Whisky washes and ideas

[Toxxyc]

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?

[Toxxyc]

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.

[Toxxyc]

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.

[JIGSAW]

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

[Langchop]

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

[Langchop]

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.

[Toxxyc]

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.

[Langchop]

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..

[Toxxyc]

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.

[groenspookasem]

Boil at least 5min remember hops contribute some antibacterial properties to your wort

I thoroughly enjoy a 50% munich and 50% 2 row mash. Its a thing of beauty. Im 100% sure specialty malts will attribute to end product.

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