More Peated Whisky experiments

[Easydrinker]

Gave some of my nuked product to a friend with a great and underused palate (i.e. he hardly drinks the stuff) and owner of an enviable collection of labelled malts tonight, Curiously he likened it to Ardbeg.

Robert.

[Admiral Toad]

Oh I like the sound of that Robert .

May be bottling earlier than normal !

[Mash]

Might give my malted neutral a good tasting this evening. Been quite a few weeks on Oak now.

[Easydrinker]

We are being kept on our toes.
That is a subtle name change.
It becomes harder to know who you know.

Robert

[Admiral Toad]

Mainly to Robert (ED) any more thoughts/results on the Belgium malt ?
I had mine at full cask strength on the SDE dominos for a month its now in a barrel to smooth it a bit but well on the way
Tasted some of last years 9 month 'Ardbeg' malt recipe and that's looking very good

There seems to be a great lack of peated malt about in the HBSs unless someones on to some at the minute ??

[Easydrinker]

Yes AT,
I admit to having drunk almost half of it!
The remainder sits in glass at 65%, still on Oak.
I rather like the way it has come out,and cannot resist the occasional sneaky taste.
I keep it somewhere warm,and the occasional uncorkings seem to have allowed the angels a 2% share
I see the Malt is still available at £22.61 for 25Kg and £4.50 48 hour shipping,Soo tempting.

Robert.

[Smiler]

Hi folks, not posted on here for a while as I've just been cracking on with some stillin'! Had enough of reading as a newbie and just got on with it. Had some interesting insight into the chateaux whisky peated malt from get'er brewed afore mentioned by ED. Have some nice flavourful product currently on SD dominoes, I went for the goodie bag B that contained 3 French oak toasts. They floated my boat more and also good for the brandy I've made (but that's a whole different story!). I'll try to put up a decent post tomorrow off the lappy as writing off a phones a bit of a pig but I'd like to share how it all went with the ferment and mashing as I experienced similar problems as Easydrinker but I have kinda some answers. Made a good run though. Not as peaty as I would have liked but loads of flavour especially into the supposed tails (contrary to what I would have believed) so I used most of em with no I'll effect (not oily/cloudy when diluted to taste just earthy/pleasant and certainly not rancid. Weird)! Anyways, hope to report in tomorrow

[Easydrinker]

I am looking forward to more detail mate.

Robert.

[Smiler]

