Make Easy Smooth "Irish Whiskey" With A Safety Net

today we're making an easy irish whiskey with malted barley unmalted barley and oats it's going to give you a taste of all grain brewing with a huge safety net so you can't screw it up and the best part is we're using simple basic home distilling equipment this video is sponsored by squarespace how's it going chases i hope you're having a kickass week i'm jesse and this is still it and this is the irish whiskey i've just finished making and you guys can make it as well now this is the second video in the t501 or the next step recipe uh series i guess we can call it now if you haven't watched the first one i would suggest going and doing so i'll link it up here and i'm going to put it in the description down below the reason being is that video is 40 minutes long it really goes into the detail of the process this video is going to be much more recipe based rather than process based the idea of this series is to allow new distillers who want to move past making sugar washes and using essences or maybe even doing something like the ujs sm which is great by the way but if you're a little bit wary about jumping straight to all grain washes these are the recipes for you so we're going to do an all-grain wash you're going to learn how to do it it's not that scary but we have a huge safety net of using sugar as well so even if you completely screw the all-grain wash up you've still got the flavor from it and it's still going to ferment you're going to be able to distill it and get a tasty product because we've got the sugar as well we are going to be using the t500 and in this video we're going to use the alembic dome the last video i did linked in the description down below used the reflux column and you can do that for this recipe as well and of course obviously you don't need to use a steel spirits product anything even remotely like this is going to get the job done i think that's all i need to tell you should we just get stuck in i think we should get stuck in let's talk about the uh the grist a grist is just a fancy word for the stuff we put into a mash our ingredients i guess you could call it and these three things here are our ingredients for this irish whiskey the first one we're going to talk about is the baseball this is the backbone of any mash well most mashes anyway and this stuff has the enzymes that are going to convert the starches and all of this into sugar for our yeast to eat if this is starting to freak you out already don't stress about it i'm not going to talk about the uh the ideas behind this so much this is a recipe video check this video out here which i've just put out that goes into depth on this kind of thing a whole lot more anyway this is gladfield ale malt it's a base malt and it's a pale ale malt so you can substitute it out for a bunch of different things uh all of the quantities in metric and imperial are going to be down in the description down below along with some substitute sort of things that you can switch stuff like this out for cool we're going to use four kilos of this stuff next up this is unmalted barley it is barley that has not been through the malting process funnily enough and this is the magic stuff that makes irish whiskey whiskey in my opinion however it is very important for this recipe that we don't use raw barley we need barley that has already been cooked for us there are different names that people have put on this kind of thing this is steam flecked barley and i actually bought this from an animal feed store funnily enough they may also call it steam rolled hot rolled steamed flaked steamed flecked ah man what else uh torrified there's a bunch of different names for at the end of the day you just want barley that's already been gelatinized once again check that out a video out i was telling you about all right anyway moving on oats i just spilled oats all over the place uh but we do need oats as well oh sorry guys we're using three kilos of the steamed rolled barley we need these oats to be cooked as well you can buy the stuff from the supermarket it is literally the stuff you make porridge out of if you're into that for breakfast the stuff that turns into porridge really really quickly you don't have to boil it for ages these are the oats that we want for this recipe quick oats easy oats they normally got names like that we're using 750 grams of oats this is the thing that gives irish whiskey the irish flavor in my opinion so this is going to contribute to that soft mellow crumpets and butter and honey or shortbread or for the americans out there biscuits with butter and honey on it this is the thing that makes that happen that's why we're including it the oats uh yes you can completely find traditional irish whiskies with oats in it that is totally a normal thing and this is going to help us really dial that up a little bit more because we're using so much sugar in this recipe obviously we can't call this an irish whiskey i'm not an island and i'm adding sugar to it but that sugar is essentially robbing us of flavor and more importantly in my opinion mouth feel this is going to help combat that a little bit now a reminder guys all of that stuff needs to be crushed if it's not crushed or milled as we like to call it it's not going to do much your efficiency in the