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Debut single malt scotch
I started my first single malt scotch yesterday. I picked up some peated malt from my local homebrew store. The concentration of peat is only 3 ppm, so I’m not worried about it being too peaty.I used 10 lbs of grain in 5 gallons of water, using the brew in a bag method. It was really easy compared to sparging, and straining the grains off. I ended up with an SG of 1.052 at 80 f. Not bad, right around 7% abv. I threw in some whisky yeast, popped the lid on my fermentor, as well as an airlock. To my surprise in the morning, the lid had blown on my fermentor, and the brew was fermenting like crazy. Needless to say, I switched to a clean airlock, and resealed it. The brew has calmed down a bit. Can’t wait to see how it turns out.
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29 Replies
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Please let us know how it goes!I am single malt drinker so very keen to know about other people’s experiences in this area. There seems to be a lack of recipes for scotch whiskeys on these forums. Please tell me where you got your recipe from. I am looking for something quite simple, that I can age until Christmas – 6 months.Cheers, Zonko.My life is really taking up too much distilling time!
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Just cracked open the fermentor today after all the fermentation had stopped. Had a nice “scotch beer” smell to it. I actually just tried some scotch beer last night, so I have a base to judge it from The FG was .991 at 89 f. So by my calculations the abv of the wash is 7.7 %. I plan on doing the stripping run (and maybe the spirit run) tomorrow, in my pot still.
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The recipe I came up with I based on other all grain washes. In my BOP i heated 5 gallons of water to 160 f. I used the brew in a bag method to help with cleanup, and to avoid sparging. So I took my cheesecloth bag, placed it in the water, then filled it with 10 lbs of cracked peated barley, which I got at my local homebrew store. Mixed it up real good inside the bag, then let it convert for about 2 hours. I should’ve done a starch conversion test, but I didn’t have any iodine. Next time though…After the two hours, I drained the bag into my BOP, then let it sit over my fermentor so all the sweet liquid would drain out. Once the bag was mostly drained, I squeezed the last bits of liquid out. I topped up my fermentor with the rest of the beer, and waited until it cooled. I pitched it with a whisky yeast, and let it ferment for about 5 days.I’ll let you know how the stripping and spirit runs go. I’m planning on letting it age with oak staves that I recovered and refurbished from an old wine barrel.
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So you just used 100% of this peated malt, not a mix of regular malted barley and the peated stuff?I tried Glenlivet 12 yr over the weekend and now I want to make something similar. I also apparently need to try some more of this style. Keep us posted!
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I do mostly AG but just haven’t gotton around to do a single malt yet, but I’m planning on doing some next mash I do. Hope ur’s turns out well.I’ve never had a ferment blow the top but I used to have some come thru the air lock. Did some research and decided I was usin’ too much yeast. You’ll get a better end result if ya do some things to slow down your ferment. Ya want a steady bubblin’ for about three days, thats where the yeast multiplies and uses up the O2. Then it’ll slow down on the co2 production while it converts the sugars to ethanol. The slower ya get youur ferment the better your flavors will be.Btw, that a really good looking still. I expect if ya really get into this hobby you’ll be wantin’ one a whole lot bigger. I started with a small one but now I got one much bigger, well, sorta at the size limit for where I can still. Believe me, go as big as yourt space will allow.Big R”Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” William Pitt
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Yeah I think I over filled my fermentor, so there was not enough room inside for the cap to form I’m happy with the 20 L still for now, but I may one day opt for one slightly bigger. Cheers
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Yes, the malt I got has a lower amount of peat, 3 ppm according to the guy at the store. I enjoy the peaty scotches, and I figured if it was too peaty, then I could always make another batch with less peat, and blend them together.
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Thanks for keeping us updated! That’s indeed a beautiful still! 20L is a pretty good size too I think. Mine is only 8L and it’s a bit of a pain. I am going to run a few more batches before I upgrade though (have to justify the costs to the wife with some proven product!).So you’re using “peated malt” not “peated barley” (unmalted). I keep asking this question on these forums because I can easily get barley, but not malted. Cheers,ZonksMy life is really taking up too much distilling time!
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Yes I’m using peated malted barley. It needs to be malted to convert the starches in the grains to sugars. If you can get lots of barley you could try to malt some yourself.
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My issue is, I wanted to use local materials. Here I can get rolled barley. I know that has not been malted, nor can it be malted, but I was hoping to flavour a sugar wash with it an see how it goes. It’d be a pure rolled-barley UJSSM. In any case, I am going to do what you have done and do a full grain mash. It’ll be the first ever. I’ll buy some Aussy Pale barley malt of the net and brew with that. Please could you post a link to your full recipe. Might do the barley UJSSM and the full grain side by side and compare. Peace, Zonko.My life is really taking up too much distilling time!
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Ran the stripping run today. Didnt have time for the spirit run due to the Hockey playoffs. Go Canucks!
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They sure know how to keep their fans on edge.I do all my own stunts
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They sure know how to keep their fans on edge.shane_o_ca sure knows how to keep us on edge! I am buzzing to know how the spirit run turns out!My life is really taking up too much distilling time!
