My first Bourbon - from Brazil

[luis]

Hello, my name is Luis, I am from Curitiba, Brazil and follows the step-by-step of my first Bourbon recipes. Thank you for any suggestions for improvement to improve both the taste and the income of my recipe. At the moment I realize that I am almost there and I need only a fine adjustment. Still not sure if the sour taste I feel is really a problem or just the "white dog" that will come out with time. I can send pictures of my stuff if u want and I'm sorry for my poor english and if I forget any details.

My Basic Bourbon Recipe
• 15.5L water
• 4Kg cracked corn
• 1Kg malt
• 1Kg malted rye

• Boil water up to 100°C in stainless steel pan
• Turn off the heat, wait to lower to 90°C and add the corn.
• Wait for about 30 minutes and when the temperature naturally drops to 66°C add rye, malt and amylase.
• Maintains the temperature of 65°C to 68°C and leaves the grains absorbing water for about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Stir from time to time.
• Amount of sugar is between 8 to 10% alcohol potential = 15 to 19 BRIX = 1.0611 to 1.0785 sg.
• Cool quickly and as soon as the temperature drops below 33°C set to ferment.
• Aerate the mixture. Replace the liquid several times between the pan and the bucket.
• Add yeast. I'm using Fermentis US-05, american ale yeast.
• 7 days of fermentation with air lock in plastic bucket. Sunday to Sunday.
• Strain the grains. 12 liters of must.
• Distillation in homemade stills of cachaça.
• Beginning of the first distillation of 50 to 60% ABV. Final around 30% ABV collects everything.
• Second "heads cut" distillation, remove foreshots and tails. I am collecting in pots of 70mL each, tasting and separating in bad, good and very good to later to join them to age in a barrel.
Observations / questions / lessons learned:
- First distillations I did not do the cuts correctly and kept the foreshots and some of the tails in the final product. The taste was compromised.
- Small changes in temperatures and in the sequence of adding the grains did not make much difference in the amount of sugar and in the flavor.
- I tried to use wheat instead of rye, it did not make much difference in flavor;
- I changed the type of malt used. Before, I used a basic pilsen malt that is more neutral. When I switched to malt with more flavor it changed to better the quality of the final product. I still have doubts about this item.
- I'm using mineral water that's the same one I normally drink. I changed to another type with more minerals I did not notice difference
- I have not changed the type of yeast yet. I have found that US-05 is a more neutral yeast and does not add many esters. I do not know if I should change that. At the moment is winter here and it is cold, maybe I need to keep my bucket warm.
-Maybe I have to let more time to ferment. When I open the bucket I realize that I could still leave for another few days.
- I do not control the pH in any way.
- I found only alpha-amylase here. Not sure if it is really helping in the process
- I did some experiments with Brazilian wood chips to age.
- For now, I'm storing the white product in bottles to collect and age in a barrel.
Thanks for the help and any comments will be appreciated.

[cuginosgrizzo]

Hi Luis a few feedback and suggestions

My Basic Bourbon Recipe
• 15.5L water
• 4Kg cracked corn
• 1Kg malt
• 1Kg malted rye

your grain/water ratio is a little high. I'd use 20 liters water

• Boil water up to 100°C in stainless steel pan
• Turn off the heat, wait to lower to 90°C and add the corn. this is unnecessary and unwanted. Add the corn when the water is still 100C, you want to gelatinize it
• Wait for about 30 minutes and when the temperature naturally drops to 66°C add rye, malt and amylase. for the same reason as above you want to keep the corn at cooking temperature as long as possible. wrap it with blankets and let it cool to 66C in a couple of hours
• Maintains the temperature of 65°C to 68°C and leaves the grains absorbing water for about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Stir from time to time.
• Amount of sugar is between 8 to 10% alcohol potential = 15 to 19 BRIX = 1.0611 to 1.0785 sg. with your grain bill and your ratio grain/water you should get almost 1.090
• Cool quickly and as soon as the temperature drops below 33°C set to ferment. it is not necessary to rush the cooling as we are not brewing beer, but it doesn't hurt either
• Aerate the mixture. Replace the liquid several times between the pan and the bucket.if you have a drill and a mortar mixer, use that
• Add yeast. I'm using Fermentis US-05, american ale yeast.
• 7 days of fermentation with air lock in plastic bucket. Sunday to Sunday. you should not trust fixed ferment lenght unless all your parameters are exactly the same every time. better use a hydrometer to see if fermentation is done (you go below SG 1.000)
• Strain the grains. 12 liters of must.
• Distillation in homemade stills of cachaça.
• Beginning of the first distillation of 50 to 60% ABV. Final around 30% ABV collects everything. sounds good, same as what I do
• Second "heads cut" distillation, remove foreshots and tails. I am collecting in pots of 70mL each, tasting and separating in bad, good and very good to later to join them to age in a barrel.
Observations / questions / lessons learned:
- First distillations I did not do the cuts correctly and kept the foreshots and some of the tails in the final product. The taste was compromised.
- Small changes in temperatures and in the sequence of adding the grains did not make much difference in the amount of sugar and in the flavor.
- I tried to use wheat instead of rye, it did not make much difference in flavor; that's very strange. Rye is very strong and spicy while wheat is sweet and grainy. Do you crush you malts?
- I changed the type of malt used. Before, I used a basic pilsen malt that is more neutral. When I switched to malt with more flavor it changed to better the quality of the final product. I still have doubts about this item.
- I'm using mineral water that's the same one I normally drink. I changed to another type with more minerals I did not notice difference
- I have not changed the type of yeast yet. I have found that US-05 is a more neutral yeast and does not add many esters. I do not know if I should change that. At the moment is winter here and it is cold, maybe I need to keep my bucket warm. US-05 likes colder temperatures, from 17C to 20C. I use that also
-Maybe I have to let more time to ferment. When I open the bucket I realize that I could still leave for another few days. see above comment about hydrometer
- I do not control the pH in any way.
- I found only alpha-amylase here. Not sure if it is really helping in the process it might help you, but you need to cook your corn or you'll not extract the starch
- I did some experiments with Brazilian wood chips to age. just be sure it is not somehouw poisonous and it can harm you
- For now, I'm storing the white product in bottles to collect and age in a barrel.
Thanks for the help and any comments will be appreciated.

[luis]

Thank you very much. I will post my doubts in the correct places to not disturb the admins.