Blue-ducks bourbonish/whisky

[Blue_Duck]

Well as promised, here's my method for making my bourbon-ish whisky,
I can't lay claim to the recipe because there's prob. dozens if not
hundreds of brewers who have done or posted something of the same
nature.

My inspiration started with a recipe i seen on another forum, some
members here are aquainted with H/D from across the pond,i'm not a
member myself but like many others, when i got the bug for starting
on my quest i searched many forums for information and the like.

I took a liking to jimbo's all grain gumball thread where he done a
mash and used the spent grains to to do a sugarhead wash. Seemed like
good economics.I done his recipe a few times,with good results, but
i wanted put my own spin on things,ie: a touch more smokey hit to my
end result, not too much as in an islay malt, i find it just a little
to much for my liking. coming from a scotsman sounds a bit ironic.

So i came up with this.

ingredients

2k c/corn or f/maize..... cracked corn or kibbled is easier to work with
2k barley/malt
1k rye malt
1k chateaux w/malt or any peated malt
1tbs gypsum
half tub of alinsons yeast/ or any yeast that suits your needs.

method

put corn in a bucket and pour cold water over,stir and leave for
10-15 minutes skim off debris from the top, it's usually dry husks
and tiny grains that have found there way into the bag.

I Drain and put 20ltrs of water in the boiler,or 15ltrs and 5ltrs
backset which i do after i get the first wash done,i then add corn
and bring temp up to 90%c and hold for 3hrs.I then dial back to 2.5
on the boiler and let it cool to 67%c and mash in malts and temp nearly
aways come down to 63%c. stick lid on leave for a min. of 1.5hrs,
i leave mine for 2.5-3 hrs "just playing safe i guess"

When done i turn off boiler and start running into my 30ltr bucket
at this stage i add the gypsum, when flow stops i tilt the boiler
to get the liquid under the tap vent,then i sparge with 10ltrs of
hot water around 70%c and tilt boiler again to collect under the vent,
give the bag a squeeze to collect remaining wort. At this point you
could use spent grains to do a sugarhead,i dont bother.i compost it.

I then stick wort chiller in and cool to around 25%c then lift bucket
on to bench top and transfer to fermenter below "it helps getting
some air back in, i then give it a good thrashing with a paddle
add yeast and jobs done.

I normally get around 25-26ltrs of beer at 10.050 on the hydrometer
always hoped that i could hit the 10.060 mark.
When done i rack into bucket, i lose about 2.5ltrs because the trub is
really thick with this wash. i never could zero this wash out fully,
just below 10.010 is the best i can get, i can live with that.
I then leave to settle for a day or two before stripping, i take the
strip down to 10% which gives me a demi full at 35%. then the proccess
starts over again till i get 5 demi's.This gives me close enough to
25ltrs at 30% to do a s/run, bearing in mind i take off 200ml fores
from each strip,I take off 1ltr and add to the cleaning jar, then take
off next 1ltr in 250ml jars then take off 4ltrs in 1ltr kilners, the
rest i take down to 40% for feints for next run, i think it adds more
flavour.

Most of time the 250ml jars end up in the final product which gives me
5ltrs of 67% to age. When cut to 43% its a really nice tipple even when
its white, but drinking white whisky doesn't seem right to me.So i age
on oak for a minimum of 4 months, longer is better so im told, This
is the experimental stage of this recipe so i can't finish this post
with "you gotta try it" "it's wonderful" and so and so, i like it, iv'e
got a bit aging at different levels at the moment i'll try and update
when i think iv'e hit the g-spot of oaking time.

thanks for reading

cheers B_D

[Easydrinker]

Thanks for the detail, but I have to admit I am suffering from a surfeit of alcohol!
I want to compare your numbers against some of mine,out of interest,and a desire to possibly help.
I'll come back to this one tomorrow, or later today,as it now is ..

Robert

[Mash]

Fantastic. Thanks for posting. Puzzling in places after a first read but I am going to translate this into a Braumeister method and run it.

