StillSmart

Still waiting to get the peated malt which now turns out to be unmilled , the C'ptns located some decent priced hand mills so gonna get one of those myself nowt straightforward

The unpeated LME wash I did is maturing nicely on the barrel shavings and the new 5L oak barrel get charged with sherry

To any remotely-interested forum folk, I apologise for my tardiness in posting re my experiences with this recipe (just starting maturation now BTW) but I shall endeavour to update with objective and subjective comment asap. First impression is that the spirit run has made me a true 'keeper'.

Hi Frank
If you have a look at my peated whisky postings you will see my results so far

Had a wee sample out of the 4 week old sherry cask all were most impressed not least me. ,

As my FSW is now slowly maturing, I thought I'd wrapup 'Franks first go at this'.

Variances from above recipe are:
I used 1kg peat smoked and 1kg 'plain' barley per 20l wash.
I only fermented 4x 20l washes. I used 5kg LME and 1kg sugar for 2 of them; the other 2 used 6kg LME.
I used Fermentis Safspirit Malt whisky yeast (3tspns per) in all washes.

and this is what I did:
Each 20l ferment was kept between 22 and 30 deg C. Most fermented well and fully in about 10 days. This was carefully racked and then stirred vigourously in the boiler.
Each strip run (20l) yielded about 5-6l of lowwines.
Spirit run was 23l of lowwines, 2l of (previous DWWG run) heads, 300ml of Peatreek and 5l of water.

Collected 2l heads, 6-7l hearts and 2l tails. I put the heads though the airstill and got another litre of good stuff. Watered down to 65%, I got almost 10l of spirit. This currently resides in 2 demijohns with a half-stick of medium char oak per. I am airing and char soaking the tails separately...just in case.

Observations:
The grain mash and 'sparge', was done on a stovetop using a cooking thermometer so I got it at 65 deg C for a good 30 mins. The peated grain strained well but with a huge peat smell/taste. I put a handful of mash in each fermenter too.

The yeast worked very well and made the non agressive ferment smell nice from the start. FG of < 1000 was reached.

The strip runs were constantly wanting to puke, but through good fortune and loads of patience I didnt collect puke. These were indeed promising to smell taste off the still. I collected to about 20%ABV.

The spirit run was at around 2lph and I am sure I could've collected more tails but only for a feints run etc. The hearts tasted 'drinkable' immediately and smelt wonderful.

The spirit is colouring up nicely and improving in 'smoothness' quite quickly.

So therefore:
Its easily the best spirit I have produced and, IMHO, a quality product regardless. It already smells and tastes like a full bodied, rich, peated scotch with a hint of sweet on the palate and a lot of smoke and warmth in the mouthfeel. I intend to let almost all of it age for a long time.
I will run this recipe again asap with a view to collect another 10l and, eventually, ALL will be put in my oak barrel......

20+ litres of 65% ABV Fine Scotch in my barrel.......

That's a nice result Frank. I'm glad you're happy with the outcome.

Leaving the spirit to age and mature is the hardest thing but over time the result is soooo worth the patience.

Patience is a trait I've developed greatly since taking up this hobby and when I'm stilling I don't even think about when the spirit I'm collecting will be ready to drink.

I'm not a Scotch affectionado but I have the greatest respect for any distiller who can produce a spirit that ticks all the boxes in terms of quality, flavour and drinkability

Congratulations.

AM

Me and Frank have been playing around with some variations of this recipe and I can vouch for the excellent product it produces. It can be easily modified to suit your technique and (most importantly) your pocket.
I've tried it on LME, DME and all grain and they are all a very nice tipple. I smoke my own grain and use a home made peat essence. Both can be varied to produce a heavy peat/light smoke and all variations in between.
Currently starting an AG batch as soon as I update my mash tun fittings.

scarecrow

Franks second go at this follows:

Method:
I did the whole FSW again as posted above except this time:
I used Sparkling Amber liquid malt extract (no descernable ferment difference in taste or smell to the Light Crystal LME used above, though darker in colour)
For the strip runs, I collected 7l lowwines per 20l wash... for more spirit run flavour/volume.
For the spirit run, I put in 600ml of essence of peatreek and about 8 litres of water in the boiler. Also I collected about 5l tails (for future feints run).
I put the '8l' hearts @65% on alligator char oak for about 6 weeks. Put this in my oak barrel for another month and now 'sampling it'.

Result:
better than the first go. Somewhere between the extra peatreek and the lower ABV% start for my spirit run (?) is a big part of this and the dark charred oak helps too IMHO.
It is a more robust tipple with added depth and layering of flavour, great mouthfeel and additional peat taste (this bit is very important to me ) however it is still smooth and most enjoyable.... its great already, though young...and I've got some 'proper Scotch tails' for the feints run too..

One more go at this should give me heaps to 'put away'. I'm thinking 12 months on oak.

Great Post Frank. Thanks for sharing.

I really like the Lagavulin peaty flavour, Have been enjoying a bottle of Yamazaki lately. Not as peaty, but still very nice.

I have my own recipe happening that I will post about once I have a good read around this place. I want the peaty goodness, but not too strong. I'm still experimenting with that.

Okay lads and indeed lasses (political correctness must apply) I have a question about Harry's Glenmorangie Clone recipe.

In the write up about the strip run it says collect 1/3 volume as Low Wines then continue to 98 deg (just below water boiling water) as feints and that these should be circa 28% abv. I ran this through the Pot Still calculator on HD. After collecting 1/3 volume at a nominal 10% wash the liquid temp is already above 98% and how you get to 28% abv for the feints has blown my mind.

Frank, I know you put your twist on the recipe and process, but as a beginner I can't align myself with the written original, never mind play around for my own variant.

