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One of the messy jobs about distilling bourbon or any grain mash is straining the mash. Has anyone ever used a double boiler or steam heated pot and distilled a grain mash without straining it first? I mean just dump the whole shebang in and start er cookin. Using a normally heated pot the mash will...

Beginners should (in my opinion, obviously) add a thermometer to their still and use one of those pieces of equipment that shows the continuous alcohol percent of the distillate (forget what it's called). Faithfully record the time, temp, and ABV% for each pint of distillate collected and make note ...

Make sure the water flow in the outside jacket is opposite to the direction of the travel of the distillate. I tried it both ways and you do get better cooling by a couple of degrees this way. Plus, it's a basic law of Thermodynamics!

Thanks for taking the time to write that up Mikey T, I think I'm getting closer to having another crack. If I can't get amylase will more malted grain suffice? Also, Beano appears to be a US thing....any Aussies found an alternative? Well, I've heard that you can lay a couple of banana's out to rip...

Hi Micky T Just wondering, looks like you use about 17 gal. of water total. What is the final amount of liquid that goes in the still. The grain sack that goes is the still, is it hung or can it go in with the wash. I have a hard time extracting liquid from a thick wash. Thanks------ sounds finger ...

Ok, I said I was retiring at this but I'm thinking for coming out of retirement this next fall! Anyway, here's my TRIED and TRUE recipe that makes some really, really good stuff. Slightly altered from last post. MikeyT's Bourbon Recipe Ingredients: 16 lbs cracked corn $3.00 3 lbs flaked rye $0.75 8 ...

If 1" is all you got, then you gotta work with it. Looks fine to me. How come it is retired? Got a better one now? Cause I'm on the downhill side of 65 yrs old and I figure 10 gallon will last me to the grave. If it don't, I'll bring it out of retirement! I cut it to 101 proof when I bottle it...

rad14701 wrote:Nice looking, innovative, still... But how many gallons is "i gallon", one...???

The "i" should have been a "1".

I put copper scrubbers about half way up each pipe. On a 16 gallon run I get an average of about i gallon of 60% abv. Starts out at around 70% and I stop collecting the good stuff at about 40%. Why did I make it like this? Cause I had plenty of 1" copper pipe (as in free). It's now retired and ...

I filled my first Gibbs 2 gal. charred barrel right around New Years with DWWG. After only 2 months it is really dark, too oakey but still has that 'white dog' bite to it. I think I'm going to buy a med. toast as well and double up the recipe next time. I like the color from the charred barrel, but...

zymos wrote:What is a "Gibbs" barrel?
Is that a brand, or seller, or a certain style of barrel??

http://www.gibbsbrothers.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

UPDATE - I filered my bourbon a couple more times and it has now set in bottles for a few months (capped with corks). The heavy charcoal taste has disappeared and the color has less red in it. The color now looks more like that of a darker store bought bourbon. The taste however has gotten even bett...

Fastest way to do it is pour boiling water over grain in mash box then still with water and pipe from still into bottom of mash box or barrel. Just run pipe to bottom of mash box with end cut at angle or can get fancy and make t/l or x or coil with holes drilled in tubing to spread heat.Thats way f...

Thanks guys, I will be trying again with a higher and longer cook. Cook till it looks like snot and keep from scorching, cool to 153 degrees and pitch enzymes and stir like hell holding the 150'ish temp as long as possible? Constant stirring is needed when cooking the corn. Once you pitch in the en...

zymos wrote:

MikeyT wrote: It smelled about the same as when I once used 5 lbs of corn sugar (sucrose). or is it maltose? never can keep those two straight.

.

That would be dextrose, which is the same as glucose.

Figured it was one of those "ose's"!

Course it takes more than an hour to get it up to boiling temp. After 30 minutes or so at about 212° the corn turns into gelatinized goo. I really don't time it, just watch the goo until it's fully gelled. maybe it's 45 minutes some times. I used a motorized stirrer to keep it from scortching. Littl...

I boil my corn for 30 minutes with the temp up around 210°-212°. Then add the non-malted barley and rye and enough cold water to get the temp down to about 150°. Then I add the malted barley and amylase and let it convert for 8-10 hrs. Then cool down to 75° and throw in the yeast. I use a motorized ...

Finished the run. Got 1.5 gallons averaging 60% with 1 quart of tails below 45%. Normally I get about 1 gallon of the good stuff with 16 lbs corn and not using the corn syrup. I stopped the tails at 30% cause it was getting late (the moon was shining :) ) When it hit 45% I fired it up higher and did...

I'm not doing the UJSM recipe. I'm doing my bourbon recipe.

My alcoholic neighbor says it's the best bourbon he's ever tasted. I had to include him in my taste tests cause he came over wanting to know what that smell was!

MikeyT so, tell me, where do you get your barley? what kind is it? what's your method for doing your mashing? i usually use a 60 - 90 minute mashing, holding at 150 - 152 deg F. for conversion. (2-row barley, Great Western) I boil the corn for about 30 minutes in the morning using 1/2 gallon water ...

MikeyT So what are you saying? That 5 lbs of malted barley will convert itself plus only 2 more lbs of other grains? (40%) yes, that's what i'm saying. but i haven't had it work at that level, the most i've been able to do consistently is 25%. but, that's just me. and what i've read and discussed w...

Cannon.Co.Tn wrote my experience (such as it is with beer), and everything that i've read (again, only with regards to beer) indicates that malted barley and diastatic malt extract only have enough alpha- and beta- amylase to convert (current strains as of 2003) 40% additional starch material. note...

Yes, iodine test said it had all converted. I used about 1/3rd cup of amylase.

20 lbs cracked corn, 5 lbs cracked barley, 5 lbs malted barley, 5 lbs rye flour, 10 gallons water. Cooked the corn, brought the temp down to 148°, and added the other ingredients plus a little amalyse and 1/2 cup lime juice. After conversion for 8 hours and cooling to 75° I added 2 packets of Presti...

mikey t you are pointing out something that is rarely noticed by the newbie and i thank you for it. stills are different thermos are different. just because i take off at 175 doesnt mean you will. unless your using my still. you cant read a lot of these numbers and take to heart. you have to expera...

mikey t you are pointing out something that is rarely noticed by the newbie and i thank you for it. stills are different thermos are different. just because i take off at 175 doesnt mean you will. unless your using my still. you cant read a lot of these numbers and take to heart. you have to expera...

Mine takes about 4 days using Prestige WD whiskey yeast. I ferment using all the grain then strain. From 10 gallons of strained wort I get about 1 gallon of alcohol at 60%-65% abv. This is boiled corn, malted barley, and rye. I aereate it well before pitching the yeast. After 4 days the head drops a...

ps - that goblet of bourbon was consumed right after I took the pic!

One little bit of info on the drill out the log idea, won't work as previously mentioned grain is all wrong and the chance for cracking and split is very high. MikeyT, you hit on a very good idea in my opinion except for the flat sawn boards for the top and bottom, quart sawn boards from the white ...

This router bit might give you some ideas. Need to select very straight grain quarter sawn white oak for the sides. The width of the boards determine the final diameter. http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=45160&cat=1,46168" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;&q...