My first corn whiskey

Many like to post about a first successful ferment (or first all grain mash), or first still built/bought or first good run of the still. Tell us about all of these great times here.
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Cooter Brown121
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My first corn whiskey

Post by Cooter Brown121 »

Hello all,

I've been around the forum for just over a year now and I have been learning constantly. I've been making birdwatchers all this time trying to perfect my processes. I think I've got it down well enough and have finally ready everything I can find about cooking corn that I'm ready to make my first corn whiskey.

I know most here don't care for Jack Daniels but it's what I drink when not at home and I'd like to make mine in that manner. So I'm doing 80% corn, 12% malted barley and 8% malted rye. I'm doing a 5 galling batch first so as to get the backset to make it a sour mash. I bought a 5 liter charged oak barrel and if my math is right a 50lb bag of cracked corn should get me enough to fill it.

--5gallons--
6 lbs cracked corn
.9 lbs malted barley
.6 lbs malted rye
White Labs Tennessee Whiskey yeast (which I'm culturing so I have the same strain for the whole barrel)

Soaked corn overnight in 5 gallons water. Poured that into pot and heated to 180F then added 1/2 lbs malted barley. And have been stirring for almost an hour now holding between 180F and 210F.

Hopefully all continues to go well.

Cooter Brown
RedwoodHillBilly

Re: My first corn whiskey

Post by RedwoodHillBilly »

Cooter Brown121 wrote:Soaked corn overnight in 5 gallons water. Poured that into pot and heated to 180F then added 1/2 lbs malted barley. And have been stirring for almost an hour now holding between 180F and 210F.
Oooops, while 180F will cook the corn, it also cooks(denatures) the enzymes in the malted barley. A better way might have been to add 1/4# of the malted barley to the corn and water and brought it up to 180F (pre-mash), cook for a while, then reduce temp to about 150F and then add the rest of the malted grain.

I believe that there are some tutorials on mashing here somewhere.
Cooter Brown121
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Re: My first corn whiskey

Post by Cooter Brown121 »

I added the 1/4 lb to help prevent the corn from turning not a solid block of goop. It's sacrificial and not included in my overall bill.
RedwoodHillBilly

Re: My first corn whiskey

Post by RedwoodHillBilly »

That is the point of "pre-mashing", by adding at 180F you probably immediately denatured the malt. Hope it works out for you.
Cooter Brown121
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Re: My first corn whiskey

Post by Cooter Brown121 »

Ok guess I need to read through it again. All the info on mashing corn kinda feels disorganized and scattered so I'm sure I missed something. Thanks for pointing it out.
Cooter Brown121
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Re: My first corn whiskey

Post by Cooter Brown121 »

So I went back and looked at NChooch's Carolina Bourbon (http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 14&t=17750) and he says "I Start with 7 pounds of cracked corn, n cook in 4 gallons of good water for at least an hour (i usually go 90 mins) at a low simmer. ...careful not to burn it.
*optional - you may add a half pound of 6-row malted barley while cooking the corn to loosen it up a bit ( this is called pre-mashing) as it gets very thick."

That's what I did. But he doesn't say what temp he cooks the corn at. I'm assuming from other threads it's at the 180F range. It's been going 1 hr 45 mins and luckily it hasn't solidified, it's like a porridge right now.
RedwoodHillBilly

Re: My first corn whiskey

Post by RedwoodHillBilly »

Actually, you add the malt before heating, that way as it passes though the optimum temp (145F - 150F), the enzymes start to work on the corn starch. By adding it at 180F, they almost immediately denature. You will be ok if the mash is stirrable, and the malt will add flavor.
Cooter Brown121
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Re: My first corn whiskey

Post by Cooter Brown121 »

Ok I'll adjust my notes for the future batches.
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HDNB
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Re: My first corn whiskey

Post by HDNB »

you are on the edge of diastic power to convert that much corn. I'd add a bit more barley if you can and hold a nice steady 148* on your mash in to keep it working for a while. sounds like a yummy grain bill.
or do you have any liquid or owder enzymes to punch it up a bit? i don't think it would hurt to assist the conversion if you can.

good luck!
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now i drink for evil.
Cooter Brown121
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Re: My first corn whiskey

Post by Cooter Brown121 »

No extra enzymes. Temp has been right around 145+\- for almost 2 hours now. I'm getting ready to transfer it to my fermenter and letting it cool to pitching temps. Luckily this batch is just for the backset and I can adjust the rest based on this outcome.
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HDNB
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Re: My first corn whiskey

Post by HDNB »

when you transfer, cool and pitch before a bacteria gets going.
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Halfbaked
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Re: My first corn whiskey

Post by Halfbaked »

If I might make 2 suggestions..1- I agree with HDNB only I don't think you have enough DP. 2-NC hooch is an excellant recipe but a bit hard to follow and understand. This one is an easy read and easier to do. http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 14&t=48126 . You can use your grain bill if you want but You need a DP of 30. If you don't understand roughly use 8lb of corn to 2 lb of malts. The malts need to go in when the thread I linked says no sooner. If you use sacrificial malts to thin the corn and I do recommend them, they don't count on your 80/20 or 30 DP rule. IMHO the more malts the better the likker. Lots here are finding good luck with enzymes also.
Cooter Brown121
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Re: My first corn whiskey

Post by Cooter Brown121 »

Thank you for the link. I did the math on the DP and I should be at 30-32. I know it's cutting it close and if I don't get very good conversion on this batch I'll adjust. I was just trying to stay as true to JD as possible. I even made some maple charcoal to filter it through.

