To date, the recipes for which whiskey is prepared, a great many, everything here depends on the manufacturer.
Therefore, making whiskey at home, you should not worry about the fact that you can make a mistake with the taste.
This article will be devoted to recipes for which you can make whiskey at home with a taste as close as possible to the original.
Whiskey at Home - General Principles
The most famous producing countries are Ireland and Scotland. The technology of production of this alcoholic beverage in these countries varies significantly. For example, the Scots produce this alcoholic drink with a sharper taste. According to technology, peat is used as fuel in Scotland during the process of drying malt, which gives whiskey a light smoky flavor. As for Ireland, they do not use peat during the drying of malt, and the distillation process is done 3 times, which gives their whiskey a soft taste.
Extract of the drink takes place in oak barrels. In general, the principle of making whiskey is very similar to moonshine, therefore, despite the best efforts of manufacturers, it is impossible to completely remove the taste of fusel oils from the drink, even long-term aging does not help. Therefore, in the manufacture of whiskey at home as a basis you need to take it moonshine.
Since the recipe of the drink, which was brought to Scotland by monks who arrived from Arab countries, who in turn took it from the Crusaders, did not need serious equipment, making whiskey at home is a real task.
Barley Malt
Barley malt is one of the most important components in the production of most strong alcoholic beverages, including whiskey. You can buy it in specialized online stores (the average cost is $ 2-3 per 1 kg), or in large food markets in places where cereals are sold, there malt will cost a bit less. In addition, barley malt can be made at home, but for this you need to wait at least 2-3 weeks for the grains to sprout, although the procedure itself is not so complicated. For the manufacture of homemade whiskey will need 2 kg of malt per 8 liters of drink, the malt at the same time must be dry and finely shredded.
Oak bark or wood chips
With regards to oak bark, for the manufacture of whiskey does not need a bit, it is enough that it could cover the bottom of a jar or other vessel in which the drink will be drawn. By the way, instead of oak bark, you can also use thin oak boards. Before lowering to the bottom, the bark or plank is recommended to burn, it will give the drink a pleasant smoky flavor, although this is hardly an alternative to peat.
But it would be better to use wood chips instead of bark. You need to cook it like this:
- we take oak logs and crush it into chips;
- chips are poured with water and infused over the course of the day; water must be periodically changed;
- add soda (1 tablespoon per 5 liters of water). In the solution with soda should be kept for 6 hours.
- Drain soda solution and wash the chips with clean water;
- Steam the chips on an ordinary sieve for two hours over steam.
Manufacturing technology of whiskey:
1) Barley grains are soaked and germinated for several days before becoming malt;
2) Malt is dried in an oven at a moderate temperature;
3) after drying, the malt is crushed to grain sizes;
4) then the detailed malt is mixed with hot water and kept for a certain time;
5) the liquid, which turned out as a result, is called wort. It is separated from the detailed malt, cooled and poured into fermentation containers;
6) add yeast to the wort and leave them for a couple of days to ferment;
7) the wort is transformed into the mash and it is poured into a cube for distillation;
8) after the first distillation in an ordinary cube, the mash turns into raw alcohol, after the re-rutting the “head” and “tail” parts of the distillate should be separated;
9) the distillate obtained as a result of double distillation is poured into an oak barrel, so that it finally matured. The fastest and easiest option - insisting vodka or moonshine for a couple of weeks. This option is the easiest, however, you are unlikely to receive moral satisfaction from such a drink as from a noble whiskey.
Therefore, if you want to eventually get almost the original taste, you have to go a longer way. Such a drink will not be a sin, and you can put it on the holiday table for guests.
Making Whiskey at Home
For making homemade whiskey, we need the following ingredients:
- wheat flour - 1 kg;
- corn seeds - 8 kg;
- barley malt - 7 kg;
- yeast - 100 g;
- boiled water - 30 l;
- oak barrel and sawdust; sawdust;
- moonshine;
- 50 liter capacity.
