Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

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Re: Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

Post by Jimbo »

Hey Morehu, giver a try. I do this scaled up recipe on autopilot now, did several runs over the past winter and put up about 20 gallons of assorted bourbons. 50 lbs cornmeal, 20 lbs malt, 30 gal water per below. US05 yeast. Gives me 25gal for the still at 10%. 2+ gallons for the bbl at 62%

All grain brewer here too. Yes its very convenient to start with RO and build whatever water needed.

Cheers.
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Re: Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

Post by Morehu »

I was pretty chuffed to find out my home brew store stocks malted maize too. All I need is the condenser to arrive and I’ll be away
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Re: Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

Post by Jimbo »

Very nice, keep us abreast of your exploits, we love good stories here.

Kia ora.
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Re: Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

Post by Morehu »

Will do
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Re: Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

Post by TwoSheds »

Gotta give a thanks to Jimbo and a bump to this thread! I didn't make this recipe (but probably will at some point) but it has one of the best descriptions of running an all-grain whisky I've seen!

Go back to page 1, read the steps, it's pretty much all there and very well laid out. It has answered a ton of my questions, even some I didn't know I had. Thanks Jimbo, great write up!
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Re: Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

Post by rubberduck71 »

+1!

This is now my standard protocol with A/G's.
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Re: Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

Post by PeatyKeats »

This may be a question above my pay-grade, but…

…is there any concern that retrogradation could occur by letting the milled crack corn sit in the BAP overnight as the temperature drops from 205° down to 155°ish?
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Re: Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

Post by Blackdirt Cowboy »

PeatyKeats wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 8:25 am This may be a question above my pay-grade, but…

…is there any concern that retrogradation could occur by letting the milled crack corn sit in the BAP overnight as the temperature drops from 205° down to 155°ish?
I wouldn’t worry about that at all. I always let my corn cool overnight and mash in the malt the next morning with no problems. Plus, the corn is pasteurized at that point, so no worries if any nasties growing in there either.
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Re: Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

Post by Spike007 »

Where are you guys getting these yeasts I can't find them anywhere
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Re: Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

Post by Deplorable »

Spike007 wrote: Sun Aug 28, 2022 8:44 pm Where are you guys getting these yeasts I can't find them anywhere
Amazon or More Beer are good on line sources.
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Re: Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

Post by Spike007 »

Thnx deplorable!
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Re: Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

Post by Spike007 »

Ran a 6 gallon run of this in 5 days it had only produced 4%abv I did blankets n everything ran it anyway literally got 2 cups not even enuff to run faints tried again with 4 pounds sugar an 05 yeast came out great but had to add barley at higher temp to pasteurize. Love it getting ready to run sour mash within 2 days maybe I messed up but I won't use turbo yeasts and know of nothing that could ferment fully in 4 to 5 days. We'll see how the sour mash comes out. Happy fermenting. spike
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Re: Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

Post by bilge »

dont do that baked, because the AG whiskey ferments are not sterile. The malt is never pasteurized in AG fixins, so the bacteria on the malt is still there. Its a race with the yeast. And in a clean environment with fresh clean yeast, the yeast will win. If you keep cycling something with bacteria, the bacteria will proliferate and youre toast.
Beer is boiled after mashing. So the ferment is sterile.


A very late answer, but I read the messages one by one and sometimes a couple of times. I learn a lot from you, thank you. What I do is: After stripping step is finished, I put the backset in sterilized glass bottles. I fill up to the neck. Then I put an airlock. Some amount of mould is seen only on the top. When I neeed (in 3-4 months time) I sterilize the backset by heating up to boiling temperature. Then I use it next day. No change in taste. Thank you.
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Re: Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

Post by ddizzle22 »

Well just did a mash of this with pretty decent success I think. 30gallon at 1.064. Hopefully she finishes out good and can have a nice amount of wheated goodness.
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Re: Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

Post by ddizzle22 »

Jimbo wrote: Mon Sep 13, 2021 7:18 am Hey Morehu, giver a try. I do this scaled up recipe on autopilot now, did several runs over the past winter and put up about 20 gallons of assorted bourbons. 50 lbs cornmeal, 20 lbs malt, 30 gal water per below. US05 yeast. Gives me 25gal for the still at 10%. 2+ gallons for the bbl at 62%

All grain brewer here too. Yes its very convenient to start with RO and build whatever water needed.

