Honey Bear Bourbon

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Oldvine Zin
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by Oldvine Zin »

Have to say that this recipe,(after doing quite a few batches of it) is such a solid recipe.
Today I did a 10x of the original recipe, using booners corn protocol - perfect.

Love this recipe
OVZ
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by rollmeown »

Thanks twisted brick,
I should have clarified my protocol. Using Booners all corn method after 212° I will add cornmeal and some Alpha-Amalyse to help loosen the corn and stir and wait till temps reach 148° and add my makes grains stir and let rest over night. Then test and do sg and pitch. Thanks for the link was good review. Is 6 handfulls to much for oyster shells?
My malted grains arrive today but planning on starting this next weekend. Need to pick up a few things first. Thanks for the reply. Can't wait to start the season off with this honey bear bourbon!!
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by Twisted Brick »

Excellent! Gonna make you some good sippin' whiskey!

Don't worry about bringing the strike water to boiling; 190-200F is fine. Also, if you're using SEBStar alpha-amylase, it's optimum working temp is 180, so add it then. (Takes my 12gal mash about 90min to drop and its cool to watch the magic happen). Check the Enzymash AA description, I think it stops working at 194F.

I have no experience with oyster shells (although I did pick up a big bag's worth of seashells last time I was at the beach). Also, I think it depends on your water chemistry. Maybe someone with experience can advise. What size is your mash?
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Oldvine Zin
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by Oldvine Zin »

I usually put 6 to 10 half shells in a 5 gal paint strainer bag suspended in the mash, makes removing them easier. Learned this trick the hard way after trying to squeeze the grain and ruining a couple strainer bags from the sharp edges of the shells.

The shells are self regulating (they only dissolve as needed), I typically get three uses out of the shells doing 50 gal mashes.

Good luck
OVZ
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by LukeDuke »

Oldvine Zin wrote:I usually put 6 to 10 half shells in a 5 gal paint strainer bag suspended in the mash, makes removing them easier. Learned this trick the hard way after trying to squeeze the grain and ruining a couple strainer bags from the sharp edges of the shells.

The shells are self regulating (they only dissolve as needed), I typically get three uses out of the shells doing 50 gal mashes.

Good luck
OVZ
I paid $6k for a Professional Brewing and Distilling course last year, and they didn't have a clue about oyster shells. Not why they were used or even that they were being used. When doing volunteer work with the local professional distillers, even they didn't know about oysters. LoL. That's why I love this group. You get far more education here than paying for a course.

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Oldvine Zin
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by Oldvine Zin »

I don't want to take this thread too off topic but since the shells question was brought up here...
shells1.JPG
First use shells just taken out of a 5 day HBB ferment, shells are thinner than when they were first put in and holes starting to form, the mash finished at what I like to end with at 0.99 and used just the right amount of ph buffer automatically

OVZ
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by Holytoledo »

OVZ - just curious, what was your starting pH and ending pH along with the type of water did you use.

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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by Oldvine Zin »

Holytoledo wrote:OVZ - just curious, what was your starting pH and ending pH along with the type of water did you use.

HolyToledo
To be honest I rarely take a PH reading and just rely on the shells to balance things out. Reason is I only have had test strips that I don't totally trust and have never had a problem with Seattle's tap water. I did order a real PH meter and it should be here tomorrow, so I'll have real numbers on future ferments.

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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by nerdybrewer »

Oldvine Zin wrote:I don't want to take this thread too off topic but since the shells question was brought up here...
shells1.JPG
First use shells just taken out of a 5 day HBB ferment, shells are thinner than when they were first put in and holes starting to form, the mash finished at what I like to end with at 0.99 and used just the right amount of ph buffer automatically

OVZ
Where's the damn like button???
Cranky's spoonfeeding:
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=52975

Time and Oak will sort it out.
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by Oldvine Zin »

OK with my fancy new meter my tap water is 6.5 PH and the sample of the HBB was 3.2 PH all new to me and trying to figure out what it really means

OVZ
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by fizzix »

Oldvine Zin wrote:OK with my fancy new meter my tap water is 6.5 PH and the sample of the HBB was 3.2 PH all new to me and trying to figure out what it really means
Probably the honey malt. That stuff is God's gift to man. :P

Seriously though, had you added any lactic or phosphoric acid or shells before measuring 3.2 pH?
Grain itself is naturally acidic (dark grains more so than pale) and are possibly responsible for your lowered pH. [One supporting doc: 6th paragraph]
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by jonnys_spirit »

I’ve been running the HBB through several mash/ferment/strip/spirit - recycle backset runs. I got a small 10l barrel full and am still running for extra barrel cut to top up and stock on some white. Bloody Butcher on order.

My production was flowing smooth with a new mash-in every weekend, a strip every weekend, and a spirit after three or four strips.

Well I got hung up with life and work and let my brutes sit on grain and sealed my carboys with rags - perfect for a good lacto.

Two brutes and three carboys of this just waiting to ramp production back up.

This honey bear white’s gunna slip right oit of the glass and into my belly.
1310A7F6-EA06-462E-B200-FAA105AD64BE.jpeg
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i prefer my mash shaken, not stirred
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Oldvine Zin
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by Oldvine Zin »

fizzix wrote:
Oldvine Zin wrote:OK with my fancy new meter my tap water is 6.5 PH and the sample of the HBB was 3.2 PH all new to me and trying to figure out what it really means
Probably the honey malt. That stuff is God's gift to man. :P

Seriously though, had you added any lactic or phosphoric acid or shells before measuring 3.2 pH?
Grain itself is naturally acidic (dark grains more so than pale) and are possibly responsible for your lowered pH. [One supporting doc: 6th paragraph]
OK HolyToledo suggested to me in a PM that either I hadn't calibrated my PH meter or there was serious problems with my tap water at 6.5...
Upon receiving my new Mikwaukee 102 meter I calibrated it per instructions and then took those readings. I rechecked today with the same results so I re calibrated and same results, then I proceeded to read the rest of the instructions on how to use the meter :oops: This meter is slow, not a dip and read,- takes about 30 seconds of swirling to get an accurate measurement :oops: :oops: So testing my tap water the proper way measured at 7.02 I can't retest that mash since it's already been run and resting in a new oak barrel.

