My favorite alcoholic drink is cognac. I also drink whiskey, but only occasionally. And my business partner is very fond of whiskey. Since I bought myself a distillation column for obtaining pure alcohol of 96,5 degrees, which can also work in distillation mode, he asked me to make whiskey.
The cost of a good whiskey goes through the roof, and this leads to the fact that you can afford it only 1-2 times a month. It was assumed that his whiskey would be much cheaper.
The story was sent by blog subscriber Ivan M.
Why did I agree to help him
First, he is still my partner. We have been working together for a long time.
Secondly, I myself was wondering what kind of whiskey would taste like if you make it yourself. I don’t like the smell of whiskey.
Braga, infused with grain, smells absolutely disgusting, in my opinion, and, of course, this smell remains in the final product, because whiskey is not made from pure alcohol, but from a distillate.
A distillation column can be used to obtain a distillate. I found barrels for aging whiskey in Taganrog from a famous cooper.
That’s why I agreed to make whiskey on the condition that all the “dirty” processes, such as the preparation of mash, would be handled by a partner. And then I’ll just drink the final product. And yes, a barrel of distillate will be infused in his apartment.
whiskey ingredients
Whiskey is theoretically made from malt. Malt is a germinated grain that has been dried and ground. This is done in order to release complex sugars in the grain so that the yeast can feed on this sugar when aging the mash.
If you use unsprouted grains, then the yeast will be able to take up very little sugar, since whole grains contain sugars in the form of starch.
But even this technology is not enough, and special enzymes are introduced into the mash, which continue to break down starch to simpler sugars.
When infusing grain mash, different grains can be used:
- wheat;
- corn;
- barley;
- mixtures of different varieties.
To obtain mash, you also need special wine yeast.
It is difficult to talk about the cost of grain, because when buying it in bags, it costs 5 rubles per kilogram. Enzymes cost about 500 rubles, and wine yeast – 300 rubles.
In general, nothing more can be added.
Whiskey making process
That “dirty” work, which I wrote about above, consists of several stages:
- seed germination;
- grinding;
- drying;
- fermentation with special enzymes;
- heating and boiling;
- infusion
Container with infused mash
The following processes are already associated with the distillation of mash:
- strained the mash through gauze;
Straining the mash
- distillation column set to distillation mode;
Column in distillation mode
- heated to a temperature of 80 degrees, at which distillate began to flow out of the refrigerator;
- brought the heating to a temperature of 99 degrees, above which almost only water begins to enter the distillate;
- flushed the column tank, refilled the distillate and started heating again;
- when the first drops of distillate appeared, he took 200 ml into a separate container – these are the so-called “heads”, into which most of the methyl alcohols go, since they have a boiling point 5-8 degrees lower than ethyl alcohols (this liquid can be used to ignite braziers);
- then took the distillate up to 95 degrees;
- the rest up to 99 degrees – “tails” – I usually use in the following distillations, since they still contain a lot of ethyl alcohol. Many winemakers dump their tailings down the drain.
Next is the process of infusion in specially prepared oak barrels for 3-6 months.
Result
The cost of whiskey turned out to be around 600 rubles per liter. A distillation column costs around 20 rubles. Oak barrels 000 for a 7-liter barrel.
The taste of whiskey is no worse than the Red Label (Red Label, 1200 rubles) of the minimum aging period. In the future, my partner and I will try to add various additives to whiskey during blending to improve the taste.
What would you advise if you understand this?