Tennesse Whiskey
Here is one recipe for Tennessee-Style whiskey. With practice, you will be able to produce a high quality product comparable to the better Tennessee-style whiskeys on the market, such as George Dickel.
Jack advises ...
I just found the "mash bill" that is made of.
It consists of 80% corn, 12% rye, 8% malt (a high enzyme 6-row
variety will be needed). It is distilled once in a pot still with a thumper,
then filtered through a 10 foot layer of maple charcoal (this takes about 4
days). It then is placed in new, charred American oak barrels where it ages
for 5 years, 6 months before it is bottled.
Another iteration of the same process...
aged in the same way, with the same grain bill, but it is
filtered through maple charcoal again after aging. By the way, it was 1941
when the American government gave Tennessee whiskey it's own classification.
regarding a homemade version, Jack adds ...
I have tasted this recipe when home made and it was better than the
original, using this mash bill. The distillery uses 80% corn, 12% rye, 8% malt
(6-row). They ferment with 25% backset from a previous distillation run-
homemakers should do the same. They use a 64inch diameter copper beer still
with a doubler- but a homemade potstill with two runs (collect one-third of
the mash volume out of the still as low wines, then re-run it, collecting
from 75%abv to 55%) works just as well. The resulting spirit is then aged on
charred American oak, and sweetened with a dash of REAL maple syrup (the kind
that has a slight smokey flavor)- this will taste JUST like the store bought
spirit- but will be a LOT smoother.
The spirit should be aged at less than 65%abv, to prevent vanillins from
clouding up the smokey sweetness from the maple syrup.
