Yankee Bastard Whiskey

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YankeeShiner
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Yankee Bastard Whiskey

Post by YankeeShiner »

This is a blended whiskey in three equal parts.

For a five gallon mash:

2 lbs cracked rye
2 lbs cracked peated, malted barley
2 lbs of white corn meal
15 lbs of sugar

Put all that in a 25 liter bucket and pour in two gallons of boiling spring water. Stir it all up until the sugar is dissolved. Let it sit for one hour, stirring every fifteen minutes. Add three gallons of room temperature spring water. Once the mash cools to 95F, pitch in 1.5 tsp of distiller's yeast (DADY) and stir that in.

Cover, airlock, and wait. I kept this bucket in my dinning room so the ferment took about three weeks (its winter).

The run started just over 140 proof. I was collecting until 80 proof and pulled just under a gallon out of it. I kept the run going just out of curiosity and soon after it got cloudy. After mixing the gallon it was 125 proof.

I carbon filtered and polished it up.

I cut it down to 90 proof with distilled water. The smokey barley hits the nose first, the sweet corn comes out on the sip, and the rye bite on the finish.

3 liters of it went into a barrel and I'm going to let that sleep until next Christmas. My friends and I finished the rest...
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Re: Yankee Bastard Whiskey

Post by still_stirrin »

Dats a lotta’ sugar. 10lb. should have been more than enough to get your 5 gallon wash to 1.075 - 1.080. Exactly how “big” was your OG?
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Re: Yankee Bastard Whiskey

Post by YankeeShiner »

still_stirrin wrote:Dats a lotta’ sugar. 10lb. should have been more than enough to get your 5 gallon wash to 1.075 - 1.080. Exactly how “big” was your OG?
ss
Gotta look back through my notes. I recall 1.095.

The end product came our great and I was impressed with how well the yeast performed in such a high gravity mash.
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Re: Yankee Bastard Whiskey

Post by StillerBoy »

YankeeShiner wrote:The run started just over 140 proof. I was collecting until 80 proof and pulled just under a gallon out of it. I kept the run going just out of curiosity and soon after it got cloudy. After mixing the gallon it was 125 proof.
Making an assumption here.. from experience, 6lbs of grains in 25l of water, once the grains are pressed, should have given you about 22 -23 liters of wash to strip.. as for the abv of the wash, it should have been about 15-16%, if finish properly, which would translate to about 1.5 of stripped at 50%.. so you left lot behind..

Have you went with 10lbs sugar, there would have been no need to carbon filtered.. not saying that filtering is not good, just that its an extra step and cost to the finish product..

As for the cloudiness into the tails, the boiler load was puking on you.. either slow down the power input, or clear the wash a little better, or add a little butter or olive oil to the boiler to help in slowing down the puking..

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Re: Yankee Bastard Whiskey

Post by Antler24 »

I'm not sure why your adding sugar to an all grain mash, or why your mashing a sugarhead, or why your carbon filtering your spirits. If you like it fine, but you could be making much better stuff that don't need to be carbon filtered or "polished".
Swedish Pride wrote:
get a brix reading on said ball bearings and then you can find out how much fermentables are in there
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Re: Yankee Bastard Whiskey

Post by NEGaxSEGa »

YankeeShiner wrote:
still_stirrin wrote:Dats a lotta’ sugar. 10lb. should have been more than enough to get your 5 gallon wash to 1.075 - 1.080. Exactly how “big” was your OG?
ss
Gotta look back through my notes. I recall 1.095.

The end product came our great and I was impressed with how well the yeast performed in such a high gravity mash.
I have to object, here. No grains are being mashed in this process, which is why the sugarhead recipe calls for such a high percentage of sugar. Adding boiling water to malted grains denatures your enzymes, and no starch-to-sugar conversion can take place.
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Re: Yankee Bastard Whiskey

Post by YankeeShiner »

NEGaxSEGa wrote:
YankeeShiner wrote:
still_stirrin wrote:Dats a lotta’ sugar. 10lb. should have been more than enough to get your 5 gallon wash to 1.075 - 1.080. Exactly how “big” was your OG?
ss
Gotta look back through my notes. I recall 1.095.

The end product came our great and I was impressed with how well the yeast performed in such a high gravity mash.
I have to object, here. No grains are being mashed in this process, which is why the sugarhead recipe calls for such a high percentage of sugar. Adding boiling water to malted grains denatures your enzymes, and no starch-to-sugar conversion can take place.
Yeah, I was looking for flavor from the grains, not sugar content.

Its still a great tasting whiskey and I like the way it came out.