mash is going to be terrible not that it matters too much but you can either mash it with one of those things a barley mill or if you're buying it from a homebrew store they will almost certainly mill it for you now the next step guys we are going to need our t500 still but we do not need whoops my gasket's coming off we do not need the top part what we're going to do is fill this bad boy up with 16 liters that's i don't know this much whatever that is in freedom units we're going to fill it up with 16 liters of water and start this thing warming up our goal here is we want all of the grain nicely mixed into the water and as soon as it's all mixed in we want it to be at 64 degrees celsius that in fahrenheit the easiest way to do this is with a strike water calculator there is one on chasethecraft.com link in the description down below as well because we're all doing the same recipe the only difference the only variable between what i'm doing here and what you're doing at your place will be the ambient temperature so please guys do use that calculator to make sure you get the right temperature to start with the number that that calculator spits out is the temperature that you want the water to get to right before you start adding in your malt when you start getting close to that strike water temperature you can get your brew in a bag bag ready now guys a quick warning here if you're going to be using this pot to change temperatures and if you follow this exactly you will please make sure that you're keeping that bag away from the bottom of the pot for shadowing once the strike water gets the temperature the one from the the calculator that you got start mixing your grains in and make sure that the still is turned off at this point here's the thing guys go slow a little bit of grain mix it up a little bit more grain mix it up if you don't do this if you go too fast or you don't mix enough you can get dough balls once everything's all mixed back in find an impromptu lid for your still insulate it all up and we're going to let this sit for 45 minutes you know what guys with 45 minutes you could legitimately be well on your way to creating a really cool website with today's sponsor squarespace i built this website for my dad i know it's ugly get over it i built it like 10 years ago give me a break anyway he just got in touch with me and he's asked me to update a few things about the website the only thing i can remember about this website is that i kind of hand coded it somehow just to update something simple it's probably going to take me three hours just to work that out and then another couple hours to actually change the thing 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get 10 off once that 45 minutes is almost up get your jug fill it up and get it boiling if you live in a civilized country and have an electric kettle otherwise use the stove or the microwave or whatever else you want to do you're aiming for two to four liters of almost boiling water we're going to need that in a second now pop the top off your kettle or your still and you're going to notice a few things when you give it a stir number one is that is starting to cool down a little bit it's probably dropped one two degrees celsius depending on how well you insulated it number two you'll notice that when you give it a stir it's going to be a whole lot thinner that's a good thing it means the enzymes are doing their job and because the enzymes are doing their job when you stick your finger in it and have a taste it's going to taste sweet not sweet like syrup or candy it's not going to be that sweet so don't be disappointed if you're at that point but sweet like cereal with sugar on it rather than just straight cereal which is pretty much what we started with at the beginning right all right so give that thing a good stir make sure you give the bag a lift so it's not touching the bottom once again for shadowing but turn the element on and keep on stirring and at this point you can add that hot water out of the kettle in there as well you should have a little bit of head space left and that's going to help raise the temperature because the stuff that we're working with these grains are not specifically modified the unmalted barley and the oats they're not specifically molted for brewing process well they might need a little bit more time and we're going to give them a little bit more heat to make sure just to make sure so we're gonna heat this thing up to 67 degrees with the element in the boiling water that's going to help remember guys any time the element is on make sure you're stirring okay once you hit the 67 degree mark cover it back up again insulate it again and leave it for another 45 minutes that 45 minutes is the perfect time to get our safety net sorted and if you remember at the beginning in the intro or if you did the last t501 recipe that safety net you will know is good old-fashioned table sugar here's the deal guys we're going to be making an inverted sugar does it really make a difference i can't prove it personally i think it does make a small difference i think it helps slightly with that odd mouth feel that piercing-ness that you get from uh using table sugar and stuff like this so we're gonna have four liters of hot water add to it six kilograms for those of you that are heathens this