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So I made an AG scotch with lots of peated barley and fermented on that smoked grain last March.
For the first 7 months it was in a 5 gallon Balcones barrel, then I transferred it to a once used Black Swan barrel from Woodinville Whiskey.

I have been on a zero sugar diet for the past two weeks which has really heightened my sense of taste.
So this afternoon I went out and pulled a quart out of the barrel, and I have my first taste here in front of me.
The smoky character has really come through, I am so happy with the level of smoky flavor.

What is surprising me is the sense of sweetness I'm getting, I know it's due to not eating any sugar or anything with even natural sugars for two weeks but wow this stuff is an elixir!
It's spicy and smoky and i am really enjoying it!

I've got it here in my Royal Mile Whiskies glass.

Sounds delightful.

Not consuming any sugar here either so my usual rum cocktails are out for now.

I recently started learning how to enjoy scotch and I do like it a lot.

LWTCS wrote:Sounds delightful.

Not consuming any sugar here either so my usual rum cocktails are out for now.

I recently started learning how to enjoy scotch and I do like it a lot.

This coming from what I would call a rum connoisseur!

Congrats!
What's your bottle proof? Maybe you would share your grain bill.
BG

Maybe share a bit o that good drop eh?

In honor of St Patrick's day (week) I just pulled a 750 ml botle of Scotch out o the barrel.

OMG

I believe if I can let this sit longer I'll be rewarded with the best Scotch I've ever had (including many 21 year old good bottles and some older that I've paid good money for).

Right now this stuff is just amazing, and I don't think that's just because I made it myself.
My son in law had a drink and it was a "wow!" experience for him as well.
Anyway, in honor of the season I'll be pouring a few drops in my awesome Royal Mile Whisky glass.
Same son in law bought it for me when he was in Edinburgh, it's engraved on the bottom and is much heavier than the standard Scotch glass.

This is smoky with a citrus note, sweet and finishes with vanilla and caramel notes.
I'm going to very much enjoy this - neat of course.

Haha, drinking Scotch (ish) to honor St Patrick's Day. That's like waving a Confederate flag to celebrate MLK Day.

Been seeing if I wanted to do a scotch, and now this put me over the edge. Congratulations on your deliciousness.

aceswired wrote:Haha, drinking Scotch (ish) to honor St Patrick's Day. That's like waving a Confederate flag to celebrate MLK Day.

The battle flag and the cival war had nothing to do with slavery. This notion has been pushed upon the masses to underscore why the war started and the atrocities the north perpetrated against the South. But you are right in a sense with the scotch Irish thing.

Close as I could get, my other aged spirit is Rum which is probably more appropriate.
But I wanted an excuse to try out the Scotch again!

pfshine wrote:

aceswired wrote:Haha, drinking Scotch (ish) to honor St Patrick's Day. That's like waving a Confederate flag to celebrate MLK Day.

The battle flag and the cival war had nothing to do with slavery. This notion has been pushed upon the masses to underscore why the war started and the atrocities the north perpetrated against the South. But you are right in a sense with the scotch Irish thing.

Perhaps that was true. But meanings and symbolism evolve. Well off topic at any rate.

Could you share your process? I am a Highland Park/Laphroaig lover and would be ecstatic if I could make some home brew that would come close. Is it fact that you can mimic aging by heating then cooling the barrel in cycles?

Small barrel, 5 gallons, outside in a shed that ranges in temperature depending on the season and the sun.
Peat smoked barley, water, yeast.
Ran through a pot still, fores tossed & heads omitted.
Saved down into tails, lots of smoky notes in tails so kept them, everything into the barrel and let it sit.
If I can manage to put some away for a long time I'm sure it will get smoother, right now it's got a lot of character.

What brand of peated barley did you use? I used Simpsons last fall and it turned out good, but I feel like I blended in a little too much tails, they were just so good.
Wondering if there is another brand that might be more or less smokey.

Pardon if this is an ignorant question, because it is, the peated barley is malted, correct? No sparging necessary? It is ready to ferment. Supplier?

Down_Home52 wrote:Pardon if this is an ignorant question, because it is, the peated barley is malted, correct? No sparging necessary? It is ready to ferment. Supplier?

I get mine from Hearts Homebrew

I'm literally around the corner from a good homebrew store.
In one corner they are assembling kegs and tri-clamps and copper pipes, so they are hip.
I share some tips and tricks about recipes and ingredients and techniques with them.
Anyway they get the peated malted barley in 10 pound bags, at first they were a little surprised when I asked the price per bag since they were selling it by the pound. I do not remember the brand or the amount of peat smokiness. It was pretty smoky though.
There's a place online where you can order peat for smoking if you'd rather do it yourself.

I like very smoky. Sounds like your recipe is perfect. Care to share amount of grain per gallon of water and what yeast you use? I have a corn sugar wash fermenting now and the next run will be a sweet feed recipe. The Scotch will be after that so by then I hope to be getting the feel for the equipment.