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They sure know how to keep their fans on edge.shane_o_ca sure knows how to keep us on edge! I am buzzing to know how the spirit run turns out!The way it’s going, it may be the only thing worth waiting for I do all my own stunts
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Ok I did the spirit run today. Here’s how it went.I chucked out the foreshots, then started collecting. Here’s how the cuts went:1) 82% – clearly heads, really strong taste. Has that solvent aroma to it.2) 79% – Some heads, but it’s starting to taste scotchy.3) 76% – I can really taste the scotch and peat here. 4) 70% – More hearts.5) 64% – More flavorful hearts.6) 52% – Can start to taste some tails in here.7) 36% – Tastes smoky, which I like. I’m definitely blending some of these tails in.8 ) 20% – Tails.9) 9% – Tails.Gonna save the heads and tails for my next batch (there will definitely be a next batch).Now it’s time to get my oak staves ready. How am I gonna wait 3-5 months to drink this?
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You can call it Riot Reserve 2011 I do all my own stunts
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How fitting. I may just do that.
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Thanks for updating us on that run. Interesting to hear about jar 7 there. I have found some nice flavours nestling down in the tails end as the come off the still, but I have so far always found that after 24 hours, it all smells too weird and tailsy. I’d be interested to hear how much you blend in there and what your impressions of the blend are before and after aging. Keen to learn!I often wonder whether these tailsy flavours would mellow out over time with aging. I sure would like to get larger yield by including some more of those jars! And I’d love to get interesting complexity in my whiskeys, but not sure if that’s where to get it from!EZOh and PS: please tell me where you got your single malt recipe from. ThanksMy life is really taking up too much distilling time!
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el-zonko – single malt is just as it says, it is just a sinlge malted barley. Use 8-10 lb grain/5gal h2o. There are several ways to do it but basically ya want to get it to 140-145F and hold for about two hours for saccrification. Cool to 75-80F pitch yeast. That’s it.Big R”Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” William Pitt
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That’s almost exactly what I did. 5 gallons water, 10 lbs grain, I held it at 160. Maybe a bit high but it worked. I blended half of jar 7. I liked the smokiness, and it didnt taste weird to me after breathing.
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Cheers. Very helpful. Why is there not an AG single malt recipe in tried and tested?My life is really taking up too much distilling time!
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“”Why is there not an AG single malt recipe in tried and tested?”‘because its that simple,malted barley,hot water.cool add yeast.there is some discussion on conversion ,yeast,sparging etc..
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I’ve had 2 bottles aging on oak staves for a couple of months now. They are starting to smell and taste much better. Can’t wait to try them around Christmas!
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I am new to distilling. I did 3 single barley malt batches recently. The first batch smells a lot like rubber and tires, what i really don’t like and dont feel like drinking it. The second and third batches are quite good. The wash of the first batch was fermented for 5 or 6 days (1070 OG) with beer yeast and naturally did not contain any feints into the spirit run. Do u guys see any reasons why the new make of the first batch has this repulsive rubber taste and smell? All of the batches i watered down to 50 abv. The next two batches dont have it. Now i am going to get a piece of oak that has been air dried for 30 years and start experimenting with it. What do u think of such a long time oak drying?
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I’m gonna take a WAG here, did you do a cleanin run with your sill before the first batch?Big R”Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” William Pitt
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Autolysis,cannibal yeast,leaving on the trub to long/lack of nutrients/trying for a high gravity mash with out proper nutrients.
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It might be i didn’t do a proper still cleaning before the first batch. I poured 5 litres of water and a glass of vinegar into 50 liter SS keg. I ran it for 15 – 20 minutes only.I guess the OG of my first batch was too high – 1.070. Even though my aim is to make a single barley malt new make, distilation process i learned from Ian Smiley book “Making pure corn whiskey”. I followed the mashing making rules i found in this book. This is what the book says: “The O.G. of a grain mash should be between 1.060 and 1.070. If the OG is very much higher than 1.070, the alcohol content during fermentation will exceed 10 abv. As the alcohol content exceeds 10 abv, the yeast metabolism changes slightly, which can adversely affect the flavor profile. Also the fermentation can drag out and risk the formation of dreaded esters. It is possible that there are specific yeast strains that surmount this problem. Perhaps, one of the closely guared secrets held by the commercial whiskey distilleries.” Well, Lagavulin’s wash is 8.9 ABV, Laphroaig’s – 8.5 ABV, Coal ila – 8 ABV. I got 8.2 ABV with my 1070 OG. Next 2 batches were 1.056 and 1.061 and their flavour satisfies me. The conclusion here probably might be that 1.070 OG is too high. Springbank for instance makes only 4 – 5 ABV wash. What OG do you guys find best for malted barley newe make spirit? How long do you ferment your worts? What i heard is that short (2 day) fermentations give cleaner spirit.
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My barley worts usually have an OG around 1.065-1.070. I don’t know about short ferments making cleaner spirits. My ferments generally take 5-7 days and I’m very satisfied with the quality of distillate that produces. Commercial distillers target their wash abv to compliment their stills. Everything they do is targeted to their specific product, both for purposes of economy and consistency of product. Because of the scale and many other variables hobby distillers can better control quality.Big R”Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” William Pitt
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I already tried to age my new make single malt spirit with a piece of charred wood. After one week of distress aging it improved a lot. It is not that far now from some industrial single malts. Some friends even prefer my new make spirit to industrial single malts matured for long years. I find this quite schocking, as i never expected to distill a spirit that could be equal to industrial stuff that is matured for 10 – 15 years. We had Glenfiddich 15 yo special edition 51 abv. The taste of it proved to be too much spirity, I think could make smth better without too much time and effort. What i cannot understand why industrial scotch whisky makers determine to mature their spirits for such long years when acctually there is no need for such a long time to make a good whisky? I am even starting to think that some scotch distillers dont even try to make a good whisky, what they try to make good is advertising, nice labels and so on.
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