I've been trying to make classic scotch-style whisky for more than 1.5 years now, and have been really improving - although it's still no Ardbeg
Now I've done quite some research into how scotch whisky is made, and one of the things I found is that they appear to use open washbacks to ferment the wort in. This process -they say- takes no more than 48 hours, and yet they claim to obtain a wash at 8% adv. I do not understand how that would be possible - even using turboyeast (which wouldn't even give the correct flavours). Does anybody know how they do this? I'm trying to do the same, but it usually takes 4 to 5 days at best, with a rather high risk for lactobacillus infections.
I once visited a scotch distillery and indead the wash was only fermented for two days. They also said ~8% was what they got after two days. The fermentors they used were wooden containers ~10 feet in diameter and ~20 feet tall. The top had a lid so you could open in order to see into the fermentor. The whole fermentor was definately not airtight, but it didn't let much air in.
The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves. --John Conner
I've been trying to make classic scotch-style whisky for more than 1.5 years now, and have been really improving - although it's still no Ardbeg
Now I've done quite some research into how scotch whisky is made, and one of the things I found is that they appear to use open washbacks to ferment the wort in. This process -they say- takes no more than 48 hours, and yet they claim to obtain a wash at 8% adv. I do not understand how that would be possible - even using turboyeast (which wouldn't even give the correct flavours). Does anybody know how they do this? I'm trying to do the same, but it usually takes 4 to 5 days at best, with a rather high risk for lactobacillus infections.
Regards,
Zwizzle
The grain is mashed and sparged and re-sparged and re-re-sparged and the last water is used as the first water on the next mash. they end up with a gravity that would be good for around a 10% to 12% yield.
Then they pitch fresh active yeast, traditionally fresh brewery dregs and an absolutely astounding amount of the stuff... in hobby circles when we talk about over-pitching yeast we mean doubling up on the normal amount at most... this is a whole 'nother ball game, they are tossing proportionally 10 to 20 times as much yeast as you normally do and it is fully active when pitched.
This is one of the reasons that new make scotch has a reputation for being horrible tasting. (another is that their second run cuts are wide as a california freeway and go deep into the stink.)
"a woman who drives you to drink is hard to find, most of them will make you drive yourself."
anon--