much i'm joking guys i love you honest and two teaspoons of cream of tartar give it a good mixing up and we're going to simmer that for 20 minutes when the sugar has been simmering for 20 minutes you can dump that into your fermenter now we're going to be aiming for about 60 liters total volume here so i would suggest having one of two things number one is have a fermenter that's at least probably 80 liters in total volume so it doesn't just bubble over when it gets to fermenting or two have perhaps three 30 liter fermenters you know the buckets that are really popular at home brew stores three of those will probably do you good 20 liters in each obviously if you're doing it with the three split the sugar syrup evenly between the three fermenters and it should be right about this point in time where your 45 minutes is running out on the mash timer so once again pop the lid give it a stir for good luck and you can hoist your bag up ideally ideally you've put your mash mesh ton now still underneath something that's dirty enough to lift it with a rope because if you haven't it might be a little bit difficult it's doable but difficult and if you didn't take my advice like me you may find that you have burnt the bottom of your bag that is literally because these bags are made out of nylon i think nylon right someone tell me if i'm wrong nylon right i hope maybe i almost redid this because i didn't want people to freak out and stress about this and then i realized that actually it's a really good teaching opportunity yeah me screwing up is going to help you from screwing up because number one you can use some pretty standard everyday items to work kind of like a false bottom put something that is obviously food safe and used to being hot uh cooking utensils mostly in the bottom of the still to keep the bag up off the bottom colanders work well perhaps a pot lid you get the idea just make sure that there's nothing on there that's going to melt and make sure that it's not going to trap sugary liquid on the element and it won't stir it up that's going to help you a whole lot but if you do find yourself in the situation that i'm in don't stress about it it's not a big deal hoist the bag up let it drip for about 15 minutes until it slows right down switch it out with a different pot so you can tip your big mash into your fermenter and pop another pot underneath it to catch the excess drips coming off the bag those that are a little bit more advanced amongst you might be asking either about squeezing the bag or about doing a sparge if you want to do either of those things please by all means go ahead for those of you that don't know what i'm talking about it don't stress about it let the bag drip you're going to be fine if you guys do get to this point and you do have the problem where your bag is split or your grains are all just mixed in or whatever or you never use the bag in the first place and you mash without a bag don't stress about it put all of it into the fermenter it's going to be fine we'll deal with it later at this point in time we're going to have roughly roughly about 20 liters of rather hot liquid and very very sugary liquid in our fermenter so here's the deal team we're going to add water to it with two goals in mind number one is to get to right around i say around because it doesn't matter if you miss this by a liter or so but 60 liters in total number two is that we're going to be aiming for a specific temperature which is going to be 26 degrees celsius that once again here you go that is a whole lot more important so if you get 255 liters and it's still hot add cold water if you get to 55 liters and you're down to 18 degrees start putting hot water in i you get you guys get the idea right i'm yeah you understand all right so now you've got 60 liters of wash at 26 degrees or there about temperature and what i want you to do is use your hydrometer to take a gravity reading your gravity is going to be between 1060 and 1070 and that is going to hit us right in the eight percent range when this ferments out don't stress too much if you're a little bit either side of it but i just want you to make sure that you're in that 1060 to 1070 range or pretty close to it and i want you to take a note of exactly what that hydrometer is telling you at the beginning before we put your yeast what you're going to want to do now is give it a really really good thrashing to oxygenator as much as possible and honestly guys these little guys here are absolute wonders on the end of electric drill yeast our secret weapon we need a secret weapon because we're using a safety net now i should say actually guys if you wanted to you could just triple the mash that we made and not use the safety net at all as well as acting as our safety net unfortunately unfortunately it's going to do a couple of bad things number one is it's going to kind of dilute the flavor a little bit we're going to have more alcohol but the same amount of grain and number two is it's going to bump the mouth fuel in the wrong direction it's going to get thin it's going to get a little bit piercing we don't want that we're using the oats the higher percentage of oats to try and combat the mouthfeel and the yeast is our little secret weapon to try and combat the loss and flavor we're going to be using so4 now this stuff