Better late than never, time flies when you're gutting a bathroom OK, firstly not that i can compare to any other peated malts as this was my first run using one but I have to admit the final product tastes good. Albeit to my taste not very peaty now (a lot of the peatiness come in the last of the hearts and deep into the tails) but i'll start from the beginning. I thought my mashing technique was good but didn't realise there was a problem until way too late with this malt. I reckon it has low a-amylase activity (as you found Robert by adding a-a enzyme and seeing your SG increase). My final SG after mashing, clearing and sparging was 1.08 to 1.1 (around 12% final) which was 93% conversion so i though wey hey winner but it turns out 3% potential alc. of my wort was unfermentables. b-amylase activity is obviously great but next time i mash (as i will buy some more of this grain) i will add a handful or two of grist at the 1hr mark and stir in. I made my own mash tum from a 32L Thermos cool box, a few fixings and a 1m flexihose. Works well but can only be a 1 step mash as such, no prewarming etc like you could do cooking it up or on a braumeister (is that what they're called?) Therefore on the pretense of losing 3deg per hour in temp I can reverse engineer this and add grist/a-a enzyme at this stage to chop up the longer chain starches as a-a activity would be at it's peak at this temp (I mashed starting at 63 - 64 deg). Should work as you saw Robert. My wort also smelt sooty but I could also distinctly smell the reek too which pleased me. Also the wort at all stages of the ferment tasted good - peaty - it's a wine thing to taste test lol! Contrary to you Robert and AT i had a pig fermentin this wort. Took over a week to take off and i'm unsure why. I aerated well, pH was bob on and set my thermostat to 22deg the optimal temp of the yeasties strain but it just stalled?!? I used Fermentis Safale No.5 as per some of @Franks posts, 2 bags to 85L, maybe i needed 3 but should have been ok. Who knows. On the plus side the yeasties once going munched through the sugar with ease, good considering it's a beer yeast and Fermentis offer no info on alc. tolerance of this strain! Took over a month before I was happy to put outside to cold filter on these chilly nights, way longer than i would have liked but I did have a crystal clear wash (I was worried about bacterial infection due to such a long start on the ferment). As you experienced the strip smelt awesome, v peaty and i ran down to 10% as the aromas coming through on the latter stages was where the good stuff was obviously at ! I had 3 25L strips that resulted in 16L at 30% for my spirit run. Dissapointing as was aiming for 25L at my original numbers but the math works for a roughly 9% wash. The spirit run was good, clean between cuts and easy to taste/smell. I have a pot still as per AT's design if i remember correctly, just a few minor differences. I should also note that I've ran my still countless times using sugar washes so i can get a feel for my still and cuts etc before i've attempted to make anything to drink. Was invaluable and I have a book for of notes, run times, %, volumes for time steps, temp etc. On the plus side i have at least 2 years worth of screen wash now haha. The spirit run was good, ran at 750w over about 5 - 6hrs. Started at 86%, my first hearts cut was around 73% (I probably could have used before this but the spirit had a slight zing so i wasn't greedy) and honestly i could have used all of the tails if i could even call them that which i found most surprising. When doing my brandy run the tails smelt and tasted like *%£". I never knew such tastes could exist!!!. I taste test everything and the latter of the run was just earthy, pleasant to taste, no oiliness, cloudiness and certainly no rancidness. I genuinely could have used all of it unless it would have diluted my final % below cask strength - but i did cut deep! Overall the resulting spirit is not as peaty as i expected, smells peatier than it tastes in my opinion - still very good though but my pallet loves reek lol. Most of the peat came through around the 60% mark, was most prominent in the latter of the hearts. I resulted in around 2L at 63% which I aerated for a couple of days and then split into 3 1.5L Kilners. I have these sitting on SD dominoes on my radiator after a quick nuke to set them off (that's an ingenious trick btw)! Have them on french oak no.s 4, 5 and 6. Top of my head that's Radiant Toast, Radiant plus Extreme Vanillin and Traditional Fire Toast. The former 2 smell and awesome (and just keep getting better - it's amazing how the taste profile can change in little over a week), especially the extreme vanillin. The Fire Toast i'm a little unsure about, it smells woody on the nose but not overall in taste, more v smokey possibly bordering on sooty. Think those dominoes will be coming out v soon or it will surpass a pleasant taste..... Overall i'm happy with the malt, would prefer more peat but it is cheap. As mentioned I will change my mash technique next round (which will be v soon). All in all i'm going to enjoy drinking my v own liquor v soon (i'll be honest with myself it's not going to last the month hahaha >:D >:D >:D I have a good tip for those wanting to age in DJ's btw, i'll add this to the tips board. Very clever of me if i do blow my own trumpet lol

[chill]

James Joyce, is that you?

[Easydrinker]

Smiler, you seem to be so exuberant that I can only be happy for you.
Your post is such a pain to my eyes without punctuation, that I can't bear to go back and check your numbers.
If you wish to try and make a Malt,especially a Peated one, I believe incorporating a Feints Receiver into the process,and keeping it going, will only help you.
Whatever,I wish you luck with the next one.

Robert.

[Mash]

James Joyce, is that you?

LOL. Alive and well

[Smiler]

Haha, Sorry. As you may have gathered I got a bit giddy. I don't often have the opportunity to talk about my endeavours to anyone. You folks may a)know what I'm talking about. b) feign interest for more than 30seconds. I hope your eyes are recovering Robert although I don't believe Specsavers would help with my punctuation Feints are kept and ready to go for the next runs. I may tick the drunkard box of James Joyce. Maybe!

[Mash]

No worries. Good to see such enthusiasm.

Punctuation or not that was a good read. Must've taken ages to type.

[Easydrinker]

It just has to beat gutting a bathroom...

Robert.