Home Distiller

I know. I am thinking about effiency. Do you think it would help.

No I think the carbs are all gobbled up. You could potentially get a little more efficiency with a protein rest tho. I never bother.

So after a 15 day ferment and 1.5 day to clarify I ran 18 gallons of wash taking 150ml off each 6 gallon wash while making low wines and 250ml of my spirit run I ended up with 3 full 750ml bottles I stopped at 30%ABV it all seems very smooth and ultra clear great flavor after putting it all in one container it ended up at 65%ABV I some how feel i should have got one more full bottle out of it this was a single malt wash I used WEISS German pilsner malted barley with White Labs WLP045 I guess I am going to put that in a used apple brandy barrel for a while 1-2 years i do not check my gravity before or after it just seemed like such a long ferment i thought it would have yielded more i used 2.25 lbs per gallon of strike water and sparsed the rest any body have any thoughts

as always thanks JIMBO

just did my first single malt, I think I did ok.

6 gallons of water at 160
10.5 lbs of milled malt wheat
mashed between 140-150 for close to two hours
one bucket was 1.04 the other 1.042

does the SG seem low?

any tips for this recipe for better conversion ?

pitched one pack of us-05 per bucket at 70 degrees

gonna check it in the morning , I hope to see some action in there

thanks for the great info

rager

i think most will say 2lbs per gallon of water. hopefully it will ferment below 1.000

Should be fine. Worst case scenario you might have to do an extra spirit run if you're using a pot still and the proof of your hearts cut isn't as high as you'd like. I had a 1.055 SG, my low wines ended up at 22% (I ran them pretty low), and my hearts cut ended up at 125 proof on the dot (I would have preferred it to be a little higher.)

My peated single malt was a bit too oaked from the dark toast wood chips after only 6 weeks, so I switched out for some medium toast french oak. I'll probably finish it off on some light toast oak chips and call it Triple Wood.

Jimbo and others:
Excellent thread! i have red the entire several times with much interest. I will pick up a 50# bag of 2 row pale ale brewers malt in the next day or so and plan my first AG mast per Jimbo's method. I am going after an Irish style whiskey and will use no peated malt. I will run in a 15.5 gal pot still through a liebig using gas. Have done many SF and UJ washes and will run basically the same, fast and hot strip, low and slow spirit (smallish, constant stream). Should do 2 strips and 1 spirit run. Will char in a 3 gal #4 Gibbs keg for 3-4 ish mons (the keg has 3 cycles thru it), then age on glass 12 ish mos. I plan:

50# malt
25 gals water
gypsum

Some questions please.
I will use 2# malt/gal water. I noticed your original recipe you used 1.73#/gal water. Should I expect a little better yield? This is my most expensive mash so far at about 3 times the cost of my SF and UJ washes, so I want to maximize my yield but at the same time don't want to screw up.
I will ferment in my normal 35 gal Big Brute; I don't have a 25 gal BAP so plan to heat the 25 gal water in 2 kegs with each 12.5 gals heating at same time over two gas burners. I will dump all 50 #'s malt in the trash can, then pour the 2 x 12.5 gals of 165'ish' water on top. I don't have a wort chiller; after stirring several times, would it be risky to cover the trash can with its cover and leave it over night before pitching yeast. Warning! This may be a stupid question: No wort chiller, but I do have a 50 ft high grade garden hose; if I disinfected the hell out of the hose, put it down in the fermented with the outlet end out of the can and ran cold water through it, would it provide any cooling?
I am in the Deep South and its hot here; I have had excellent luck using bakers yeast in my UJ and SF, is there a down side to using the same for this single malt? I am getting the malt from a brew shop and don't want to tell them I will distill it, so not sure if they can give good advice for a yeast. If any of you guys can recommend a good hi temp yeast better than bakers yeast, lets have it.
I'm sure I have missed something but any suggestions, advice, thoughts, questions etc etc would be greatly appreciated.

