Bourbon Whiskey

[Catch 22]

OK, After reading a lot of review and recipes on this board, a lot of you out their seem to make this more difficult than it really is.This recipe is very similar to a GW recipe and I thought I would share it with the rest of the class. It is very easy to do and I have had great success with this one and make a tasty treat if you oak it and keep your hands off it for 6 month or longer.

Here's the grain bill:

10lb Cracked Corn
8lb Malted Rye or Wheat
3lb Rahr 2 Row
10 gal Spring Water (add1 gal backset if available)
1 pack of US-05
2 tbsp. Gypsum

Wash and soak the corn to remove the dust and dirt off it. I find the pre soak keeps some of the moisture loss down as well. I am lucky and I get to pull my water from a spring on the side of the mountain, the best water I have ever tasted, so I have not tested it as of yet. I put 2 gals of water in the fridge to help chill things down for later. I take 8 gals of the water in my BAP, keep the lid on so you do not loose any heat or moisture to evaporation or start out with more to allow for evaporation loss. Bring it to a low boil stir at this point I add the gypsum and corn. I generally turn the heat down and try to maintain a temp of 205F and stir up the grain every once in awhile to keep it from sticking to the bottom. I cook the corn for 60 to 90 minutes then let it cool down on it own to get all the starch I can out of it, stirring occasionally. When the temp gets down to 160F, I will add my malted grain, this generally brings the temp down to around148-149 and stir it up and you can see it convert almost instantly. I keep it in that 149-148 range for about 90 minutes by adjusting the heat, I'll do my iodine test to make sure I have full conversion and let it rest for awhile and cool down on it's own. When it gets down around 100F I take the 2 gals of chilled water and add it to the mash to bring down the temp to 80F and that's when I pitch my yeast. Lately I have been making a yeast bomb to help get the fermentation started quicker to avoid any infection, the US-05 take a little long to activate than a bakers yeast does.
Typically have been getting a SG of around 1.060.

I ferment on the grain at this point, but after 4 to 5 day when fermentation start to slow down a bit, I pour all the liquid and grain thru a colander and press the grain once it is in the colander to get all the liquid out. I do not like to filter and squeeze thru a paint strainer as some on this board offend does, I find it only give out more dead yeast and trub in my wash. I let it ferment out and clear on its own, generally about another week or for how cold it been lately you could set it outside at night to speed up the clearing process. I will normally get about 6 gal of clear wash once it clears to run from the 10 gal batch.

Now everyone has different taste and everybody cuts are different. I run a pot still and I used to just run it once, I would pitch 6oz of fores, collect 1 qt of hearts @130 proof (to keep for another run)and start collecting everything else down to 70 proof and mix all that together and put on oak. Now after reading some good threads on here, I now just run a slower stripping run and when I get 4.5 gals save (normally 3 runs) I run a sprit run and what a difference in the taste it has made. When I do the sprit run I normally have been getting a 155 proof after the fores are cut out and collect and mix down to 70 proof. Enjoy

[Halfbaked]

Sign me up. Id drink that. I would do a fast stripping run and maybe collect 1 quart for sippin and rerun everything but fores. I def would do a drop of that.

[malcontent]

What proof do you do the spirit run?

[MitchyBourbon]

I would definitely drink that too. I love rye. I might add 2 lbs of corn, for luck... and so I didn't get a bunch people sayin it needs to have 51% corn or more to be called a bourbon.

[woodshed]

Sounds tasty. I'm one of those Mitchy is referring to. Do a bourbon proud and add the grain.

[Brendan]

Haha you guys beat me to it...my initial reaction was that you need 51% corn or it ain't Bourbon And that really is a minimum, it's just the taste of Bourbon...but you can make a thousand different whiskies

The process all sounds similar to Jimbo's, and my own. Although mine is fermented out in 3-4 days and I have it stripped prior to the 96 hour mark...could come down to the yeast used as I use a dried distillers yeast.

[Catch 22]

Man you guys are tough :moresarcasm

Now I posted this post for the other newbies out their like myself that gets lost in all the math of this hobby and just want to have fun with it and have a understanding of basic principals and enzyme reaction's. This is science, just not rocket science. I tried to change the post name, but could not, so to appease the some of the 1percenters on this board I added 2 more pound of corn to this recipe and kepted the liquid volume the same but replace one gal of water with one gal of backset. Now I could not taste any difference in the mash by adding additional corn, however this batch the SG came up a bit to 1.068. Could be from the added corn or better conversion.

