First attempt at all grain mashing a success (so far)

[violentblue]

did my first mash about a week and a half ago. mixed grains, 20% malted barley, 25% corn, 30% oats and 25% rice.
mash seemed to go well, even though i wasn't able to monitor the temuratures as much as I'd have liked.
strained the mash through a pillow case (not ideal but it worked)
rehydrated 3 tbsp of bakers yeast with 1 tbsp sugar in warm water.
pitched the yeast and it took right off.
just racked off the solids today, and I have about 5 gallons of beer at about 6-7% abv

tasted the wash, tastes like light beer with a distinct lack of hopps.
I'd drink it if it were cold, and had a little more carbonation.

the air lock was bubbling every 2-3 minutes, so I'll let it go for a couple more days and then rack off any remaining solids.

it didnt get stinky like some guys ar4ound here get, but I kept everything hygenic purposly, didn't want any stink in the house. next time I'll run a batch in the shed, and it can get as stinky as needed. and I'll probably keep it on the grain through fermentation next time.

[libertyesq]

Interesting mix of grain. I'd be very interested in how it turns out. Please follow up with this post.

[violentblue]

Interesting mix of grain. I'd be very interested in how it turns out. Please follow up with this post.

its what I had around the kitchen

[Hawke]

I did a spirit run of low wines, gathered from a corn/barley mash, UJSM and a Uncle Remus rice mash. It came out with a very sharp taste and smell. Thought I had really stuffed it. After putting some on my lightly toasted oak staves, I ended up with a very nice bourbon.

[violentblue]

stripping it right now.

boy this tuff like to foam, boiler is only 2/3 full and its still started to puke, cut back the heat a little and seems to be running fine now

[violentblue]

OK
I have a little better than 1 gallon of low wines
so I'll assume I'll have a little less than half that of spirit
I've got a couple toasted oak aging sticks approx 1x1x12
I've taken that and cut it in half, and charred 2 sides.

would a single piece be enough or should I use 2?

just started spirit run so got a couple hours to get the oaking figured out.

[Barney Fife]

One is more than enough; I'm learning quickly that less oak, but longer oaking, is better.

[Dnderhead]

id use one, mite take longer but with better results .impatience is not a good thing.you got to remember that your trying to duplicate what is done
in years, in weeks/months

[violentblue]

making cuts is turning out to be very differant than with sugar wash.
heads to hearts is very distinct change, heads are almost bitter, but the next sample was almost sweet.
lots of fun, looking forward to doing a larger run next time.

[Dnderhead]

I fiend it is not a dead end hobby even if you have bin doing for a long time.Ive bin doing a couple of days and still learning more .

[violentblue]

id use one, mite take longer but with better results .impatience is not a good thing.you got to remember that your trying to duplicate what is done
in years, in weeks/months

thats what I'm thinking
I'd rather take a little longer and do it right.
even fresh out of the still this stuff is cleaner and smoother than store bought. so with a little age it ought to perk right up and be something nice.

[violentblue]

well I pulled about 1.5 litres of hearts and about a litre of heads and tails
I re-ran the heads and tails again watered down 50/50 and collected another half litre of hearts.

second round definatly didn't have the flavor of the first but it's a smooth as silk with the kick of a mule. (sampled a little after it was done)

I'm very pleased with my first attempt, shows what quality ingredients, a little patience and not getting too greedy with the cuts will do.
I'm putting this one away to age on wood, something to bring out when my grandad comes by.
I'm definatly proud of this, and cant wait till I got the space and equiptment to do a much larger batch.
couple things I've learned: barley and oats go together nicely, corn adds some sweetness and the rice smoothes it out, and all grain mashes will be in my plans from here on out.

[Dnderhead]

I like your attitude on the flavor profile , with that you can mix and mach grain to your liking .good start.

[violentblue]

took a small taste today (just to sample, not to drink), its starting to take a little color on from the oak, and flavor is clean and smooth, with just a little spicyness. looking forward to seeing how this one ages.

I've been thinking, down the road, I'm going to do and all barley, an all corn and an all oats mash, all side by side done exactly the same just to see what each of them brings to the table, but thats for down the road.

[libertyesq]

Great job, blue. Thanx for the follow up.

[violentblue]

this was a lot of fun to do. with the size of the pot still I have, a bigger still and a much bigger batch of was would take about the same amount of time and effort. I'm convinced this it the way to do it, expecially since I got farmers for neighbours and can probably get all the grain I need down the road.
I think next rouund will be an Irish style wisky, followed soon after by a single malt barlye on peat (my attempt at an Islay style Scotch whiskey)

[violentblue]

just made a discovery. couldnt wait to let this age a little before I gave it a try.
one thing I noticed, I used Jasmine scented rice in my mash, its what I had avaliable. some of the jasmine flavor has come over very strong in the spirit.
it is still very smooth and clean, its not a bad taste, just different than I was expecting.
If I'd had cut a little more of the heads out, I'm sure this wouldn't be there, but its an interesting flavor and we'll see how it oaks.

I might just do an all rice mash down the road, and see if I cant bring a little focus to this flavor. its kinda nice and would make a great drink neat, but mixed with coke it is just a little odd.

[blanikdog]

Great idea VB. I hadn't thought hat the taste would come through. I'll try that.

[violentblue]

week 1 tasting

smell: notes of cinnamon and cloves (where did that come from), smoke and vanilla, nose still has a hint of the jasmine, but doesn't seem to come through on the taste (perhaps a little of the late heads came through)

taste: Neat, on ice with a splash of water.
one week has changed this spirit quite a bit. the jasmine rice flavor is gone, now a smokey oak cinnamon vanilla flavor comes through with a slight sweetness on the tounge to finish, it is quite smooth, but would benafit by more time on oak.

conclustion at 1 week: nice drink, would replicate this again, with use of regular rice rather than scented rice. More flavor could be had if one were to increase the ratio of any of the other grains. but as a smooth sipping whiskey or for mixing, this one would do nicely.