Honey Bear Bourbon

[Still Life]

You guys have convinced me. Honey Bear Bourbon is going to be my first try at an AG. I'll start collecting the ingredients this week.

I'm at that point of making it (6 batches now) where I wonder what the heck I was afraid of. Failure? Screw that!
Don't let it intimidate.

Shineon Crazy Diamond has a winner with this recipe.

[cuginosgrizzo]

Yesterday I stripped my third batch of this delicacy! Two more to go.

My interpretation of the HBB is actually a HBBSM as I am using 20% backset when mashing batches 2+ I find that the taste improves, and gets yet deeper and grainier. I love it. On the other side, the low wines are getting cloudier and oilier at each batch. First batch was clear, second batch a little cloudy, third batch is very cloudy and I had some oily film on top of the distillate throughout the whole run. Anybody else doing this and experiencing same effect? I am not worried, I have had cloudy low wines before with other AGs, and I know it will all clear in the spirit run, but I wonder if this is common.

All right I believe nobody before mentioned it, so I'll go first: what's the procedure to promote HBB to a Tried and True? I cast my vote for it!

[Still Life]

All right I believe nobody before mentioned it, so I'll go first: what's the procedure to promote HBB to a Tried and True? I cast my vote for it!

I had nominated Honey Bear for Tried and True --I think "New Topic" under Shared Recipes (was drinking at the time).
It was under review, then rejected for Tried & True for whatever reason.
An e-mailed denial came from Uncle Jesse.

Maybe if enough of us can lobby for it....

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

Anybody else doing this and experiencing same effect? I am not worried, I have had cloudy low wines before with other AGs, and I know it will all clear in the spirit run, but I wonder if this is common.

Yep, I filled a barrel of this stuff, and every low wine charge was milky cloudy. I ran those strips down to 5% sometimes. Wanted to get every goodness from it

Thanks for the shout out thread, too.

[Shine0n]

Just curious about the strip runs then spirit run, is there any benefit from doing so?

I ran this recipe nice and slow on a pot/thumper combo and is absolutely delicious as is or am I missing something.?

Are you who do strip runs not running a thumper?

I've saved my feint from my runs to do an all feint run, I'm waiting for my other 15.5 gal keg to be welded (for my full size thumper) so I can run all the grains in it and use the clear mash in the main boiler. I can only do 4 gal in my current 7.5 gal thumper so I have to throw away the rest of the grains or do a sugarhead with them. I'm not a fan of sour mash.

I've posted in the thread of nominating HBB for the tried and true but I'll post here as well, it's been tried and true for me by following the recipe and protocol and I'll keep being an advocate for this recipe and also recommending it to anyone who wants to try an AG for the first time or who wants to try a different AG recipe.

This is a winner and with enough people trying it will prove it's reliability for constant and repetitive results and I for one will always be a support for the promotion of HBB to the hall of fame (tried and true) LOL

I've almost got enough grains to do the 55 gal drum (again) and with this batch I'm hoping to have my thumper (full keg) finished so that I may do the runs quicker so I'll have a hellofa lot of HBB for the next year's summer activities.

We live in a very small community and have loads of gatherings and good drinks are always a hit. My rum has been getting great talk and now next year this bourbon will hit the parties and be shared.

Thanks SCD for being so open to share your experiences and helping us new or those who want to try AG
You take time to answer questions and give or direct in the right direction for those questions to be answered.

So after all this long winded stuff I'd like to say HELL YEAH FOR THE TRIED AND TRUE!!!!

Shine0n

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

Ha. Thanks Shineon. Figured I'd see you back here . Glad you are still liking it.

As far as how to run it, you got a thumper, do it! I really love the single foot, but always strip and spirit. Mostly cause I get down and dirty with the deep tails., but the question of to thump or dub goes beyond the bear, and encompasses all good whiskeys. It will always be debated, never settled.

Be interesting to see feedback on results from a side by side comparison. Do four washes, strip and spirit 3, do a single on one. Let us know what you get
No reason to thump if you're stripping, though.

[Shine0n]

Well, my 55 gal fermenter just opened up and I have a 15 gal so... sounds like a plan!!!
I'm working out of town for the next few months but will be home on the weekends and could make the mash next weekend and run the following, at least the 3 strips one day and the spirit.



