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Whisky washes and ideas

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  • Whisky washes and ideas

    OK so this is the new section, and I'm loving it. I've been fermenting more for whisky recently than for beer, so I've got a ton of questions. Let's get started with my first one.

    One of the things I've been doing was adding some caramel malt to the wash in order to boost a bit of the perceived sweetness in the final product. However, I have no idea how it affects the final product. So now I've got something going. I've got a plain pale malt + corn wash going as well as one with a caramalt addition (Brownswaen's Brown Malt). I've got a plain distillate (low wines) in the jar already. I'm now going to distill the other two as well, and then I want to check what the actual difference is in taste and aroma of the low wines before proceeding to the spirit run.

    Let's hear it - what's your experiences been with specialty malts on the distillate? I thought first it'll make little difference, because I mean, it's distilled. Then I tasted the massive difference it made when I distilled a cider with Rooibos in it, and the distillate (after second run) tastes still strongly of Rooibos. I saw the second difference when I distilled two sugar washes - one with molasses and one without. The one with molasses was vastly different and actually pretty tasty straight out the still on the second run.

    So I simply can't believe it won't make a difference. There HAS to be an impact, right?

  • #2
    OK so since the responses here are so overwhelming, I'll be testing this myself this week sometime. I made a caramel-rich wash and will see the difference between that one, a plain corn + malt wash and a distilled batch of beer I forgot about. Will give me three flavours (which I'll probably blend anyway), and show me the differences in using different types of malt in the wash.

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    • #3
      And my wash got an infection. I figured "distilling, so eh" and didn't really sanitize, and just fermented it in a bucket. Opened it today and found a white blanket on top. Smells a tiny bit like naturally fermenting fruit juice. A bit sour. It's busy distilling as I type this and the smell it still pretty good (quite fruity), so let's see how it turns out.

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      • #4
        Must have been a really bad bucket ....

        There's brewers in Australia that haven't sanitized a day in their life with zero infections.

        You must've got that bad luck of the draw
        The Problem With The World Is That Everyone Is A Few Drinks Behind.!

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Toxxyc View Post
          OK so since the responses here are so overwhelming, I'll be testing this myself this week sometime. I made a caramel-rich wash and will see the difference between that one, a plain corn + malt wash and a distilled batch of beer I forgot about. Will give me three flavours (which I'll probably blend anyway), and show me the differences in using different types of malt in the wash.
          Yea,... only a handful have valid experience to advise
          Cheers,
          Lang
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
          "Dudddde...Hold my beer!".... ; "I wonder what will happen if I ...."

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by JIGSAW View Post
            Must have been a really bad bucket ....

            There's brewers in Australia that haven't sanitized a day in their life with zero infections.

            You must've got that bad luck of the draw
            Why would the risk be any less with fermenting a wash versus fermenting wort? (except later with higher alcohol) For a brewer, I have seen distillers seeming pretty blaze about infections and not worried about it.
            Cheers,
            Lang
            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
            "Dudddde...Hold my beer!".... ; "I wonder what will happen if I ...."

            Comment


            • #7
              I fermented in that blue boiling bucket, same one I mashed in. The bucket isn't sealed, it has a tiny breathing spot at the top so I guess that's where the infection crept in. Also, the wash is never boiled, so that also makes a difference I guess.

              First run produced a pretty flavourful distillate though. I was really worried about vinegar, but it's really not bad. Quite fruity. Reminds me of the run I did that contained cranberry and apple cider that turned out bad.

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              • #8
                Sounds like a win in the end. I ferment all my beers in the blue boilbucket, without disinfecting, and never an infection, so probably its your lack of boil. But an hour at 65 deg should be pretty damn close to a good sanitation..
                Cheers,
                Lang
                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                "Dudddde...Hold my beer!".... ; "I wonder what will happen if I ...."

                Comment


                • #9
                  I mashed at 62°C, and there was little sanitation in the thing. I also opened the lid a lot to check, took a gravity reading and pitched it straight back into the rest, etc. Something got in there. THICK white fluffy layer all over the top.

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                  • #10
                    ‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎
                    groenspookasem
                    Banned
                    Last edited by groenspookasem; 29 March 2021, 12:03.

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                    • #11
                      Yeah I finished the distillation and the distillate tastes clean, at least, even with some puking. I'll spirit run it later on. Smells and tastes vastly different to the regular wash. Will experiment a bit with other malts, because I'm not getting as much caramel as I'd hoped for. It's more fruity, actually, but that can also be pointed to the infection. And yes, it's definitely been an infection.

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Toxxyc View Post
                        I fermented in that blue boiling bucket, same one I mashed in. The bucket isn't sealed, it has a tiny breathing spot at the top so I guess that's where the infection crept in. Also, the wash is never boiled, so that also makes a difference I guess.

                        First run produced a pretty flavourful distillate though. I was really worried about vinegar, but it's really not bad. Quite fruity. Reminds me of the run I did that contained cranberry and apple cider that turned out bad.
                        If the element is still in this bucket and you didn't do a boil, I will put my c0ck on a block and say that's where the kak started
                        The Problem With The World Is That Everyone Is A Few Drinks Behind.!

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                        • #13
                          Yep, probably. I'm not too phased about it though, because distillation :P

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                          • #14
                            I had a nice whiskey wash brew day today. It was very satisfying not having to do any calculations or measurements, and just dumping and squeezing limits and seeing how much of everything I could fit in. At the end of the day it looked like it all worked out pretty well.

                            I initially milled 7.5kg of pale and filled the boilbucket with about 15l of water. It was getting a bit stiff when mashing in so added another 1.5 l of water and then some more malt. In the end about 6.5kg grain with however much water for about 20L mash.
                            Did just a 5 minute sanitation boil, and it gave me a very suitable 1.074 in 20L which I also cubed for the first time. Nice not worrying about hops and bittering either.
                            IMG_20201121_114622.jpg
                            IMG_20201121_145609.jpg
                            IMG_20201121_155551.jpg

                            After doing just an experimental distill previously with a sugar wash, I am looking forward to this one.
                            Langchop
                            Senior Member
                            Last edited by Langchop; 22 November 2020, 12:49. Reason: typos. How do you people ever understand what I type?
                            Cheers,
                            Lang
                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                            "Dudddde...Hold my beer!".... ; "I wonder what will happen if I ...."

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                            • #15
                              Nice
                              The Problem With The World Is That Everyone Is A Few Drinks Behind.!

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