Malcontent,
I try to keep it below 40proof and dilute with backset rather than water.

Brenden,
Unless you are George Washington the founding father of these United States, I doubt this is your recipe. I guess one could say all recipes are copied because there are only a few basic step in preparing a mash to distill. Why do you make such a statement? I believe Jimbo brings his strike temp to 205F and dumps the corn in and lets it steep before adding the malt, this is not similar nor do I stain and squeeze thru a strainer bag or run after 96 hours. The mash tells me when time to run, not a clock.

MitchyBourbon
I have only been getting about 3 fingers of trub on the bottom of my 6 gallon carboy after clearing by just filtering thru a colander with real small hole almost like a false bottom would achieve when I rack to a secondary, then letting the mash ferment out and clear on its own. Rack off the liquid and run.

[Brendan]

Brenden,
Unless you are George Washington the founding father of these United States, I doubt this is your recipe. I guess one could say all recipes are copied because there are only a few basic step in preparing a mash to distill. Why do you make such a statement?

I didn't...

Just saying that the process sounds similar to what I have been doing (it's a compliment, because I believe it's a sound process).

I believe Jimbo brings his strike temp to 205F and dumps the corn in and lets it steep before adding the malt, this is not similar nor do I stain and squeeze thru a strainer bag or run after 96 hours. The mash tells me when time to run, not a clock.

Sorry, you are right about Jimbo's, I was thinking of something else there. I also wasn't suggesting you should change your process; after saying what we do is similar, I was just pointing out the differences. I also don't run by a clock , I was just saying how the process goes after heaps of runs, I've got it down to a repeatable process, and that's the times...which is why I said the time difference may be related to the yeast

[Jimbo]

This is NCHooch's process, just about to a T. The first Tried and True Bourbon recipe on HD. http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 0#p6864664

Its a great functional process. Altho I challenge your claim that its "easier than others who make it more difficult than it needs to be" Youre cooking corn over fire for 60-90 minutes. Thats the part thats the biggest pain, and why I came up with my approach.

Also, just using gravity and a little pressure in a colander means youre losing alot of wash. Yes getting it all out does mean more yeast trub, but thats what settling for a couple days takes care of. It all settles to the bottom and the wash is poured off the top.

[Catch 22]

I have not read the NCHooch thread as of yet, but will check it out.

For me being new to this I find I get a higher yield by boiling and letting the temp come down on its own, it appears to release more starches. I have a thicker walled mash tun that I just pick up rather than a thin wall turkey fryer type that I used to use and sure it still sticks to the bottom if left unattended, but not as bad.

What I have found out doing it both ways now: Colander verses Straining, yes you do get more volume as well as more trub that I ended up throwing out at the end, so its like 6 of one half dozen of another. I make a lot of wine and it is important to get the wine off the leeds, so I carry this to my wash as well. I have also rinsed the spent grain as used that water for the next batch to get a higher ABV. Thanks to you all on this site my washes are now at 7% to 7.5% range. I still have yet to hit the magic 8%. Now I use my 10 gal batch that works out perfect for my set up, do to the grain holding moisture and losses do to clearing I get about 6.5 to 7 gal for my 8 gal milk can that I use to run.

The pic on the left is what I racked off the top and the one on the right is what was squeezed and strained. One can see that there is their really anything to run on the right. Just my take on this is all, its a hobby and I do not consider any of this work.

[woodshed]

I never boil corn for any amount of time. Get the water to boil which is just under 200F here so I go
to 200, shut off the heat and starting adding corn. Stir in takes me to 180. Stir again at 170 which usually brings temp up to 174 on therm. Again at 160 temp up to 162. These are very vigorous stirs.
Leave it until therm shows 148. Stir again temp shows 152. Add malt, stir it like crazy, temp to 148.
This is a 4 hour process with my setup.
Cover and transfer the next morning. My mill on corn is 1/8th inch or less. What you are doing is great. Stay with it. These 'details' will work themselves out.