Oat whiskey

[Mash]

..and I wouldn't bother with the airlocks. I have not used them for years - just a loose cover/lid. If you have enough headspace the brew is protected by the CO2 blanket.

I have had the problem in the past and now anything with solids gets 1/3 headspace.

[m314]

The airlocks are a habit, I guess. I've only been doing this since September / October.

They lost a little volume, but the buckets are cleaned up and under control. The airlocks are back in and bubbling furiously.

[m314]

http://imgur.com/UREFnm8

There's sort of a multilevel thing going on with the buckets now. It looks like the clear liquid is hovering in the middle. Interesting. They're still bubbling every once in a while.

I'm hoping to have time to run these in maybe a week and a half. The weekend after this coming weekend.

[Myles]

Looks like it is timefor bigger fermenters

[m314]

Yeah. I have 8 8 gallon fermenters at the moment. I need to upgrade. I've been thinking of buying a fleet of Rubbermade Brute trash cans, 20 or 44 gallons each.

I need to upgrade to a bigger boiler too. I was going to try making my own keg still, but it turns out I'll be in this little apartment for another year. I don't have space for soldering here with the smoke alarms. I should just buy a bigger still now and learn how to build one next year when I have more space.

[Myles]

I mostly use 160 litre HDPE drums but I have some nice 120 litre screw top drums. Just bought some 45 litre screw top drums.

I like the screw top drums for fermenters because they are strong, have full size openings, and you can just loosely screw on the lids for fermentation.

[m314]

Something like this?

http://m.alibaba.com/product/107770760/ ... 9.7.daTIYs

Or something like this

http://m.uline.com/h5/r/www.uline.com/P ... ber=S-9945

Honesty, I need a bigger still before I get bigger fermenters. Fermenting 32 gallons of something now takes 5 stripping runs and 1 spirit run to get the final product.

Are you using a still that's commercially available? Or something you built yourself.

[Myles]

I use a range of food grade drums.

160 litre coke syrup concentrate drums

Plus these 120s

Stills are made with either 100 litre keg boilers or made copper boilers.

Will soon have a strip boiler tha is made from 2 stainless drums. 115 litre inner inside 205 litre.

[Mash]

Something like this?

http://m.alibaba.com/product/107770760/ ... 9.7.daTIYs

Or something like this

http://m.uline.com/h5/r/www.uline.com/P ... ber=S-9945

Yes they are the ones. Food grade. I like the full opening. If you take the rubber seal out of the lid you don't need an air lock.

[m314]

I'm finally getting around to distilling this. It has been done fermenting for weeks now.

It turns out I'll only get maybe 9 gallons of liquid after straining out the oats. I'm still working on the last gallon. I'm distilling the first 6 gallons now. I'm thinking of taking the first distillation (minus the foreshots) and adding it the 3 gallons of leftover mash for the second distillation.

[chill]

Please do let us know how it turns out. Those last gallons... are a patience testing thing.

[m314]

I'm working on the 10th gallon now. I ran the oatmeal through a paint strainer bag in a 6 gallon bucket. It went quickly at first. The last part would be faster if I had a way to squeeze the bag other than by hand. 28 pounds of dry oats is a lot more than 28 pounds when it's wet.

I'm getting towards the end of the first distillation now. 5 quarts collected so far. I might or might not do the second distillation tonight.

[Easydrinker]

My friend,all grainy type washes can be a bitch to filter/strain, they all become bigger once wet.
Cloudy wash land follows.

Patience grass hopper.

Robert.

[m314]

I finally got around to the second distillation tonight. 4 gallon jugs of the wash strained out last weekend plus 6 quarts from the first distillation. I just took the clear part of the wash and left out the cloudy part at the bottom of the jugs.

I got 7 quarts with the last jar obviously tails. Mild flavor, NOT. This has a powerful oat flavor. It's hard to describe. It reminds me of my first try with oats when I added sugar.

It's a little rough. It will improve with aging. My first batch seemed rough at first. With 5 months on oak it seemed like one of the most interesting whiskeys I've tasted.

[chill]

Thanks. I might have a go at this later in the year.