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Picked up a sack of whole barley at a feed store today.
$35 cash for a fresh 50# sack.
Gonna malt half of it and leave the other half unmodified. Will kiln (toast) it all at 240F x 2 hours.
Will throw in a little cornmeal, cracked white wheat, honey malt, and flaked toasted oats.
Pre-mash city water will be treated & adjusted to 6.5 pH using ascorbic acid, gypsum, epsom salts, lime & 10% bourbon backset.
FermPro 927 yeast @ 90F pitch temp, outdoor ferment.
FermSolutions enzymes for optimal conversion.
Target OG will be 1.075 @ 5.3 pH
Will strip it, then do a 1.5 style spirit using propane; an all copper pot & liebig, no thumper.
Will leave some white and will age the rest on used oak @ 55% abv.

40.0% Barley, malted & toasted.
40.0% Barley, unmodified & toasted.
5.90% Cornmeal, yellow dent.
4.70% Each: Cracked wheat, flaked oats and honey malt.

Note: For a more traditional Irish, you may omit/reduce the corn, wheat & honey malt & replace with more malted/unmalted barley.

Keep us up to date. Looking forward to following and hearing about your distillation process if you are going for a Irish Whiskey. We need a really good tried and true IW recipe.

Looks interesting.

What's the thought process behind the wheat and honey malt additions?
It's pushing this bill out of Irish territory , to me.

I can get the corn addition if you're going for something like tullamore dew.
It's actually what I did in my first attempt at Irish mash.

These days I do
65% malt
30% barley
5% oats.
Triple stilled
Trying to get closer to red breast with this approach.

Not trying to pick holes in your process, just want to understand it

Swedish Pride wrote: ↑Tue Feb 18, 2025 11:10 pm …
What's the thought process behind the wheat and honey malt additions?
It's pushing this bill out of Irish territory , to me.
…
Not trying to pick holes in your process, just want to understand it

Hi, SP, I was hoping that you would post up on this. I’ll agree with you that the honey malt is pushing the basic idea of an Irish spirit. But — here is a quote (source unknown, sorry) that I relied on:

“Ireland’s signature whiskey style: pot still Irish whiskey.
This is whiskey made from mash that includes a minimum of 30% unpeated malted barley, a minimum of 30% unmalted barley, and other unmalted cereals. It must be distilled in pot stills, either twice or three times. Typically it features a blend of malted and unmalted barley, the latter used supposedly during the 19th century as a means to avoid British tax laws on malted barley. Its use has persisted due to the unique profile it brings Irish whiskey
, defined by a rich, textural spiciness.”

I think I met all the criteria specified above, but decided to try & sweeten it up a little with the honey malt. The unmodified white wheat should help smooth it out some as well. The wheat falls into the “… and other unmalted cereals” part. I’m trying to be very traditional here in using mainly a sack of animal feed and whatever else I have on hand to replicate an Irish spirit.

Your opinion matters to me, seriously. If the unmalted wheat & honey malt don’t fit the Irish bill, I’ll pull them and replace with more corn & oats.

8Ball wrote: ↑Wed Feb 19, 2025 9:16 am

Hi, SP, I was hoping that you would post up on this. I’ll agree with you that the honey malt is pushing the basic idea of an Irish spirit. But — here is a quote (source unknown, sorry) that I relied on:

“Ireland’s signature whiskey style: pot still Irish whiskey.
This is whiskey made from mash that includes a minimum of 30% unpeated malted barley, If the unmalted wheat & honey malt don’t fit the Irish bill, I’ll pull them and replace with more corn & oats.

I figure the honey malt is part of the "30% unpeated malted barley"

shadylane wrote: ↑Wed Feb 19, 2025 5:34 pm I figure the honey malt is part of the "30% unpeated malted barley"

Thanks Shady

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_pot_still_whiskey

Think you're almost there, missing part is up to 5% of anything other than malted or unmalted barley.
For me I use oats, you could use what ever you want ,but I prefer oats.

Sure the honey malt can be counted towards the malted part of the mashbill but I don't think it's done commercially, I suppose it could be a well kept secret.

If you want to sweeten it up a bit I'd age at 55%, brings a sweeter tone to the spirits, in my experience.

At the end of the day, we're not held to the rules that the commercial lads are, we can use what we want in the mash bill and call it what we want when we drink it.
Though the further we move from the rules the more likely it is that our spirit have less of a resemblance to the spirit we based our efforts on.

All that means nothing really, I bet the mashbill you have here will turn out really nice.

Swedish Pride wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2025 1:24 am https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_pot_still_whiskey

Think you're almost there, missing part is up to 5% of anything other than malted or unmalted barley.

Ah, there it is. “up to 5% of anything other than barley”

Good call. I was using around 5% each of the “others” to make up the last 20% of the grain bill.

I’ll adjust accordingly & update the grain bill soon.

The aging @ 55% is another good call.


Thanks, SP!

SaltyStaves wrote: ↑Thu Feb 20, 2025 11:17 am https://www.masterofmalt.com/blog/post/ ... ange.aspx/

Well then. I’m going to rename the title of this spirit to “Proposition Irish Whisky” and press on. Great response, Salty.

p.s. I know I’ve signaled a change several times now based on solid inputs from solid people. Keep the inputs coming!

Good read that salty, never seen it before.

Funny that blackwater are there giving out, was at a music festival a few years ago and they had e4 distilleries there doing a talk about their booze and giving out samples.
Blackwater were giving out saying they would qualify as Irish pot category if it wasn't for them using more that 5% "other" grains.
Not sure how much grain they used just know the additional grain was rye.
There booze wasn't brilliant, a bit heady but to be fair it was the last of 4 cask strengt samples on I sucked down in 30 min so my judgement may have been a bit altered