Malt scotch or Whisky?

Question

I have been preparing beer at home and was wondering if I can use malt scotch or Whisky in absence of malt which am unable to get hold of in my immediate market?
Thanks a lot,
Yaz

Answer 1

Um, no. That won't work.

Brewers start with malted barley, which is cracked or ground coarsely, and cooked in water. This releases the starch from the grain, and the enzymes produced by the malting process (which is just controlled sprouting of the grain) convert the starch into sugar during the cooking process.

Then the liquid is separated from the solids and fermented with yeast, which turn the sugars into alcohol.

Now you have beer.

Then they take the beer and distill it, and you get whisky.

So you could no more use whisky to make beer, than you can use a grilled steak to make a cow.

I don't know where you are, but in the USA there are a number of stores that do mail-order of brewing supplies; a quick check of a search engine like Yahoo Search or Google will help.

Answer 2

The malt you want for your beer is germinated and roasted grain, preferably hops. Whisky ( Scotch is a whiskey) is already distilled. You can't use a distilled product to brew beer or ale.