Booners casual all corn

Many like to post about a first successful ferment (or first all grain mash), or first still built/bought or first good run of the still. Tell us about all of these great times here.
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needmorstuff
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Booners casual all corn

Post by needmorstuff »

I got 2 x 25kg sacks of flaked micronized maize for about £10 each.

using an igloo 60l coolbox put 12.5kg of corn into a mash bag and added 45l of water at 75c. added my first enzyme (alpha amylase) and stirred it all up using a mash paddle.. when it hit 63c I checked ph, it was around 5 so i added my 2nd enzyme (glucoamylase) stired it up.. closed the lid and stired every 30 minutes.

2 hours later filtered some of the mash through a coffee paper and added a tiny amount of iodine.. it didnt go grey or black so i had good conversion.

I opened the water drain on the coolbox and not a lot happened.. so I moved the bag away from the hole and liquid started to flow into my 5 gallon fv. here is where the fun starts!

because the maize is flaked it was a real pain to get the fluid out (I do have a mop wringer but thought i would try this method) it took me about 30 minutes of squeezing and quite a lot of heavy work but i got 2 x 17l into my fvs. I topped up with cold water to 22l and waited until the temp got to 30c then i pitched 100gm of bakers yeast per fv. It went off like a rocket!

I then went away on business for 5 days, when i got back it had fermented out completely like somewhere around .0995 and had settled out really nicely. So i siphoned off both fvs into my 50l boiler.

I am running it now...

Question - I have another 2 x fvs to run (40litres) , and another full sack to process (80 litres)... so is there any value in keeping my backset from 1 or both runs? to use for the other sack of maize? or is that getting away from the booners methodology/spirit/point?
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bitter
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Re: Booners casual all corn

Post by bitter »

I use a little backset in my booners to adjust my ph down. but depending on your water you may or may not need it.

Rice hulls might help, for booners I use feed corn, its coarser and easier to drain

B
needmorstuff
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Re: Booners casual all corn

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my water is usually good.. I didnt need to adjust ph last time around.
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Re: Booners casual all corn

Post by bitter »

You could also add more backset if you want a more sour mash.. but use oyster shells to buffer. Too much and you will stall. Lower ph will help with some nice esterfictation. I also like the sour mash flavor profile you get
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Re: Booners casual all corn

Post by needmorstuff »

I haven't bothered using the backset. I have acquired some JD smoking chips so plan on laying some on those and some on charred white oak. I will report back in a few months. I'm happy with the yield. I got 11l from my spirit run.. I haven't made my cuts yet so don't know the actual final yield.. I need to read up on cuts for this type of distillate
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Re: Booners casual all corn

Post by needmorstuff »

Just done my cuts.. yield was 6l at 54% I put it in 4 x 1.5l jars with 2 handfuls of jd chips. I plan on leaving it 2 weeks before sampling it.
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Re: Booners casual all corn

Post by bitter »

Aging on Oaking takes months not weeks. Typically I use sticks and like about 9 months to a year with 6 sticks per gallon the T-Pee way.
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Re: Booners casual all corn

Post by needmorstuff »

Yes I agree. I do have some ncoochs on oak sticks and some rum. This time I'm using JD smoking chips.. seen a few threads and one says that as they are 2nd use a lot of the tannin has gone so it's difficult to over oak and hence you can use quite a lot of chips. That thread suggested to check after 2 weeks. I can certainly say that after 2 days the colour is already greatly changed.
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Re: Booners casual all corn

Post by Shine0n »

Unfortunately for me the chips made my corn taste like jd and although I did drink it it just wasn't what I was hoping for in taste profile. Not bad by any means just tasted like jd.

I have an abundance of white oak where I live and I've started to make my own domino's with only the pure heart wood, it makes night and day difference with my spirits.

Might have to try the Applewood chunks from the hardware store this fall for some other type spirits.

Let us know what the outcome is,
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Re: Booners casual all corn

Post by Bushman »

Don't be afraid to use the heartwood of fruit trees as well. I have had some great results from a fallen plumb tree.
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Re: Booners casual all corn

Post by needmorstuff »

You are a lucky man then. I don't mind JD it's a bit in your face for me too. Just thought I'd give it a go.

My ncoochs on oak does have a wonderful flavour profile already after 2 months. The raw ingredients for that cost be quite a lot in comparison to booners so ill be keeping that aside for a long time. The great thing about booners is the yield.. Those enzymes are amazing and mine fermented out really dry also.
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needmorstuff
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Re: Booners casual all corn

Post by needmorstuff »

ok it'd been on jd chips for a few months so i strained it through coffee papers and diluted to drinking strength. Yak! it's filthy.

is it worth pot stilling it to remove the flavour and then put on proper white oak... or does it need to go through my column for neutral? shame as the effort to produce it wasn't insignificant.
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Re: Booners casual all corn

Post by fizzix »

needmorstuff wrote:ok it'd been on jd chips for a few months so i strained it through coffee papers and diluted to drinking strength. Yak! it's filthy.

is it worth pot stilling it to remove the flavour and then put on proper white oak... or does it need to go through my column for neutral? shame as the effort to produce it wasn't insignificant.
Yes, what you said pot-wise. I wouldn't neutralize.
Mine's been in in a #3 charred American oak barrel for about 4 months and is maturing quite pleasantly.
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Re: Booners casual all corn

Post by needmorstuff »

Cheers.. I'll pot still it and put on some proper oak. You live and you learn right
Last edited by needmorstuff on Tue Aug 21, 2018 12:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
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hellbilly007
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Re: Booners casual all corn

Post by hellbilly007 »

Give it more time. Make more in the meantime.

I left some UJSSM on JD chips for 8 months and it was good, just not great. It tasted remotely like JD but alot better.
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Re: Booners casual all corn

Post by needmorstuff »

also another solid suggestion. i could do that also.. no ham in leaving it and making more.
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