Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

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6 Row Joe
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by 6 Row Joe »

I started a small batch to try. 61% rye malt, 35%pale malt, and 4% chocolate rye malt. I used US-05 yeast. The ferment is not to vigorous but the temps and ph are right and the Sg is getting closer. It smells heavenly.
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by seabass »

Love chocolate rye. My other favorite malt is extra special malt. Lots of caramel and toasted marshmallow flavors but without adding a bunch of sweetness like a crystal malt would.

Also, learn from my mistake. Keep crystal 120 malt out of your whiskey. It's gross.
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by ViceGripson »

Basically, make a super thick "beer" without malt and distill it. No matter what grain bill, you'll have a decent ferment if you have a high gravity beer recipe with hops. Even yeasts will change the final products.
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by Beerswimmer »

I bought a 50lb sack of caramel 80l malt instead of Vienna to get some pronounced caramel. Same price.
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by StuNY »

Just finished my spirit run on this- wow! I really like the flavors, my basement actually smelled like a sundae! 5% of chocolate and 5% caramel are a really great balance of unique flavors but still bourbon. I believe I could actually enjoy this white, but will put it on oak and see how it develops.
More experimenting with specialty grains for me- going to try the same thing but with Special B and Cherrywood smoked barley's.
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

That's awesome! I love when people express a great experience with this recipe. It's like its own class bourbon- a chocolate bourbon. I am personally planning on a 5 gallon barrel of this this summer, as soon as I get my lazy ass moving again.
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by Beerswimmer »

I actually bought a bag of 60l caramel malt, not the 80l. Also received my pale chocolate malt and new charred barrel to make this as soon as I'm done with the Christmas Caramel bourbon. So it's going to be 80% corn, 15% caramel 60l, 5% pale chocolate. Using Angel yeast for the conversion and fermentation.
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by tombombadil »

I used pale chocolate in an all malt batch and it didn't come through at all. I used .5# in an 8 gallon batch. Maybe I just didn't use enough. Or maybe I should have used chocolate malt instead. Also, I kept too much tails so maybe it will come around in a few years. Point being, pale chocolate may not do the job in this recipe.
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by Beerswimmer »

tombombadil wrote: Thu Jun 04, 2020 5:15 pm I used pale chocolate in an all malt batch and it didn't come through at all. I used .5# in an 8 gallon batch. Maybe I just didn't use enough. Or maybe I should have used chocolate malt instead. Also, I kept too much tails so maybe it will come around in a few years. Point being, pale chocolate may not do the job in this recipe.
Thanks for the heads up, I still have some time to order more. I'll use it in the first of my 4 ferments, that way I can see what happens and use more if needed :thumbup: I'll also be using the backset from that run in the next ferment, so hopefully be able to recycle some of the chocolate flavors.
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by tombombadil »

5% for would be like 1.2# in my recipes, so your using a little more than double the portion that I did, maybe that will get you where you want to be.
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by Beerswimmer »

I started milling my grains for this today for the first of 4 ferments.
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by Beerswimmer »

Pitched yeast today on the first 2 of four ferments, it's rolling a couple hours later!
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by Beerswimmer »

After 3 days it's at 1.010, should be done in another few days. You can see the coffee color of the wash that has the caramel 60l and the pale chocolate.
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

Looking good bud. Been a while since I made this myself. Im supposed to be filling a barrel this summer with it. Glad to see it doing well :thumbup:
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by Beerswimmer »

Thanks, my garage smells like I brewed a porter!
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

You did!
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by Canuckwoods »

I have been making something similar as I had run out of honey malt and alls I had was chocolate it is sure good and will be even better in a few months.
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by still_stirrin »

SoCD,

I recently made a German dark lager that had a rich chocolate flavor. It served very quickly because it was delicious...”womb to tomb” in about 5 weeks. And it was a “meal in a glass”, full of energy-producing carbs.

The recipe is similar to your Sundae Chocolate and certainly the flavor was reminiscent...except it was all malt, no corn. Although I didn’t distill it, I would imagine it would be very similar in the final product.

Here’s a quick look at the beer recipe:
8B587A9D-2D63-4550-AFB3-53C68A07827A.jpeg
Notice the similarity to your recipe? Certainly, the taste was close.
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by Beerswimmer »

Today I'm stripping the second of 4 ferments, stripped the first yesterday and smelled great! Will do a spirit run of the first 2 strips with some backset added in a few days.
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

still_stirrin wrote: Sun Jun 21, 2020 5:39 am SoCD,

I recently made a German dark lager that had a rich chocolate flavor. It served very quickly because it was delicious...”womb to tomb” in about 5 weeks. And it was a “meal in a glass”, full of energy-producing carbs.

