Islay-style Whisky Recipes

[Frank]

I have followed the discussions re making a \'Laphroaig\' substitute (thank you to all concerned)and also read the Whiskey Profile Book off the web. As I\'m just into my first wash, is anybody able to give actual basic recipe advice for Islay Style whiskey(I personally love Lagavulin) WITHOUT having a full Whiskey \'kit\' etc? I wondered about the Smokey Malt Whiskey essence....

[Frank]

Well, took a while...but here 'tis.
This has been contributed by an artisan who wishes to remain anonomous. As passed on to me, see note below.

Fine Scotch Whisky
(produced at home - adopted from Harry's Glenmorangie clone recipe)Be sure to consult Harry's posting.

At its outset, coming off a base of continual disappointment distilling neutral spirit from dextrose washes and flavouring with essences, all of which resulted in flavours comparable with cough medicine, I admit to once being hesitant when considering producing this (Harry's) whisky. The cost and effort involved here exceed that of the dismal essence experience however, to end any hesitation, the result is replication of authentic scotch whisky.

My whisky, now entering its 2nd year is at 52%abv and developing rich malt with beautiful, warm amber colour and medium to strong peat smokiness, not unlike an Islay malt, it is already higher end quality.From Harry's invaluable information, the following is the outcome of my interpretation of this and how I implemented his method (less the famous Glenmorangie 1/5 cut) to produce, as it is titled, Fine Scotch Whisky.

Equipment:
• Pot still & parrot beak with 50L boiler capacity
• Feints/strip collection vessel (50L)
• Above vessels are of stainless steel, air tight capable with drain fitted
• White oak ageing barrel (50L charred)
• Extra white oak off cuts ($50 per wheelie bin full)
• Stainless steel buckets 12L x 2 (for mashing and collection of distillate)
• Strainer - robust (I use an un-coloured plastic bucket with many 3/16 holes drilled)
• New garbage bins 40L x 2 (these receive mashed & strained grain liquid)
• Fermenters 30L x 2 with air lock and drain - thermometer attached
• Glass jar with lid
Plus the usual home brewing essentials - stainless spoon, pyrex measures, wine thief, auto syphon, appropriate hydrometers and sampling / measuring vessel.

Ingredients:
(per fermenter x 2) the eventual total wort of 40L well matches the 50l still boiler, filling the boiler beyond this may cause foaming still contents to spoil the spirit....
• 2kg Bairds malted barley (peated medium)
• 6kg Coopers light malt extract (4x1.5kg cans)
• 5 teaspoons baker's yeast
• 1 sachet ale yeast (Fermentis Safale US-05)
• Water to fill to 20L level
• Demineralised water for adjusting hearts to 65% ABV

These yeasts are vital in producing authentic scotch whisky flavour. (see Harry's posting)

Prepare the wort - remember amounts are for 1 fermenter, you're making 2 batches.
Mash & sparge the grain.
Begin by mashing the grain, place dry grain (2kg per bucket - rough cut) add 6L tap water (hot as you can get it) wrap a good quilt tightly around the buckets to hold heat in. Leave 1 hour.
Alternatively, use slow cookers or large boiler to more efficiently mash your grain, hold temp at 65°C for 30 minutes.
Next strain liquid from the grain into a sterilised (new) garbage bin. With a couple of litres of very hot to boiling water, do a final rinse over the grain. Keep water usage to a minimum as your final fermenter level should not exceed 20L based on a 50L still boiler.
I squeeze dry mine, collecting nearly all moisture. This grain is now spent but you have (in your liquid) the all important peat smoke and some barley malt. In lieu of preparing an all grain ferment, the full maltiness, call it cheating, comes by adding light malt extract.
The temperature of the strained malt liquid is sufficient to fully liquefy the extract, add 6kg per fermenter. I used Coopers Light Malt Extract. Your level may now be around the 12L mark.
Aiming for a final fermenter temperature of around 25-30°C. (these years are temp forgiving, however, extremes will compromise quality) other than in mid winter, top up to 20L using cold tap water. In cold weather, wrapping Fermenters with a quilt over an electric blanket will maintain good temperature to complete the fermentation. Aim for an initial gravity of around 1070 and a final gravity of 1000 or less. Be aware that initial fermentation is quite aggressive, for this period it is unlikely that the electric blanket will be turned on.
Always, pitching yeast takes precedent over perfect wort temp. Your valuable wort is a t risk of wild yeast infection the longer it stands un-inoculated, don't become consumed with exacting temps.
Into a clean jar, extract some wort using the wine thief and add both yeasts, shake well to hydrate, stir the hydrated yeast blend into the wort.
Repeat this process for the 2nd 20L of wort.

Distil the Fermented wort (strip run)
With a hydrometer reading of 1000 or less, the fermented wort is ready for the still, charge the still with no more than 40L and bring to the boil. Once the condenser began to flow, I found strip runs ran smoother when the burners were kept below high, this prevented foam reaching the condenser and entering the collected strip. For final spirit quality, discard the initial 200ml of flow, then collect all strip down to an alcohol level of 20% or even slightly below, you can expect to collect up to 8 litres. Note the already scotch like taste and aroma of the strip or low wines, I stored this in a 50L beer keg.
Malt strip runs leave plenty of deposits within still components so be sure to clean equipment thoroughly following this procedure.
Repeat the fermentation and stripping process until you have collected at least 40L of strip.

