Cow corn for whiskey mash

Uncle Remus · Post by **Uncle Remus** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 6:20 am

What do you guys think? I think I read in Smiley's book to use food grade corn. We're ready to run a batch of it today (mash made with feed corn).
Anybody else use feed corn to make their mash?

DBM · Post by **DBM** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 5:04 pm

Remus;
Is the cow corn cracked or whole corn? If it has been ground for feed it will work. I do think you will like cracked corn (chicken feed) better though, also it's usually cheeper.
Another thing is cow feed will sometimes have mineral salts added, (not good).

Yttrium · Post by **Yttrium** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 6:11 pm

I believe that generally the grain that is used in Scotch whisky is only slightly better that feed grade.

I use feed grade whole corn and the results so far have been good. I do find that I need to rinse it first before using it to get rid of the ocassioanl twig/corn stock that gets mized in.

Post by **Tater** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 6:24 pm

Ive had no problem with it either.

AlaOutlaw · Post by **AlaOutlaw** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 9:05 pm

I've also used cracked and whole feed corn without problems.

Uncle Remus · Post by **Uncle Remus** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 6:07 am

Ran the mash on Sat. it turned out great. We started with whole feed corn, soaked it in water for a couple days then ground it to a coarse corn meal.
It has a really nice flavour even in its green stage. We ran it with just a little reflux and the column packed. The end product was about 82%. Now I'm gonna let it age for a while.

Anyone ever used charred alder wood for flavouring? I was thinking to try it with a small amount and see how it turns out.