As for earlier comments, I polish all my runs - low gravity, high gravity, doesn't matter. It just tastes better to me. Also, I probably left some booze behind but it started to get a little cloudy. I always call it a night when I see that and shut it down. Yes, I now I can run tails through another batch. But, I do single batch "craft" kind of stuff, recipe experiments, just good old fun. I'm not running anything in volume. I ain't trying to be no Popcorn (RIP).
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Re: Yankee Bastard Whiskey

Post by YankeeShiner »

Antler24 wrote:I'm not sure why your adding sugar to an all grain mash, or why your mashing a sugarhead, or why your carbon filtering your spirits. If you like it fine, but you could be making much better stuff that don't need to be carbon filtered or "polished".
I polish everything! I just like to. :P
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Re: Yankee Bastard Whiskey

Post by Antler24 »

YankeeShiner wrote:
Antler24 wrote:I'm not sure why your adding sugar to an all grain mash, or why your mashing a sugarhead, or why your carbon filtering your spirits. If you like it fine, but you could be making much better stuff that don't need to be carbon filtered or "polished".
I polish everything! I just like to. :P
If it works don't fix it. I suggest you try a ujsm or similar, don't polish, and age it the right way just to see how you like it. You may find it to be much better.
I'm into smaller runs too, I prefer to do single runs through a thumper rather than strip and spirit runs. Not saying it's any better than a double run batch, but it just suits me and my schedule better, ain't had nobody complain about the quality.
Swedish Pride wrote:
get a brix reading on said ball bearings and then you can find out how much fermentables are in there
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Re: Yankee Bastard Whiskey

Post by BayouShine »

NEGaxSEGa wrote:
YankeeShiner wrote:
still_stirrin wrote:Dats a lotta’ sugar. 10lb. should have been more than enough to get your 5 gallon wash to 1.075 - 1.080. Exactly how “big” was your OG?
ss
Gotta look back through my notes. I recall 1.095.

The end product came our great and I was impressed with how well the yeast performed in such a high gravity mash.
I have to object, here. No grains are being mashed in this process, which is why the sugarhead recipe calls for such a high percentage of sugar. Adding boiling water to malted grains denatures your enzymes, and no starch-to-sugar conversion can take place.
I beg to differ.

If you pour boiling water on cornmeal and cracked malted grains, it will gelatinize the starch granules. That's the first step in the mashing process. What it will leave you with though, is a thick, viscous mash (especially with corn and rye). To finish the job, you'll need the enzymes.

You only need water warm enough to dissolve your sugar for a sugarhead recipe like this. It'll also keep the wash thinner and easier to manage.

15lbs of sugar in 5gal gives 1.138 as an OG. That's way high. 10lbs would be right around 1.095.
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Re: Yankee Bastard Whiskey

Post by Shine0n »

I thought the purpose of malted grains were for the enzymes to convert the starches.

If you dump boiling water on a malted grain you better have some other type of enzymes lying around or a bag of sugar.
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Re: Yankee Bastard Whiskey

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

It's a huge waste of resources to release starches and kill enzymes when you already have those items. You basically took high quality, low cost sugar, threw it away, and then back filled it with regular table sugar.

Just silly to me. If anything, convert the malt at 150, and add sugar to bump it, if you want to. But don't just waste the good sugar.
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Re: Yankee Bastard Whiskey

Post by Pikey »

Yes you could have been more efficient - by putting your boiling water on the grains, then adding the malt around 155 F ? and the sugar after the mix thinned out a bit. Sugar ? I use 5kg (11lb) for a 25 litre wash, and you could get away with a bit more - but 15 lb in 5 (US?) gallons is not gong to ferment right out with ordinary yeast - or if it does, it will take a LONG time. I think you have left sugar in the boiler.

Anyhow, I quite like the concept except I detest the burnt plastic taste of "Peaty" whisky. May give it a try with minor mods myself ! 8)
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Re: Yankee Bastard Whiskey

Post by BayouShine »

Shine0n wrote:I thought the purpose of malted grains were for the enzymes to convert the starches.
That's partly true. The malted grains also have the starch needed to then be converted to sugar. Think single malt whiskeys, beers, etc. It's not just enzymes in there.
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Re: Yankee Bastard Whiskey

Post by NEGaxSEGa »

BayouShine wrote:
Shine0n wrote:I thought the purpose of malted grains were for the enzymes to convert the starches.
That's partly true. The malted grains also have the starch needed to then be converted to sugar. Think single malt whiskeys, beers, etc. It's not just enzymes in there.
Right, but he's not doing that. He's creating gelatinized grains, which can be done without malt, and then he's leaving the starch, without mashing to convert them into sugar. You can mash a malt bill without gelatinizing (if using all malt and starchy grains). You can gelatinize without mashing.
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Re: Yankee Bastard Whiskey

Post by BayouShine »

NEGaxSEGa wrote: Right, but he's not doing that. He's creating gelatinized grains, which can be done without malt, and then he's leaving the starch, without mashing to convert them into sugar. You can mash a malt bill without gelatinizing (if using all malt and starchy grains). You can gelatinize without mashing.
Why gelatinize the starch without going the rest of the way? Why leave the starch just sitting there? This is like making a beautiful marble sculpture, carving and shaping until you have everything starting to look great... Then push it off a cliff.

