Wild Turkey - American Honey - using honey with Grain ?

[bencornish]

Hi all,

Im not a big fan of Wild Turkey full stop, however i saw this 'American Honey' Version and tried some - and was wildly different to the norm.
Got me thinking about it and i also tried googling how it is made ?1?! without much sucess.

I was thinking the next all grain mash i do - adding honey to it at the end of mashing.
Anyone tried Honey with a allgrain ?
What was your finidngs - did honey change the overall flavour ?
how much honey did you use ?

Im going to try it soon enough anyhow - was just curious on amounts and findings really.

Cheers.

[blind drunk]

Sounds like a liqueur; was it? Maybe they add honey raw after the ferment. I had a maple syrup whiskey once and it seemed to me that they added back some raw stuff to get that full maple flavor. Could be the case here too, maybe??

[bencornish]

Well

It says Liqueur Blended but tastes like a Burboun with Honey notes to it. Its certainly not like a normal sweet liqueur you would expect.

When you mentioned Maple added - are you simple adding maple to your end result or into the low wines prior to distill ?
What Amounts were you using ?

[olddog]

I usually add a couple of tablespoons full of maple syrup to 5 litres of UJSSM


OD

[Prairiepiss]

American Honey is Wild Turkey with honey added just before bottling. It's not in the ferment. They do their blending just like regular Wild Turkey and then add the honey. I found out about this stuff a couple months ago. I kinda Like it.

[bencornish]

Im presuming its oaked less - as the end colour is alot more yellow and lighter..
Still a interesting change in taste... it doesnt taste like honey in a lite Bourbon.

[Prairiepiss]

I know I will be adding honey to one of mine.

[Dnderhead]

most likly 75% corn/13% rye/12% barly.then aged at least 3 years in oak.
honey added after.

[bencornish]

I jus tried a UJSSM lightly oaked and added honey to it with a tiny bit of Maple...
Came pretty close the real thing... Although there is still somethin in the Commercial version that i cant quite put my finger on yet..

[blind drunk]

When you mentioned Maple added - are you simple adding maple to your end result or into the low wines prior to distill ?
What Amounts were you using ?

Sorry I missed this. The stuff I mentioned is not something that I make. It's store bought but I read that they make their wash with maple syrup water and then add enough maple syrup to make it very noticeable in the final drink. It's really is like a maple syrup liqueur whiskey.

I jus tried a UJSSM lightly oaked and added honey to it with a tiny bit of Maple...
Came pretty close the real thing... Although there is still somethin in the Commercial version that i cant quite put my finger on yet..

Sounds like you're almost there Maybe add more of both

[bencornish]

ok.. had several more goes at this... more of a blending art then anything...

I found oaking flavour is quite easy to over power in this.
I found mixing 30percent normal oaked Bourbon(I ussed ujssm)with around 70 percent non-oaked yet or even neutral was the base to this.. adjust where you see fit 50/50 or 40/60... The commerical product in my opinion is very little oak'ed
I then found its not all honey to its flavour – Honey with Maple and Vanilla and Glucose.
Added a little vanilla Bean too – I also found adding less honey and maple and replacing with some glucose to be better. The Glucose seemed to be the final fishing factor..
I filter off before the glucose though – as I found there to be a little sediment or very fine cloudy material after the honey or Maple?

The glucose seemed to give it the mouth feel for the liqueur part 

Going to stick a bottle or 2 away now for ageing 
Its not 100 percent the same – however id put it at around 90 percent close!

[wannaB1]

Hey bencornish I am going to try a little of this using your post as my guide (THANKS!) Have Any updates since this?

[onecrazyredneck]

Well, trying to answer a couple things posted here about Turkey. Jimmy says...

First off, they only make one (Bourbon) product in the barrel - it's Wild Turkey Straight Kentucky Bourbon. The two main products (101 and 81) are different only in the amount of spring water added. Also, although technically the same stuff, they use 'finer' bbls for the 101 since the flavour comes through more. Even better (judged coming out of the bbl) or older stuff is used for Russel Reserve, Kentucky Spirit and Rare Breed - but it's all the same mash bill, same process, etc, just different places and times in the warehouse give slightly different flavours during the 7-year average for baseline WT. The WT Liqueuer is just what someone else said - even poorer stuff that couldn't be mingled (don't ever use the word "blend" with bourbon) up to even 81 standards, so they add honey, weaken it, call it something other than "Borbon" and sell it to girls and rock stars.

[stillenand chillen]

been trying this for awhile ujssm gets cloudy with something settling in the bottom of the jar when adding honey and mapley syrup, going to try mixing honey and syrup with a little water and heat it up on the stove, let it cool down , then add it to the whiskey. Love this stuff

[heartcut]

When I put honey in rum, I stick the jars in the fridge overnight and rack off the sediment, mix all the leftover sediment stuff together and do it again- clears it well.