High Ester Bourbon

All styles of whiskey. This is for all-grain mashes.

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OtisT
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High Ester Bourbon

Post by OtisT »

Howdy folks.

I have been doing a lot of reading about and playing with the creation of esters in rum and bourbon. I recently spent a lot of time torturing some rum in the thread “High Ester Rum” and I want to do the same with a bourbon. I am not abandoning the rum thread. I simply want to make something while I wait for my dunder infection to grow. While the two process are similar, at least initially, I am expect differing results between the two.

I’m no expert, for sure. This is just educational for me and a good way to document what I do as I go. Like my rum thread, I intend to run through this process a few times to refine the process and I hope to keep it up through some aging reports.

I’m starting with the Honey Bear Bourbon (HBB) recipe and process I love so much and will be going from there. On this first run I will be using infected backset and feints from a run of chocolate bourbon I did 5 or so months back.

Here are some of the processes and ingredients (outside of the normal HBB) I plan to use specifically for the purpose of affecting esters in my product:
• Use infected backset in the ferment
• Manage PH of the ferment for esters
• Use a yeast known for ester production
• Let the finished ferment stew with that backset a while
• Use a slow warm-up and a reflux period to encourage fischer-spier esterification during strips
• Add a mix of fresh dunder and feints to the Spirit Run charge
• Use a slow warm-up and a reflux period to encourage fischer-spier esterification during spirit run
• Make appropriate cuts – look for goodness on the edges
• Allow adequate time in a proper bourbon barrel

When all this is done, I need a minimum of 8 liters at barrel strength to fill my Badmo barrel, and I would like a liter to drink white. Let the games begin. :-)

Otis
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Re: High Ester Bourbon

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Starting the Ferment

I’m using the Honey Bear Bourbon with oats grain bill to make a 30 gallon ferment. That is 4 times the original recipe quantity. I am also using the HBB mashing protocol except where noted below.

Summary of ingredients for the 30 gallon ferment:
• 30 lb cracked corn
• 4 lb flaked oats
• 4 lb honey wheat
• 4 lb red wheat
• 4 lb white wheat
• 4 lb 2-row
• 2 packs of yeast boiled with water - Nutrient
• 1 OZ of DAP – Nutrient
• 1 B complex capsule – Nutrient
• Potassium Carbonate – PH Up
• Water to 30 gallons total volume at the start
• 2 gallons infected backset – added after first 48 hours
• (I’m fresh out of shells this run. Oops.)

I followed the HBB mash protocol creating 30 gallons of mash ready for pitching. I typically don't heat my ferment after pitching. I have insulated ferment boxes that usually maintain things in the range I need so long as I start at the top of the range and don't leave the box open.

The quantity of nutrients I listed are about half of what I would normally use on a ferment this size. Backset has lots of nutrients in it, so I only added half to get my yeasties through the first two days, when I plan to add my backset.

@ 0 hours
Pitching Yeast - Problem 1 right out of the gates
I screwed up and only purchased enough yeast for a 15 gallon ferment, 33 grams. A friend told me how to pitch this so I can do 30 gallons and not stress the yeast. I don’t understand all of it, so will simply explain what I was advised to do. First, pitch all my yeast (3 packs, 33 grams) into half of my mash. Wait 24 hours, giving the yeast adequate time to begin rapidly multiplying, then add the second half of the mash. (same temp, PH, etc.)

I am using a Belgian Saison style beer yeast that is said to produce lots of esters and finish dry.
Yeast
Yeast
• Pitch Temp 86 F
• OG: 10 64 or 10 52 * (10 64 to 10 00 is 8.25% ABV)
• PH: 7 and 6 **

* I got two different readings, but believe the 1064 to be more accurate based on the recipe. Got sidetracked and did not do a third test. :oops: The ferment tastes pleasantly of corn and is quite sweet.

** I overshot this a bit (PH 7) in my first half of the wash. Oops. I could fix with backset, but want to wait about 48 hours before adding that so I started at 7. After 24 hours I added my second half of the mash at a lower PH to bring the average to a PH measured near 6, which was my original target. I’ll be looking close at PH again when I add backset in the morning.

@ 24 hours
Adding my second half of the mash
My ferment has been rocking for 24 hours. A great crust, lots of bubbles, heat and CO2. After verifying my temps matched closely and that PHs were where I needed them to be, I aerated the second half of the mash and added it to the ferment barrel. I did not expect much of a change in SG at this early stage so I don't measure.

