Making Pure Corn Whiskey

[Icefever]

Every now and then the same name crops up in this hobby....I've come across on a couple of times ref..Ian Smiley.

Ask uncle Gargul and he came up with this here

[Sunshine]

I have tried pure corn and it was not as successful as I imagined it to be. Frankly I had no idea how pure corn tasted, so maybe it is good and I just don't like the taste, who knows. I am more a rye girl. But I will definitely read this.

At a quick overflow what I see, he uses sulphuric acid. I had used phosphor acid, as it is very popular and recommended by our distilling teachers.

[Icefever]

I've skipped the first few chapters, went straight to mashing...now in the time I've been doing this, I like many others were told the your FG had to hit 1.000 or lower...which I do brewing beer/making wine. Now I read this by Mr Smiley...

Quote.

Fermentation Times
In the fermentation of wine and beer, the ferment undergoes primary and secondary fermentations. The primary fermentation is the vigorous fermentation that takes place over the first few days after the yeast is added. The secondary fermentation is the long slow fermentation that follows the primary fermentation. The primary fermentation only lasts a
few days, but the secondary fermentation will slowly tick over for weeks, months in the case of wine fermentation.
A mash intended for distillation only undergoes a primary fermentation. Grain mash fermentations are typically 72-80 hours long, and then they are distilled. In fact, a secondary fermentation would be very deleterious to the ester profile of the mash and would ruin the
finished whiskey. During the primary fermentation the yeast is consuming readily available fermentable sugars. When the fermentable sugars have been exhausted, the yeast metabolism changes and begins breaking down unfermentable sugars and other organic compounds and consumes them.
This involves the secretion of very different enzymes such as permease that enable the consumption of unfermentable sugars (dextrins and polysaccharides). This altered chemistry results in the formation of a family of esters, which have come to be called the “dreaded esters” by the author. The dreaded esters have very nearly the same boiling point as the
alcohol/water azeotrope (i.e. 78.15C (172.67F)), and are almost impossible to separate out by distillation. Therefore, they pervade into the finished whiskey and ruin its flavour.
The only use for whiskey laced with the dreaded esters, is to rectify it to 95% alcohol by redistillation in a high-separation still, and treat it with activated carbon to render pure alcohol to be used for making vodka, gin, or liqueurs. In order to be sure to avoid the dreaded esters, a mash fermentation should be distilled as soon as the vigorous primary fermentation slows down to a slow spurious bubbling, regardless of how complete the fermentation was, generally no more than 96 hours after
adding the yeast.

I posted most of the chapter so it reads correct...it's the part (in red) that made me sit up...so is he saying that regardless of the FG in your wash, you run it??? or is this just the way the old timer worked it?? I'm confused.com now thoughts on this please.

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@Sunshine...

Yes he does, but also that it's dangerous stuff and to use citric instead.

[Sunshine]

Well that is what we learned at distilling school. Fermentation of grain or corn should not take longer than 3 days. It is what all my farmer customers do.

[Icefever]

Well that is what we learned at distilling school. Fermentation of grain or corn should not take longer than 3 days. It is what all my farmer customers do.

Well that puts a different slant on it, I'm going to run a corn wash maybe next week...when the stuff arrives. Working on what you say..that it goes into the still at 3 days...then if you only have the weekend to run it, it has to be started say by a Tue/Wed....then into the still and run...phew.

[Anavrin]

Hi Sunshine

Can you tell us which of your American Oaks is most suited for Bourbon, I've got plenty of french oak no4 but I'm guessing one of the American versions will be more suited, just dont know which one.

[Sunshine]

Hi Anavrin,

that is a difficult question. I would say Nr.1 - it is made to mimic the typical American Oak barrel. For my husband it is too "normal" so he likes to brush it up with mixing with the other oak types. Also I found out, that Nr.1 needs more than 5 weeks ageing.

[chill]

I've read this book a few times and what he says goes against much of the "wisdom" on distilling forums regarding the need to only run a fully finished and cleared wash. But he does seems to know what he is speaking of and Sunshine confirms it.

I've wondered what he effect would be of treating a sugar wash like this. I've not gotten around to testing it.

Incidentally, Ian runs the main home distiller's vendor in Canada. Great people to deal with.

Chuck

[Icefever]

I agree 100% Chuck....reading this book yesterday threw me with all I've learned in the last 4 years.
I'm about to try a corn wash...and I would have left it alone until I got a low FG reading, which looks now to be the wrong thing to do.

I also thought the same as you about these sugar wash's that most of us run.
I do have a plain sugar wash that I started last Friday 29th....so it's going into day 3. When I get home later today I'll test the FG just out of curiosity.

It looks like a test run on a sugar wash is inevitable??, if I did one today it would then be ready by Friday as this is the first time I would have to run it.

[Easydrinker]

For myself,
My sugar washes are now usually a lentil variation - (Yellow Split Pea), Sultanas, DAP, Magnesium Sulfate, The kitchen sink and 200g of yeast per 46 litres.
Big fizz.
Bicarbonate of Soda added next day, 'cos of the ph drop.
Day 3 Rack the cloudy mess at 0.990.
Next day rack to the still and strip.

Don't you just love the imprecision of this game?
Just when you feel you are close, you discover there is a bucketful more that you do not know.

Robert.

[Sunshine]

I got beaten by my own crowd, when I told them what we learned at distilling school. The home distillers community seems to have their own rules, regardless what science or professional distillers found out and proved. I have learned to accept.

But even at for example at the distilling Expo in London I heard some things, or better saw things, where my teachers would have said completely different.

Best example are the tasting glasses at the Expo. They used simple small plastic shot glasses for professional tastings there. This is something so plain and stupid, I could not believe it. They looked at my tasting glasses from Metro like they were imported directly from the moon. If I would have begun with, you can differ the taste of a spirit with the use of different glass types - well you get the picture....No one with a straight mind in Austria would use plastic shot glasses, even the smallest farmer in the last village knows that.

The best thing are some German home distillers books. They sell like hell and people really believe that crap. This half knowledge gets spread in the German forum and if someone tells otherwise he gets beaten up.

[Icefever]

Well I'm going to have a go Sunshine...the old timers can't all be wrong...then you've been to college for it. I'm amazed that the guys on your own forum question your learning.

[Sunshine]

German forum is not my forum, actually, I have stopped writing there. It is useless.

People want to believe, what they believe obviously.

[Mash]

German forum is not my forum, actually, I have stopped writing there. It is useless.

People want to believe, what they believe obviously.

You are not wrong there !

[Easydrinker]

German forum is not my forum, actually, I have stopped writing there. It is useless.

People want to believe, what they believe obviously.

I cannot comment on your first point.
The second is easy to agree with.

Robert.