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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by Expat »

First off, thank you SCD for creating this awesome recipe!

Decided I wanted to do something different to fill my empty barrel, and then it hit me; its a once filled bourbon so why not make some of my own to refill it. With that in mind there was one recipe which really stood out. So here I am and I've been enjoying my read through, So much good information!
rps20190615_171529.jpg
I've scaled things up 8x to fit my 40g usual size.

56 LB not quite corn meal
4 LB Honey Malt
16 LB Red wheat Malt (unfortunately no white wheat was available)
8 LB Pale Malt
8 LB Oats

All milled and ready to mash in tomorrow morning! My plan is to keep running batches until I have enough to fill barrel :)
rps20190615_174602.jpg
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by Irishgnome »

Looks like you’ve got your work cut out for you Expat.

Sipping on some 9 month old HBB right now.

Its damn good!

Sugar head didn’t last as long.

Love this recipe.

Best of luck on your barrel!

Cheers
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by Expat »

Irishgnome wrote:Looks like you’ve got your work cut out for you Expat.
Sipping on some 9 month old HBB right now.
Its damn good!
Sugar head didn’t last as long.
Love this recipe.
Best of luck on your barrel!

Cheers
Irish.
Thanks Irish,

Yeah, gonna be a lot of mashing, squeezing and running but that's part of the fun!

Dam but that honey malt has an amazing smell, sweet honey with a hit of coco. Unexpected! I'll only use about half of the honey in making the HBB barrel, so i'll have plenty of room left for experimentation :D
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by fizzix »

The trouble with Honey Bear is once you gift somebody with some,
they keep coming back for more of "that stuff you gave me last time."
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by Expat »

fizzix wrote:The trouble with Honey Bear is once you gift somebody with some,
they keep coming back for more of "that stuff you gave me last time."
Yeah, that is a problem. LoL :) perhaps I'll save it for my self, or try at least.
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by OtisT »

fizzix wrote:The trouble with Honey Bear is once you gift somebody with some,
they keep coming back for more of "that stuff you gave me last time."
Interesting. Once a bear learns to eat human food, they keep coming back for more. Coincidence? I think not.

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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

:lol: .
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by acfixer69 »

That's true and appropriate funny nice one Otis
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by jonnys_spirit »

I love this recipe and just ran another spirit run this past weekend in the new 16gallon copper milk can pot still. I've got plenty HBB backset and feints on hand now and just need to keep this in production. This run was about 14 gallons of low wines with feints from last run, and about a gallon of lactic infected backset. Produced about 3/4gallon hearts of the hearts HBB white @ 160pf, and 3.5 gallons of 125pf barrel cut into a 2.5g barrel with 1g for top-up.

I've got malts and wheats for next runs. I add in the oats to my HBB also and last time toasted them a bit in at least two of the four stripping runs.

I think I'm going to up my production for a bit to fill another barrel and mash/ferment/strip such that I can process three 20g brute batches each weekend and simply do less squeezing.

Cheers,
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by last2cmdown »

How much more water are you adding to the recipe before you pitch yeast thanks
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by SwollenGoat23 »

I haven't read yet about anyone trying Flaked corn.
Any ideas, tips or problems you guys could share....?
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by Canuckwoods »

I took the summer off and now back with my second 10 gal batch (2X5 gal)
I really love the taste and smell of the honey malt and have decided to move it into the enzyme conversion portion of the recipe to try to bring more taste and smell over. Does anyone see any problem with this?
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

Nope. Works both ways. Just preference :).
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by 6 Row Joe »

I was ordering some rye yesterday and wondered what some of the toasted and flavored malts would do for a batch. Well here it is. This will be a definate try . Thanks Shine on for your recipe development and sharing with us all.
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by OtisT »

SwollenGoat23 wrote: Thu Oct 24, 2019 9:40 am I haven't read yet about anyone trying Flaked corn.
Any ideas, tips or problems you guys could share....?
I use flaked maze/corn when I make my HBB. It is very easy to work with and converts easily. No special instructions, just follow the original recipe and process. I love it. Otis
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by 6 Row Joe »

OtisT wrote: Sat Nov 09, 2019 3:13 pm
SwollenGoat23 wrote: Thu Oct 24, 2019 9:40 am I haven't read yet about anyone trying Flaked corn.
Any ideas, tips or problems you guys could share....?
I use flaked maze/corn when I make my HBB. It is very easy to work with and converts easily. No special instructions, just follow the original recipe and process. I love it. Otis
Thanks for the tip Otis. I bought a 5 gallon pail full at a brew store going out of business. It won't go to waste.
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Re: Honey Bear Bourbon

Post by Canuckwoods »

on my 20 something batch and I screwed up. Missed reading my recipe instead of adding 2kg (4.4lbs) I added 4kg as my recipe is in lbs but the cornmeal is in kg. Boy, this stuff is thick!!! luckily for me, I always do two batches so I divided the one wet batch into two buckets and will add more water oats and corn to both. Now I have a second double ready to go in a couple of weeks.
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