Otis
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Re: High Ester Bourbon

Post by OtisT »

@ 34 hour - checking before hitting the hay

Been playing catchup on my posts and this one brings the thread real time with my ferment. :-)

Temp is up to 88F
Great thick crust of grains on top
Bubbling away, lots of CO2
SG is 10 37, down 27 points from the OG. 3.5% ABV so far
The PH has already dropped from 6 to somewhere just under 4.6 (low end of my test strips.)

I think it's a bit early to add backset. I want to be further through the conversion before adding backset that could PH crash this active ferment. I'm risking less by waiting longer.

My next opportunity to check will in 10 hours.

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Re: High Ester Bourbon

Post by Single Malt Yinzer »

Subbed in. I like the choice of yeast, I've not tried any of the Belgian ones but have been thinking about it.
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Re: High Ester Bourbon

Post by ShineonCrazyDiamond »

Wow. Very nice documentation. I've thought about this before, but didn't want to bother with ph adjustments. So I stopped sour mashing. But excellent! If be very interested in your results. Both analytically, and practically :). Meet up is in September :thumbup:
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Re: High Ester Bourbon

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ShineonCrazyDiamond wrote:Wow. Very nice documentation. I've thought about this before, but didn't want to bother with ph adjustments. So I stopped sour mashing. But excellent! If be very interested in your results. Both analytically, and practically :). Meet up is in September :thumbup:
I had issues early on in distilling with getting consistent PH readings. Part of this problem was a comfort issue, with me not understanding what a particular PH should be close to, based on the recipe. Once I came to understand those ballpark basics by mash type and I learned how to get consistent reading from both strips and my meter, adjusting PH has been no more difficult than any other step of the process.

Sept.? Not likely, because of the distance, but I'm not ruling it out. I would love to go and it's on my radar. :-)

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Re: High Ester Bourbon

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@ 44 hours - Adding Infected backset to the ferment

Temp is up 2 degrees to 90 F
Great crust of grains still sitting on top
Bubbling is slower yet still active, and plenty of CO2 in the barrel
SG is 10 26 [Down 38 points from the OG of 10 64. 4.9 % ABV currently]
PH is 4.4

Based on the progression of my ferment, It's time to add the infected backset.

I should mention that each time I work with the ferment I am careful to not introduce much oxygen. My 55 gallon ferment barrel is roughly half full, which means I have about 16 inch walls to catch CO2 (keeping Oxygen out.) When I take samples for testing and/or add ingredients, I move slow so as not to stir the air in and around the barrel, and I cover it quickly after each look.

I have 7 liters of infected backset to add. That is roughly 6% of my total ferment volume. I had a another 6 liters in a separate container, but that infection developed a healthy layer of mold on top so I elected not to add that to the mix. The infected backset has a PH of 4.5 so there is no need to adjust PH of the ferment now, which is already at a PH of 4.4.

My backset has a dominant sweet and fruity smell to it, and if you smell a bit deeper you get the familiar scents found in uninfected backset.
Infected and infected+mold backset
Infected and infected+mold backset
I had a second gallon jug like the one on the left, and both were added to my ferment. The carboy contains the molded backset I chose not to add live to my ferment. I am saving the molded backset for now. It comes from a chocolate and dark crystal bourbon I did, and if any of those notes come through in what I am making here, I will boil that molded ferment and use it in another recipe at a different time. If I don't detect anything special from it off the still, I'll dump it.

I poured in the backset slowly and gave things a light stir before covering it back up. Hurry up and wait. ;-)

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Re: High Ester Bourbon

Post by Big Stogie »

Five Star make a PH5.2 stabilizer for your water, its a beer brewing product but we are doing the same ting they are to start. I use it and it works, even better is to use something like this: https://sites.google.com/site/brunwater/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow that is a tool to help you adjust your water to give a profile. I know in Kentucky the ponds they use to hold water at the distilleries are lined with limestone which is said to influence their flavor profile. Water chemistry and PH have a significant influence on Beer no reason to think they will not influence the beer we make before distilling.
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Re: High Ester Bourbon

Post by vqstatesman »

Hi OtisT,

Great thread, keen to see how this pans out. Also been thinking of doing something similar myself too.

