My first All Bran

[Jughead]

Made my first All Bran Mash. This is also my first run that I put on toasted/charred wood ( I have been just drinking white dog til now). Ran a single run in Boka with no scubbers at about 3-4 drips per second. It was a 16 liter wash, and kept about 600ml to put on a piece of toasted and charred maple and a vanilla bean. I let it set for a couple of weeks and opened it up a couple of times a day to smell and air out a little bit. Every time I checked it out, I thought, wow, this is going to burn going down!

I was getting ready to go away for the weekend, and thought, screw it, I am going to take it with me and give it a try. Before I packed it up, I needed to cut it down to 40%. After cutting to 40%, I was SHOCKED at how smooth it was! I mean this was at 7:00 in the morning, and wow, I wanted to pour a glass! I checked abv a couple of more times as I thought maybe I watered it down too much. Nope, 80 proof. Just that smooth and tasted nice and woody, with a hint of vanilla.

The only downside to it was that when I cut it down with RO water, it went a bit cloudy. I have searched the forum and found some possible causes/solutions so I will try next time around.

I now know what you all mean about store bought not coming close to what can be made!

Getting ready to do a 12 gallon wash next. Gotta get some stock built up to age properly!!!!!

[NcHooch]

Good on ya Jughead.
Couple questions,
whats RO water?
Do yall have White Oak in your woods there? ...likely much better than maple.
What proof are you aging at?
Stay safe,
NChooch

[Braz]

I have read a couple of other posts where people have had problems with reverse osmosis water. Don't know enough chemistry to know if that could be the problem or not but it makes me suspicious. I use store bought distilled water and have not had any problem with cloudiness.

[yankeeclear]

+1 on store-bought distilled.

Have cut with purified tap, various store-bought spring waters, RO water and home-distilled water. To my taste, distilled is the best - most consistent and neutral. Home-distilled is just not efficient compared to store-bought.

[Jughead]

I didnt think it was even going to taste that good so i did not worry too much about the water i was going to use, so i figured reverse osmosis water was better than tap water. Next go i will be using distilled. I also dont have any white oak. To be honest, i don't think i would know what it looked like if you showed me! Imay have to buy some already toasted on ebay.

I used a piece of maple that i got from the lumber store. I am sure it is not the best choice as it is probably kiln dried.

I will for sure be getting some natural white oak and watering down with distilled water.

I can't wait until the next run!

[emptyglass]

Check out the flavoring and aging forum if you havn't already.

Best/most economical source I've found for oak is old barrels. Split, charr and away you go.

And I know its not going to poison or taint.

You can alwasys redistill cloudy stuff if its beyond your liking.