StillSmart

soo i recently came across a pot still mod for my t500. As it was described by a fellow member it is "spot on".. so i figured we could come together and start a whiskey recipe thread... so this is what im cookin up!

7 pounds cracked yellow corn
7 pounds white sugar
1 pounds brown sugar
3 cups malted barley
1/3 of a turbo yeast with 15 grams of bakers yeast added
and since i did a run last night i used approx. 2 gallons of "slop" boosts the abv and its a awesome yeast nutrient!

now the tricky and time consuming part!

bring one gallon of water to a boil add the barley and stir. once that is nice and mixed add the brown sugar stirring till dissolved! take off heat and let cool to about 85 degrees! fill a 35 ltr fermenter half full with hot water. dissolve the white sugar in that and add the corn!! add the slop from the run before then fill the fermenter to about 30 ltrs and check temp to make sure its not above 90 degrees! pitch the yeast! add the barley and brown sugar and give a gentle stir!make sure there is enough room at the top of the fermenter in case of foaming and puking.. takes about two weeks to clear!

ageing and anything after that is a secret. but i can say there are some apple wood and some cherry wood involved .

thats what im making what about you guys?

Jack,

This sounds really tasty, but.........

I have looked at many whisky recipes and keep getting to the part that says "Cracked Corn"

Living in the UK all my life, I have never seen anything labelled "Cracked Corn"

Is it called something else in the UK - What is it? where do I buy it? Do I buy corn and crack it? The only corn I have seen is soft and would not "crack"

Can anyone offer an English alternative/translation please or point me in the direction of one.

i think its called flaked maize, somebody correct me if im wrong! i go to my local feed store where most people go and get hay and what not for their livestock!! they have ten pound bags for less then 4$ american!! just be sure to get the stuff that doesnt have all the preservatives!! hope that helps

You're right Jack_Man, it is called flaked maize in this part of the world and it's usually sold already rolled and steam cooked so in a whiskey recipe you don't need to boil it just steep in in very hot water to dissolve the starch.

Don't put the malted barley into boiling water or you will kill the enzyme that converts all the corn starch into sugar and then you'll only be fermenting the sugar in that recipe. The malted grain should only be added when the mash temp is between 64-67oC

I posted the following some time ago under the thread "Corn Whiskey"

Re: Corn Whiskey

Postby aidanmac » Sun Aug 07, 2011 9:12 am
Corn Whiskey is made mostly, but not exclusively, for making Bourbon Whiskey.

In most of Europe, Corn is called Maize but Maize Whiskey doesn't have the same ring as Corn Whiskey even though they're the same thing so while I may refer to 'Corn Whiskey' you'll know it's Maize were talking about.

Conventional wisdom says that to make Corn Whiskey you must use Cracked Corn and boil the hell out of it for 90 minutes. Anyone who's tried this knows what a nightmare this is and how it can go horribly wrong. The purpose of boiling Cracked Corn/Maize is to release the starches and gelatinise them so that enzymes from malted grains can break them down into fermentable sugars.

The good news I have for you all is that, unless you're a complete purist, this nightmare stage can be omitted completely without compromising the end product in any way.

To make good Corn Whiskey forget cracked Corn and use Flaked Maize instead.

Flaked Maize is whole Maize (Corn) that's been crushed and steam cooked so that it is already gelatinised then dried – so to get the starches ready for conversion by your malted grain's enzymes you only have to soak the Flaked Maize in hot water and stir to liquify the gelatinised starches before adding your Malts.

Note: I buy Flaked Maize from a Horse Feed supplier and it's produced by a company here in Ireland called Red Mills. Nothing in it but Maize and it costs me €10 for 20Kg which does me for 6 batches – that's just €1.67/£1.46/US$2.38 per 26Lt batch!

The recipe I am using, and it works wonderfully, is;
3.25Kg Flaked Maize
1.6Kg Malted Barley (I use Maris Otter from my HBS)
500g Malted Rye (optional – depends on personal taste)

I'm currently writing up the mashing instructions to post for anyone that is interested and I hope to have it ready by next weekend or earlier.

For anyone who's looked at All Grain brewing and decided it's too complicated - this one is for you.

If you go to viewtopic.php?f=2&t=613 you can download a pdf I posted there called Corn Mash.pdf which gives some more useful info and links.

AM8)

Thanks Aidan / Jack.

If I am reading this correctly there now appear to be two recipes, one with sugar, one without.

For the time being, I am going to keep with Jacks recipe, that seems a variation of the Allbran/Wheat type washes I am doing at the moment, I understand them and I do not need spargers, tuns and wort coolers.

So instead of using cracked corn - I can substitute "flaked maize" I know I can experiment, but to save a lot of time, does anyone know if it is a One for One substitution.

