StillSmart

I do not usually grain mash, only for the odd whisky.
The last one, all Barley (The Minch Malt Barley bought last year)(4kg + 25 litres water in total) was heated to 65°C and held for 60 mins.
2nd water went to 85°C and held for 15 mins.
Sparged at 100°C.
Some Amylase and some Amyloglucosidase found their way in too.
So I guess it was step mashed, with a little help.
I then threw a Kg of sugar in for the ferment.

End result was 15.5 litres @ 63% from a 25Kg sack, + the 6Kg sugar.
Having been run with my 5 litre feints receiver.
Which rolls over to the next one.
I may be getting good at this.

Drinking some nuked product as I tap this, and I already have earned Brownie points from my harshest critic.
We also re-worked the sums that I posted last night, and it seems that this product has come in at £4 a bottle.
Not bad for a single malt, from an unaccredited distillery.

The rest now sitting on oak,and should have reached a nice stage by let's say mid August?
I'm not crowing, but I am happy.

Robert.

Edited @ 00.30 17/3 to clarify that IMHO, aging these demijohns on a sunny window sill, warm by day, cool by night, with a very loose cork, allowing the ABV to drop from 63% to 55% really seems to work for me.

LOL. Stay happy Robert - by the way that sounds great.

You seem to have used a few different malts in pursuit of a good whiskey Robert, how do you find the different flavours transfer across? I know you can't use the really dark roasts on their own because of the lack of enzymes activity but have you ever tried any of them mixed in?
I can't wait to get stuck in with the peated that's winging its way to me now, I'm hoping for my own "Jura superstition"

I do fear that having just run an unpeated malt through my feints receiver, and favouring peated whiskies, I may have stripped the good stuff from it.
The result from this run seems V.good.
I console myself with the thought that the next sack of heavily peated Barley will flavour it up again.
And I do cheat and throw in extra enzyme.
This last one throwing a little extra sugar seems to have paid off also, but is a measure to be cautiously used I think.

Cumbria in August.
See what you think

Robert.

Foolishly I'm getting married & in typical "just my luck" fashion, it's that weekend. However I'm sure it will be successful & there will be more to attend, besides if it makes it that long the beauty of this game is that it all gets better with age!

Nothing foolish in getting married, and I send you and your partner my best wishes.
My two wedding days were the best two days of my life!
Neither lasted, but ho hum, I did it with passion, as I tend to do with most things in life.
Cue Edith Piaf....

Robert.

Benoit wrote:Foolishly I'm getting married & in typical "just my luck" fashion, it's that weekend. However I'm sure it will be successful & there will be more to attend, besides if it makes it that long the beauty of this game is that it all gets better with age!

Getting married is the best decision I never made... since being married there have been other decisions I don't make too . I truly, madly deeply wish you and yours all the best.

Better go else I will have to change my username to MUSHY

Benoit best wish's for you both on that day from my good lady & I....hope all goes well.

Marriage is a great thing to behold...I know I've had 3 so far...the present Mrs Ice bakes me a fruit cake every now and then...she says it's the cake I'm after.



Any road up....we that attend in Aug will raise a glass or two or three..to you & yours..

Thank you all for the kind words, I'm sure it will all run smoothly & will raise a glass to you all! For those that will be sat round a campfire somewhere, sampling the many wares that I'm sure will be floating around....I will attend gathering number 2!
If someone was to produce a small barrels worth of whiskey, nothing crazy, 10 or 15 litres....how long would you recommend it being in a barrel? A few weeks on oak seems to be enough when it's just a litre or two but how does that scale up time wise? Surface area to volume gets less the more you have so I'm expecting a funky kind of curve rather than a straight line graph.

Admiral Toad is probably the man to ask this of, he seems to have some experience.
In a 10 - 15 litre barrel my best guess is 6 - 12 months.
Maybe much less.
But I may be wrong.

For me, not using Oak barrels but loose lids or corks, when the spirit has dropped from 63% to 55% it is done.
Did I mention sunny window cills yet?

Robert

Bang on Robert. I use oak dominoes, a sunny windowsill and a wide mouth jar left loose. Probably 2 - 3 months

Does the abv naturally drop over time? How does that happen?

Watched a program a few weeks back about storing alcohol and after a very long time they would find maybe up to half the barrel had gone...the Angels Share as it known....Interesting read

Seagull wrote:Does the abv naturally drop over time? How does that happen?

Barrels can be water tight without being entirely air tight, some alcohol will soak in & seep straight through the wood to the other side & evaporate as well as the vapour that sneaks through any tiny holes. Some will also be left behind as its soaked in to the staves but that's more of a drop in overall volume than ABV. It's a very slow process though!

Benoit wrote:Barrels can be water tight without being entirely air tight, some alcohol will soak in & seep straight through the wood to the other side & evaporate as well as the vapour that sneaks through any tiny holes. Some will also be left behind as its soaked in to the staves but that's more of a drop in overall volume than ABV. It's a very slow process though!

Apparently it's affected by the storage temperature, plus a few other elements.

It makes a big enough difference that if you see the documentary filmed at Jack Daniels, it gives them bonuses and problems. Inasfaras, the bonuses are that they get enough very good product as to be able to do the occassional vintage releases like single barrel and/or dated etc.

The problems are that the temperature variations can also mean that there's a lot of lesser product to be blended in.

I believe that for accounting purposes, HMRC allows 3% per annum for the "angels share"........

I've also read about various distilleries using an "industry standard" barrel size, so they can apply the liquid/wood interface calculation and work out how long and how much they'd yield etc.......