As SCD said above, it's a waste of time an energy.
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Re: Yankee Bastard Whiskey

Post by hellbilly007 »

Malt also contributes a flavor that you don't get with unmalted grains. That being said, IMHO it's a waste of energy to get the water up to boiling if the malt is only there for flavors. The same flavors could be extracted at mashing temp (I start with 153 F strike water) and the viscosity would be much more manageable. This gives you the benefit of the sugars the malt adds to the equation. Also, since I only use bakers yeast I only add 7-8 lbs sugar to a 5 gallon ferment as I'm not in this for quantity as much as I am for quality of my spirits. Since chasing quality I prefer all-grain and leave the sugar for rum.

YankeeShiner, this does sound interesting. The best thing about this hobby is you can do whatever pleases your tastebuds, so if you like it keep on doing it.
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Re: Yankee Bastard Whiskey

Post by YankeeShiner »

hellbilly007 wrote:Malt also contributes a flavor that you don't get with unmalted grains. That being said, IMHO it's a waste of energy to get the water up to boiling if the malt is only there for flavors. The same flavors could be extracted at mashing temp (I start with 153 F strike water) and the viscosity would be much more manageable. This gives you the benefit of the sugars the malt adds to the equation. Also, since I only use bakers yeast I only add 7-8 lbs sugar to a 5 gallon ferment as I'm not in this for quantity as much as I am for quality of my spirits. Since chasing quality I prefer all-grain and leave the sugar for rum.

YankeeShiner, this does sound interesting. The best thing about this hobby is you can do whatever pleases your tastebuds, so if you like it keep on doing it.
Everyone who tried it liked it so I'm going to play around a bit.

I'm going to do the same basic recipe (1/3 of each grain) but take all this good advice and add water at a mashing temp. I mash in tonight. I'm a fan of bakers yeast too. I just wanted to see what DADY yeast would offer. That's another reason why I put in so much sugar... I wanted to see how much the yeast could take and how much alcohol I could pull out of the ferment.

I'm not going to try the all grains idea...yet. Let's see how this next batch turns out.
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Re: Yankee Bastard Whiskey

Post by hellbilly007 »

Let us know how it goes for ya
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Re: Yankee Bastard Whiskey

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hellbilly007 wrote:Let us know how it goes for ya
I went through my grain stash and couldn't find the same proportions I used last time so I tried this because other than a bunch of cracked corn and a bag of barley its all I had left in my garage...

5 lbs. chocolate roasted and cracked rye
2 lbs. peated malted crushed barley
2 lbs. flaked corn

Grains into a 5 gallon bucket. 2 gallons of strike water at 170F, stir it all up. I covered the bucket for 90 minutes and added a 5 lb bag of sugar and stirred it all up. I added three gallons of room temperature water, stirred that all up and waited until the mash was at 90 degrees. Pitched DADY yeast (I still have to go buy some bread yeast).

I ran it last night. It was better than the last batch. I pulled a gallon out of it. Polished it up. This one is going into a 3L barrel. That chocolate rye really added something different to whiskey.
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Re: Yankee Bastard Whiskey

Post by YankeeShiner »

YankeeShiner wrote:
hellbilly007 wrote:Let us know how it goes for ya
I went through my grain stash and couldn't find the same proportions I used last time so I tried this because other than a bunch of cracked corn and a bag of barley its all I had left in my garage...

5 lbs. chocolate roasted and cracked rye
2 lbs. peated malted crushed barley
2 lbs. flaked corn

Grains into a 5 gallon bucket. 2 gallons of strike water at 170F, stir it all up. I covered the bucket for 90 minutes and added a 5 lb bag of sugar and stirred it all up. I added three gallons of room temperature water, stirred that all up and waited until the mash was at 90 degrees. Pitched DADY yeast (I still have to go buy some bread yeast).

I ran it last night. It was better than the last batch. I pulled a gallon out of it. Polished it up. This one is going into a 3L barrel. That chocolate rye really added something different to whiskey.
I tested the whiskey tonight. It's been sleeping in a 3L barrel for a month. It's color isn't where I want it to be but the taste is incredible. There are subtle coffee and tobacco notes and a leathery finish with a little smoke flavor on the back end. It has a mellow sweet chocolaty nose. There's a lot going on...

I'm going to let it age a few more months and see what happens. It's holding at 120 proof and the Angels haven't taken too much.

I did a second mash last week, same recipe. After the mash bucket was all set my buddy and I strained the grains out into a pot, warmed them back up to 165 degrees with spring water and strained again. I didn't have any hops so I used a few spruce clippings and threw them in while the wort cooled and pulled them out. We put the wort into a one gallon carboy. I racked it twice and bottled it. I used a little organic clove honey instead of priming sugar. I have three 1L bottles and I'm going to open them in two weeks. It's either going to be a train wreak or we just invented a new beer! Let's see.

Side note: My buddy is a beer brewer, we were drunk as hell when we made the mash and thought, lets make some beer too!
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