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So first stab at a whiskey have to be Irish for me.
Irish Whiskey is commonly made from corn maleted and un- malted barley, I threw in some oat as well as I figured why not.

Grain bill
3kg flaked corn
7kg barley
5kg malted barley
2kg oats

75l ish of water

as I don't have a big pot to boil in i had to boil water in 5(!) batches.
the result was that when all water was boiled it was at 160F, I threw in 3ML SEBSTAR just to help out and all the unmalted grain.
That dropped it to 150F, so I threw in SEBAMYL and the malt.
Still 150F so whipped with the drill a bit to get it down to 148F, not sure if the malt got dentured in that short time or not. would have been about a min at 150F.

I know , not a true Irish but almost. and it's made in Ireland, that has to count a bit towards authenticity,

I've never heard of an irish whiskey with corn in it! Hope it works out, get back to us with the taste when it's ready, should be good.

From Bushmills-


We make two broad types of whiskey at Bushmills: • Our Bushmills malt whiskeys are made from 100% malted barley • Our blended Irish whiskeys (Bushmills, Black Bush), are made from blending our malt whiskey with a lighter type of whiskey, called grain whiskey. Grain whiskey is made from a small proportion of malted barley and other grains. The most commonly used grains for this whiskey in Ireland are wheat and maize/corn. Rye is not a grain commonly used in Ireland (or Scotland) for whiskey production. The type of grain used in whisk(e)y production bears a significant influence on the taste and character of the resulting product. Here at Bushmills, we insist on our malted barley. At the heart of all our whiskeys (malts and blends) there is triple-distilled whiskey made from 100% malted barley. This is a very distinct recipe, which gives all our whiskeys a unique smoothness and rich honeyed sweetness.

Asking what Irish whiskey is is like asking what stew is, it can be a lot of things. Traditionally I think of light triple distilled and no peat, not always the case these days but for me they are the norms. Maize, yeah I wouldn't call that a traditional Irish whiskey grain but it is used, for instance Jameson runs a pure barely whiskey three times through pot stills to 85% but they make a pure corn whiskey that they run through plated columns until it is 94.5% ABV. They then blend the two but I have no idea at what ratio

thecroweater wrote:Asking what Irish whiskey is is like asking what stew is, it can be a lot of things. Traditionally I think of light triple distilled and no peat, not always the case these days but for me they are the norms. Maize, yeah I wouldn't call that a traditional Irish whiskey grain but it is used, for instance Jameson runs a pure barely whiskey three times through pot stills to 85% but they make a pure corn whiskey that they run through plated columns until it is 94.5% ABV. They then blend the two but I have no idea at what ratio

Yep and Tullamore have the same approach, but I don't have the tools to run at 90% and to be honest I like to lazy approach of mashing all things together.

temp had dropped to 120 this morning, could not get it down to pitching temp before i had to leave the house, I came back around noon and there was a 2 inch krausen on it, must have been some yeasts in the barley, I punshed the cap down and had to add 10 l of water and ice to get it under 100 to pitch bakers.
I had a OG of 1.06 pre adding the 10l cold water to drop the temp, should be about 1.053 now.
It's working away quite a bit there now, 4 inch cap on it.

it finished at 1.02

Took forever to strif enough fora spirit run, I still only have a 10L still.
Only stripped until i got 7l on Lowvines and topped it up with a bit of wash, ran it and made my cuts.
Not brilliant off the bat, nice and smooth for sure, but the flavours are not overly complex.
Sitting on oak and apple now, will have a taste around xmas just to treat myself but will wait to did in to it proper.

Can't really learn if the grain bill is a good one or not, I got a wild ferment is the start and a lacto infection in the end so loads of variables there

I will not do an other run until I get my new still sorted, too much of a pain in the but at the moment.
Got Solder on order and all the parts for the controller, now all I need is time to work it, not easy when you have 3 kids under 3

Put on a new batch two days ago.

10 kg raw barley
6 kg malted barley
3kg flaked corn
1.5 kg oats
85 liter of water

Got my keg still sorted so should be able to get this one stripped and ran in a decent time frame and avoid and lacto

Tell ya what I had Tryconnell single malt Christmas day, if I could cone that I would not be to disappointed, no hangover from it either

So you managed to get a hold of a bottle, told you it was good stuff didn't i .
I got me a bottle of Writers tears for xmas, it's good not as good as Tryconnell though.