Make the 15 gal that weekend and run the following. It's doable.

I'll do the nuke aging on a quart of each, 3 cycles of med toasted oak ( 12 Sq inches ) and give 2 weeks and compare on those.

I'll age 1 gal of each with the wood scaled up for it and wait 6 months and compare.

Then keep making it till who knows and mix and match specialty malts to keep my addiction (of making) alive. Lol.

I should have one hellofa stock pile no doubt.

[Anode Effect]

I don't have a thumper. I strip three times and do a spirit run.

[Oldvine Zin]

Just started a 50 lbs cornmeal to 35 lbs of the other malts, and naturally a little Floyd as the background music.


OVZ

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

Just started a 50 lbs cornmeal to 35 lbs of the other malts, and naturally a little Floyd as the background music.


OVZ

I love that the recipe has its own sound track

[Oldvine Zin]

Wow this has been my best AG conversion yet! I did a step mash, third amount of corn each time, added the malts at around 150F and with an overnight rest it tested out to 1.079 Diluted it down to .074 and waiting for the temp to drop before adding yeast.

OVZ

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

Sweet. Rock on.

The only thing I will recommend watching is your ph. I was deep into the HD rabbit hole one night and read about how the longer you mash, the more you convert, but the more ph drops. Of course I could never find my way back into those woods, so you're going to have to take my memory on it.

I don't know how much of that is true, but I recently built a 50 gallon wort chiller-just in case. I have been known to mash for almost 36 hours. More just "get to it when it's ready" mentality rather than a statement of some sort of benefit.

Anyways, just thought I would give you a heads up as oyster shells may not recover an already dropped level. May also be no problem.

[Oldvine Zin]

PH is hovering around 5 - shells in and the yeasties are bubbling away.

Thanks again for this recipe

OVZ

[Shine0n]

I put the shell in after the corn cook and It stayed around 5ish until finished. I did check right before pitching yeast and still good to go.

I have the paper strips, not the best but it seemed to work. I'll grab a digital pH tester at some point so I can know exactly what it is. Those papers are OK but just for shit and giggles I'll have one (digital) for further mashes.

[Oldvine Zin]

I cracked my 1 gal barrel of 6 month old honey bear for a taste to celebrate a successful mash. Four times used Gibbs barrel - a little light on color and oak, will probably leave it in barrel for another 6 months. I wish that there was an emoji for tipping a glass, this recipe deserves it and a promotion to tried and true.

OVZ

[Shine0n]

I've been working out of town for the last 2 weeks, I've oaked a gallon of this to age for a year and kept a half gal white. I've been sipping on this whit HBB and it's by far the most impressive drink I've made!

I'm at the bar at the hotel and met a couple guys like myself and I offered them a sample of this white bourbon. One says there's no such thing so me being me I have to prove him wrong, we got to my truck and I grab a pint. He's from West Virginia and knows all too well about people who make shine.

He smells, swirls it around, and shakes the jar, he opens it and take a sniff so deep breathed he looked like one of those kids hitting a vape. He takes a swallow... looks at me and said that's the best fuckin likker he's ever had

I told him it's not my recipe, he responded to me, I don't care who came up with the recipe you made this likker and it's the best white likker I've ever had in my life.

SCD, I owe this one to you! Thanks for the questions answered, the positive feedback and most importantly... this recipe

More reason to be in the tnt.

Shine0n

[DBCFlash]

White bourbon. Amazing world we live in.

[joeymac]

Honey Bear Bourbon

7lbs cracked corn ( or 5 lbs corn meal!)*
.5lb Honey malt
1 lb white wheat malt
1 lb red wheat malt
1lb pale malt
Handful of oyster shells

*optional- substitute 1 lb of rolled oats for 1 lb of corn/meal if you prefer, for more mouth feel.

Put the corn, honey malt, and oats if using, into a 6 gallon bucket. Fill bucket up with boiling water. Wrap in blankets, stirring as frequent as you like. Mine takes about 3 or 4 hours this way to naturally hit mashing temp, so I stir 2 or 3 times during this time.

The honey malt helps the corn keep thin while gelling (except corn meal. Ain't nothing thinning that out. You are literally creating polenta), and adds a front end honey flavour. It's awesome.