So, with the ingredients sorted out, go directly to the technology of manufacture of this noble drink:
1) first you need to grind the corn kernels to the state of very small grains (or prepare already finished store cereals);
2) in a container of 50 liters we pour wheat flour and corn grits, mix it, add water to the mixture and set it on fire;
3) then the resulting mixture is boiled on low heat for 4, 5 hours, periodically do not forget to stir;
4) after that, the mixture is removed from the heat and covered with old blankets or warmed things;
5) when the wort warms up to 30 ° C, it is necessary to put yeast in it, mix it up, and report barley malt;
6) then leave the whole mixture for 7-8 days to ferment. If the mash is a little bitter, do not worry, this is quite normal;
7) after the fermentation mixture, we start to make moonshine from the resulting brew, and it is better to overtake it 2 times;
8) then a cleaning step is carried out. It should be carried out by means of ordinary activated carbon from a pharmacy, crushed into very small parts. We place in a usual watering can on layers: a gauze, cotton wool and coal activated. Through such a “filter” you need to spend all the prepared brew; 9) if you are unable to find an oak barrel, at the final stage of making whiskey, you can use oak sawdust. They need to be expanded at the bottom of the tank, where refined moonshine will flow;
10) the container (or several containers) is properly sealed and left to insist for a year.
11) all homemade whiskey is ready!
“Smoky” Whiskey
To make homemade whiskey with a taste of smoke, we need the following ingredients:
- good vodka - 1 l;
- “liquid smoke” - 2 drops;
- pharmaceutical oak bark -50 g;
- natural sherry - 30 ml;
- sugar syrup - 2 tbsp. spoons;
- home brew - 50 g;
- saffron - 25 g;
- a crust of black bread;
- leaves of elecampane - 20 g.
The process of making homemade whiskey “with smoke” looks like this:
1) take a glass (200 ml), pour oak bark into it and leave for 2 hours to infuse, then filter the contents into a separate container;
2) add a couple of drops of “liquid smoke” to the resulting tincture (in no case anymore, it will spoil the product!). If there is no “liquid smoke” at hand, sugar can be used as an alternative. We take a sugar cube, set it on fire and simmer it in tincture. For greater effect, the procedure should be repeated several times;
3) then pour the sugar syrup into the tincture. If you are cooking Scotch whiskey, then you need to pour 1 spoon of syrup - if Irish - 2 spoons;
4) after this we add here the moonshine and our “sherry”;
5) then the most important stage - you need to dilute our tincture with vodka, which remained. This should be done slowly, taking a sip of the resulting beverage. The fact is that immediately determine the right amount of vodka is not always obtained, therefore, if necessary, add the required amount to the tincture.
The main part of the process is complete. It remains only to give our drink a suitable shade. To do this, we have as many as 4 options: 1) saffron (25 g), which was pre-filled with a glass of vodka and aged for 2 weeks (do not forget to shake it every day);
2) a crust of black bread, which was previously dried and ground into powder, covered with water and aged for 2-3 days in a dry warm place;
3) the leaves of elecampane (20 g) are filled with vodka (200 ml), clogged, and infused in a warm place for several days;
4) food coloring.
Thus, the prepared homemade analogue of whiskey is bottled from the “brand” drink, and only an expert can distinguish it from the present.
Accelerated whiskey recipe on moonshine
However, not all people have the opportunity to wait a whole year to get high-quality whiskey. For people who want to speed up the process a little, but having slightly worsened the quality of the drink, there is a recipe for making whiskey from an ordinary, ready-made moonshine.
There are cases when whiskey should be prepared as soon as possible, and it is for such cases that the recipe for making this drink from moonshine is invented.
For a start, we need an alcohol base. For this we need vodka or diluted alcohol, but the most suitable option would be to use moonshine.
So, in the tank, where the whiskey will be drawn (you can use the can) we pour the alcohol base. Then you need to add crushed charcoal in the amount of 20 g per 1 liter of drink. As an alternative, you can use pharmaceutical activated carbon, for this we need 10 tablets.
We also need oak bark or wood chips. Take 1 tbsp. l oak bark, as well as 6-7 pre-crushed dried apricots and prunes and add them to our homemade whiskey.
Preparations are over, followed by insistence. The capacity in which our future whiskey will be infused must be selected in such a way that it will completely fill the drink. The fact is that the final quality of the drink directly depends on the amount of air in the tank, so try to fill it completely. The recommended period of infusion is 2 weeks, but if there is not enough patience or time is running out, it is possible earlier. Before serving a drink to the table, do not forget to filter it.
Making homemade whiskey not only allows you to get a drink that is very close in its taste to the original, made with your own hands, but also significantly save on its cost, since “branded” whiskey is not a cheap pleasure and can afford it not every.
At the same time, there are a lot of recipes for making this drink, because today it is produced not only by the historical “parents” of Scotland and Ireland, but also in the USA, Australia and even Japan, and the taste of the product is different for each manufacturer.
Prepare this noble drink at home and enjoy its majestic, mild flavor!
