PeteB

Thanks Guys. Firstly I can't distil on the grain as I have a direct fired pot. When I say "Irish Style" I really mean "Irish Technique" with the hope it will turn out similar to a real Irish Whisky Boognish, what is it about your whisky that makes it Irish style, do you triple pot distil with an alembic pot, or did your different technique end up with a similar product? Thanks Natrat. I was thinking along similar lines, but did not know about the dark malt. I hope I might get away with a lighter malt because it should have more DP and requires less energy to kiln it.( I make my own malt )

The easiest way to get less oak is with bigger barrels, and it is generally cheaper per unit volume as well. Keeping the BEER flavour is a lot about your type of still and how you run it. In my opinion you should use a pot still and take late cuts.

I have been making a 100% rye whisky, but I am just harvesting (in Tasmania) my crop of barley. I would like to use it to make a traditional "triple pot distilled" Irish (style) whiskey. Obviously I can't call it Irish Whiskey because my distillery is not in Ireland. Does anyone have any good information, mainly on the mash bill and mashing procedure. The type of mash bill info I am after is the ratio of malted to unmalted barley. Also, is the unmalted barley cooked before the malt is added. I assume the Irish use a lauter tun similar to the traditional Scots, and that the barley is only crushed, not ground to flour. Thanks in advance for any help Pete Bignell

I assume when you say " 1.5 distilled product" you have blended the two runs ?? if not, please explain. Is this a still with plates or without? I have never run a plated still, just simple alembic as the traditional Scots do. All the distillers I know who use alembic pots run the feints down to about 2%, especially on the wash run (= first run = stripping run) Some stop on the spirit run a bit earlier but I think that is because the run takes too long. In my experience you should take big heads and foreshots and that will reduce the burn especially to the nose, and then run the heart well down towards the feints. That is where the flavour is. I would like someone to explain to me why you would stop at 20%, there must be a lot of alcohol still in the boiler, but maybe not with a plated column........ I think I have just answered my own question, but I would appreciate a few numbers if someone like Steve from Artisan Still Design could oblige.

I don't take cuts on first run. If wash is added too fast then the pot will stop boiling for a while but it does not matter. This technique no good if doing cuts

Thanks Natrat. 10/10 for your amazing ability to recall a scientific article word for word. As I have said before, I have a science degree and quite a bit was food technology, but in the 40+ years since then a lot of the detail has faded. I do remember the basic principals and that is why I suspected that some of the starch in bread might not be usable. The brix 11 might be mainly from the potatoes. It doesn't really matter as long as I get a few bottles of vodka at the end to tell a good recycling story. The fermenter is bubbling away nicely, I will let you know the results,

Thanks for the interest Natrat. If I was a school teacher I would only give you 5/10 for reading skills I did say "add some malted rye and a few enzymes to make sure it converts" So far I have got pretty good conversion of the starch according to iodine test. Brix is 11 which is a bit low, assume I added too much water. The still is way too big for the volume I have so the dilution shouldn't matter. I am sure it is bad economics making vodka or whisky this way, but hopefully the press will find it an interesting story and give me some free promotion, in fact it has already started. A radio station from the West Australian coast (I live S.E.) rang me yesterday and did an interview about me making booze from leftovers. This batch is all leftovers including the yeast. The packet had expired but the fermenter has started bubbling nicely. Won't be able to call it whisky because of the potatoes so I will distill and carbon filter to a vodka, maybe I will call it ABSOLUTE ly no waste VODKA

Thanks for the reply Steve. I was going to start the cook today but with distractions the day is almost over (probably hasn't started where you are) If the mash failed I might have been able to blame it on the bread. I do now recall that story about the first beer.