Am I missing a trick here? I have tried on a few occasion's to work this out and each time I can't (AM you can get me back for the BBQ Tipple, non taken and non given I hope!!)

I do strip runs down to 10% ABV. Some stop at 20%, others as high as 40%.
Everything is collected during a strip run. Even the foreshots.

amaark wrote:In the write up about the strip run it says collect 1/3 volume as Low Wines then continue to 98 deg (just below water boiling water) as feints and that these should be circa 28% abv.

I haven't read the write up, but that sounds odd (for the above reasons I have stated). A strip run down to 20% should give you about 35% ABV.
On a 40 litre wash run @ 9% I took 200ml foreshots, 900ml heads, 3000ml of hearts @ 70% and 600ml tails (to 10%). Hearts started at about 80% and tails kicked in at about 65%.
This was done in my 4" hybrid still, detuned at 2.8 litres per hour.
Every still is different. ABV's will be relevant to your still/power/setup.

scarecrow

OK...next go I decided to try a few further variations....partly as my grain smoker and peatreek manufacturer was unavailable.
Instead of Aussie Traditional Ale Grain (Joe White), manually smoked, I used German Smoked malt (Bestmaltz) and UK Marris Otter malt grain, in 'equal parts' and I used about 3l of LME per 20l wash.
I took about 8l of lowwines per 20l wash (at around 3lph), and I noticed it ran with far less puke potential and a different smell (more hickory smoke than peat; no surprises there).
For the spirit run, I put 24l lowwines, about 6l feints and LOTS of water, enough to create a 40l charge and ran it at about 2.5 lph.
In the end, the heartscut and collected feints volume was lower (due, no doubt, to the lack of LME in the ferments) and the 'new' spirit was harsher/drier on the palate and a lot less peaty.
After a 5 week charred oak stick soak, the harshness was a lot less noticeable, though the flavour was far more 'neutral' than I wished for. A further soak made the spirit colour up nicely but I was left feeling as though the 'comparative' Scotch-taste was either lacking or too bland for my liking.

Hmmmm, why is it so? ... I asked questions and thought about it and reckoned
1. the choice of the smoked grain was not in the best interests of my preferred Scotch style....and the Marris Otter was a bit 'light on', flavourwise.
2. the lack of LME, whilst promising from a $ and puking POV, meant the ferments were lacking a bit of 'sweet on the tongue' which had added to the overall spirit IMHO.
3. I got too much heads in my 'keeper jar'.

So....time to mix things up some more.
Firstly I chose Scottish Golden Promise malt grain and Briess 'Pilsen' LME (both of these were recommended by my LHBS and GP seemed to be given favourable reviews in 'other' distilling forums.
Using 2kg grain (mashed) and 3kg LME per 20l wash and Safspirit Whisky yeast (as always), I also added a good cupful of mashed grain into each ferment.
Again, I took about 8l lowwines per 20l strip and similar quantities of feints and water added to the spirit run, as above....also, I added about 300ml peatreek essence and kept the entire run at near enough to 2lph.
This time I kept less as hearts (about 5l) and it was immediately obvious that the choice of Golden Promise was, well, promising (sorry) as the graintaste in the spirit was much more in keeping with Scotch. I also noticed the LME seemed to give a subtle hint of sweet; in fact, it seemed the best of all the LMEs I had tried.

6 weeks on charred oak made me aware that this was the fundamental base for future FSW trials, as the flavour balance seemed damn near good enough.
However, I also now noticed that the 'reincluded' peatreek was not up to expectations. It gave a good nose to the spirit but too much 'dirt' on the back palate..... (this had NOT improved some months later BTW)

Righto, its variations of Golden Promise malt and Pilsen LME (and no peatreek) then....and +1 a really diluted spirit run charge that is run as slow as possible too.

Finally (for now) I then ran the same GP/Pilsen LME recipe as last time; including the cup of mash into the fermenter.
For the strips, I collected to 10l lowwines per 20l wash (the ABV% was seriously low at this point).
With 7l feints and about 10l water, this made for a bigger spirit run.
On the spirit run after 'heatup', I turned the burner down so low it was running at about 1.5lph for the heads....needless to say, this became a longday in the shed.
In the end, I collected 'about' 6l hearts and, again, it was immediately like a good quality result esp sans the peatreek. ops:
This time I changed up the oaking. I used 1 new charred stick, 2 reuse charred stick and 2 new MT sticks in with the hearts at 65% for about 2 weeks, then dropped the ABV% to around 62% for 2 weeks, the to 58% for 2 weeks.

This was recently 'barrelled' (too) but what I did notice was that there seemed to be a 'maple-like' foretaste to the oaked spirit that I had not noticed before.
Indeed I am keen to explore this further as it is a definite plus regarding flavour 'layering' (as all decent malt Scotchs have).

In summary here's what I have found:
Golden Promise malt is a worthwhile consideration.
The amount of LME can be varied, though its a good thing to include some, at least.
For peated Scotch lovers, malting Peat Smoked grain is the go, not using peatreek. A good bit of heavy charred oaking @65% is a worthwhile maturation addition too.
A very slow (ie around 2lph) final run using a significantly-diluted lowwines base with LOTS of feints is best regarding end product quality.
Pay particular attention to cutting the heads out of the drinking spirit....its a harshness that simply becomes counterproductive to enjoyment of the quaff.
Getting 'clever' with the oaking; namely use of a variety of 'cooked' oaksticks, perhaps varying the ABV% and employing the 'little quantity for a long time' oaking method works best.

This FSW recipe (and its variants like those above) has enormous potential to create a fine spirit, IMHO.
I like it lots....with a dash of water or a block of ice anyway.

You've become quite the whisky distiller Frank. Good on ya mate!

Chuck

Thanks for sharing!