It is now in the fermenter. I pulled out my old wort chiller from my beer brewing days and cooled the mash to 73 and pitched. I'll update as things progress.
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Re: My first corn whiskey

Post by Copper Thumper »

Good luck cooter!
Cooter Brown121
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Re: My first corn whiskey

Post by Cooter Brown121 »

Hello everyone. This morning I pulled the wash off the grain and squeezed them as dry as I could. I let it sit all day and once it settled pulled a sample and measured it at 5% so I'm pretty excited. I'm running it now, just pulled the first pint.

Halfbaked: thank you for the link i would have tossed my spent grain if I hadn't read that recipe. Now I have a sugar wash sitting on them.

The backset from this run is going straight onto more corn to set up for another run. Thanks again for all the help.
Cooter Brown121
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Re: My first corn whiskey

Post by Cooter Brown121 »

Hello again everyone. So it's been another year that I've been absent, I know I'm a horrible memeber, and I have an update to this whiskey. With the advice of everyone from the first batch I made some adjustments and finished the rest of the planned whiskey. After I ran all of it I put it in the barrel I bought. The original plan was to let it age until my son gets married, but as the year went on I noticed I was losing far more whiskey than I had expected. I pushed to a year and of the 169+\- oz that went in 17 can out. As it came out I was very proud of myself as it looked and smelled like the Jack Daniels that I was emulating. I have yet to taste it, partly because there isn't much left and partly because I'm nervous. Either way I just wanted to finally get back and update everyone that helped and once again say thank you to the community that has fought me so much.
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skow69
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Re: My first corn whiskey

Post by skow69 »

What are you going to do with the 17oz? Set it on the mantle and look at it? Drink it and make more. Lesson learned.
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Cooter Brown121
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Re: My first corn whiskey

Post by Cooter Brown121 »

I'm going to get a bottle engraved with his name and dates then toast his wedding with it. That was the original plan but it was supposed to be poured from the barrel.
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amdamgraham
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Re: My first corn whiskey

Post by amdamgraham »

I'm startled by the massive loss of product that occurred. Can you advise why you think you lost so much of the distillate over the course of only 1 year? Did you prep the cask with a water soak prior to filling with whiskey? Was the bung plug on the cask loose? Was somebody else in the house taking drags off the cask without you knowing it?
Cooter Brown121
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Re: My first corn whiskey

Post by Cooter Brown121 »

Haha I can safely say no one was sneaking any seeing as my wife doesn't care for whiskey and my son is only 2. I did prep the barrel by soaking it until it was water tight. I left it full of water for a few days after to make sure it was sealed. My best guess is the loss was two fold. First is even commercial distilleries lose some over time due to evaporation and I believe part of my great loss is an issue the ratio of surface area to volume being so different in my small barrel. Secondly I think because I left the barrel in my house where the humidity is relatively low the barrel dried more than if it had been left in an open air warehouse where the humidity would be significantly higher and I'd assume slow the evaporation of moisture from the wood. I made a rum since then and am thinking of filling the barrel with it then leaving it out in my shed to see if that helps.
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skow69
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Re: My first corn whiskey

Post by skow69 »

I tried filling a half gallon barrel one time, but the angel's share scared me off. Upon further research, I think I remember reading that you should expect to lose about 10% of the product per month from a small barrel. That barrel became a knick-knack on a shelf at that point. I like angels as much as the next guy, but that is ridiculous for long term storage. I just did a quick estimate on your situation and figured that 169 oz at 10% loss per month for 12 months would leave you about 50 oz. So add in your dry environment, shrinkage of the dry staves, and maybe a little bad luck, and who knows. Any way, sorry for your loss. That's a bummer.

I'm pretty big on oak sticks in a jar now.

Edit: I also read that the big boys roll their barrels from side to side to keep the top staves from drying out.
Distilling at 110f and 75 torr.
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amdamgraham
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Re: My first corn whiskey

Post by amdamgraham »

Great info, thank you for responding. I cask in ultra small barrels, 1 liter and 2 liter but I only let them sit for 2-3 months. My stuff just doesn't spend enough time in the cask to substantially evaporate I guess so I have not seen large losses. I make a straight corn whiskey from an heirloom corn and am aiming for that "spent barrel" flavor like what you get with Mellow Corn or Platt Valley so the short time in the cask sort of mimics that. The heirloom corn is lighter and less "corn oily" in flavor compared to the feed corn runs I did when I started this hobby. I am considering ramping up to larger casks but my system is built around home brewing sized volumes of 5 gallons, I have to set up and break down the still every time I do a run and I do All Grain so my yields are pretty low. In a nutshell, producing 2 or 5 gallons would take me a long time. Cheers everybody!
Cooter Brown121
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Re: My first corn whiskey

Post by Cooter Brown121 »

Rolling makes sense. I thought about maybe putting it in humidor of sorts. Then it wouldn't dry out at all. But who knows.
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