I am right into recycling and avoiding waste, for environmental reasons, for economical reasons, and also for the free publicity it generates. I have just finished a week of a taste festival showcasing Tasmanian food and drinks. A stall near me had some leftover cooked potatoes and bread, both should be good sources of starch. The potatoes will be, but does anyone know if the cooked bread will still have usable starch? I plan to cook it up then add some malted rye and a few enzymes to make sure it converts, then ferment and distill etc to produce a few bottles of vodka to take back to the festival next year. Thanks Pete Bignell

I am not familiar with Hoga brand, but I assume it is a simple alembic that you do a stripping run first then a spirit run with cuts. If that is so, it is possible to run at least 120% of its volume for the stripping run. Firstly fill to at least 80% then bring to boil, cutting the heat back just before boil so it won't puke. After the foam settles then start slowly adding more wash as the level drops and you should be able to get at least 120% stripped. It helps greatly if you have a viewing window to regularly check on foaming With a foamy wash I usually start with 500 litres,(600 litres= full) then add another 250 litres during the run With fruit washes of high ABV it is no trouble to strip 900 litres............... Slightly continuous distillation! This won't work if you do just one run with plates because you can't do the cuts.

I don't work under TTB rules but as some of you may have noticed I do enjoy a bit of mathematical stimulation. At bottleing proof is where you need to be the most accurate. 80 proof reading at 60 F = 80 proof 80 proof reading at 60.1 F=79.95 proof @ 60 F, only 0.05 wrong What is the tolerance allowed by TTB? I thought it was 0.2 proof. Don't take my word for it, check for yourself. So if the hydrometers have 0.1 divisions and TTB says you need to read to 0.2 pr, then a thermometer accurate to 0.1F is four times as accurate at TTB requires.

Steve, please don't take this the wrong way, I am learning here all the time. Why put a 15 psi OP valve on a still that I assume runs normally at under 1 psi. For that valve to open, your still would be operating in a range that would possibly need it to be certified as a pressure vessel! Maybe it is. I would rather a safety device operated well before "something very bad has happened or is about to."

There are several designs of check valves (=non return) that I have seen. The simplest with a flap on a hinge may not be so good on a simple pot still with no plates. When these are boiling I have watched the pressure and they regularly go into slight negative pressure. With a swinging flap they would quite possibly 'sniff " air which would then expand and go positive pressure and start surging. I don't know if plated stills have pressure surges. With the valve in a vertical position and the flap on top I guess it would work well. Other check valves I have dissected have a light spring holding a tapered plug onto a seat. In my opinion these would work well. Thanks for the idea, I am going to put one of these on my still in the next few days. Look at the smallest pipe in the spirit path of your still. It is probably where the spirit trickles into your collecting tank. 1/2 inch ? You possibly have a parrot on it. If you have even a smallish commercial still it could be producing 50 Kw of steam, that is a lot of volume (I will edit in this volume when I find the calculations)to push through a 1/2 inch pipe and you will get a lot of back pressure. But a much more serious problem arises if you are boiling a wash that foams badly. The much higher viscosity foam could be trying to escape through that 1/2 inch pipe. With 50 Kw behind it will need to escape through a much larger orifice, if there isn't one it will probably create its own. If too much pressure builds at the foaming stage, and then the still ruptures, the pressure suddenly drops and much of the contents will instantly boil and foam. Very serious problem for anyone near the still The above examples are not just theory, they have happened to me and/or my friends Yes it is excessive but that 7 inch hole is also my manway. (There is also a much larger one but it is not as convenient to open.) It is a piece of 7 inch pipe, with a slightly larger blanked off cap fitted over it. There is a soft neoprene o-ring that rolls in-between the 2 pipes as the cap is pushed on. At 1 or 2 psi the cap will be pushed off as it rolls the o-ring.

Oh man, you Americans make your maths complicated with your antique units of measurement, then you jumble them up to make it even harder, but on the other hand you simplify your spelling I think I now understand you meant you get 1US gallon (3,78 L) of juice from 13 pounds of fruit or as Charles said 4 US gallons per bushel of fruit. I know a bushel is a measurement of volume but have no idea if a US bushel is the same as an imperial bushel. It appears from your example that a US bushel of apples weighs 4X13 = 42 pounds US 3.78 litres (liters;) per 13 pounds 3.78 litres per 5.9 Kg which is very close to 1 litre of juice per 1.5 Kg of apples or for these apples they were 66% juice by weight

A relief valve needs to more than just trigger at a set pressure. I think the valves in that link are physically too small to be able to let off the pressure fast enough if / when things go pear shaped (unless you have a tiny still) Since I started distilling I have twice forgotten to turn on the cooling water. I have a 7 inch diameter relief valve that pops competly open when there is too much pressure. When it popped there was a 7 inch gueyser of foam going about a foot into the air. If you tried putting that through a 1 inch valve it would have done almost nothing to stop the pressure building.