The recipe is similar to your Sundae Chocolate and certainly the flavor was reminiscent...except it was all malt, no corn. Although I didn’t distill it, I would imagine it would be very similar in the final product.

Here’s a quick look at the beer recipe:
8B587A9D-2D63-4550-AFB3-53C68A07827A.jpeg

Notice the similarity to your recipe? Certainly, the taste was close.
ss
Yes, it looks very similar and tasty. I have often thought about swapping out the corn for a base malt and making a single malt version. The corn defintly brings down cost on big batches, and makes for a sweeter spirit. I once made a 60% corn 40% Vienna malt mash that tasted incredible. That's the malt I would probably replace the corn for as it's very sweet. The one batch I made was one of the few I had to kick over. All 50 gallons. I hit a cold spell before I learned temp control. The yeast fell out and ph dropped. I thought i was adding the green pack of canning lime, but accidentally grabbed the green bag of canning salt :sick: . Never tried Vienna again, lol. Probably should revisit that soon.

On a side, there is nothing better than a boiler maker with this bourbon, and a matching stout/ porter/ dark lager that uses the same grain bill. The whiskey and beer, one in each hand :thumbup: .
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by Beerswimmer »

It's pouring rain outside, so a perfect day to be in the garage! I'm running the first of 2 spirit runs today, low wines mixed with backset in my keg potstill with keg thumper. Yesterday I milled and sterilized the grains for ferments #3,4. The temps are still above 110F, So I'll wait until later today to pitch Angel yeast.
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by Beerswimmer »

Stripping #3 today, #4 is tomorrow. I went off the recipe and used rolled oats instead of corn for #3.
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by Beerswimmer »

Final strip complete!
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by Beerswimmer »

See y'all in 2022! :wave:
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

Wow. What size barrel? What did you think of it white? Great job!
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by Beerswimmer »

ShineonCrazyDiamond wrote: Fri Jul 10, 2020 12:43 am Wow. What size barrel? What did you think of it white? Great job!
5 gallons. It's delicious! A bakers chocolate flavor, with caramel and grains. Some sweetness too. I'm very excited to see what happens in the barrel!
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by OtisT »

Congrats beerswimmer. I’ll be looking for your SCB party invite 23 months from now. ;-) Otis

I see you did two ferments, four strips and a spirit run to fill the 5 gallon barrel. I’m curious how big (total volume) your two ferment batches were? Otis
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by Beerswimmer »

OtisT wrote: Fri Jul 10, 2020 11:11 am Congrats beerswimmer. I’ll be looking for your SCB party invite 23 months from now. ;-) Otis

I see you did two ferments, four strips and a spirit run to fill the 5 gallon barrel. I’m curious how big (total volume) your two ferment batches were? Otis
Thanks! I did 4 ferments of 30 gallons each. I have two 50 gallon fermenters and make 2 washes at a time. I fill my keg boiler and keg thumper with 12.5 gallons each, and top off the boiler 3/4 through the run with the last 5 more gallons of wash. Then do the same the next day. That will give me about 12-14 gallons of low wines, I mix them with backset and then do the spirit run also using my thumper.
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

First strip of many is coming to temp right now. Got 42 gallons to strip today, spirit run tomorrow. Hopefully I can pull at least a gallon and a half of keeps to start collecting to fill a brand new Gibson barrel that I got 2 years ago! I plan on going uncomfortably (for me) deep into the tails this time. I always think I'm being adventurous, only to realize im always too conservative. In any case, whether it takes 135 gallons, or 180 gallons of wash, it should make a nice Christmas.... next year :).
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Re: Sundae Chocolate Bourbon

Post by OtisT »

Hi SCD. I’m interested in the details of how much deeper you go into tails than your normal cut, and down the road hearing how it turns out. How much deeper did you go? An extra 5% of total collection volume? More?

This last year I started learned a bit about my deep tails cuts. I was experimenting with deeper tails cuts two years ago, filling 4 badmo barrels with different batches of whiskey, all with deep tail cuts. After 18 months I decided to redistill three of those barrels because the tails were still too intense, while one barrel still held a lot of promise. That one barrel was still heavy in tails after a year, but at almost two years there is just a hint of tails present and there is a whole lot of other good rich qualities that I think are coming from the wide cut. On that one barrel, I went ~4% deeper than my standard barrel cut. (4% of the total collection volume) The others were from 6%+ past my normal cut point.

My 40 gallon ferments usually yield just a hair over 2 gallons of barrel proof spirits, so making your 1.5 gallon goal should be more than doable. Best of luck to ya.

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