Stags’ American Single Malt

[Stags]

Hey yall. Figured I’d share a recent experiment.

My SO requested a scotch style drink as a gift. I ordered a badmo ex rum barrel and got to work. SO was a big fan of my HBB sugar heads so I created the following mash bill for a 30 gallon fermenter:

40 lbs golden promise malt
5 lbs oats
2 lbs Maris otter
2 lbs peated malt
2 lbs honey malt

For procedure, I ground the malt down (more on this later) and heated 10 gallons of water to 170°f. Poured ground malt into a mash tun and added water. Settled out at the right temp of ~155, but I made a critical error and ground the barley too far. Mash tun rendered ineffective, time to turn to old style filtering. Was able to separate liquid from grain after about 4 hours of work. Loaded into fermenter, added water to the 25 gallon fill mark, pitched omega lutra Kveik, and walked away. Ferment completed in under 24 hours. Stripped 2x 10 gallons and added 2.5 gallons low wines to 5 gallons of wash for a spirit run. Tossed 2 quarts fores, kept 2 of heads and 2 of tails for recycling, and kept ~3 quarts of hearts.

Holy crap were those 3 hearts quarts awesome. Unfortunately only made it to 100 proof, so not high enough for the barrel. But Jesus. Silky smooth sweet bread and honey goodness with a background of peaty smoke. SO and I decided it was too good to recycle the hearts, so they are going in a jar with some ex UJSSM oak spirals.

SO really wants more peat and less sweet. So we took what we learned and proceeded to batch 2:

40 lbs golden promise
5 lbs oats
3 lbs HEAVY peated malt
1 lbs Maris otter
1 lbs honey malt

Left golden promise at brewers grind, ground oats and flavoring malts. Laid in mash tun, added water, correct result. Mash tun is effective with that blend.

Procedure:
1x 2 hour mash soak
4x 1 hour boiling water sparges

Each soak and sparge was able to collect 5 gallons or so of wort so hoping for much better sugar extraction this time vs simple filtering. Hoping that combined with previous run feints gets me to a 125 barrel proof. Should be at temp to pitch this evening.

I’ll keep yall posted if there’s interest as this experiment progresses but I’m extremely encouraged by initial results.

[Saltbush Bill]

I'm interested and following,, from my experience for more peat you will have to up the peated malt ratio a fair bit.
Also be aware that smokey peat flavour can dissipate during the aging process.

[Stags]

I'm interested and following,, from my experience for more peat you will have to up the peated malt ratio a fair bit.
Also be aware that smokey peat flavour can dissipate during the aging process.

Interesting… I would have thought it would come out more in aging… zero percent trying to be confrontational, want to make the SO happy… I guess that hypothesis would be that the combo of oak and time would push that flavor to the forefront. I’ll chalk that up to thinkin that you can always add more but can’t pull it out later. No scientific basis just supposition there

If this round doesn’t produce the peaty flavor she wants (not for me, I prefer low peat scotches) I can do a 50/50 base/ peat run and blend until she’s happy. Will keep the forum posted.

[Saltbush Bill]

Only what I've read and found to be true by doing myself.
To get the peat smoke through you need to strip really low, down below 10 % off the spout......even lower is good.
Smoke is the hardest thing to keep in the barrel long term, I've read that many times and found it to be true.
If barrel aging for more than a year or two keep cuts pretty loose.

) I can do a 50/50 base/ peat run and blend

Yep should work.

[Homebrewer11777]

Nothing to add regarding the peat but wanted to comment on the Maris otter malt addition. MO is not all that different from any other base malt and at 2-5% of the total recipe can't imagine it has any impact on the flavor profile. In my beer recipes I tend to use it interchangeably with golden promise as a portion (up to 100%) of my base malt. Here is an interesting experiment that compared a beer brewed with 100% GP to one brewed with 100% MO. https://brulosophy.com/2022/01/17/exbee ... olden-ale/

[higgins]

I make 1 or 2 single malts a year and I'm looking to make both non-peated (Highland or Speyside) and peated (mild Islay) styles. I do like to experience the heavy Islay single malts now and then, but the milder ones appeal to me for sipping. I typically use 10-20% mild peated malt in those batches and the peat is rather subdued. It exists mostly in the deep tails, so I go down around 2% off the spout on my spirit runs and recycle those tails into the stripping run of the next batch.