As I remember...
2Lbs grain per gallon and I believe I had 30 gallons.
50 Lbs 6 row and 10 Lbs very smoky peated malted barley.
Water and (IIRC) London Ale yeast.

Fermented on the peated grain only, I wanted to get all the flavor out of that possible.

Bear with me....when you say you fermented on the peated only, did you cook the other grain off and convert it and just use the wash? No grain in the fermenter but the peated malt? The 6 row has the right enzymes to convert by themselves, correct? That pic of the spirit in the Royal Mile glass has me tore up from the floor up!!!

Down_Home52 wrote:Bear with me....when you say you fermented on the peated only, did you cook the other grain off and convert it and just use the wash? No grain in the fermenter but the peated malt? The 6 row has the right enzymes to convert by themselves, correct? That pic of the spirit in the Royal Mile glass has me tore up from the floor up!!!

Yes, I had not the patience to ferment on all the grain.
You have to sparge or you have to filter, I chose to sparge for the most and filter out the least.
I used a large brewing bag to filter out and squeeze out the peated barley.
Also I aged in a 5 gallon oak barrel with many hot & cool cycles.

I will have more questions when the time is near to try the recipe. If you fermented on all the grain would you have used more peated barley? Thinking pump and filter for transfer to pot still. 40 gallon primary.

Down_Home52 wrote:I will have more questions when the time is near to try the recipe. If you fermented on all the grain would you have used more peated barley? Thinking pump and filter for transfer to pot still. 40 gallon primary.

Yes, I'd have gone at least to 1/3 peated.

Thank you for your replies. I am looking forward to running this spirit more than any other. Was going to try and peat my own but as I get older I am finding time to learn and do everything myself delays the end product much too long. Did you use whole grain peated barley or flaked?

I just tempered some that I had on french oak for 8 months. It has 25% corn with 75 % peated malt and it turned out fantastic. Great with a cigar

Nerdy:
I know this is an old post but as I read your process it seems as though you didn't do a strip run? Just a "spirit" one run?
And you sparged then used a brew bag to filter out the peated. Do you typically do only one run for "scotch"?
JBC

JellybeanCorncob wrote:Nerdy:
I know this is an old post but as I read your process it seems as though you didn't do a strip run? Just a "spirit" one run?
And you sparged then used a brew bag to filter out the peated. Do you typically do only one run for "scotch"?
JBC

Yes.
I most likely didn't write that out well enough.

Much the same as what I wrote however sparging the mash so only the sweet liquid is in the fermenter then mashing the peated malt after everything else is in the fermenter and adding the peated mash into the batch, then the yeast.
Then run everything through a BIAB to strain.

Only one run, saving only what is strong enough to put in the barrel.
I cut fores and tossed, set aside a small heads cut and ran down to tails that had black stuff floating in them.
I felt that may have been from the peat smoked malt (smelled like smoke) so those tails went into the barrel.
Stinky tails with no residue went into feints with the small heads cut.
Most of the run went right into a 5 gallon ex-Bourbon barrel.
A year later, well "Time & Oak worked it out"

FF to now.
I have a 140 gallon sieve and a 150 gallon BIAB.
Time to get mashing some grains.
Probably just going to go for a Bourbon, maybe Honey Bear.
Got a couple once used 15 gallon Bourbon barrels need to get filled.

Thanks for the more detailed explanation. I've only done strip then spirit run. I like what I've made and have some malted barley doing time on used white oak.
I too am going to do a honey bear bourbon. I already have 1/2 gal on oak. About 3 months now. I'll give it a year. I have 3 types of scotch that will be a year old in November. I guess for me it's time. I'm only a couple of years into this hobby and have decided that oak and time are two very important components in whiskey. I can take the harts from anything I make and it's drinkable. But I'm looking for flavor, (character) in my product. Time will tell.
JBC

JellybeanCorncob wrote:Thanks for the more detailed explanation. I've only done strip then spirit run. I like what I've made and have some malted barley doing time on used white oak.
I too am going to do a honey bear bourbon. I already have 1/2 gal on oak. About 3 months now. I'll give it a year. I have 3 types of scotch that will be a year old in November. I guess for me it's time. I'm only a couple of years into this hobby and have decided that oak and time are two very important components in whiskey. I can take the harts from anything I make and it's drinkable. But I'm looking for flavor, (character) in my product. Time will tell.
JBC

Well you've got the right attitude, there's no rushing if you're looking for the best.
Personally I feel like my stuff that's been in the barrel for a year isn't really mature yet.
Problem is I haven't a deep enough shelf yet to afford longer aging, maybe after I step up and get more production going on.

Ask me how my whiskey is in 5 years and ill have a Definitive answer for you. Hopefully it's great. What caught my attention with your post is that you made scotch. A whiskey that is so simple to make yet so nuanced at every step of the process. Well it's brewing season for me so more scotch and bourbon.
I'm enjoying every step of the way.
JBC