Home Distillation Made Easy!
Opus 27
Inebriate
Login to Send PM
Posts: 295
Hi to all the experts who will help with this query.
My son has gone over to full grain brewing so we are left with 13 kilos of liquid malt extract which I'm thinking of using to ferment as a wash for my still.
Question is, what will the end product be and how will I get there ie what yeast, do I use Turbo Carbon etc. etc.
Opus 27
Phantom
Distiller
Login to Send PM
Posts: 405
Think about it opus,
malt, with yeast, nutrients, sugar etc
What have you got ?
Beer!
so if you mixed it up with water and then added sugar to bring the gravity and then hit it with the yeast pack (and carbon), once it's distilled you'll have very young whiskey.
which means that you'd have to make sure about getting some stocks of oak chips in......
Opus 27
Inebriate
Login to Send PM
Posts: 295
So what your saying then Phantom is to use my normal turbo yeast and carbon. Won't the carbon take out any chance of flavour from the malt or will there not be any there in the first place. I was'nt going to use sugar I was just going to dilute the malt to a suitable SG, the sugar element being the malt.
Phantom
Distiller
Login to Send PM
Posts: 405
So what your saying then Phantom is to use my normal turbo yeast and carbon. Won't the carbon take out any chance of flavour from the malt or will there not be any there in the first place. I was'nt going to use sugar I was just going to dilute the malt to a suitable SG, the sugar element being the malt.
Most whiskey seems to be brewed in pot stills - so it follows that you'd probably be doing the same thing as they do and double distilling.
I understand that they actually use some of the esters etc, what the filter strips out (the filter is so you can make potable spirit/vodka), so I'm thinking that I'd just make it up to about 20 litres, check the gravity, then make it up to about 1090 with sugar, then top the water up to about 26 or 27 litres (that allows for some space at the bottom with the lees). Then once it's finished fermenting, clear and distill it in the normal way.
The distillate, I'd keep seperate in a DJ and chuck a couple of packs of oak chips in it and then put it away and forget about it.
With any luck, you should end up with something that approximates whiskey. If it turns out to be undrinkable, you can always then just filter the oak chips out and re-distill it. Then the ethanol-alcohol could be flavoured in the usual way.
does that make sense ???
bluecap
Member
Login to Send PM
Posts: 163
Hi
My advice is not to use turbo yeast, anything done with turbo is designed to be filtered so using the malt would be pointless, if you use turbo and don’t filter it will taste like c*”p.
If its a low enough starting gravity I would use bakers yeast, if you opt for something higher then maybe a high alcohol desert wine yeast to be on the safe side.
But definitely not a turbo yeast.
Mick
Opus 27
Inebriate
Login to Send PM
Posts: 295
Thanks Phantom that makes sense now. My only remaining query is if I should use the Turbo carbon in the fermentation, from what you say though I assume not. But I would still use the turbo yeast.
Thanks again for the use of your brain.
Opus 27
Phantom
Distiller
Login to Send PM
Posts: 405
Hum? Well I can see bluecaps point, but I'd also suspect that the whiskey makers would also use something like "distillers yeast" - which isn't gonna be that far removed from turbo yeast.
As for bread yeast, that's pretty much a "no no". If you looked up the recipe for "Joe Mattioli's Ancient Orange Spiced Mead", the original one suggests bread yeast.
The problem with that, is that it doesn't flocculate very well, and you can disturb it just by holding a racking cane next to it.
If you didn't want to use turbo, I'd say that something like Lalvins EC1118 - which is a champagne yeast.
As for turbo carbon? well you can always make it without, then if it did turn out too curious in flavour, you could just still it and carbon filter it later. Either way, it's probably gonna strip out some of the esters etc.
Oh and I'd make sure that the ferment was kept at as low a temperature as possible - it does seem that the "long slow" method is less likely to produce much in the way of fusel's etc.
Either way, it's all guess work without a good recipe to follow - have you tried searching the home distiller forums and their main site - making something like that does seem much more "up their street"......
Jimmy
Site Owner
Login to Send PM
Posts: 356
I would agree with bluecap - I definitely wouldn't use a turbo. You want a nice, slow, steady ferment up to a fairly low percentage - they don't push the yeast when making single malts. The EC would be a better bet if you want to ramp up the strength of the wash - turbo is really designed specifically for the sugar wash and the exact quantities given on the pack. I'm not saying it wouldn't work, but it's more likely to give off tastes.
Personally I am a big fan of bread yeast, after all people have been making spirits for hundreds of years before homebrew companies decided to invent these special yeasts - it's cheap enough to experiment with, and seems to work slow enough not to give bad flavour. In other words, don't write it off without trying it! :)
Opus 27
Inebriate
Login to Send PM
Posts: 295
I've decided to give it a go but have to wait for a vacant fermenting bin. We have three on the go at the moment, gives the house an interesting bouquet and has caused very inventive ventilation.
I'll run a journal type thread when I get started.
Incidently I'd never heard of home stilling untill six weeks ago.
Opus 27
Jimmy
Site Owner
Login to Send PM
Posts: 356
You're doing well then! It's good to hear other people's experiences, no matter how many things you try someone else always thinks a little different or tries a new idea and it helps everyone if we share them. I am by no means an expert, I've been doing this for about a year and 3 months, but as you know Opus it's amazing how much you know now that you didn't know then!
You must log in to post.