My recipes vary, but I tend to use 10-20% mild peated malt. The peat was elusive in the first few batches, but then it started to build a bit. Now I'd say it is between a Speyside and a mild Islay. But I'm skipping the peat on my next batch as I'm going for a Highland style, but will use it again the next batch.

I tend to agree with hb11777 - 2% of something similar to the base malt won't make any difference.

My first 2 batches I used Golden Promise (expensive), but after that I started using regular pale malt for around half the malt, then a combination of Vienna and/or Munich and/or Peated for the rest. There is just as much (or more) flavor character as in the GP batches. In my last one I did use 3% crystal 20L and 1% chocolate malts, but those are high character malts and should contribute character.

[8Ball]

Here’s a grain bill I did: I posted the full recipe earlier.
American Malt - (AMW)

Grain Bill
4.00 Maris Otter Pale Ale 24%
4.00 Simpsons Golden Promise 24%
2.00 Simpsons Peated 12%
4.50 Smoked Golden Feed Malt 27%
1.50 Rye Malt 9%
0.50 G. Honey Malt 3%

I filled a 5G Gibbs with it as a fourth fill. It just passed the 3 year mark this month. When I pulled a bottle out a few months ago, the peat/smoke flavor was very low. Poured over ice at cask strength with a splash of water & I’m a happy camper.

[Stags]

Only what I've read and found to be true by doing myself.
To get the peat smoke through you need to strip really low, down below 10 % off the spout......even lower is good.
Smoke is the hardest thing to keep in the barrel long term, I've read that many times and found it to be true.
If barrel aging for more than a year or two keep cuts pretty loose.

) I can do a 50/50 base/ peat run and blend

Yep should work.

Thanks for the feedback SBB!

My pot and thumper setup truly is a smear machine… makes excellent spirits for barrel aging!

As a rule of thumb I generally strip until the thumper reads 210-212°f and there’s no appreciable alcohol left. I find that’s necessary to get low wines in the 30-40% ballpark. Helps recover rum oils and bourbon “corn water” for future dilution in other recipes. I did notice that tails seemed very oily and concentrated.

Noted for wide cuts- as a habit I recycle feints into the next batch of the same recipe. Waste not/ want not

[Stags]

Thanks all for the feedback on peat and MO- will adjust to the following for batch 3

40 golden promise
5 oats
4 heavy peat
1 honey or maybe caramel?

If that doesn’t give me what I’m looking for I’m thinking about this for batch 4:

35 lbs golden promise
10 lbs heavy peat
5 lbs oats
1 lbs honey

I know it’s not traditional but I’d be curious what you guys might think of using dark wheat as an ingredient?

https://www.morebeer.com/products/weyer ... -malt.html

[8Ball]

I’d do 40 heavy peat instead of GP. Knowing what I know now. FWIW.

[Stags]

I’d do 40 heavy peat instead of GP. Knowing what I know now. FWIW.

Interesting. I had it in my head that flavored malts typically had minimal sugar and enzyme content- am I way off base?

[higgins]

Depends on what you mean by 'flavored malts'. Crystal and 'Cara' malts (stewed malts) have unfermentable sugars and little to no diastatic power. Kilned malts have various degrees of diastatic power depending on the final toasting level (color). As you get darker (from Pale to Pale Ale to Vienna to Munich to Mild to Aromatic) the diastatic power decreases from around 130 down to around 20-30.

Peated malt is just pale malt that has been dried over peat fires (peat smoked malt), but the temp is low enough that plenty of diastatic power remains.

[The Booze Pipe]

I'm liking this discussion! just to share my recipe, I have not yet made:
25% peat smoked malt
50% Two Row
10% Victory
15% Caramel 40 or Vienna
Omega OYL-501

Looking for a mildly smokey whiskey, just enough you know it's there.

[Saltbush Bill]

For what it's worth, my last lot was 50/50 Golden Promise / Gladefeilds Heavy Peat.
It's just turned 2 years old and is in an X Scotch Whisky Barrel, it's coming along very nicely.

[Stags]

Ok ok you guys win

Next 3 batches after the current one will be

23 lbs crisp heavy peated
18 lbs crisp premium pot still
7 lbs oats
1 lb honey malt

Will report back on the results of batch 2 and 3-5