My first all grain whisky run...

[Tsouke]

Hi all

I have spent a ton of time on this forum reading and re-reading and want to thank you all for sharing your experience and knowledge. Much appreciated--particularly Rad, Kiwistiller, Punkin, Uncle Jesse and Dunderhead.

I have just started the ageing of my first all grain whisky run. It was super fun and I am itching to get going on a second round so I can correct my mistakes from this inaugural batch….and to distract me so I can wait out a little ageing time to soften things on this first run. My notes are below.

I started with 18lbs of crystal malt from the brew store. I think now this was a little much and think I will use more like 12lbs next time. 5 Gallons of 77 Degree water went into the 18lbs crystal malt barley in my converted cooler. I cooled it to 72 then threw in a little ice and within a few minutes it was at 68. I then rested at this temp for 100 minutes then sparged with about 3 gallons water to fill the 5gallon carboy. Pitched yeast (freshly smacked pack of beer yeast a few hours before so the pack was inflated nicely) at 32.5C or so. End result at this point was 17.9%ABV and 1.068 OG.

I repeated the above exactly with a second mash to fill a second carboy and got the same end results.

I had a smooth run on one of the carboys (ended at 1.005), the second one had a stalled ferment, which I didn’t realize until I was ready to run the stripping run and did the measurements. Oh well. I ran the stripping run anyway but barely got any alcohol out of it. Will have to watch that more closely in the future.

Each carboy got a separate stripping run that was then combined to do one spirit run. I had some pretty bad foaming and puking on the stripping run…any suggestions on how to control this? Had the heat turned way way down to keep it from happening. I have a Copper Alembic 40L pot still running on gas.

The first stripping run I got the following numbers:

Stripping run log batch A

time (PM) temp take off volume (mL) notes

235 43 turned up heat to high (almost) still at 43C
245 48 5C rise in temp
310 63 nothing yet
315 71 first few drops smells foreshot-y!
322 81 down to medium heat, 1 drop/second foreshots
328 86 25mL turned to low, want to get back to 77 or so. Foreshots discarded
336 74 little too low, distillate stopped, so back up to medium
337 81 shot up, drips started again, turned to between 1/2 low and medium, slightly less than 1 drip per sec--1 every 3 sec. trouble fine tuning to 80C. Slight yellow tinge to product
418 91 140 74%ABV heads discarded
430 92 200 smells clearer, …very steady flow almost not drops anymore
456 92 300 50ml in three minutes collected 300mL at 58%
521 94 300 56%
549 94 300 56%
619 94 325 56%
651 95 300 45%
724 96 300 40%
745 96 200 38%
820 97 320 33%
847 97 250 25%
900 98 280 20% VERY tailsy smelling

Total ABV average was 44% and 3.075L collected


Spirit run was as follows:

5L product at 40% average and put in 2 Liters water to water down to 35%

time take off volume ABV notes

250 start
309 foreshots coming off in steady drip
320 150 heads discarded
330 100 heads discarded
345 155 82 smelling good now
352 150 80
400 150 80
411 175 80
420 150 79
430 155 79
441 155 78
451 155 76.5
500 175 75
511 150 74 slight bitterness detected, put aside as tails. Turned down heat a little.
519 75 72
528 125 71
536 125 68
545 130 65 mixed the tails up to here back into hearts for some flavours
557 150 60 kept for next run
607 145 53 kept for next run
622 200 44 kept for next run
632 125 31 kept for next run


I blended this with water to get down to 63% and it filled 3 750mL bottles that I am now ageing on 6 x 1/2 x 1/2 inch oak sticks that I blackened with a blowtorch. I put it into the fridge in the morning and at night put them onto the counter to warm up. The colour has gotten really nice and whisky looking in only a few days….and it is killing me to not taste it yet. My goal is to last three months of this waiting…we shall see if I can wait that long.

I figure that if I had gotten my second carboy to ferment properly I would have had about 5 750mL bottles of 63%...sound about right for two carboys of 9%ABV wash? (I have a total of 620mL of tails at about 40% sitting around waiting to be dumped back into the next whisky spirit run I do.)

