100% Malt Whiskey

This recipe as written is optimized for a 15.5gallon half barrel keggle (keg kettle) cooker and 2 18+ gallon fermenters.  To scale to your equipment see notes at bottom.   

I do this recipe 40 lbs (18kg) of malt at a time, for a couple reasons. 1) 15 gallons (57l) of strike water for mashing fit perfect in a half barrel (15.5g) keggle. 2) It gives 2 10 gallon runs, perfect for a 15.5g half barrel still.

Barley malt and Wheat malt both make a delicious whiskey.  Irish whiskey is traditionally all barley (but not all malted) and distilled 3 times.  Scotch is all barley malt, peat smoked.  You can use peated barley from your local homebrew shop to experiment with smokey scotch styles.    My favorite spin on this is with 100% Red Wheat malt.  Wheat malt makes a warm sweet earthy/fruity whiskey,  just plain delicious with the warm sweet vanilla notes from oak aging.

Ingredients: 

• 15 gallons (53l) water (plus 8 gallons (30l) water at yeast pitch time)   23g total.
• 4 tsp gypsum
• 40 lbs (18 kg) milled Barley Malt or Wheat Malt

Mashing and Fermenting:

1. Bring the water (15g) and gypsum to 160 degrees F (71C) (strike temp).
2. Put 20 lbs (9kg) milled malt in each of 2 18+  gallon (75l) fermenters, or all 40 lbs in a bigger barrel if you have a 30+ gallon (113l) barrel.
3. Stir in half the water into each fermenter (7.5g, 33l) Temp should settle at 148F (64C).  Stir well and make sure the malt doesnt clump.
4. Put the lids loosely on, and wrap the barrels up tight in blankets to hold the mash temp in teh mid 140's. Stir every 30 minutes.
5. After a couple hours remove the blankets and point a fan at the barrels, it helps cool them much faster to pitch temp.
6. When the temp is below 80F (27C), add 4 more gallons (15l) water per barrel, and take a large spoon or mash paddle and whip the mash up to a froth to aerate it well (important for the yeast).
7. Pitch your favorite yeast. (Ferment on the grain) I use US-05 ale yeast (1 packet per 5 (gallons), its high attenuation (ferments out dry) and tastes great.  Distillers yeast like a Crosby and Baker or even a Bakers yeast sold in blocks in grocery also work well.  Keep the fermentation temp at the low end of the yeasts range for a clean ferment, 68F for Ale yeasts,   80F for bakers yeast.

Distilling:

1. It will ferment for 1-2 weeks, depending on temp.  A hydrometer read should be in the 0.998 - 1.002 range. 
2. Pull 5 gallons (19l) of the clear liquid off the top of each barrel, for a 10 gallon stripping run in your still.
3. Squeeze 5 more gallons each from the goo in each barrel and let it sit and clear overnight to run another 10 gallon wash the next day. I use large nylon grain bag for staining/squeezing the liquid fromt he grain.
4. Combine the 2 stripping runs and do a slower spirit run.
5. Make your cuts to taste and age on oak as long as you can keep your mitts off it.  in 3 months it starts getting really delicious and hard to leave alone.

Scaling:

If you don’t use a 15.5g keggle and still, scale this recipe by doing your mash at 2 lbs malt per gallon of water.  That’s a typical mash gravity, and you dont need to seperate the 2 water additions like above. I did that to fit a 15 gal cooker and 40 lb malt bill, convenient for those of us using kegs for cookers and stills. Also the mash water addition calculation is very easy at 2lbs malt/gallon...if your grain is 70F, then the strike water needs to be 156F to hit a mash temp of 148F for 2lbs/gal mash. Doesnt matter if you do 5 lbs, 20 or 200. If your grain is not 70F or you want to go higher or lower on the malt/water ratio use this calculator  http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash/

Yield:  

40 lbs (18kg) malt gives about 2.6 gallons (10l) 60% (avg) before cuts. Do your cuts to your taste preference. I get about 1.4 gallons (5.3l) 67%, after cuts. For $48 (US) 50 lb bag of wheat malt this works out conveniently to about 12 fifths of 80 proof at $3.34 per bottle. 

Very Important:

If you're new to distilling,  please read and study the fundamentals until you understand well whats going on at http://homedistiller.org/forum/ or  http://forum.moderndistiller.com/index.php

This blog is intended for personal interest and hobby only,  In NO WAY is this blog intended to provide recipe's for people to brew and sell without proper licensing.   Please visit the links just above for  friendly group of hobbyists who promote safe hobby level legislation, as has been done for homebrewing of beer. 

Enjoy, and cheers!

Wheat Whiskey:  Double distilled from 100% malted Wisconsin
Red Wheat. Aged on toasted French Limousin oak.
Warm you up like a little slice of heaven.