Been Experimenting With Different Malts- Victory Malt
Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 6:59 am
Over the last couple of weeks, I have been doing a lot of experimenting with various types of malt that you would typically find in a brewery. My goal has been to see what each different type of malt provides to the final product, post distillation. I had read online some information about malts that I thought couldn't be true. Essentially, what I had seen posted was that different types of malts don't have an effect on flavor and the only thing that mattered was the grain. I thought I would share my experience
I've done the more common malts like rye, wheat, 2-row, and Peated Malt, but the other day I decided to try something different. I wanted to see what Victory would add to a whiskey. In beer brewing, victory is known to give a nutty, toasty flavor. It is typically used in nut brown ales. It is significantly darker than base malts, although it is possible to use as 100% of the malt bill. My malt bill was a 50/50 split between 2-Row and Victory and I fermented with American Ale Yeast (Wyeast 1056). The ABV was 7%. I ran it through my pot still and the taste was completely different from anything I've had before. The nuttiness from the Victory really came through a lot. Distilling seemed to really intensify the flavor. I plan on using it again to get the nutty flavor, but I think I will back off the amount. I really like the nutty flavor, but there is a little bit of bitterness that seems to come along with it. I think next time I will do a 70/30% split of 2 row to Victory. I have it aging on oak spirals now and I'll be splitting the 2 liters I've got into smaller portions to experiment with more. I'll be adding hops to some of it, and steeping specialty grains in some of it.
I've done the more common malts like rye, wheat, 2-row, and Peated Malt, but the other day I decided to try something different. I wanted to see what Victory would add to a whiskey. In beer brewing, victory is known to give a nutty, toasty flavor. It is typically used in nut brown ales. It is significantly darker than base malts, although it is possible to use as 100% of the malt bill. My malt bill was a 50/50 split between 2-Row and Victory and I fermented with American Ale Yeast (Wyeast 1056). The ABV was 7%. I ran it through my pot still and the taste was completely different from anything I've had before. The nuttiness from the Victory really came through a lot. Distilling seemed to really intensify the flavor. I plan on using it again to get the nutty flavor, but I think I will back off the amount. I really like the nutty flavor, but there is a little bit of bitterness that seems to come along with it. I think next time I will do a 70/30% split of 2 row to Victory. I have it aging on oak spirals now and I'll be splitting the 2 liters I've got into smaller portions to experiment with more. I'll be adding hops to some of it, and steeping specialty grains in some of it.