Can you elaborate on your infected backset...
Assume this is from a similar batch of bourbon?
How long do you age the backset before its infected?
Do you add anything to encourage infection eg yogurt etc?
Do you age the backset sealed or open to natural yeast etc to encourage infection?
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Re: High Ester Bourbon

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vqstatesman wrote:Can you elaborate on your infected backset...
Assume this is from a similar batch of bourbon?
How long do you age the backset before its infected?
Do you add anything to encourage infection eg yogurt etc?
Do you age the backset sealed or open to natural yeast etc to encourage infection?
My backset if from a "Similar" batch. Both use the HBB grain bill with minor exceptions. My backset's grain bill had replaced the Honey Wheat with small quantities of British Chocolate and British Black Crystal malts

I added nothing to cause the original infection. I simply let my fresh backset sit in glass and after 30 +/- days an infection took. I believe it to be a Lacto infection. Since the initial infection, I have simply propagated it forward by either adding fresh/cooled backset to the previous much pit container or saving a jar of the infected dunder to add to the next new container of backset.

I have been keeping my carboy capped with a rubber bung that has a hole in it. So not really sealed, but not a lot of flow either.

*********
Infections are a PITA to work with alive. Just came to the conclusion I should not taste my ferment, which I like to do. :-( I may decide the infection thing is too much work and risk, and just work with fresh backset moving forward. Either that, or send away for a proper infection for distilling, which I hear smells putrid and not sweet like my lacto. While I do continue to experiment with it for now, but I am not convinced yet that my infection is doing anything for my product. I do believe the backset makes a big difference, but so far nothing interesting from the infection other than some nasty pics.

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Re: High Ester Bourbon

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@ 66 Hours - Getting closer

Still a nice crust
bubbling slowly
Temp is 90 F
SG is 10 07 [10 64 to 10 07 is 7.4% ABV)
PH is down to 4.0

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Re: High Ester Bourbon

Post by OtisT »

@ 73 hours - I think it's all but done fermenting

Very few bubbles, still plenty of captured CO2 in the barrel
The crust is not completely rebuilding itself after I take samples
Temp is down 2 degrees to 88 F
PH dropped to 4.1
SG is 10 05

My past ferments of HBB with backset have finished between 10 06 and 09 98, and I'm happy with what I have now.

I plan to allow the ferment to sit as is for at least another 42 hours before I begin stripping. (Saturday morning for me.) I'm calling this Barry White time. I'm giving backset and alcohol time for some sweet, sweet lovin, so they can get it on and make some love esters. That, and I may also see a few more points drop before it's done done.

Since I am happy enough with my current SG, I no longer need to monitor the ferment for a stall. I have all but sealed up the fermenter so that I don't loose my CO2 buffer over the next two days. (I do have a small opening in the top of barrel so it don't go Pop!) I will take final measurements just before the first strip.

Sorry for no smelling notes from the ferment. I've been careful to keep O out of the fermenter and I get nothing but a CO2 burn when I do try to smell what's going on.

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Re: High Ester Bourbon

Post by vqstatesman »

Thanks for the response. Look forward to hearing the updates and results :)

It's aways great to hear of a good experiment and thinking outside the square. Not all experiments work out favourable however its always worth having a good go at it.
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Re: High Ester Bourbon

Post by jon1163 »

I interested in seeing how this turns out. I plan on learning about and experimenting with infections soon. I'm a bit scared of botulism, and whatever else, though.
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Re: High Ester Bourbon

Post by zapata »

OtisT wrote: Either that, or send away for a proper infection for distilling, which I hear smells putrid and not sweet like my lacto.
Depends what infection you want to make what acids to make what esters. Lactic infections would make more whiskey-ish esters. Lactic infections are well studied in both scotch and american whiskeys and considered integral to flavor complexity. The famous rum infection acids do smell like vomit and sweat. But those notes might be totally out of place in a bourbon. Lactic acids on the other hand are much more pleasant smelling, and their esters are a little more restrained than the over the top fruit esters from rum infections.
I think your plan is actually freaking perfect. Max the yeast esters with the high initial ph and temperature, max the backset esters with the lacto infection. It actually sounds like it has a better chance to be delicious whereas I'd be a little worried of an overpowering rum ester note just making it interesting and weird.
Really excited to hear how this turns out, I'm gonna grab some popcorn.
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Re: High Ester Bourbon

