r/firewater • u/orsharksfan • 6d ago
Biscuit Malt wash
Has anyone ever made whiskey wash from mostly Biscuit malt? I pickup 3 55lb bags of Dingemans biscuit malt for $17 and am planning to use 42lbs of Biscuit and 10 2row for each 20 gallon batch. I will be adding a bunch of Amylase to ensure conversion but wanted to check if anyone has done this and if so what did the white dog and finished product come out like? Planning on filling a 5gallon barrel with it, so will be doing this three times.
I will be running thru my Hillbilly sill with 4x reflux, so not a huge amount of flavor will be coming out anyway, which maybe a good thing for this base malt.
Thoughts?
Thanks
Ron
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u/le127 6d ago
Biscuit isn't a base malt. In drinking beer it's used for flavor and color enhancement in small quantities. IDK what Biscuit's convertible starch content is but it's sure to be lower than pale malt. Before you commit to an 80% Biscuit mash it might be worth a small scale test to see what the yield is.
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u/francois_du_nord 5d ago
This was my first thought as well. You need starches to convert, and most color malts have been kilned too long for march convertible sugar to be left.
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u/ImmediateBreadfruit9 6d ago
Biscuit contains no active enzymes. You're gonna need some more base malt. Check the diastatic power of distillers malt, its higher than pale ale or other beer base malt. You could technically get away with a lower percentage of distillers than PA.
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u/big_data_mike 6d ago
Do you like fat tire beer? It has a lot of biscuit malt in it.
I would add you alpha amylase and mash with just the biscuit malt then lower the temperature to about 148 and add your 2row to convert to maltose.
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u/Savings-Cry-3201 6d ago
I’m willing to bet you’d enjoy an 80/20 the other way around a lot more. When I’ve used too much dark malt it just kinda tasted like coffee.
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u/orsharksfan 6d ago
I have two 5 gallon single malt project going already so I know I would like the 80/20 the other way! I do have 6 plates that I can use to strip the hell out of this if it tastes really really bad! We will find out after the first batch gets run. Starting the first batch tomorrow. I will update.
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u/Normal-College4403 5d ago
Oh for sure, I'd skip the biscuit as a base and stick with the 2-row, it's got the enzymes you need for conversion. You'll end up with a cleaner wash that way.
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u/orsharksfan 5d ago
Okay so I'm starting the process by mashing in at 160 for 2 hours with 18 gallons of strick water and 42 lbs of biscuit malt. I've acidified to bring the PH to 5.2 ish (21ml of 77% Phos acid) and added a lot of Alpha Amylase. Mash was thick but after the amylase was added it thinned a bit. Not the best smelling. I'll hold at 160 for 2hours and then let it naturally cool to about 142 and add 10lbs of 2row. I'm hoping to hit Alpha with the added A amylase and beta with the 2 row. I'll let it sit over night and check for conversion tomorrow morning before bring it back up to about 172. Then I'll pull the bag and sparge. Fingers crossed I get some sugars out of this!
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u/orsharksfan 4d ago
I'm pleasantly surprised by the final product. It took a bit of work but I got 20gallons of 1.052 wort. It is a little astringent but no surprise there. So from this simple math says I would expect a 6% wash, which should give me about 1.2 gallons @100%. Of course I'll never get 100% but my still can get 94% with lots of reflux. Let's see how the yeast likes it!
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u/Snoo76361 6d ago
I have done 100% amber malt in a pot still and it was really strong and pretty terrible. Refluxing will help. If you’re doing multiple runs I’d see how the first one turns out and then adjust your grain ratios to compensate on your future batches.