I have thoroughly enjoyed this process, especially smelling each product and byproduct along the way. I’m happy to say my final Bourbrum product retained much of the distinct and wonderful smells and tastes present in the original HBB backset, and has developed the most wonderful hot buttered popcorn and other scents. Kudos to ShineonCrazyDiamond for his wonderful Honey Bear Bourbon recipe that inspired this.
I do want to try some variations on this process, but this experiment turned out so good I had to share.
Otis’ Bourbrum
To make bourbrum, you will be making a batch of bourbon first, saving many of the byproducts produced to add to your Bourbrum.
Ferment #1, Honey Bear Bourbon w/Oats (HBB):
Make a ferment of Honey Bear Bourbon w/oats. My ferment size was 16 gallons. When fermenting is done, strain and squeeze the grains and set them back into the fermenter. Save the shells too.
Let your HBB ferment settle. Take only clear beer for your stripping wash.
Stripping #1, HBB:
Strip your HBB wash down pretty far. I ran until I was collecting at 10%. Do not scorch the wash. ** KEEP 4 gallons of backset, and freeze or refrigerate an additional quart of your backet. The 4 gallons will be used to start your Bourbrum ferment. This stuff smells of honey wheat and is so nice.
Spirit run #1, HBB:
How you process your HBB Low Wines is not part of this recipe. Regardless of how you run it, save ALL of your feints from the HBB Spirit Run. These feints will be added back to the Bourbrum later in this recipe. So get stillin, be safe, and have fun.
Ferment #2, Bourbrum:
Heat 4 gallons of HBB backset with 20 lbs of sugar and 31 oz (900 ml) of Blackstrap Molasses. Make sure all the sugar is dissolved. Add water to bring this up to 12 gallons total and heat it all to 89 degrees F. My OG was 10 84
Pour the 89 degree F water over the spent HBB grains and shells. Add two vitamin Bs. Stir and whisk a lot, to get oxygen into the wash.
Toss your yeast. Mix it all in real well then cover. [I used 150g of Bob’s Red Mill active dry yeast. Bob’s is a great local, fresh resource for bakers yeast.]
Keep your ferment in the right temp range. I use an insulation box to hold temps steady. I usually have to leave the insulation box uncovered for much of the first 24 hours or longer, because the yeast drives up temperatures for a short while in the beginning. When temperature falls back to 89 degrees F, insulate to maintain temp. I have read old posts that suggest the butter popcorn smell comes from the ferment process, from the combination of bakers yeast and holding it in the high end of the temp range for a quick ferment.
I don’t know exactly when the ferment finished, but on my first gravity test at 48 hours, it was down to 10 04 and it looked done to me. I had read somewhere that using backset would cause an incomplete ferment, so I was not expecting this to get so dry.
Strain and squeeze the grains of all liquid and dump the grains. Save shells for future use.
Let your Bourbrum ferment settle. Take only clear beer for your stripping wash. I tested sugar again after 24 hours in the car boy and got a reading of 10 00. Time to strip.
Stripping #2, Bourbrum:
Strip your Bourbrum wash, fast and hard. [I ended up with approx.. 2 gallons of 44% Bourbrum low wines.]
Spirit Run #2, Bourbrum:
For the wash, start with the low wines from your Bourbrum ferment. Add the feints from your HBB Spirit run. Add the quart of HBB Backset that you froze or refrigerated previously.
Take a nice and slow Spirit Run. [I decided to use my short column with one scrubby and some reflux throughout the entire run. I used more reflux up front until I was through the heads, about 4 to 1. In the late heads I slowed down my reflux to about 1 to 1. I collected in small containers to give me a lot of flexibility with cuts.
Cuts #1, Bourbrum:
Wow! There are unique smells throughout this entire run, and I even took a few tastes along the way that were wonderful. I collected into 30 small jars, approx. 130 ml ea. (130ml is the minimum amount I need to measure high ABVs.) In the end, I kept jars 6-23. Jar 7 had the most hot buttered popcorn smell I had been tracking, thought it was present through most jars. I would have made a slightly smaller cut had I intended to drink this white. I diluted to 64% and have 5 mostly full quarts to age.
Aging Bourbrum:
It’s my first batch of this, so I’m trying different things. Jar 1 had a few bourbon barrel chips, jar 2 is on light toast oak, and jar 3 is on medium toast oak.
I have two virgin jars and am looking for suggestions please. I have some 100 year old spalted maple heartwood I could toast or char up, but not sure yet if that is a good idea. I need to read more on that wood or get some advice on it.
Thoughts:
I do plan to make this again. While I am very happy with the results of my first Bourbrum, I think next time I will try a single, slow distillation. The Bourbrum low wines had much more character, so I want to try a single run to capture more of it in the final product. I guess that would make it more of a Rumbourb though.
Look at ya. Sounds pretty damn tasty! And when your sipping it in a year, just think you will be the only person to ever have tried such a rare bottle 
. It's your own creation and you are now an artist. 