Post by OtisT »

zapata wrote:Lactic infections would make more whiskey-ish esters. Lactic infections are well studied in both scotch and american whiskeys and considered integral to flavor complexity. The famous rum infection acids do smell like vomit and sweat......
That is promising for my whiskey. I guess I'll have to find a new infection just for just my RUM then and keep the lacto for my bourbon. Thanks for the post. Otis
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Re: High Ester Bourbon

Post by OtisT »

@ 116 hours - It's done done, and I'm stripping today

Occasional big bubble, still a CO2 whiff to the barrel so I was successful in keeping it mostly O free to the end
Crust is gone. Just a thin layer of floating grains
Temp down to 84 F
PH is still at 4.1
FG is 10 01 (I gained 4 points letting it sit two more days. This is right where my HBB typically finishes at, so I am very pleased.)

I'll be doing 3 strips next. One strip will involve an extra long warm up and I'll be comparing the smells/flavors of that to a fast strip of the same. In a perfect world I would like to let this sit a few days longer to stew, but this is my window of opportunity to get some stillin done so I am taking it.

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Re: High Ester Bourbon

Post by kiwi Bruce »

zapata wrote: Lactic infections would make more whiskey-ish esters. Lactic infections are well studied in both scotch and american whiskeys and considered integral to flavor complexity.
The esters in a lagavulin or a laphroaig must be something beyond a lactic infection...AND the fact that their fermentation times are 90 hours plus...could the source of the bacteria be in the peat ? or in the peat water ?
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Re: High Ester Bourbon

Post by zapata »

With long established commercial distilleries I think a lot of the characteristic infection is endemic to the operation. It's in the washbacks and the valves and the walls and the ceiling etc. Lagavulin I know uses wooden washbacks which are bound to harbor a unique microbial population. I could even see Laphroig's malting floor being another "incubator" for distinctive microbes that carry over to the malt.

I'm not a believer that much peat flavor comes from the water, but that's obviously just based on reading the "experts" argue about it as I certainly have no first hand experience. But does the water source add microbes? No idea, but interesting thought.

Longer than industry standard fermentations however probably affect esters in 2 ways. FIrst by allowing more lactic bacteria fermentation after the bulk of fermentation is complete, but also by increasing yeast created esters. I think for the yeast esters it is particularly the larger carboxylic acid ones that increase with time, the smaller ones having pretty much peaked by the time of peak fermentation (based on studies on beer, but I presume similar for whisky's beer).
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Re: High Ester Bourbon

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Strip Run 1 of 3 Complete - Long Warm Up and Reflux Period

This first strip was my long warm up and long reflux strip. I brought the wash up to 150 (+/-10) and maintained it there for 2 hours. After that I slowly brought it up to first vapor over a 30 minute period, then maintained the still under full reflux for another 2 hours. After that I opened the VM port, turned off reflux, and brought my boiler power up to stripping speed (~3000 to 3500W)

I just read in the "Using reflux to encourage Fischer Esterification" thread that some believe copper is a catalyst for that type of esterfication between fatty acids and alcohol. I have a SS boiler and copper column and reflux coil. I'm not sure if I would see much catalyst benefit from the copper as I don't think the acids are ascending the column with vapor to make contact with the copper, and I don't know if enough copper is making it's way back down into the boiler with the reflux to enhance the ester reaction. I will hedge my bets next time by putting some copper bits into the bottom of my boiler. [note to self - Add "put copper bits in boiler" to my high ester process list.]

I ran this strip down very far so that there is little alcohol in my backset. Too much alcohol in the backset can hinder microbial growth (infection). If I believe my meter, I was collecting below 2% abv when I shut things down. [For my reference, that was at 109 F.] I hear from others that going down to 5% ABV on collection would have been low enough. I collected 3.5 gallons of low wines. Will check ABV later.

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Re: High Ester Bourbon

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Strip Run 2 of 3 complete, and a change in plans

Strip 2 was completed last night. It resulted in 3 gallons of 30% ABV low wines. I went deeper and collected an additional 1/2 gallon (3.5 gallons total) that will not make the spirit run.

I sampled both strip runs at 2, 3, 4, and 6 liters into collection for a comparison of smells/tastes between the two styles of strips. One was slow, other fast. I will report on this comparison of strip processes a bit later.

