Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Welcome to the forum mate!
Most use a grain mill that crushes the grain... having said that, a lot of homebrew shops that sell grains also have the ability to mill them for you.
In regards to the caramalt... i dont live near a homebrew shop so i have got tins of malt extract from the supermarket before, might not be exactly the same but would still do the job. Have never used powdered malt extract before though.

To make one of those liquid malt extract tins takes a ridiculus amount grain. Random number but like 5kg to get same flavour profile and thats only if you do a grain mash and convert it to sugar...

awesome, I didn't realize you could buy it from the local supermarket,
so replace the caramalt with malt extract (woolies have 1kg tins)

and as for the pilsner malt, get it milled at the HBS, they have a few different varieties, I'm guessing it doesn't matter which one?

sweet starting to feel confident about this, THANK YOU

Yep thats what ive done!
Different malts will give you different flavour profiles... best to start with a common base malt for a start and then try experimenting with different malts from there... wouldn't go too crazy to start with though.

Coles malt extract is a base malt caramalt is a specialty. While you can ferment coles malt extract and make whiskey. It wont be "mcwhiskey"...

This is what i can get at woolies... as bluc said, wont be the same as caramalt but will fill the gap if your stuck.

OK so is it worth mail ordering caramalt or should I just run with the coles/woolies malt extract?
just when I thought I had all questions answered lol

Perhaps you could just add some caramel syrup, or caramelise the sugar?

RC Al wrote:Perhaps you could just add some caramel syrup, or caramelise the sugar?

along with the malt extract from coles/ woolies?
would this work?

no idea :) it was more a question for the more experienced guys
Hell melt down some jeresy caramel lollies for that matter, it all about the flavour? :obscene-drinkingdrunk:

Mossimo wrote:ok, so , once again might sound stupid, but how do you crush the grains? or do you buy them like that?

are any of the malt powders I linked above the correct ones to use?

As Bluc said, you could substitute LME, but if you have the grain already or can get it from your HBS crushed great, if not they can hook you up with a mill.
If you have time, order the mill online, 2 roller will do, some use 3 rollers, but I don’t know about them then run your grain thru it...

There is a mill called a ‘Corona Mill’ which I guess is different but will also crack your grain.

ok, so I think I now have enough information to royally stuff this up lol,
nah thanks for your help guys, couple of little questions answered have opened up my eyes to how to make this recipe.... Monday ill be going to go buy what I need and gice it a go...
hopefully all will be good

Don’t get too stressed with this recipe, I reckon almost any good quality malt extract will work if you’re stuck. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

ok, just got home from shopping!
we have malt
we have malt extract

we have the things required to do this.... guess what I'm doing tonight.

one quick question, I know the grain is there for the flavor and we don't mash it in this recipe, but I was just wondering what the difference would be if the grain was mashed,
just to clarify, im following the recipe, just curious

Better flavour and a tiny bump in abv..

ok, its all in the fermenter.... now the wait :happy-partydance:

Professor Green wrote:You've not really got much to lose so you could do your spirit run and hope the bitterness subsides with time on oak. Otherwise you could try running it through a reflux still as neutral.

I did the spirit run, very intense flavour and a bit of bitterness in the hearts and a very nice flavour in early tails. I will see what I get when blending it.
Now I am busy stripping 4 x 27L washes made with the prscribed ingredients, got 4 tins of Caramalt. Nearly same with the first one, a bit of bitterness but it smells great. I will see what I get from the spirit run.
The detuned T500 is very slow and to top it up it is a DIY and the column is 64cm long and I hear drops of condensed vapour from the column wallss dripping in the boiler, no reflux coil and no packing. I am contemplating to make a bubbler but difficult to chose between 3" and 4". And all this because of the Mac Whisky recipe.

I am at the 3rd 27L stripping run. Hope to finish all 4 by tomorrow.
How much hearts do you get from the 27L wash in the spirit run?

lots of variables
eg 27l @10% =2.7l, loose half for cuts (roughly) 1.35@100% = 3.24l @40%
eg 27l @8% =2.16l, loose half for cuts (roughly) 1.08@100% = 2.6l @40%
Plated columns compress the heads n tails better, so you would get a slightly higher % of hearts

Thanks RC Al.
I have 16L of low wines from 3x 27L MacWhisky washes. Will it be a bad idea to do another stripping run from the 16l and finally get the spirit run with cuts?
The Irish trple distill their whishy. It is the first time I distill whisky washes and I do not know how it shoul taste like when fresh. In my opinion it is too flavoured. I have a lot of experience in fruit brandies.
I read a lot of posts and I have seen a lot of people collect the hearts from 80% to 60% alcohol content this only whwn doing the stripping run and then thespirit run. How consistent are the results? I suppose you get a lot of variations to the rule.