is the stuff that the english make their english soft fruity ales with we're going to do something kind of crazy with it we're going to grossly under pitch the stuff we're going to use two packets of this stuff and 60 liters out of quite high gravity and number two we're going to ferment it quite warm so we're going to ferment it at 26 degrees celsius no hydrating nothing sprinkle the stuff on top and we're good to roll so what we've done is really stress this yeast out and the attempt to make it throw a whole lot a whole lot of esters those fruity esters out to bump up the the fruity sort of pleasant flavors that i associate with irish whiskey the downside is that this specific yeast and treating it this way may mean that we don't get a completely dry fermentation so what i'm suggesting you do is it about day four day five when things start to slow down potentially uh you can dump in a whole bunch of baker's yeast if you want to or you can use something a little bit more fancy a nice owl yeast or even a rum yeast to be honest the flavor contribution from this yeast is not going to be that much because things are already humming there's almost no sugar left it's just there to dry things out get as much sugar fermented as we can and i used 60 grams of baker's yeast and got down to 1.003 once your fermentation is finished uh it's time to start getting your liquid into the still now here's the thing guys if you didn't rip your bag and you don't have grain in it you can siphon that stuff out of fermenter if you want to or just scoop it out with a bucket straight into the still if you did get grain into the fermentation that's no problem at all one of these guys and a little bit of patience as my little lockdown assistant is now demonstrating uh you can get it in here no problems and you know it's gonna take a little bit longer it'll be just fine don't stress about it another thing guys do not and i mean do not do not do it don't fill it past about 20 liters now that is less much less than what this thing says the volume where it says max don't fill it anywhere near that uh the reason is that these things are generally used with sugar washers uh and all grain wash is so much more likely to boil all the way over and puke you don't want to do it in fact like my other assistant is now showing you you may even want to throw a couple of knobs of butter in there to help keep that foam down all right guys once you're full like i said earlier i am going to be using this bad boy here the alembic dome to distill if you don't have the dome that is fine don't stress out watch the other video that i linked at the very beginning of the video it's down in the description below the other t501 recipe and it's going to show you how to do this with the column and d tune it and basically turn it into a pot still forget about this thing forget about it guys trust me so many new distillers get hung up on this and it doesn't help you at all the only thing it does the only thing literally the only thing it does with a pot still is tell you how far through the run you are forget about it keep running the still until the stuff dripping off the spout right here gets down to at least 20 go down to 20 coming off the spout um if you can and you've got time and you're not stressing out about it go down to ten percent that's going to make things easier later on that is our first stripping run done we need to do two more all you need to do to do those is empty the crap in here we don't need it anymore ditch it fill it up again and do the same thing we're going to collect the low wines which is the stuff coming off the stripping runs and we're going to add them all back together give the pot a clean out and you'll see you'll see this line of right about here on the still and the uh the b-roll i'm putting on screen now that's how far up the uh the stuff boiled so from like here to here that's how much foam built up yeah do you see what i mean guys very close give the still a quick wash down to get all the goop out of it fill it back up with the low lines and we're ready to distill again now we're ready for our spirit run and yes i am only going to double distill this and no irish whiskey does not have to be triple distilled look look at this look at what's on screen right now trust me guys yes a lot of irish whiskey is triple distilled no we don't have to and because we're using our crutch because we're using our safety net i would suggest that you don't want to triple distill if you want to and you want to give it a go that's that's fine by all means go right ahead once the still is up to temperature for the spirit run ditch the first 200 mils you don't want to keep that stuff use it for fire lighter or cleaning windows or flushing down the toilet you don't want to drink the stuff next up is going to come the heads i would suggest collecting about a liter and then starting to taste just with your finger the stuff that's coming off the still you're looking for the piercing um tingly prickly nail polish remover all of that stuff you're looking for that to slowly fade out when it fades out you can switch over into hearts now for me i did that at 200 mils and then another 1.6 liters that's roughly where you're going to be making the cut to hearts but it might be different for you so do it by taste if you're not