55 gallon olive barrel whiskey ferment

Production methods from starch to sugars.

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JHeron
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55 gallon olive barrel whiskey ferment

Post by JHeron »

I picked up a 6 gallon used once bourbon barrel that I would like to fill up with an Irish style whisky.
I have a bottle of sherry ageing in the barrel now for some added flavour.
I have a 55 gallon olive barrel to ferment in.
I have 2 10 gallon Igloo mash tons with bags and a keggle with a gas burner for the strike water.
I have a full bag each of 2 row and pilsner malt. Plus 21lbs of wheat malt and 10lbs of barley flakes I need to use up. How does that sound, will pilsner and 2 row malt blended make good whiskey?
I plan on using Jimbo's Single Malt AG recipe ratios for the most part, just with the added bit of wheat and barley flakes to the grain bill.

My mash plan:
Same as I do my beer, I can mash in both tun's at the same time, about 24lbs of grain in each at a time, drain and sparge the bags into buckets to transfer it into my basement where the fermenter is.
Rinse and repeat till I have the fermenter filled up to about 45-50 gallons or so.
Sound like a decent plan?
Cheers,
Jon
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still_stirrin
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Re: 55 gallon olive barrel whiskey ferment

Post by still_stirrin »

Get started. The sooner you do, the sooner you’ll be able to fill the barrel.
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Twisted Brick
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Re: 55 gallon olive barrel whiskey ferment

Post by Twisted Brick »

There are a few threads here that discuss what goes into a 'good' Irish whiskey. Your tastes are your own so only you can make that call.

If you are not familiar with sparging properly-milled huskless (wheat) and flaked grains, you might want to read up on the procedural differences between fermenting on-grain versus off-grain.
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JHeron
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Re: 55 gallon olive barrel whiskey ferment

Post by JHeron »

I am going to ferment off the grain and sparge the grain bag same as I do for beer.
I am just using what I have on hand so perhaps I should say 'thoughts of an Irish style whiskey'.
I saw some diagrams of the Irish triple distil method somewhere on here, not sure I am going to get that complicated on my first kick at the can either.
I am going to mill it all same as I do my bear malt, close to flower fine grind with my 3 roller mill.
If I dont get it all mashed in a day would adding more wert to the already fermenting batch the next day be an issue? I would pitch more yeast after topping it up.
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Ben
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Re: 55 gallon olive barrel whiskey ferment

Post by Ben »

I am not sure your grain bill would fit the traditional Irish style. Normally Irish is around 75% raw and 25% malted barley (old tradition would be a darkened malt, think Munich or brown malt level).

Wheat isn't traditional in Irish whiskey. Wheat is really an American thing.

Pilsner malt is fine, it will give a lighter flavor. Between that and the wheat you will end up with a pretty "soft" on the palate whiskey.

I do think the recipe you have above would make a really nice American style whiskey, used oak can be really delicious in that. You could get that in the barrel then do a third fill with an Irish, in a small barrel a 3rd fill with Irish is really lovely, you can always supplement with staves toward the end of the aging time if the oak character is too light.

If you really want to build an Irish for the fill skip the flaked barley and use feed barley, it will give more of the raw grain flavor (flaked has been steamed to facilitate the flaking), and you will retain husks making the sparge easier. I would be inclined to supplement with 5-10% Munich or brown malt, and 5% roasted malt to backbone the malt character.


Adding wort to an active ferment works great.
:)
JHeron
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Re: 55 gallon olive barrel whiskey ferment

Post by JHeron »

Ben wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2023 7:34 am I am not sure your grain bill would fit the traditional Irish style. Normally Irish is around 75% raw and 25% malted barley (old tradition would be a darkened malt, think Munich or brown malt level).

Wheat isn't traditional in Irish whiskey. Wheat is really an American thing.

Pilsner malt is fine, it will give a lighter flavor. Between that and the wheat you will end up with a pretty "soft" on the palate whiskey.

I do think the recipe you have above would make a really nice American style whiskey, used oak can be really delicious in that. You could get that in the barrel then do a third fill with an Irish, in a small barrel a 3rd fill with Irish is really lovely, you can always supplement with staves toward the end of the aging time if the oak character is too light.

If you really want to build an Irish for the fill skip the flaked barley and use feed barley, it will give more of the raw grain flavor (flaked has been steamed to facilitate the flaking), and you will retain husks making the sparge easier. I would be inclined to supplement with 5-10% Munich or brown malt, and 5% roasted malt to backbone the malt character.


Adding wort to an active ferment works great.
Good info thnaks!
I do have some lovely simpsons brown malt on hand (making a northern English brown ale as we speak) as well as some black malt and I also have half a bag of Munich too... hmm...
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