BG

BG, 165 is too hot. Per the strike charts, and my recipe (at bottom for 2lbs/gal), 156F will get the grain to 148F mash temp. (if the grain is sitting at 70F) If the grain is hotter use the mash chart I reference.

The best yeasts for high temp are bakers and DADY (dry active distillers yeast). They work good around 80F.

It is risky to let it sit overnight. malt is full of bacteria, and the longer it sits at bacteria loving temps the more dangerous. Can you put the fermenters in a bathtub of cold water and ice?

I've done several all-grain batches, and I've dealt with cooling several different ways. I've just let it sit overnight, and then some, to let it cool. In fact, that's what I did with the ferment I have going right now. I split it up into two plastic trash cans and when I got to it the next morning one was already fermenting. Apparently some wild yeast. No funky smells, so I'm going with it. I've been lucky with the overnight thing so far, no pukey infections. I'm sure the funk gods are waiting for me to get a big fat $100 rye recipe going to strike.
Another way I've cooled it down is just throwing ice in it. I don't use all the water called for in the recipe for mashing, and then just throw a couple bags of ice into the wort once I see complete starch conversion. The bag the ice comes in says it's healthier than homemade ice, so that's good enough for me. I've also mashed with as little as 1 qt water to 1 qt grain, and then dumped the other half of the required water in cold from the tap. Both the ice, and the cold water techniques have worked for me, and brought temps down very quickly to be able to pitch yeast.

Mash with half the water then cool with the other half, easiest way I know of, adjust water temps as you're adding to get to pitching temp.

BG, how are you going to mill the 50lbs?
thats a boat load.

goblin:
The HBS where I'm getting the malt will crush it for me when I pick it up. Is crushing the same as milling? A related question; the HBS is a ways off, I had planned on getting it in the next few days but it could be a month before I actually mash it. After the malt is crushed, I think I have read its best to use it fairly soon. Should I wait closer to mashing time before I pick it up.
Thanks,
BG

Jimbo recommended making a wort chiller and it is incredibly easy to do as 3/8" copper tubing is extremely flexible and if you cut one end off a 4 foot dryer hose, it will fit perfectly on the end of it. It will literally take you a few minutes to make it. I bought 20 feet of 3/8" copper tubing, two 4 foot dryer hoses (I'm using one for the condenser on my still), and a sink-to-hose connector, all for ~$35. It cools 5 gallons of wort from boiling to 100 degrees in 15 minutes. If you want something that will cool faster, go for 50' of copper tubing.

hanon wrote:Jimbo recommended making a wort chiller and it is incredibly easy to do as 3/8" copper tubing is extremely flexible and if you cut one end off a 4 foot dryer hose, it will fit perfectly on the end of it. It will literally take you a few minutes to make it. I bought 20 feet of 3/8" copper tubing, two 4 foot dryer hoses (I'm using one for the condenser on my still), and a sink-to-hose connector, all for ~$35. It cools 5 gallons of wort from boiling to 100 degrees in 15 minutes. If you want something that will cool faster, go for 50' of copper tubing.

Did you mean washing machine hoses, most dryers only have a 4-6" flexi vent hose?

SoMo wrote:

hanon wrote:Jimbo recommended making a wort chiller and it is incredibly easy to do as 3/8" copper tubing is extremely flexible and if you cut one end off a 4 foot dryer hose, it will fit perfectly on the end of it. It will literally take you a few minutes to make it. I bought 20 feet of 3/8" copper tubing, two 4 foot dryer hoses (I'm using one for the condenser on my still), and a sink-to-hose connector, all for ~$35. It cools 5 gallons of wort from boiling to 100 degrees in 15 minutes. If you want something that will cool faster, go for 50' of copper tubing.

Did you mean washing machine hoses, most dryers only have a 4-6" flexi vent hose?

haha, yes Im sure thats what he meant, since dryers dont typically require water lines to dry your clothes I bought mine at Home Despot, 2 in a bag with a fitting on only one end. Perfect. Go for the 50' copper and double coil it up and down twice to fit in your bucket. Youll be glad you did. I spliced 25 more with the 25 I had, and now have a brass fitting in the middle I need to keep an eye on.

rager wrote:just did my first single malt, I think I did ok.

