Distilling How To!

To make a Grain Wort or Mash for Whiskey:

1. Heat 8.5 – 9 pounds of cracked/crushed malted barley with 5 gallons of water to 146-149°F, and hold there for 1-1.5 hours in order to convert your starches to sugar.

2. Heat to 165-167°F, then strain off and keep liquid, using 8 ounces (1 Cup) of hot water to rinse the grains.

3. Cool the unfermented brew (called wort) to below 86°F (should have an initial specific gravity of 1.050).

4. Add hydrated yeast & leave to ferment.

OR

You can also do a dried or liquid malt-extract brew (like making beer kits), steeping 2 – 4 Pounds of malted barley , cracked corn or other grains to add flavor.

Only use a grain mash if you're specifically after a whiskey/bourbon. If making a vodka, it is cheaper to use cane sugar.

You need to use either malt or enzymes to convert the starch into sugar so that the yeast can use it.

Only use malted barley if you are after flavor (making a bourbon or whiskey), or if for some reason they are really cheap for you to obtain.

Generally, a reflux still will strip out all the flavors and leave a neutral spirit. But, you can actually use a reflux still to make flavored spirits such as whiskey, provided you detune them a little, and then carefully pay attention to how you make the cut. Details are given by Ian Smiley in his book Making Pure Corn Whiskey .

Helpful Hint: Put Malted Barley (Grains) in a large nylon straining bag making it easier to remove the grains after fermentation. Lift the Grain filled bag out of the mash when the grains are all spent. This also makes them easier to rinse with no need for strainers.

Even more Helpful Hint:

Do not use an internal heating element when you are planning to distill a grain wort. You get too many solids / complex sugars remaining that WILL burn onto the element. The whiskey will stink, and the burnt flavor can't be removed. It is also very difficult to clean the element & remove all the char.

The one thing all the old time moonshiners talk about is the skill needed to "fire a still without scorchin' the whiskey". Jack of Making Pure Corn Whiskey has a theory that "everyone should have 2 stills: one column equipped, run on heating elements (for sugar spirit), and one stovetop potstill (for whiskey and rum mashes)".

The following information outlines the differences between Scotch whiskey, Irish and American Whiskeys as taken from The Macallan .

Scotch whiskey:

It is now generally agreed that there are six regions and these are based on taste as well as geographical location. Lowlands, Highlands, Speyside, Campbeltown, Islay, Islands. The distillate is 75% abv, which is diluted to 63.4% abv and stored in oak casks (average is a 250 litre hogshead). Depending on casks used, the spirit picks up color and flavor. Casks that held bourbon, sherry and port are reused.

Irish whiskey:

Irish whiskey differs from Scotch Whiskey in that it is usually distilled 3 times. The malting process is also different as the Irish use sprouted barley dried in a closed kiln which is then mixed with unmalted barley before being ground into a grist. This can be said to account for the lightness of Irish whiskey and its 'non peaty' taste compared to Scotch.

American Whiskey:

North American whiskies are all-grain spirits that have been produced from a mash that usually mixes together corn, rye, wheat, barley and other grains in different proportions, the resulting distillate then generally aged in wooden barrels. These barrels may be new or used, and charred or uncharred on the inside, depending on the type of whiskey being made. The U.S. government requires that all whiskies have to be made from a grain mash and be distilled at 90%abv or less. The whiskey has to be reduced to no more than 62.5%abv before being aged in new oak barrels American White Oak and then be bottled at no more than 40% abv.

Why go to the bother of using grains? Why do you need the malt present?

Malted Grains

Are grains that are sprouted and then have the growth stopped. This process naturally produces the enzymes necessary to convert starch to sugars. The enzymes are called amylase. You can also get enzymes from a supplier and add them.

For an extremely over-simplified botany lesson: Plants exist to survive and reproduce. They are only tasty to us by coincidence. A kernel of grain needs to be mostly a sugar form in order to grow larger than a sprout. The kernel is meant to supply the necessary food so that it can grow. But sugar is prone to spoilage and to rapid fermentation from natural yeasts and from insects. So the food is stored as starch for safekeeping. When needed, the kernel produces enzymes to convert that starch to sugar. You add malted grain to mashed grains to convert the starches in the entire bunch to sugar. Mashing is the process of heating grain to the point where the starches are released from the solid kernel. When referred to just the brewing process this is referred to as All-Grain brewing .

The reason to ferment grain is to get the flavor from the grains and save it in your beverage. The cut off points when distilling determine how much flavor or odor is included in your beverage. Too much makes it a nasty sip. Just enough makes it pleasant. Not enough makes it weak and watery.

You need to use grains to make a traditional whiskey recipe. Otherwise you are making a clear vodka and then adding flavoring syrups to flavor it enough to call it whiskey.

The payoff for the effort that is involved is the satisfaction of knowing that you have accomplished something difficult, and did it with a certain amount of skill. You have earned your bragging rights-- the proof is in the cup.

Using Malt Extract:

Unhopped or Plain Malt Eextract makes great whiskey, never boil the extract just stir it into warm water. Boiling can carmelize the malt extract (which has already been boiled once) making more non-fermentable sugars. Obtain the lightest malt non-pasturised extract possible for the best results. Mixed extract (50% wheat 50% malt) with or with out corn sugar, produce flavorful products which are greatly inhanced by yeast strains.

A good whiskey can be made out of unhopped liquid malt extract using 12 pounds of pale malt syrup boiled for 10 minutes in 5 gallons of water and was fermented with a dry ale yeast with a high alcohol tolerance. Distill this in a 5 gallon pot still equipped with a one liter mason jar as a "thumper". Then distill out to 80% alcohol, diluted down to 63%, aged in charred American oak with a splash of cream sherry. Then when it is ready, cut to 50% and bottle. The only problem with this mash is that it likes to foam A LOT in the boiler. You can use an Anti-Foaming agent to eliminate this problem.

Helpful Hint:

If you are planning on using a malt extract, make sure that it doesn't contain any hops! They will do serious bad things to the flavor, and basically ruin any chance you had making a half-decent product.

Recipes:

•Bourbon Whiskey - 6 parts Corn, 2 parts Rye, 2 parts Barley. Only malt the barley, but grist all the grains and proceed.

•Pure Rye Whiskey - either only Rye (malted, gristed etc), or 9 parts Rye (not malted) and 1 part malted Barley.

•Irish Whiskey - 10 parts malted Barley, 7 parts fresh barley grain, 1 part fresh Oats, 1 part fresh Rye, 1 part fresh Wheat. Grist & proceed.

•Gin - 16 parts Corn grain, 3 parts malt, 1 part Rye

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