used to this process if you're not used to making cuts i would 100 recommend taking small jars 250 to 500 ml jars collect everything into jars lay them out in order in a big long line and then once you're finished go down the line and taste them if you want to know more about these videos to to help you with it just know that it's a thing and it will help you out i decided to cut over two tails at 55 55 abv coming off the spout is the point where i decided to cut the tails i will often go much lower than that but because this is a pretty uh clean style of whiskey i didn't want to go down deep 55 percent for me is where it just started to turn the whole the corner and where i first started getting the hint of that wet dog stuff cut it straight out but once again i suggest you do this by taste so now you can collect up all of your hearts take a reading with an alchemy to see the abv it's at and proof it down now i would suggest using a proofing calculator there's one on chasercraft.com that you can use and i would suggest you proof this down to 57 for aging before we get on to the last part of this video talking about aging the spirit and what it's hopefully going to turn into i need to give the patreons a huge huge thank you thank you so much guys i really do appreciate it this is going to be a bonus video an extra video and that's thanks to you guys thanks to patreons for bringing us an extra video this week cheers guys which brings me to the point that i'm at now this is the spirit that i have ready proved to 57 ready to receive wood aren't we all but what i haven't told you is that i have taken a sample and force aged it the reason i do it is not to make this taste delicious the reason is to get an idea of what's going to happen i've used second use oak and i would suggest you do the same because that is going to give this lovely golden color rather than a more red bourbon color i think it suits whiskey irish whiskey more and it's also going to give a better irish whiskey flavor profile soft delicate more honey sweetness less of the like deep caramel sort of bourbony berry barrel candy flavors i think that suits so let me tell you what's going on here now it's soft it's buttery it has that side of it wrapped up beautifully what it doesn't have yet is the green apple and the honey that i've really come to expect from a lot of irish whiskies that i am guessing is gonna have to come with a little bit of age i will continue to use second use oak this is oak that i've used to basically make a bourbon style whiskey and i'm going to be using oak to age this that is how much i'm putting in this one and this one i'm going to age for four months which for me for this kind of product is a short amount of time this is going to need more time to age than the last whiskey we made in this style because it isn't so big it's not so bold it's relying more on prettiness and in this one i'm actually going to put a little bit more oak than this even though it's a smaller volume an idea being that i'm hoping that i can test this in two months and probably hopefully have something resembling a result after tasting this and making assumptions of what i think is going to happen in two months if two months is about as long and patient as you can be you may you may want to think about dosing this just a wee bit just a wee bit with a little bit of honey almost season the spirit a little bit clean it up a little bit give it a little bit more of that wood sugar presence a little bit earlier than it really has right to have and just take the take the rough edge off the back end of it just a little bit quicker just an idea it's entirely up to you do i think this is going to make something that represents an irish whiskey well i really do i really and truly do smelling and tasting this i am getting half the three quarts of that irish experience i'm waiting on some green apple a little bit of that kind of honey glazed danishy kind of pastry thing and just a little bit of a rounding of the rough new spirit once that comes in and i'm almost certain that'll come in at about four to six months i think this is going to be really tasty and we've done it in a way that is easy and approachable to the new distiller is it going to be as good as an all-grain spirit no of course not but that's where these things go so i hope this gives people out there that are considering taking the leap into all grand spirits a nudge a little bit of confidence to just give something a go or if you've been making spirits for a while and you want to give it a go as well for whatever reason tickles your fancy by all means get stuck in guys and let me know in the comments section once you start getting results tell us how it works for you and maybe we can adjust the recipe anyway team if you like the video please please give it a thumbs up that helps me out so much if you haven't subscribed yet please give the subscribe button in the bottom right corner a click and and i'll catch you next time guys keep on chasing the craft see ya

Channel: Still It

Views: 150,788

Keywords: irish whiskey, irish whisky, irish, whiskey, distilling, home made, home distilling, next step, t500, t501, safety net, Jesse, Still it, chase the craft, ctc

Id: Lr91G6T6zaE

Length: 26min 24sec (1584 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 31 2021