Change in Plans

I forgot to account for the volume lost to grains, so my yield will be lower than planned. After squeezing all my grains, I found that I only have 4.5 gallons of wash remaining for my third strip run. This is just barely enough volume to run alone in my still. I have decided that rather than doing a small strip I will add the remaining ferment to my low wines and feints/backset mix for what I believe is called a "1.5 spirit run" (Thanks Nerdybrewer for the idea.)

The New Math:
Low wines = 6 gallons at 30%
Ferment = 4 gallons at 9%
Feints/Backset mix = 2 gallons at 20%

Results in a still charge of 12.5 gallons at 20.8% I am guessing this will net me just enough in the cut to fill my Badmo barrel (7 liters) and no more, which I am fine with.

My second strip puked a little so the first gallon collected had a golden hue to it. Because my spirit run will have a slightly larger volume than that strip run and I also have some fresh ferment in it, I will add a small bit of butter to the charge to prevent foaming/puking during my spirit run.

Time to set things up and get started. :-) Otis
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Re: High Ester Bourbon

Post by OtisT »

Half way through this spirit run and DAMN, does this stuff smell and taste wonderful. Some interesting stuff in there. Just needed to tell someone. :-) :-) :-) Now, I had better get back to my jars. Otis
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Re: High Ester Bourbon

Post by Single Malt Yinzer »

ha - that's funny :thumbup: I'm happy for you. You put in a lot of work for it.
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Re: High Ester Bourbon

Post by OtisT »

I had a big scare with my product the last two days as jars continue to air out.

An off sour smell. Not sure what created this Ester but it sure don’t smell good. I’ve never smelled this before distilling.

Starting at 50% through my collection and lasting past 75% of my jars was a sickly sour smell. Was not vinegar, was not vomit, but it was sour and somewhat unpleasant for sure. It was the dominant smell in those jars and I was looking at loosing half my expected cut to this sour. :-( The sour smell came in at the same time as the smell of bottoms.

After 24 hours of airing the smell was still present and sour was still the first smell I could identify when I stuck my nose in there. What was different is that after I first detected that sour smell, I could no longer detect it for the remainder of my time smelling jars. I went away for a while and came back and again, I detected the sour but it did not last past the first big whiff. It’s like the sour was a light molecule just lingering on top and was the first molecules to escape, but they were not deep through the product so they did not keep coming. So it’s better, but still not good.

I also noticed my bottoms don’t smell the same and they typically do. I am one that describes the smell of bottoms as Wet Cardboard. Bottoms in this batch I would describe as Dry Cardboard. I don’t know how else to describe it. It’s similar, but different than normal for me.

After 48 hours of airing that sour is gone. Thank beluschi! I still have a day to go before I sit down with diluted samples to make cuts, but I’m feeling better about it now than I was two days ago. Just preliminary, but I do believe I am getting a pleasant rich chocolate as well as some spice from my later jars. And smelling those Heads/hearts transition jars have me salivating for a drink.

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Re: High Ester Bourbon

Post by kiwi Bruce »

Thank you Otis...we are entering a brand new path and I guess anything can be expected, a "sickly sour smell" glad that "aired out" thanks for keeping us in the loop.
An aside...but not off topic. I was doing some research into an HDer that lived in the late 18 hundreds. His name was Jim Smith, better known as "Goshen" In 1888 he was making the finest Whisky in all of Great Britain. ( According to the press at the time) He was caught and tried, but in the Court notes is an interesting find. Everything was broken down and hidden when the Tax men raided his home, however they did find his still and 100 lbs of cracked barley, and a 50 gallon fermenter with 5 gallons of (their words) "Stale sour wash" still in the fermenter...Waiting for the next batch... I ask ?
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Re: High Ester Bourbon

Post by butterpants »

I've always equated Belgian yeasts with spicy phenolic compounds over fruity esters and would have picked an English Ale strain for high esters... run it warm-ish.

