Gladfields Peat Smoked Malt

[RuddyCrazy]

It's your recipe.
So if it ain't smooth, you know who I'll call :laughing-rolling:

Well I have been called a few things in my life but NEVER been called a Ghost Buster :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

[WoodyD40]

Howdy Folks

I had an awesome day on Saturday running the low wines for a nice spirit run. :happy-partydance:
I collected the first 3 litres in 250ml jars as fore shots and heads, then I changed to 5 litre demijohns for collecting - used 3 of them before swapping back to just about any kind of glass i could find as i suspected I was not far off getting to tails.
That was a good call in the end - as about 1.5 litres later, I was certainly into tails.

Being confident with the quality of the 15 litres in demijohns, I watered all of that down and had exactly enough to fill my 2 x 10 litre new American oak barrels that I had tested with water over the previous 5 days. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

I then waited until this morning to start checking the heads and tails and doing the careful cuts of what was worth keeping. :-B
After careful deliberation, ended up keeping 1 liter of the last of the heads, and the first 1 litre of the start of the tails which I then combined. Watering down to 65% I have split that evenly into 2 jars and have put a small amount of 5 Star dominoes to age them.

In total - I have approx 23 litres of 65% abv heavy peat malt now on Oak, between the barrels and glass jars. I was hoping for slightly more than that - but I made a few rookie mistakes and learnt a lot during the process. I was harsh with my final cuts, and have only kept what I believe will give me quality product once aged. :music-deathmetal:

I have approx 3.5 ltires of heads/tails (feints) that i'll throw back into the next boiler run of the heavy peat grain.

As this thread of mine is all about the Gladfields Peat Smoked Malt - i'll keep adding to this thread as i go through the next 3 bags of grain I picked up last week friday. :happy-partydance:

[RobMichelle]

Nice one woody :handgestures-thumbupleft: so 23 ltrs of 65% how many bags of peat malt all up to obtain that volume ?

[WoodyD40]

Using Bryans method - i used ONE bag of gladfields malt

[WoodyD40]

I checked my 2 fermentations yesterday - and they are going so slow. Guess I better check the PH level.

[WoodyD40]

Yikes - my PH has crashed, I believe it to be PH3 :angry-banghead:

How much Bi_Carb do i need to add to a 60 litre ferment to bring it back to neutral ?

[RobMichelle]

Hi Woody, I just add a little stir and recheck

[WoodyD40]

Morning All

I have put 7 teaspoons in this morning (one at a time) and have finally got a slightly better reading on the PH. I'll let it sit for about an hour, and recheck. I suspect i'll need to add more.

[RobMichelle]

Morning woody
What stage is the ferment up to, as in almost done or had just started?
I’ve normally checked and adjusted ph before pitching yeast then leave, I did check once after 4 days and adjusted the ph and added some more yeast to no avail though then ran it.
When I do sugar wash’s which has been the last year until this all grain thing, I always had to adjust ph down, with the ag yesterday it was 5.3 so no adjustment needed any idea why that would be, same water ?

[WoodyD40]

Hi Rob

I started the fermentation 2 weeks ago - i've never checked PH levels, and have never had a problem until this batch.

So due to this ferment not going as hard as previous and i checked the SG reading expecting it to be close to finished and its barely half done, and with there being a few threads about PH levels going at the moment i thought maybe i should check :laughing-rolling:
So the PH is way down on what it should be, so i better do something about it, and give them an extra 2 weeks to be sure its all fermented out properly.

I never got back to check the PH again yesterday, but i have heaps of time today to check it multiple times until i'm happy that its back to being above 5.

[RobMichelle]

Hi Woody
How goes the ph and ferment?

[WoodyD40]

I thought its about time I fess up and let everyone know what's been going on.

After i quit my job at the end of February, I kind of lost interest a bit with the fermentations. It didn't help that the last batch of grain fermentations had a hug PH crash, and even after a couple of goes to bring the PH back up, it just wasn't working for me. :angry-banghead:

Last week I finally conceded that those two 60 litre fermentations could not be saved, so i tipped the wort down the drain, and tipped the grains into my compost bin in the back yard. :violin:

As i only had a borrowed 'mill' that was returned back to its owner (a member on this forum :handgestures-thumbupleft: ) I quickly milled the next 2 bags of heavy peated malted grain and have stored it safely into big white plastic buckets with sealed lids.

Rather than risking making whatever mistake I did last time, I have gone back to the simple WBAB wash to replenish my neutral spirits for gins. Both 60 litre fermenters seem to be going well (I bought a pool testing kit for water PH - and tested the water prior to commencement this time).

