Kale Wash Final By Paul MacKenzie

WE’VE ALL HEARD and seen all the jokes about kale, but here’s a fair dinkum proper use for it, courtesy of Home Distillers Club member Paul MacKenzie.

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Ingredients

  • 6.5kg Dextrose
  • 1 bunch of kale
  • 1 teaspoon citric acid
  • 40 grams SAF INSTANT YEAST (give higher yield) or baker’s yeast
  • 35 litres filtered water

Method

  1. Dissolve Dex in 5 ltrs water, boil for 4 minutes cool (more important if you use white sugar)
  2. Remove heavy steams on Kale, Blanch in boiling water 30 seconds, refresh in cold water
  3. Drain and chop Kale, Blend with some water and strain out pulp, keep juice
  4. Combine water (via a garden hose and hose filter to air rate), syrup, acid, and juice, when at is at 30C add yeast (no premixing required)
  5. Ferment for 14 to 18 days at 26C

Yields about 3.4 to 3.6 litres at 92% through a T500, excluding 150 ml heads and no tails

The Run

  1. Run the T500 still at 58°C, throw out the first 150 ml of head, collecting around 3.6 litres (no tails) of usable alcohol.
  2. Run your cuts as you like, let the spirit (at 92%) stand lightly covered for 24 hours.

Polishing

  1. Water down to about 40% using filtered water and add a ¼ cup of activated carbon granules (that is well washed and wet) per litre and allowed to stand for four weeks, agitating once a day, and opening the lid occasionally to allow it to breathe.
  2. Two days before you’re ready to process to the next step, strain out carbon, add 2 tablespoons of oak chips.
  3. After the 2 days strain out the oak chips.
  4. Then pass it through a coffee filter and then a 1-micron filter of your choice, which should take about 24 hours.
  5. Flavor as you require.

Flavouring

  1. Use Grainge Single Malt Whisky Premium Spirit Essence at 25 ml per litre. It’s the best.
  2. Add 2-3 dark toasted French Oak dominoes (20-30 grams per 2 litres) and allowed to stand for two days.
  3. After the 2 days, remove the dominoes and store for at least 1 week.

This will Oak, but not age the spirit

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