Cheers.
Your not kidding. Just finished squeezing around 30gals of this and definitely have almost 25gals clearing. Mine came in around 9.32% for my first go. Very happy with it. Curious to see how she clears but definitely 2 keg boiler charges. This will probably be my goto excited to strip it and get a nice spirit run.
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Re: Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

Post by jpparts »

Hey Jimbo love this, and going to do this for my next mash. Will take more steps as I have a 5 gal barrel I need to fill but only a 8gal BAP. LOL. For the sugar head, I am thinking about using a gallon of molasses and brown sugar. What are your thoughts on that?
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Re: Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

Post by venkman »

I just finished the spirit run last night on my first attempt at this recipe. I haven't made cuts yet. I didn't use the "Tried and True" recipe on the first page of this thread. I made a few mods based on some of Jimbo's comments on his current methods, buried in the middle of this thread somewhere. I started this batch about two weeks before Christmas. I didn't and don't intend to make the sugarhead. I'm sticking with AG for now, trying to learn as much as I can.

Sunday, Dec 10
- 09:00
Used my keg boiler and additional pots on the kitchen stove to get 30 gallons of water boiling at once. Added salts to the boil.

30gal water
2tsp gypsum
2tsp epsom salt
1tsp calcium carbonate

While waiting on the water to boil, I milled 100 lbs of whole corn and 34lbs of red winter wheat malt with a 3.5mm screen in the hammer mill, enough for two batches

- 10:15
Water and salts at boiling, dumped over 50lb corn meal in 60gal HDPE barrel
Stir to break up lumps using drill and drywall mixer paddle
It was at 185f, added 40ml SebStarHT and wrapped in insulation

- 10:30
Started another batch of water and salts boiling to get a second batch rolling an hour behind the first.
Everything in the second batch was handled identically to the first batch, I just wanted to have 60+gallons to ferment

- 12:30
At 154F, added 40ml SebAmylGL

- 13:00
At 149, added 17lb red winter wheat malt

- 14:00
Cool to pitch temp with wort chiller
SG 1.0785 was target - Shooting for about 10% abv
SG ended up being 1.072
Pitched US-05 yeast at 80f

At end of the day, two barrels full and fermenting
Seedling heat mat (40w) under each barrel, covered in blankets and set to maintain 69-70f with controller
Heat pad and controller worked ok, mostly holding between 69 and 70. Occasionally dipping to 67 overnight when it's 40f in the garage.
The weather got colder and the heaters had a hard time keeping up, so as the ferment got closer to the end, it was hanging around 62f.

FG 1.001 About 9.7%ABV

Monday, Dec 25
On Christmas Day, I scooped a gallon at a time and strained grain with mop wringer lined with a 5gal paint strainer into 3rd 60gal barrel. Got about 50 gallons of liquid total from both fermentation barrels into a single barrel. I let it sit for about 12 days to settle.

Saturday, Jan 6
- 09:00 - 17:00
Did three 14 gallon Stripping runs, hard and fast as possible. Managed about 3800watts, anything harder was threating to puke (did puke a tiny bit once, but it was stripping, so not too worried. Just cleaned up the condenser real good afterward.) There were about 2-3 more gallons of cleared beer sitting over the trub in my fermenter that I couldn't fit into the strips. Collected down to about 12% off the spout each time, collected a total of 11.5 gallons of low wines at 40%ABV.


Tuesday, Jan 16
- 15:00 - 22:30
Spirit run - I filled the boiler with 11.5gal of 41% low wines, and topped it off with two more gallons of 9.7% beer from the fermenter.
1 hour heat up, ran the first 1250mls of fores at about 600w, as slow as I could tolerate
Based on my expected output, I tried to set my takeoff rate to ensure that the run would take about 6hrs. The site calculator told me that 1600w should put me at around 16min/liter. I started collecting 500ml at a time, swapping jars about every 8 mins. As tails approached, jar time got longer. When I was pretty sure I was into tails, I started cranking the boiler a bit more and collecting the quart jars full until it got obviously cloudy.
jimbos.jpg
Jars were collected from left to right, top to bottom in this pic. I checked ABV periodically and then corrected for temperature (Distillate was around 52f and my alcoholmeter is calibrated for 60f)