David, could you please explain what you mean? I am particularly interested in this thread because I have just finished ( a few minutes ago) distilling 2,400 litres of apple cider. Haven't done all the yield calcs yet.

LOOSE HOOPS. Sorry I forgot to mention it. I always drive hoops on a little tighter if they will move, before adding hot water or spirit. If you don't have a proper hoop driver then a piece of steel about 1/4 inch by 3 inch by 8 inch works OK. ( Disclaimer: Be careful not to hit your knuckles Hammer needs to be about 5 times the weight of a normal carpenters hammer.

I re-filled 2 barrels yesterday that had been emptied at least 2 months ago. Not even a small seep was to be seen. Winemakers may need to use citric but I would think the dregs / fumes from 120 proof is a very good preservative. My suggestion, do not put any water in the empty barrels, (maybe a little high proof spirit, but I don't know how you account for that with TTB) bung in tight, wrap each barrel with pallet stretch wrap plastic, and store in a cool place out of sun. If you are concerned that the barrels have developed a leak, fill with hot water just before you are ready to fill. Hot water swells the wood quickly.

Hello fellow Countryman. Just a technicality, you cannot make "Scotch Whisky" in Australia, even if a Scotsman built your distillery. I assume you mean a "Malt Whisky", similar to a Scotch. Firstly most of the posters on this forum talk in US gallons which are smaller that the Imperial gallons we used long ago. To use the same technique used in traditional Scottish distilleries you will need 2 pot stills for the output you want. A large "wash" still and a smaller "spirit" still. Doing the "Reverse" calculations To fill a 60 gallon US barrel ( with say 60% abv , each still needs to hold at least 36 gallons (136 litres) of 100% abv. Depending on how you run the still, the wash still will yield "low wines" of around 25% (keeping numbers low to make sure stills are large enough) 136 liters of pure alcohol in 25% abv gives a total volume of 544 litres. But with cuts that won't end up in the barrel, your SPIRIT STILL will need to be at least 25% larger than this, say 700 litres to round it up, that is now 175 litres of 100% abv If you use the traditional Scotch lautering and fermentation your wash could be as low as 7% abv so you will need 2,400 litres of wash to produce 175 liters of 100%abv (assuming 100% yield efficiency) Your wash still needs to be larger than this to allow for foaming and inefficiencies. In conclusion, as a rough guide only, your WASH STILL needs to be 3,000 litres and your SPIRIT STILL 700 litres. In the above post MASH suggested 600 gallons ( approx 2,300 litres) then if you allow for foaming we aren't too far apart. Modernity, if you want any tips on dealing with Australian Excise to obtain your licences, phone me 0409 144 560 PeteB

They believed the hot water(don't know the exact temperature) caused the filter to block.

If you haven't already seen this, especially the US members might find it interesting http://www.gq.com/images/life/2013/11/bourbon-tree/bourbon-family-tree-large.jpg I was emailed the link but have no other information. Not sure what the dotted part on the right is about!

I am pretty sure there are no Scottish distilleries making "single malt" by grinding the grain to flour. Typically the grain is crushed, leaving a lot of the grain as 1/4 chunks and the husk in as large a piece as possible. After mashing, the clear sugary wort is drained off through a lauter bottom before yeast is added. Unless you have some very fancy filtering system you won't get a clear wort if you fine grind. From reading this forum, I believe most (but not all) who do a fine grind will ferment on the grain, then distill with the grain as well. Fine grinding will probably make nice whisky, but I doubt it will taste much like a Scotch single malt, except with reused barrels you won't get that big hit of new wood that is typical of many American whiskies.

Tasmanian whisky is quickly gaining a high reputation on the world whisky scene. Apart from our very clean air and water, I think it is the very variable weather conditions we get here on our small island in the Southern Ocean Last week the maximum was 32 c (nearly 90 f) the next day it snowed to quite a low elevation. Humidity and air pressure are also all over the place. Hey Porter, Just proving that my <enter> key works with Chrome

I am running WIN 7 and WIN 8 on another computer and have the same problem when using INTERNET EXPLORER No problem with Google Chrome