Spirit Run
Charge the still with 40L of collected strip and bring to the boil, once flowing, again, I collect and discard the initial 200ml of spirit however, in the name of clean spirit this may be overkill anyhow, beginning at 85% ABV or higher, direct all flow to the strip collector.
Approaching 82% ABV, you are soon to be collecting the hearts of your spirit run. Reduce the burners to medium to avoid getting flecks in the final spirit. At 80% ABV down to possibly 60% are, as a guide the hearts, collect these separately. Below here down to maybe 40%, flavours may change from good to bad and good again, at 500ml collection intervals for me if it smelled and tasted good, it was kept as hearts, the bad was collected as feints to return to the strip collector.
From 40% down to 20% it is probably fair to say - direct all flow to the strip collector, these are flavoursome additions to future strip run collections.
Collected hearts were adjusted to 65% ABV using demineralised water then placed in large jars containing charred white oak. Jars served the purpose of storage with ageing capabilities until several spirit runs were collected. I had a new charred L barrel on hand but I'm told these don't like to be less than half filled when new.
Other than a few sample bottles which were adjusted from 65 to% ABV after being in a charred barrel only a matter of a few months, a few bottles taken later responded best when the ABV% was reduced in stages over time of small increments, my cuts were kept below 10% at around 8 week intervals. Use only demineralised water when making your cuts.
I kept the barrel contents at 65% for nearly 2 years before beginning the cutting process, I've not yet produced the final product.

.......
(please note: this is a full transcription of a recipe I received from a fellow Australian distiller. I wish to thank him for his dedication to the distillation of fine scotch whisky and his generosity regarding the sharing of this recipe )

[Admiral Toad]

Hi Frank
sound a canny recipe that

Now does anyone know a HBS or other stockist who sells peated malt be it Bairds, Simpsons or whoever and preferably milled as well

[Admiral Toad]

Going on from my question Bairds kindly sent a list of their HBS stockists who they can supply in 25kg bags
There was 5 of them and although none listed the peated malt Ive sent a round robin E mail to them to see what comes back
Bairds did say you could collect from them as well
They do 3 levels of peat infusion according to their informative website

[Capt-Cudellez]

--------------------

Going on from my question Bairds kindly sent a list of their HBS stockists who they can supply in 25kg bags
There was 5 of them and although none listed the peated malt Ive sent a round robin E mail to them to see what comes back
Bairds did say you could collect from them as well
They do 3 levels of peat infusion according to their informative website

------------------------

I will be interested to hear that if you get a response AT, malt miller stock a medium peat malt, but it is £2.10 for 500g
Although it mentions that liquid malt extract is a bit of a cheat, it is definitely the way I'd go, the couple of times I've tried AG have not gone well, and even if you get conversion you'd be lucky if you can ferment it to 5% ABV.

I did chuck a few jars of malt extract spread (for on your toast) into a cornflake wash once, and it did make it much more whisky like, so I'm sure proper LME would be great.

[Admiral Toad]

One of them came back to say they will be buying stock off Simpsons and I could possibly order in 25 kgs of peated malt (3 levels of peat available)
As you may know Simpsons supply 2 or 3 of islay's distilleries the others use port Ellen maltings and one uses the Baird Inverness setup I think
I am getting rather excited about this
>:D

[Capt-Cudellez]

Aye, I've found baird's online before looking for peated malt, but couldn't find any distributors - I guess it pays to ask AT!

For way of comparison, this mob do an un-named whisky malt for £67.50 per 25kg so £2.70/Kg pre shipping is the price to beat.
http://www.hopshopuk.com/products/view/1877/beer-making/ingredients/malt/speciality-malts/peated-smoked-malt-whisky-malt

[Admiral Toad]

Fingers crossed C'ptn

As a rearguard action I even Emailed Simpsons direct to see if you can do cash on collection as Bairds offered. Nearer to thee and mee I suspect than them
I know the mob from loch Ewe distillery collect from Berwick
As they say 'shy bairns get nowt'. >:D

[Frank]

Glad the recipe has created interest here.

You can buy bulk LME for around $5 kg in Aus and the peated barley is ALWAYS better priced in bulk (I am trying to get a few fellow distillers interested in a bulk share).
Re the peat 'influence', I have tried Still Spirits Peat Smoke (a dodgy tasting ethanol essence) and Essence of Peatreek (as per the Kiwi? recipe) and they are both less than good enough IMHO.
Afterall if you wish to get an Islay-type whisky, it makes sense to source or create peat-smoked grain. I am pretty sure my 'grain bill' will include some rye flakes too, to assist in getting that drier mouthfeel going, esp given all the liquid malt.

Good luck and please report how you go back to other interested parties (ie me, at least).

[Capt-Cudellez]

By way of an update I was able to source 25kg of Bairds heavy peat smoked malt for £29.99.

[Runningman]

Hi Capt
Where did you source the peated malt from.
Regards
Runningman

[Capt-Cudellez]

Hey runningman (or should that be patchworkdoll?)
http://www.worcesterhopshop.co.uk/ can order it in for you.

[Runningman]

Hi Capt
Thanks for that. Have pourchased quite a lot from them. They have very competative prices.
Regards
Runningman (Patch)

[Capt-Cudellez]

Yeah, they are good to deal with and also the cheapest source for LME I have found.

CC (Al Q)

[Frank]

I was wondering if anyone here has actually got to 'the finish line' re distilling this peated barley,LME etc? I am slowed by work and cool ferment temps at the moment but I have a mate in Aust who has put this recipe through his still.

Prior tp oaking/maturation, his learned opinion is that
1. it smells like a real winner ("malty with a hint of dirt") AND
2. there is a rather small volume of hearts to be found

I guess I'll know soon enough (although I intend doing 3 separate wash strips and a final spirit run so......hope it warms up asap).