6 gallons of water at 160
10.5 lbs of milled malt wheat
mashed between 140-150 for close to two hours
one bucket was 1.04 the other 1.042

does the SG seem low?

any tips for this recipe for better conversion ?

pitched one pack of us-05 per bucket at 70 degrees

gonna check it in the morning , I hope to see some action in there

thanks for the great info

rager

well the results are in,

I came away with 3 qts of 45% . this was after cut and not adding any water. I dipped pretty deap into the tails ( a lot of chocolate flavor) and farther into the heads than I would with my rum. the heads are much more mellow than sugar based rum seems to be. after making my cuts there is a very slight bite but very smooth to the finish. I don't mind the slight bite because there is no burn going down.

I have 4, 1/2 qt jars with different combos of white oak toasted and charred spirals and one qt of med toast light char.

im very happy with how it came out. I do believe my yield was a little low because of the SG being low but I think I know where to improve with my mashing.

man this is fun and opens a whole new world and combinations of grain to be tried out

ill post some pics when the jars start getting some color

cheers to all

rager

Nice work rager, congrats. Now stash it away for 4 months, and then come back and tell us how you like it.

Yeah they converted me too, the all grains are just far better than the sugar heads not so much burn or bite, try nuking a jar white so you have a comparison against the aged on wood. You might really be surprised at how good it is white, the grains certainly take center stage.

rager wrote:man this is fun and opens a whole new world and combinations of grain to be tried out

Glad to hear you all grain was a success, Rager Very tasty stuff, eh? I've done what SoMo suggests, and left one of my jars white. I love the oaking, but the white is very good as-is.
Have you checked out the Gumballhead thread, yet? Great way to put the dregs to excellent use.
Your yield sounds good to me, anywhere around 4 lbs grain / fifth is a happy day in my shed. You could always up your grain/water ratio if you want to go for a higher SG. I think Jimbo has gone as high as 3lbs/gal? What are you suggesting on that these days, Jimbo?
You started with a good recipe for sure, and you're right, whole new world of combinations to go explore now!

Jimbo wrote:Nice work rager, congrats. Now stash it away for 4 months, and then come back and tell us how you like it.

shouldn't be to hard I got a good stock of rum. some aged some not. first 2 ferments of SF going. a rum. ingredients for cornflakes. and a sugar head rum I made using the spent grains from the AG ready to be loaded in the boiler. plus im going to bring them to another house out of state. that will help lol

kinda interested in how this faux rum whiskey comes out

all most finished with my boka so i plan on stepping up the ferments and running it detuned for both rum and whiskey.

SoMo wrote:Yeah they converted me too, the all grains are just far better than the sugar heads not so much burn or bite, try nuking a jar white so you have a comparison against the aged on wood. You might really be surprised at how good it is white, the grains certainly take center stage.

if i had more i would try the nuking thing.

there is a lot less burn and bite than sugar. i have been slowing dropping my sugar to see if it produces better results.

i have to say the AG tasted a lot sweeter than my rum ever comes out. the tails tasted like chocolate and the hearts were just "sweet" tasting. not sure if this is common with you guy. since the tails had a chocolate undertone im thinking about adding a small % of chocolate malt. i tasted it at the HBS and tasted good . thinking 20% to the grain bill

sound crazy?