Nice documentation tho... thanks for the experiment.
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Re: High Ester Bourbon

Post by Saltbush Bill »

OtisT wrote:After 48 hours of airing that sour is gone. Thank beluschi! I still have a day to go before I sit down with diluted samples to make cuts,
Wow your a brave man Otis , there are still people here who believe that you shouldn't air for more than 24 hours or the angels will drink all of your ethanol.
OtisT
Master of Distillation
Posts: 3179
Joined: Sat Oct 24, 2015 11:59 am
Location: Pacific Northwest

Re: High Ester Bourbon

Post by OtisT »

Saltbush Bill wrote:
OtisT wrote:After 48 hours of airing that sour is gone. Thank beluschi! I still have a day to go before I sit down with diluted samples to make cuts,
Wow your a brave man Otis , there are still people here who believe that you shouldn't air for more than 24 hours or the angels will drink all of your ethanol.
Quality over Quantity every time. Two years from now I sure as hell won’t be bragging about how big this batch was or how quickly I made it, but I will be talking about the quality of my drop (I hope). I also make way more than can drink myself, so sharing with the angles is quite alright with me. Drink up my friends. :-)

I feel that in most cases I can make a good cut after 24 hours, and if I know the recipe well cuts after 24 hours is simple. This is because I do cuts by exclusion of offensive smells and tastes and for me those bad characteristics are easy to pick out. However; When I try new things I enjoy the discovery that comes in the longer process. Letting some nasty evaporate off let’s you detect more subtle good stuff underneath. If you are Ester hunting for good smells/tastes this should be part of the process or why bother, right? My recent case shows that the profile of my product changes even after two days, and in this case the longer time has impacted my cut decision.

I’m Making my final cut decision today and will post about it here. I have learned some new stuff while making cuts on this batch that I will share in my post. :-)

Otis
Otis’ Pot and Thumper, Dimroth Condenser: Pot-n-Thumper/Dimroth
Learning to Toast: Toasting Wood
Polishing Spirits with Fruitwood: Fruitwood
Badmotivator’s Barrels: Badmo Barrels
OtisT
Master of Distillation
Posts: 3179
Joined: Sat Oct 24, 2015 11:59 am
Location: Pacific Northwest

Re: High Ester Bourbon

Post by OtisT »

High Ester Bourbon – Spirit Run

I did this spirit run a little differently that I originally intended. The original plan involved collecting most of the heads under reflux (compress the heads) then I was to turn reflux off and pot still the remainder of the run.

An issue arose when I found I didn’t have enough ferment volume remaining for a third strip run. I decided to add the remaining ferment (9%) to this spirit run. I’ve heard this mix of fresh ferment and low wines referred to as a “1.5 run”. With this low ABV spirit charge, I was no longer confident I could hit the desired ABV at collection time by pot stillin once.

To bump up product ABV I chose to do this run under very light reflux after heads were collected. Because this is a bourbon, I also have to be sure that I don’t over reflux and collect at 80% ABV or higher.

Preparations

Spirit Run Charge
23 liters of low wines at 30% ABV
15 liters of honey bear bourbon ferment at 9% ABV
8 liters of bourbon feints/backset mix at 20% ABV
Copper Screen (wire) – A few copper bits as a catalyst for Fischer Esterification
2 tbs butter – prevent foaming/puking

46 liters total at 20.8 % ABV

Column setup
2” VM insulated short column (no extension)
6” of copper mesh for reflux separation (~1 plate equivalent)
Sight Glass to monitor vapor/reflux

Collection Plan
I want lots of resolution (small fractions) to cut from because I am looking to isolate some potential esters. I normally shoot for a 5% fraction per jar on a run, but I am going with a 3.3% fractions (400 ml) on this run for better resolution. I will use some big jars for heads collection and also big jars for middle Hearts to help keep my jar count to something more manageable.

Spirit Run by Phase
Warmup and testing some new equipment
A long warmup was done to encourage Fischer esterification. One hour at 140-150 F, and one hour boiling (~170F) under full reflux at 3000W. Copper bits were added to the SS boiler as a catalyst for Fisher esterification (per an article I recently read.) I did make good use of this warmup time under reflux. I have a relatively new boiler/heat solution. I ran my rig through a few tests to determine how much power my column can handle before flooding and how much cooling flow in lpm I require at various power levels.

Collect Foreshots and Heads
I wanted to compress 15% of my expected volume. No hurry, as this allows more time for Fischer esterification as I nurse off foreshots and heads.
Foreshots. Under full reflux at 3000W I opened my VM valve a hair and collected 150 ml of foreshots over 90 minutes at about 1 drop/sec. [in retrospect, less power would have been OK.]
Compressed Heads. I slowly opened up the valve over the next 30 minutes until I was at 3 full turns open and let that run until I collected 4 jars of compressed heads. Still more than adequate reflux.

