'm always curious when folks talk about their yeild, but don't mention the size of mash. Your 3.5 gallons now makes sense. About double my 23 gallon mash yeild.

[StuNY]

Thanks. I'm always curious when folks talk about their yeild, but don't mention the size of mash. Your 3.5 gallons now makes sense. About double my 23 gallon mash yeild.

Yeah, that is the beauty of Jimbos process and I guess single malts in general. No real magic in terms of getting a good yield, and we are probably all getting about the same. The thing I like is that it is exactly the same each time without any futzing around or babysitting the ferment. And is easily scaled up

[Deplorable]

Yep. Pretty easy. I'm venturing into Bourbon next weekend with a 25 gallon mash of SCDs CROW bourbon. Just toasting the last of the oats now.
Ive got a barrel of single malt put up now, so if I like this bourbon, I'll get busy on making enough for another barrel fill.

[StuNY]

Yep. Pretty easy. I'm venturing into Bourbon next weekend with a 25 gallon mash of SCDs CROW bourbon. Just toasting the last of the oats now.
Ive got a barrel of single malt put up now, so if I like this bourbon, I'll get busy on making enough for another barrel fill.

Yeah bourbon is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. It is a lot more economical than buying barley for me! I have an order to pick up from Restaurant Depot in the morning for three 50lb bags of corn meal (along with bags of sugar and blue agave but that is another story!). $18 a bag and they load it in my car haha! I do the no-cook method and just pour boiling water into it along with some Sebstar HTL. Much better flavors after aging vs feed corn in my experience. Good luck!

[GreenEnvy22]

This looks to be fermenting well. It is forming a decent cap, so I've been mixing it daily.

[Deplorable]

This looks to be fermenting well. It is forming a decent cap, so I've been mixing it daily.

Keep your mitts out of it. The cap will fall when its almost done. Just let it do its thing and keep the lid closed.

[GreenEnvy22]

This looks to be fermenting well. It is forming a decent cap, so I've been mixing it daily.

Keep your mitts out of it. The cap will fall when its almost done. Just let it do its thing and keep the lid closed.

Arrrggg. it's hard not to, coming from my wine making background, you absolutely need to punch down the cap regularly, usually a few times a day. I don't know why it's so different with beer, maybe the lower alcohol levels?

[Deplorable]

On wine, you're punching down fruit to prevent it from drying out. With grain, you don't have to do that. It will fall on about the 4th day or so.

[Bushman]

+1 on fruits and grains. On a side note I like Jimbo’s steps and I believe this thread has got a lot of members trying AG’s that before stayed with either UJ or Sweetfeed recipes.

[Deplorable]

+1 on fruits and grains. On a side note I like Jimbo’s steps and I believe this thread has got a lot of members trying AG’s that before stayed with either UJ or Sweetfeed recipes.

Agreed. Anyone on the fence about AGs need only try this single malt. They will quickly realize its really not any more work, and much more rewarding.

[GreenEnvy22]

Yea I've only done all grains so far, but haven't had them form a cap like this before, which threw me off.

[ats333]

I think I'm going to just sparge it all 10 pounds on 4 gallon sparge with 2 until I reached liquid maximum of fermenter then if sg is off remove some fluid and squeeze grain before throwing it out and add that fluid. I done it my way once or twice before with good results

Finally read through the whole thread! Great info everyone, thanks! I am finally ready to run my first AG, and am doing 5# Maris otter and 5# heavy peated Bairds in 5 gallons of water at a time. My boiler is about 7 gallons. I was wondering if mashing 10lbs in 4 gallons, and sparging with 2 gallons has yielded good results. I read that starting gravity can be a bit low if mashed with not enough water. Also, while watching the videos on youtube from Edradour distillery, the distiller said they basically sparge 3 times with three different temperatures of water, so I was wondering for those of us who can only sparge once, what the ideal temp is?

[GreenEnvy22]

Pressed this today,17.5 gallons collected.
I'll strip it in a day or two, but let me tell you, this makes a damn fine spent grain bread.

[GreenEnvy22]

Did my two stripping runs, collected about 3 gallons at 30%. I added one more gallon of RO water, and will do a spirit run in the next day or two.
The 1 more gallon was to have enough to keep my element covered by the end of the run. It was iffy at 3 gallons (need 2 gallons to cover it).
I have a 2nd brew pot almost done, a smaller 5 gallon, that will use the same column/condenser, which should be nicer for these smaller runs.

[StuNY]

Congrats on some good runs! Yeah, good idea to have the second smaller pot. I have been doing the same. I only run two batch sizes now:

1) My full batch for making quantities of favorites- 3 fills of the 15g keg stripped to 1 fill (12g) of low wines for spirit run

2) Experimental batch- 1 fill of 15g keg stripped, then spirit run in 6 gallon pot (3-4g depending on how the experiment went haha!) End up with about a gallon for aging which is about right for sampling some from time to time but still having a few bottles worth once it is done.

I fitted the pot with the same 1.5" tri clamp ferules I used on my keg so I can easily swap my heating element/thermometer into either one. Both have a 2" ferule on top for fitting either my boka reflux or pot still to them.

Enjoy your single malt!

[GreenEnvy22]

Ran this today. I didn't need to add in so much water, still have over an inch above the element.
I got a total of 5L out. the last 1L was cloudy, that started around 48%.
First bit out (foreshots) were only 75%, usually I'm more around 82%. I attribute that to the increased dilution,
I think I'll end up with close to 3L usable, will do some nosing and tasting tomorrow.