Flaked Maize is just very well cracked corn that has been steam cooked so don't boil it and use the same weights.

Whiskey, or Whisky if you like, is made by extracting the starch from grains and converting that grain starch into fermentable sugars. The grains used are usually Barley or Corn/Maize.

After the starch has been extracted a Malted Grain is added which provides the Alpha Amylase Enzyme that converts the grain starch into fermentable sugars provided the malt is added below 67oC - anything higher will just kill the enzymes and there will be no conversion of starches.

Jack_Mans recipe/method will only add raw unconverted Maize and Barley Starch to the wash and will have a very strange effect on the final product which I don't think it will be good. The only thing that will be fermented is the 8lbs of sugar so whats the Corn and Barley for? They won't add any flavour, at least not one you'd want in your glass

I'm assuming Jack_Mans temps are in Fahrenheit For a minute I thought you were pitching at 90oC Silly me

AM

Jack's recipe looks like a variation on UJSSM where the grains add flavour not fermentable sugar. Jack, try adding some Gluco Amylase to your mash when it gets to room temperature, and back off on the sugar.

Another corn option is polenta / corn meal. That is what I can find "cheaply" locally. Farm feed stores are a bit of a drive.


Chuck

Best place for Flaked Maize is to look for a Horsey Store - they're more common!

AM

jack_man wrote:i think its called flaked maize, somebody correct me if im wrong! i go to my local feed store where most people go and get hay and what not for their livestock!! they have ten pound bags for less then 4$ american!! just be sure to get the stuff that doesnt have all the preservatives!! hope that helps

Just remember that all livestock feed is chemically treated with a fungicide that is unsuitable for human consumption. Cracked Corn or Flaked Maze is also mixed and glazed with a fish protein emulsion! Using animal graded feed is plane crazy and very,very stupid!!!

PS All animal feeds in the US and the UK are genetically modified.

RickyRasper wrote

Just remember that all livestock feed is chemically treated with a fungicide that is unsuitable for human consumption.
Cracked Corn or Flaked Maze is also mixed and glazed with a fish protein emulsion! Using animal graded feed is plane crazy and very,very stupid!!!PS All animal feeds in the US and the UK are genetically modified.

Just where are you getting your facts from mate. I use Redmills steam cooked flaked maize I buy from a local animal food supplier. Prior to using it I enquired about additives from the manufacturer and was assured it was 100% maize with no additives whatsoever, ARE YOU SUGGESTING THEY TOLD ME LIES

Genetically modified, well maybe I dont know and dont care. Everything humans have eaten since farming began 8000 years ago has been genetically modified, modern science just shortens the process. You select the best plants in your garden to propogate from, your guilty of genetic modification.

People have been using animal feed to make whiskey since making whiskey was invented

My daughter buys bags of whole corn for her popcorn machine at Asda's

I'm not sure if you can buy that and crack it yourself.

As for animal feed, the Americans use sweetfeed for whiskey and that is a combination of grain and an animal feed grade of molasses.

Flaked maize is not cracked corn. Flaked maize and corn flakes are one and the same. Same process.

Cracked corn is a dried whole kernel that is partially crushed or otherwise processed. Makes it more easily digested as the starch has greater exposure.Ideal for making a pure corn whiskey.But a pure corn whiskey will require the corn to be malted first. Submerge a sack full in a creek for a couple of days to get it sprouting. You will get some serious "shine" if your prepared for the work.

Corn meal has been milled to a greater degree and is used in some human recipes.

Corn flour - milled all the way

RumJohn wrote: "Flaked maize and corn flakes are one and the same."

Shit I think I'd skip breakfast if I lived in China. The flaked maize we get here is hard as rocks and all that starchy stuff would taste crap too. My cornflakes contain all sorts of weird stuff like Niacin and Riboflavin but, apparently, their 'suitable' for human consumption but I, for one, wouldn't want to have them in my Whisky.

AM

Perhaps he meant flaked corn (corn = maize in some countries) rather than the breakfast cereal. Though I have made some drinkable product from corn flakes.

Rum-John said flaked maize and cornflake share the same process not that they are the same.

In both instances the corn is cooked and put through rollers to make flakes, the cornflakes has other other stuff added - vitamins and the like, from memory these were added as a result of a study coming to the conclusion that the cardboard box that the breakfast cereal came in had more nutrition than the product inside.

Anyway, all the good stuff that the cereal manufacturers now add to make humans healthy keeps yeast in top form as well.

Breakfast in China? - can't ever remember seeing cereal on the menu, probably because there is never any milk in the hotels or perhaps Aidan is right and they do in fact mix up cornflakes and flaked corn - will check it out next time I go.