StillSmart

Re: help on first malt wash

2015-04-13T19:29:02+00:00

I believe the best temp will be that which maximises fermentable sugars.

I am researching a good malt whiskey recipe st the moment... so I will be joining you real soon and giving it a go !

Statistics: Posted by Mash — Mon Apr 13, 2015 7:29 pm

Re: help on first malt wash

2015-04-13T19:16:22+00:00

Frank wrote:
mate.....I thought 62degC (aka 60-65) was 'the sweetspot' for a maltmash and that anything over high 60's made the malt go bitter prior to ferment So, I would love to know how such compares to what you've done here, but as I am too much of a spendthrift (in Aus) to 'waste' purchased maltgrain all i can ask is you may consider.

No matter, good on you for going the distance and I hope your final quaff product will do these efforts proud.

hi Frank,

thanks for the advice.

I will post when I have a taster session

Statistics: Posted by eattheliving — Mon Apr 13, 2015 7:16 pm

Re: help on first malt wash

2015-04-12T10:18:51+00:00

mate.....I thought 62degC (aka 60-65) was 'the sweetspot' for a maltmash and that anything over high 60's made the malt go bitter prior to ferment So, I would love to know how such compares to what you've done here, but as I am too much of a spendthrift (in Aus) to 'waste' purchased maltgrain all i can ask is you may consider.

No matter, good on you for going the distance and I hope your final quaff product will do these efforts proud.

Statistics: Posted by Frank — Sun Apr 12, 2015 10:18 am

Re: help on first malt wash

2015-04-10T19:26:32+00:00

Easydrinker wrote:
eattheliving wrote:Hi al,

doesn't time fly when your waiting for the ageing to finish.

so I have just taken my spirit from the oak after a month.

the question now is do I thin to 40% immediately or wait awhile ?

cheers all

oh nearly forgot.

picking up my 25kg of marris otter on Friday it works out at £27 incl vat.

cheers all

If you have finished the aging,then only diluting,any filtering and bottling stand between you and the finshed product.
Slainte!

Oh,an after thought,these days I tend to poke a few shards of Oak into anything like this which is bottled.

It doesn't hurt,and may well help.

Robert.

thanks Robert.

just picked up my 25kg malt for round 2 of the whisky trial

will post my progress

Statistics: Posted by eattheliving — Fri Apr 10, 2015 7:26 pm

Re: help on first malt wash

2015-04-08T22:31:34+00:00

eattheliving wrote:
Hi al,

doesn't time fly when your waiting for the ageing to finish.

so I have just taken my spirit from the oak after a month.

the question now is do I thin to 40% immediately or wait awhile ?

cheers all

oh nearly forgot.

picking up my 25kg of marris otter on Friday it works out at £27 incl vat.

cheers all

If you have finished the aging,then only diluting,any filtering and bottling stand between you and the finshed product.
Slainte!

Oh,an after thought,these days I tend to poke a few shards of Oak into anything like this which is bottled.

It doesn't hurt,and may well help.

Robert.

Statistics: Posted by Easydrinker — Wed Apr 08, 2015 10:31 pm

Re: help on first malt wash

2015-04-08T18:55:24+00:00

aidanmac wrote:
Once mine is finished on the Oak I filter it, to remove any bits of debris from the wood, then dilute and bottle it so it's ready for action, or not.

AM

thanks AM.

already filtered. just need to thin and bottle then.

cheers
mate

Statistics: Posted by eattheliving — Wed Apr 08, 2015 6:55 pm

Re: help on first malt wash

2015-04-08T18:51:07+00:00

Once mine is finished on the Oak I filter it, to remove any bits of debris from the wood, then dilute and bottle it so it's ready for action, or not.

AM

Statistics: Posted by Almanac — Wed Apr 08, 2015 6:51 pm

Re: help on first malt wash

2015-04-08T16:03:55+00:00

Hi al,

doesn't time fly when your waiting for the ageing to finish.

so I have just taken my spirit from the oak after a month.

the question now is do I thin to 40% immediately or wait awhile ?

cheers all

oh nearly forgot.

picking up my 25kg of marris otter on Friday it works out at £27 incl vat.

cheers all

Statistics: Posted by eattheliving — Wed Apr 08, 2015 4:03 pm

Re: help on first malt wash

2015-03-12T16:07:33+00:00

"ever-so-slightly on the optimistic side"

Well spotted - I didn't allow for head and tails.

