Honey Bear Bourbon

[Expat]

Seeing so much talk about cooking corn has got me itchy to get working.

Got my grains cracked last night, and I've now mashed in my corn for a 1/2 barrel batch of this lovely HBB. 10x original recipe (no oats), using the bulk easy mashing method.

[Durhommer]

Looks like it smells great

[Expat]

Looks like it smells great

Corn porridge heaven

The honey malt has to be my favorite though. Gonna be a day or so before that gets added though.

[BrewinBrian44]

Expat,

Hell yeah man! Large batches are the only way. After doing one myself, there’s no going back.

[ddizzle22]

Looking really good expat. I finally got enough grains for a 30gallon mash. Just need to run to tractor supply for some rolled oats and some oyster shells. Look forward to trying this recipe and the large batch method.

[Expat]

Looking really good expat. I finally got enough grains for a 30gallon mash. Just need to run to tractor supply for some rolled oats and some oyster shells. Look forward to trying this recipe and the large batch method.

Thanks dizzle, most of that thanks should go to SCD, as its both his recipe and process I'm decently good at following instructions though

Tell ya what though, this is one aggressive ferment! Its rocking like its on the heat lol

Dunno what TSC corn is like where you are but I couldn't dump that crap fast enough; nothing but dust and cob garbage. I found a local feed company which does a really nice crack for about the same price, and that's i'm using here. Note to self, buy more corn so I start the other barrel

[ddizzle22]

Looking really good expat. I finally got enough grains for a 30gallon mash. Just need to run to tractor supply for some rolled oats and some oyster shells. Look forward to trying this recipe and the large batch method.

Thanks dizzle, most of that thanks should go to SCD, as its both his recipe and process I'm decently good at following instructions though

Tell ya what though, this is one aggressive ferment! Its rocking like its on the heat lol

Dunno what TSC corn is like where you are but I couldn't dump that crap fast enough; nothing but dust and cob garbage. I found a local feed company which does a really nice crack for about the same price, and that's i'm using here. Note to self, buy more corn so I start the other barrel

Trust me I've run through a bag of TSC corn and will be going to restaurant supply store for cornmeal going forward lol. I believe the rolled oats are what others are using for this recipe so want to grab some of that. Your scaring me I was planning on keeping the 55g barrel on the moving doly but now afraid since it just barley fits.

[rubberduck71]

They have rolled oats in big bags @ Restaurant Store also (~$30 US), BUT you may have to become a member to have it shipped there for free. Not all of them have it in stock at any given moment.

That said, membership is fairly inexpensive: $50/year which you could easily blow through in shipping costs alone if you don't have a local grain supply source. They even offer a free 30 day trial membership.

[Expat]

Well, it looks like my current batch of HBB has decided to take a slow path. Running hard from pitch it hit 1.04 and appears to have slowed to a crawl. Barely bubbling and the cap has dropped. Temp is 83ish and the pH is fine, got that sweet and sour taste.

Waiting to see if it'll work out.

[BrewinBrian44]

Well here’s the verdict....

Ran two 1.5 spirit runs. Half 29% low wines and half fresh wash with my 3” 4 plate rig. Each was about 10 gallons. Essentially the culmination of two 20 gallon batches after straining, using a full 50lb sack of corn meal plus the malts as stated in the original recipe. Moving forward, I’ll only run wash through the plates.

My god, the end of the run was the best part with all the intense graham cracker flavor just before the late tails. I couldn’t help but swallow the stuff it was so good.

At the very end I cranked up the power to collect feints for my next runs. Even those smell like intense grainy sweet honey. I hope they start intensifying that flavor as I keep recycling them into to each run.

I yielded 1.7 gallons of 90% with good quality cuts after blending the jars tonight. Should be able to fill this new 5gal Gibbs barrel soon at this rate! I’m thinking about doing a 62.5% barrel entry, but would love advice on this too. Large batches are the way to go!

Thank you SCD, you are the man! What a great contribution to tried and true. Even busted out some Pink Floyd music while running the still! Haha