Once I saw cloudy tails, I ran the rest off down to 10% off the spout into a stainless pot to toss in with the rest of the feints after I make cuts. I checked them this morning and the last three jars were cloudy after the distillate cooled down over night. I think I'm going to wait until tomorrow to taste/cut/blend. But I was excited to finally get this batch ran and wanted to share! All the jars I ultimately select have 500ml in them. I've "preview" tasted them, and the range of jars I estimate will make the cut should average 75% once blended. I'll proof that down for aging, then again for bottling, but I'm hoping to get 19-20L of final product. Taste will ultimately dictate that though. Now I just need an oak barrel. :)
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Re: Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

Post by Sporacle »

venkman wrote: Wed Jan 17, 2024 3:12 pm Spirit run - I filled the boiler with 11.5gal of 41% low wines, and topped it off with two more gallons of 9.7% beer from the fermenter.
Well done Venkman, I initially thought your take off rate might have been a bit quick but it certainly sits
Within the 6 to 8 hour window.

I start my 6 hour after I've taken fores which generally pushes me into about another hour as I take off the first litre at around 1 lph.

Low wines, im lucky ive got a BOP and I used to put my alcometer in that and collect down to under 30abv in total, from what I've heard that equates to under 10 at the spout.
TBH I dont use the.alcometer when i strip, I strip until my shotgun starts to heat up all over and the distillate is getting pretty warm ( I use a small pond pump on a 1000l ibc) that's on 240v 4kw.
Generally when all that happens I'm around 28 or a touch under.
Guess what I'm saying is go a bit deeper into the strip if you want to yeild a bit more and there's plenty of flavour as well.
Hope it blends up well, try and forget about it for 18 months.
That's the beauty of the sugar head, you get some white for everday
Once again good job :thumbup:
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Re: Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

Post by FuzzNFroth »

Now that the slab of ice on my deck is finally melting, I can get back out to do the stripping run that I was going to do a week ago. This is the fourth stip. I'll have enough to do the spirt run after the next strip. I do the mash in a 25g stainless brew pot. My apple press works great for pressing out the grains.
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Re: Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

Post by Chucker »

I’ve been using this type of mash method for years without realizing it was really a thing, other than a workaround from the first time I tried cooking corn and vowing to not go through that again!!
This past season, however, was the first that I’ve tried doing a Gumballhead method. With a more corn-centric bourbon I did t figure it to be very well justified over just starting a new batch.
I’d decided to flip flop the corn and main malt portions for a batch of rye and a batch of malt whiskey, with about 65% being those malts and the balance being corn, secondary malt, caramel malt and so on. This amounted to a significant cost increase so I decided to try and wring a bit more of the goodness from the spent grains before dumping them. I was most keenly interested in how the rye would do.
So the spent grain mass got about 5 gal of hot backset to melt in 25# sugar, plus another 9 or so gal water on top of the estimated 10 gal remaining in the soggy grain mass. (I don’t squeeze the grain mass, I instead add backset/water to dilute it out, rerack, restrip a couple of times over to extract the residual alcohol, it works well). The target was 1#/gal. Stirred up as it was there was no way to measure the gravity. It got some new bakers yeast and finished out in a week.
The run was nothing special. It had plenty of sugarhead bite to it and got put in jugs with oak. Occasional sampling was nothing special or even impressive. But over the past month has been improving bit by bit. I pulled a little larger sample this past weekend and was amazed by the change! Previous samples had been dumped after a sip or two as they were sort of unpleasant. It’s really coming on now and has a nice flavor of the parent base without the sugar bite and has a much more rounded flavor. It has really transitioned and is very illustrative of what some time and oak bring to the table.
It’s also demonstrating the value of doing a sugarhead on a spent mash.
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Re: Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

Post by rubberduck71 »

Chucker wrote: Wed Mar 06, 2024 11:52 am It’s really coming on now and has a nice flavor of the parent base without the sugar bite and has a much more rounded flavor. It has really transitioned and is very illustrative of what some time and oak bring to the table.
It’s also demonstrating the value of doing a sugarhead on a spent mash.
Ever since reading this thread years ago, sugarheads are my standard protocol now! Even works with YLAY.

But I agree, the SH's need more time aging to shed the "roughness" vs the AG's.
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Re: Jimbo's easy 1/2barrel Wheated Bourbon and Gumballhead

Post by Bradster68 »

Wow. 11yrs since this post. It gave all kinds of people a great recipe and ideas to branch from.
Thanks jimbo. I love my wheaten bourbon 🍻
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