After i run these two fermentations through my still (probably easter Monday), I'll need to figure out my priorities if i cautiously go back to the whiskey grain fermentations again (most likely) or my son is starting to run low of Rum (he may need to wait :teasing-tease: )

[MarkChap]

I thought its about time I fess up and let everyone know what's been going on.
or my son is starting to run low of Rum (he may need to wait :teasing-tease: )

Bugger the Whiskey, make the boy some rum :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[RobMichelle]

Get back on the bike David don’t loose momentum buddy get thatgrain going lol
Im only just finishing running my last 23 ltr of peat smoke tonight, it seemed to stall so I left it, and whilst it was in the temperature box with 2x23 ltr ffv it came back to life lol now I’m not a religious man, but, aluliuh brother we are on again so whilst the young fella may want some rum you need ya peat smoke whiskey :obscene-drinkingdrunk: :obscene-drinkingdrunk: :-B

[WoodyD40]

A long awaited update.

Well - I have got a new job again (woohoo) so my time lounging around at home is over. (except for a few days sick leave this week) - damm head cold.

But anyhow, over the last couple of weekends i managed to finish the last of the Gladfields Peat smoked malt fermentations as stripping runs. In total i ended up with 45 litres of low wines, and by adding 10 litres of distilled water the still had a total of 55 litres at approx 40% abv.

I got everything set up on Tuesday evening - had my son help me as some of the low wines was in a 23 litre glass demi. A bit heavy for me to safely do on my own.

Wednesday morning I woke up at 5:20 and immediately turned the power on for the still. Full 3500 watts.
Once the boiler reached 83 degrees I turned off the 500w and 1000w elements, and just keep the 2000 watt element on.
2 hours later, at 7:20 i had my first collection jar with four shots - and kept collecting in 250ml jars for a total of 12 jars (3 litres)
I then swapped over to 5 litre demijohns, and collected at the rate of a full demijohn in 1.5 hours (for the first 2 demijohns)
The 4th demijohn, the flow rate slowed slightly and took 2 hours.
The ABV at the parrot varies, but stayed between 86 to 89 throughout.

Once the demijohns where full - I suspected I was getting very close to tails, so i swapped over to 1 litre glass jars and 2 litre SS measuring jugs.
I think I got lucky and nailed the cut off.
I initially collected about 500ml in the first glass jar and swapped over to the SS measuring jug. Initially I thought the glass jar smelled fine, until I came back after dinner and smelled it compared to the last of the 250ml collection jars.

In the end, I had the 4 demijohns, and after a smell test decided to keep the last 5 of the original 250ml jars for a total of 21.25 litres of product at approx 88% abv.
I watered down the product with distilled water to 60% abv for ageing in fresh American oak 10 litre barrels (x2), and will be donating some to my Electrician friend who wired up the 15 amp power outlet in my garage for the still. There is enough left over to top up the barrels for both myself and my friend.

This morning at breakfast, I did some quick maths.
If I only consider the ingredients, power and water - the final product diluted down to 40% the cost per litre works out to be between $11 and $12 for 45 litres estimated final product.
If I add my time for mashing the grain, doing the stripping runs then doing the final spirit run (if i value my time at $50 p/h) then the final product is closer to $88-$90 per litre.

Thank goodness this is a labour of love :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Because I'd not get rich doing this for a living. But I'm saving a lot of money by not visiting my local Dan Murphy's. :laughing-rolling:

Now onto some Rum fermentations :obscene-drinkingdrunk:

[WoodyD40]

Footnote:
I threw out the four shots, kept the heads and tails and will use them in my next grain whiskey runs.
I have 3 x 25 kg bags of Gladfields Distillers Malt which I'll run for a lighter style Whiskey.

I will need to do the McRum first, then do a few WBAB to put aside so I can keep my wife happy with Gin - and before summer comes along, hopefully I'll get the rest of the Grain Mash's done.
Well, at least that it the plan for now.

[TheRealMrMessy]

Definitely recommend for a lighter whiskey 60L batch, voyager atlas 9kg raw barley 4kg and winter wheat 2kg. Usual Decent whiskey yeast, I use AM1. Gotta split the batch for my 35L brewzilla... :angry-banghead:

Enzymes def increase the conversion.

Screenshot_20250717_204410_Brewfather.jpg

[RuddyCrazy]

eh messy the beauty of using barely malt no enzymes are needed at all, just heat your strike water to 74C dump in the crushed malt while giving it a good mixing to stop dough balls then wrap it up for an hour. Check with a refractometer and with the Gladfield Malt expect a SG well over 100 :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[TheRealMrMessy]

I hear you ruddy, and there’s enough diastatic power in the atlas without enzymes, but since we are going for booze not for mouthfeel and body etc. I push for all the conversion I can. The gluco step gets more bang for your grain buck.

Being fair, I really just chuck some alpha in because I’ve got lots more than I need and it’s got a use by date. :D