Yeah writers tears was next to it on the shelf and a peated Irish whiskey on the other side called connemara that I also have never tried

Only tried Connemara once, that was before I learned to enjoy peated whiskey so I need to try it again to give it a fair review, but as far as I can remember it was quite peaty. That's all I can remember

got it all stripped out.

Only got 75 liters of wash back from the 85 liters of water i put in, my undersized asspress is not up to the job. I need to get a mop wringer. had to squeeze most of it by hand... wouldn't recommend it.

Also I need to get a tighter mash protocol as I only got 15l of 26% lowwines out of 20 kg grains. a lot of efficiencies to be had, I suspect the unmalted barley to be teh main culprit, It's bought cracked to rolled or whatever it's called from the feed shop. I should probably run i through the mill at home as well to get more out of it.

Then again, I am a fan of cutting corners and running grains through a corona mill is no fun in the cold.

The grains got recycled for a sugarhead piggy back so I can let the AG age a bit, I'm all out of sipping stock
Hope to do a spirit run tonight, will add 5l of wash that i kept back to ensure the element is covered.

Also will experiment with the keeps of this spirit run, Woodshed dropped a bomb there the other day saying to add backset to what you put up on oak.
So half will be with back set, the other half won, same amount of oak.

Next up is a Makers Mark grainbill as a friend in the motherland is impressed by it.
14kg corn
3.2kg wheat malt
2.8kg base malt.

I ran this way to quick, 250ml every 3-4 min for the first jar or so.
Ended up with 3l keep at 57% .
Split it into 2 1.5 l jars, same amount of oak in both, one of them got 2 tsp of backset to see how that affects the final product.

at 4 months it's still way to much tails in there, need an other few months the least.

Swedish Pride wrote:I ran this way to quick, 250ml every 3-4 min for the first jar or so.
Ended up with 3l keep at 57% .
Split it into 2 1.5 l jars, same amount of oak in both, one of them got 2 tsp of backset to see how that affects the final product.

Any noticeable difference between the jar with the backset and the jar without?

actually I only tried the one without backset as i figured with backset it would need even more time to mellow out.
May have to compare the two this evening

had a bit of both last night.
I'd be hard to pick out the one with backset over the one without if I didn't have it labeled.
then again, I'm not one to be able to pick out nuances in my drink, i either like it or not.
Not very refined palate, but then again nor am I.

Swedish Pride wrote:Not very refined palate, but then again nor am I.

We wouldn't want you any other way my hairy friend.

After the fishing weekend.. I think I am goign to start leaving all my whiskey for at least 10 months... on oak.. over oak or not.. no worry.. then mix it with a bit of neutral to get to the flavor dynamics and strength of flavor and oak you want.

B

sure it's easy to leave it there if you have drinking stock.
I always seem to be running out, just need to run more often I suppose.

Im too fat to run...thats why i distill he he. I dont think its so much as "leaving it there" as a new way to open up drink that was thought to be to strong. A way to foresee what less oak would have done perhaps? Forgive my ramble...tired and stressed.. I would however like to try your irishish wiskey bill.

pulled a bottle of this stuff yeasterday.
the bulk of it has been on oak for 18 months, I've added some single malt to it as well as the proof was a bit low.
anyhow...
it's good, Its kind of what i was shooting for, and Irish style whiskey with a single mash.

It was better than Tullamore Dew that I usually drink, smoother and a bit more going on
and I got the thumbs up from the missus that is very heads and tails sensitive, she preferred it to tullamore dew too, said tullamore tastes likes mine goes in to the demis to age , to avoid bias i never told her what she was sampling.

Happy out, and teh good news is I have an other 4l aging away too, so I don't have to dip in to this demi as it's for my 18months sons 18y birthday

Well done sp. Im deffo going to give this a go. Had some writers tears yesterday with the brother in law as i got a new nephew. It's good stuff too. Lol we then had a bit too much sweetfeed.

yeah, writers tears is nice if a bit headsy, never drank enough of it to see if it gave me a headache

this batch really needed time, was quite headsy 6 months ago, so was getting a bit miffed at a year when it still was not good, but seems like time is the magic that whiskey needs.
my biggest worry now is to keep my hands off it

Lol iv a headache but i couldn't say what from. If your that worried I'll mind it for ya.

haha, been in Ireland long enough to know not to trust an Irishman (or woman) to mind my drink for me.

Rumbled