I feel some questions coming on....

#1 What is the fermentation temp?

[Anavrin]

Hi Blue_Duck

Good write up, sound like a very long brew day though, why do you need to hold the corn at 90°c for 3 hours? Is it to soften it up or just get the flavour out? Could you not boil it for 15mins in a smaller volume of water to save time.

I'd also add any water treatment like gypsum with the grains when you mash in, it helps them disolve better, it's not a large amount of grain, I bet you could get away with a 60min mash.

I've got a sack of grain that will soon be making its way into a bourbon style drink, I'll have a go with the recipe in beer smith, see what I can come up with.

[Mash]

Hi Blue_Duck
Is it to soften it up or just get the flavour out?

is it boiling the starch out? At 90° C. It certainly isn't any enzyme action.

I bet you could get away with a 60min mash.

I thought that, but decided to leave it alone until I tried it once.

I feel an order coming on for MaltMiller

[Blue_Duck]

Hi guys thx for the responce,i'm not really a number cruncher
i tried to keep this as simple as possible for the equipment
i have at hand.

@ mash...when i cool to 25%c add yeast i just wrap up with a
duvet and leave to do its stuff, i assume the temp stays in
the mid 20,s. never really checked.

@Anavrin.....yea its quite a day but its done in stages so
i'm not sitting over it all the time.
Tried boiling the corn some time ago,something i don't want
to do again. Take your eyes off it for minute and think of
burnt porridge in your pot. Yes its to get the starch and
flavour from the corn, i used to put corn in cooler and add
boiling water and leave overnight, this method now means less
to clean up.
I take on board adding gypsum with the mash, makes sense now.
I don't know about the 60min mash, i'm not a proper welder so
i throw caution to the wind.

cheers B_D

[Mash]

Off outside to my grain bin for a stock take. I think this might become a busy thread.

[Icefever]

I'm watching this thread with interest....I also have a couple of Bourbonish recipes that I've filched off the net...

[Mash]

I have done the stock-take just not got round to it yet.

I have very cunning whiskey 1l tester starting any day soon.

[Blue_Duck]

Well that's the 3rd mash almost fermented out,and as to plan
it finished after 5 days. Prob rack tonight and strip on Sat,
and start another mash on sunday. I think i'll keep 5 ltrs
backset, and if i'm in the mood i might mash-in on monday as
well. Then hopefully in a week or so , do this run and get it
on oak and locked away till the end of the year.

Need to order more grain for another brew, this time i think
i need to use spent grains as a sugarhead. Seems i don't have
as much go-to product as i thought i had. I 'KNOW' well pretty
sure I never drank it all.

cheers B_D

[Icefever]

Seems i don't have as much go-to product as i thought i had. I 'KNOW' well pretty sure I never drank it all. cheers B_D

Same in this house mate...I'm sure I've cut back..

As I have 20kgs of corn coming, and I only need 2kgs to try this wash. I've got to thinking maybe do a straight corn whiskey? Popcorn Sutton style??mmmmm just a thought..

[Anavrin]

I'm going straight for bourbon, mainly because I don't know what corn whiskey is supposed to taste like.

I'm going to mash in the Grainfather so not sure how much I'll be able to fit in, in one go, I'm thinking of trying 4 kg of corn to start with and boing it within the malt tube to keep it contained.

Then mash in the Rye and malted barley.

[Icefever]

Photo's please A...I'm thinking about using my BM..

[Mash]

Photo's please A...I'm thinking about using my BM..

+1 I am thinking of making the grain bill not more than 5kg and proportion it from that.

[Blue_Duck]

Glad to see the interest in this, no doubt we are going to see
conflicting results. Maybe not conflicting but different.
You guys are talking shiny equipment, now that makes me jealous
to start with, and no doubt your stillin equipment's gonna be
different from my basic collumn and liebig. So the end results
could be different.

Stripping mash 3 as i type this,babysitting grandkids last night
so no stillin allowed. looking forward to hearing about mashing
in your shinies, and your results.

cheers B_D