I was guessing a bit on where to make the cuts so I could include enough tails to get some flavour after ageing, but not so much it tasted cardboardy etc. How much funk can I age away from the tails? I understand that the 15 and 20 year ageings are partly flavourful because those tails are aged to good flavours...true? Not that I am going to age for 20 years, but I want to make sure I understand the principles here.

[blind drunk]

I had some pretty bad foaming and puking on the stripping run…any suggestions on how to control this? Had the heat turned way way down to keep it from happening.

I think it was the crystal malt. It has alot of residual sugar that doesn't ferment and can lead to puking. Why did you use crystal malt and not a base malt?

[WalkingWolf]

Congratulations on a first all-grain run -- It appears you have prepared yourself well and have done plenty of homework. You'll have this All-Grain deal ironed out shortly. Keep up the good fight. Looking over those logs brings back fond memories. I was a voluminous note taker when I was starting out. I still pull them out now and then to reminisce. Good note taking does tighten up the learning curve a bit.

[rubber duck]

Getting crystal malt to convert is a pretty good trick. Crystal malt it's heated past the point of witch the enzymes present in the malt will survive.

So from my experience you weren't using 100% crystal malt.

[Tsouke]

I used crystal malt because it was the cheapest at the beer store and from all I read it didn't matter what malt I used as the flavour wouldn't come over anyway (unless it was smoked). Wrong assumption? The homebrew store labeled it as such, but beyond that I can't say what it was...have to trust them.

What malt would you recommend? Will happily change and the price wasn't all that much different anyway.

Thanks for the feedback!

[Bull Rider]

Tsouke: I'd suggest that you use two row barley malt. It's the cheapest, and I buy two or three 50 pound (or 25KG) bags at a time. I do a lot of homebrewing of beer, and Crystal Malts are way more expensive than two row. You'll get better conversion from two row. Rubber Duck's forgotten more about all grain stillin than I'll ever learn.

I'm wondering if you don't mean plain old two row.


Bull.

[rubber duck]

That's what I'm thinking Bull, it must have been mislabeled.

[Tsouke]

Thanks for the pointers on the malt Bull Rider and Rubber Duck, will double check with the store and make sure I get 2 row next time round.

In the tails cut I am picking up a few flavours that are good, but a few bitter ones too. Do the bitter ones age out to good flavours (with reasonable time) or do they just stay nasty?

[blind drunk]

I'd get rid of the bitter ones as they keep repeating themselves like a bad penny. I toss them out. My opinion, others' may differ.

[rubber duck]

I run into the tails just until it tastes a little funky when I'm doing a product that I'm going to barrel age. If your going to age for a sort period of time or leave white just make clean cuts.

Heads are hard to age out, a slight amount of tails will add complexity to a well aged product.

[Tsouke]

Oops. I thought maybe the bitter ones would age out so I left them in, though I had captured most of them in one of the glasses of tails that I mixed back in.

Most of the bitter stuff came out right after hearts then disappeared again for a while so I should have just pitched that part and put some of the others in maybe. One more little change for the next batch.

Or maybe I am running too deep into tails so maybe will just stop at the first hint of funk like you say RD. Hard to watch all that nice alcohol come out is all....

[Barney Fife]

Simply airing-out for a few days often kills the more bitter notes(the higher alcohols or whatnot dissipate some on their own); next time, leave all your jars out with a coffee filter to cover them, for 2-4 days, before doing your final blending form aging. I often air-out my final run for a couple weeks before blending! What seems great now can appear questionable later, and what seems questionable now might be perfectly fine by next week.

[blind drunk]

I often air-out my final run for a couple weeks before blending!

Me too.

Oops. I thought maybe the bitter ones would age out so I left them in, though I had captured most of them in one of the glasses of tails that I mixed back in.

Not to worry, sometimes "mistakes" transform to "character" over time and with some wood ...

Still, the real bitter ones I toss, especially if I'm going to recycle the feints. They just seem to get worse over the generations and so I treat them the same way I treat foreshots. My opinion.