The malt extract (5%) was based on regular beer mash using a braumeister - and that also will vary with the variety of malt.

Cut to 40-50% - was optimistic too. Better would have been 35-40%

Statistics: Posted by Mash — Thu Mar 12, 2015 4:07 pm

Re: help on first malt wash

2015-03-12T11:35:49+00:00

Easydrinker wrote:
TBH mate,it is late,and I have lost track of the maths.
A 25Kg sack of barley furnished me with almost 5 litres of product at 63%,ready to be aged.Tasting as good as I could have hoped for.
Plus 5 litres of feints for the next runs.
I would expect a little more than 5 litres of hearts next time,until equilibrium was reached.
I hope that is of some help.

Robert.

thanks Robert. That answers it perfectly.

25kg sack of malt here I come

Statistics: Posted by eattheliving — Thu Mar 12, 2015 11:35 am

Re: help on first malt wash

2015-03-12T03:20:20+00:00

TBH mate,it is late,and I have lost track of the maths.
A 25Kg sack of barley furnished me with almost 5 litres of product at 63%,ready to be aged.Tasting as good as I could have hoped for.
Plus 5 litres of feints for the next runs.
I would expect a little more than 5 litres of hearts next time,until equilibrium was reached.
I hope that is of some help.

Robert.

Statistics: Posted by Easydrinker — Thu Mar 12, 2015 3:20 am

Re: help on first malt wash

2015-03-11T21:02:12+00:00

thanks guy's.

so I spose the upshot of it all is ...

with a 25kg bag I would get more bang for my buck as opposed to following the G m clone recipe.

Statistics: Posted by eattheliving — Wed Mar 11, 2015 9:02 pm

Re: help on first malt wash

2015-03-11T20:06:14+00:00

@ Mashy; Nothing wrong with your maths but I do think your assumptions on mash conversion and alcohol extraction are ever-so-slightly on the optimistic side.

The 5% is definitely achievable but some volume will be lost to the slops when racking which will reduce the final outcome. After that some alcohol will be lost in each of the stripping and spirit runs due to the inherent inefficiency of even the best built Pot Stills.

I tend to think the best we can expect from all grain is about 80% efficiency in final extraction and that's including the Heads and Tails. For any higher volume you'd have to be running the wash through a ruflux column

For me the trick is to get as much conversion as possible and aim for a higher strength beer. When I do grain ferments I use extra Amyloglucosidase in the mash to get maximum conversion and then I cheat by adding 2 tins of Tate & Lyle's Golden Syrup to a 40lt wash

I've done washes with and without the T&L Syrup and when it comes to the final aged product my tasters can't tell the difference. They say both taste as good as each other but two tins in a 40lt wash is the limit if you want to retain the fullest flavour of the malt - take my word for it

AM

Statistics: Posted by Almanac — Wed Mar 11, 2015 8:06 pm

Re: help on first malt wash

2015-03-11T11:58:16+00:00

"Just out of curiosity would you know what the output for drinkable spirit would be from a 25KG bag of malt?"

There are a lot a variables to deal with, but..very rough guess

5kg in 20l = 5%
So 25kg in 100l = 5% = 5 litres

So 10 litres (ish) cut to 40-50%

Thoughts anyone ?

Statistics: Posted by Mash — Wed Mar 11, 2015 11:58 am

Re: help on first malt wash

2015-03-11T11:13:28+00:00

Others might not agree on this but I feel that it might be better to use your % reading at output to decide when to stop distillation, rather than temperature reading.

To ensure maximum extraction of usable alcohol, most would run to below 20% abv, whilst others run down to below 10%abv.

With regard to your question regarding 25kg of grain. I am definitely not the best person to ask and I will leave this to others.

Myself, I am still transiting from extract washes, through mixed extract and grain washes through to all grain.

My mashing techniques (and equipment) are yet to be perfected, and for all grain, this is. I feel, the key to both quality and quantity.

Statistics: Posted by Toper — Wed Mar 11, 2015 11:13 am