MichiganCornhusker wrote:

rager wrote:man this is fun and opens a whole new world and combinations of grain to be tried out

Glad to hear you all grain was a success, Rager Very tasty stuff, eh? I've done what SoMo suggests, and left one of my jars white. I love the oaking, but the white is very good as-is.
Have you checked out the Gumballhead thread, yet? Great way to put the dregs to excellent use.
Your yield sounds good to me, anywhere around 4 lbs grain / fifth is a happy day in my shed. You could always up your grain/water ratio if you want to go for a higher SG. I think Jimbo has gone as high as 3lbs/gal? What are you suggesting on that these days, Jimbo?
You started with a good recipe for sure, and you're right, whole new world of combinations to go explore now!

thanks MCH.

definitely tasty . different from sugar and commercial. next time i will leave a jar white. this time i wanted to get it on oak and forget about it.

i think im going to up the grain a little. and trying to improve my mashing. gonna up the strike temp a couple degrees and better insulate for better conversion. the stupid iodine test, i don't know what up with that but just don't like it, or trust it. or even really get it even after reading about it an using it

everything i do is 5-7 gal buckets so im some what limited. i will be doing larger ferment

the yield is bad but jimbo and others are getting 60% or so through the hearts. i would like to get there as well. next time i will run with my thumper as well. not sure why i didn't do it this time

MichiganCornhusker wrote: You could always up your grain/water ratio if you want to go for a higher SG. I think Jimbo has gone as high as 3lbs/gal? What are you suggesting on that these days, Jimbo?

All Malt (barley or wheat) 2lbs/gal.
Cracked corn based Bourbon 3 lbs/gal
Corn Meal based Bourbon 2 lbs/gal.
Mixed raw grains and malt (wheat, rolled barley etc) 2.5 lbs/gal

These will all get you in the 1.065 range. 8% ish

Would some Beano improve conversion and not affect quality?

BG

Jimbo wrote:

MichiganCornhusker wrote: You could always up your grain/water ratio if you want to go for a higher SG. I think Jimbo has gone as high as 3lbs/gal? What are you suggesting on that these days, Jimbo?

All Malt (barley or wheat) 2lbs/gal.
Cracked corn based Bourbon 3 lbs/gal
Corn Meal based Bourbon 2 lbs/gal.
Mixed raw grains and malt (wheat, rolled barley etc) 2.5 lbs/gal

These will all get you in the 1.065 range. 8% ish

Tempted to try a mix of Pale Malt, Pilsner Malt, Carared Malt and Biscuit malt for my first fray into this....mostly because that's just what's to hand. Not decided on ratios yet - I'll take a look on some beer forums to see what might work well....and of course I shall report back with progress

I think the yeast will make more of difference than what kind of barley you use. I've ran the grain from quite a few beers and there really isn't a huge difference unless you're using peated malt.

hanon wrote:I think the yeast will make more of difference than what kind of barley you use. I've ran the grain from quite a few beers and there really isn't a huge difference unless you're using peated malt.

So just using the cheapest quality grain is probably safe bet

Yeasts I have on hand to choose from are:

Ale yeast
Young's Dried Active Yeast
High abv resistant % desert/wine yeast

2-row and ale yeast will give you a very solid single malt. Don't use wine yeast. Most Scotches use Golden Promise, maybe some day I'll see how much better a Golden Promise vs 2-row single malt is. I am trying to figure out whether I like White Labs WLP099 Super High Gravity Ale Yeast, WLP045 Scotch Whisky Yeast, or S-04 dry yeast better, but I'm still aging stuff so it's hard to know where things will end up. Brewbrothers.biz has great prices on malted barley, that's where I usually get mine.

Great...knowing it can ferment 15 to 19 c rather than up in the 20s like rum, is helpful in my cold environment.

Another question, this fermenter tub has a kid but no hole for a bung and bubbler. Will it be hygienist deputy to just leave the lid partly unsealed, just an inch open, to allow co2 out? I've done that and draped some cloth over too to keep bugs away....

Fidget, put the lid on and just dont lock it down, or snap it down. The gas will escape. Dont leave an inch opening or youre just open to the shite in the air.

As far as ferment temp. Ale yeasts and wine yeasts are fine in cold temps. 65-70 F is ideal. Distillers and Bakers yeasts need closer to 80F to be happy. I prefer ale yeasts like US-05 or WLP056 for grain mashes (maltose) and EC-1118 wine yeast for fruit brandys (Fructose/Glucose)