Collect Product for Cuts
It took time (a few jars worth of collecting) to get my product output at an acceptable ABV, at or below 80%. Initially I opened my VM valve full and was collecting above 90% ABV. I lowered reflux flow to the point of starving my reflux condenser to get down to 80 ABV while I was still in the heads to hearts transition.

I found it was not that easy to run my still with that little reflux. Even with a needle valve, my flow was somewhere between “barely nothing” and “not much at all”, and little adjustments at that low flow would overshoot results. WARNING: With the condenser that starved for water, Output Temp was close to Vapor Temp; Super Hot. I found I could tell when my condenser became starved by the increase in product flow.

With so many small jars I did not have time to measure ABVs or smell/dilute/taste as I went. I sealed each jar off of the still to be dealt with at a later time. (foreshadowing :-)

I ran this down pretty far, through the cloudy oil and into the clear sweet stuff until the production rate began to slow down fast. The last jar was 20% ABV


That’s my spirit run. I’ll be back with details on airing and cuts. Otis
Otis’ Pot and Thumper, Dimroth Condenser: Pot-n-Thumper/Dimroth
Learning to Toast: Toasting Wood
Polishing Spirits with Fruitwood: Fruitwood
Badmotivator’s Barrels: Badmo Barrels
OtisT
Master of Distillation
Posts: 3179
Joined: Sat Oct 24, 2015 11:59 am
Location: Pacific Northwest

Re: High Ester Bourbon

Post by OtisT »

Airing

I aired my jars for 3 days. Previous posts describe a scare I went through with a dominant strong sour smell that started half way through collection and lasted well into the tails. It was offensive to me and those jars never would have made the cut. After airing one day the sour was still dominant but it did not linger as long and allowed me to detect other smells under it. After two days it was mostly gone and at three days I can’t detect any hint of the sour.

The jars really opened up after three days airing. As time passed I could single out and identify smells more easily.

Cuts
Like most folks, I start sampling for cuts from the center of Hearts and work my way to Heads then again from Hearts to Tails. I look for the introduction of new flavors/smells and changes in intensity as I go jar to jar. When I get a good feel for where the cuts may be, I focus on jars in those two areas, diluting samples on each side of the expected cut for more smell and taste tests.

A picture is worth a 1000 words, 2000 for a spreadsheet.
High Ester Bourbon Cuts Analysis.pdf
HE Bourbon Cuts Analysis
(599.33 KiB) Downloaded 247 times
Note on Jar 7 – My nose deserves a blue ribbon

When making cuts I found jar 7 quite unique and fascinating among other jars. When I got there it seemed bright, delicious, and to literally “have it all”. I felt I could detect all the other smells in various jars in this one jar. I got bottoms, chocolate/spice, sweet/fruit, floral, etc. For some reason it seemed a blend of everything yet out of place.

After all my sampling and notes were done I decided to measure and record ABVs of what I was keeping in the cut for my records. I noticed that again, jar 7 was a stand out. I thought maybe I measured or recorded wrong, so I did it twice. That one jar has a significantly lower ABV than any other jars around it. I went back to my notes on the run and found that is where I had opened up my VM to full and began adjusting reflux to achieve 80% product output. Jar 7 was collected while I was still making adjustments and I had reflux too low for a period of time.

This all means jar 7 was collecting like a pot still at least part of that time, and the result was a lot of smearing happened in that jar. It’s not too important, but I do always like to explain anomalies if I can. This also give me more confidence that my nose is actually working properly (separating and identifying smells) because I knew and could describe how that jar was different before I had any data to back it up.

Esters Summary
Hell, I don’t know?

I think the Chocolate and/or Spice is likely from the chocolate bourbon backset and feints I used.

Floral was a new smell for me to isolate. I am very happy with that. I don’t know if that is new, or if I was simply able to put a name to it this time. It is definitely floral, and sometimes seems rose like. This may be from the infection? I also feel there is something else in there with the floral smell. Maybe it's the grains smell I normally find about there that I just did not seem to find this time?

That dark/dry thing I sense seems new as well. Possibly from they British Dark Crystal malt used in the chocolate bourbon feints and backset. Maybe something new and dark. May be multiple things muddles together?

All else seems kind of normal for my bourbon.

Otis
Otis’ Pot and Thumper, Dimroth Condenser: Pot-n-Thumper/Dimroth
Learning to Toast: Toasting Wood
Polishing Spirits with Fruitwood: Fruitwood
Badmotivator’s Barrels: Badmo Barrels
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