Anyways, when the mix hits around 153, add your two wheat malts and pale malt. Wrap up again, for a couple hours. When done, chill the wort, add oyster shells (ph autopilot), and pitch yeast. Done.

I always strip and spirit, but the single foot head to hearts transition will have you lapping it off the spout!

-SCD

I've got a handful of 6.5gallon and 7.8 gallon buckets and would like to try this Honey Bear Bourbon once I work through about 3 more generations of UJSSM for another UJ spirit run. It seems like great a "no-cook" recipe to begin experimenting with all grain mashing. Plus, I just got an 18L fruit press this week to make squeazin easier. It should be big enough to take about 5 gallons of wash at a time. So I'd like to try your honey bear bourbon with the following proportions in 2 buckets:

8 lbs corn meal
2LB oats (my LHBS actually has rolled, flaked, and malted oats)
1LB Honey malt
2LB white wheat malt
2LB red wheat malt
2LB pale malt (2-row)
Handful of oyster shells
Red Star Active Dry Yeast

I've got 2 questions on 2 things for now so I can plan:
How much water are you using? Is there a certain qt/lb mash thickness you want or are you just filling 6 gallon buckets nearly to the brim?
Cracked Corn vs Corn meal: It sounds like people are preferring corn meal for a higher OG... is the difference that drastic? If I go with cracked, can I use enzymes?

Unrelated to my endeavors... did you ever try that full pound of Honey Malt with the 3 Lb of base malts and corn? If so, would you recommend sticking with the 0.5 pound honey malt proportion or bumping up to 1LB per?

[WIski]

DBCFlash Wrote;
White bourbon. Amazing world we live in.

Bourbon is an algebraic equation. =p

x=ingredients
y=ferment
z=distillation
a=cuts
b=barrel
c=age
p=product

x+y+z+a+b+c=p

I'm sure I missed something but I'm pretty sure White Bourbon is the National Geographic equivalent of Big Foot.

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

Joeymac,

Welcome to the Bear's Den!

The bill looks great, but if I may recommend, leave the oats out at least the first time. I encourage messing with grain bills, but I kinda wish i had left that side suggestion out of the original recipe. I was working on several different ones at the time, and really enjoyed the oats in my COW recipe. But this one is great without them, and makes it better to drink off the pipe without them.

When I was making these small batches, I was using 5 gallons of water in the 6.5 gallon buckets, with the original bill. Basically filling it up leaving 4" -6" of headroom. If it's your first attempt, I recommend getting the original bill, throwing it in the 6.5 gallon bucket, and filling up leaving 6". Then when you have done it once, then change the ratios and add other grains and play with it.

Yes, my other weak link (there are 3 things I would have edited in the original post looking back, you have hit on 2, lol). I use corn meal. I wish I had put it first and the cracked in parenthesis. My first 2 batches were with cracked corn, and it works fine. You will get a SG of somewhere around 1.055-1.06 with Cracked corn, and 1.065 with corn meal. It really depends on your straining method. I soon got a mop bucket wringer and paint strainer bags, and was able to use the meal and get better conversion. I will warn you to be careful with that press. Corn meal can coat the bag, and I could see a pressure explosion of mash from the sides . I have to work the wringer back and forth to get the liquid out. But I never use a fruit press, so you know more than me on that.

Never did try the full pound. The 1/2 lb had a perfect sweetness to it, and sometimes in life more is not always better. So I stuck with the original.

So, again, I recommend using the recipe just like it is. When you get bored or courageous, the sky is the limit. Try it first.

And don''t forget - 212 degrees. Don't skimp on the boil or the blankets under, around, and over the bucket. Even more important with cracked corn.

Good luck sir! Let us know if you get lost.

[joeymac]

Your water amount sound about right. The mash calculator puts 10.5LB grain plus 5 gallons water at 5.83 gallons total.
https://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Thanks for the tips on oats. I'll keep them out at least for my first cook. I've never used an apple press in my life, but Walmart had an 18L press on sale for $110 and they're normally like $250+ for one this big. I figure I can rack off any easily available beer and then literally press about 30LB worth of grain slop all in one go. But now you've got me scared of the corn meal muck and my apple press. I think for the first recipe I'll just use cracked corn along with alpha/beta enzymes to keep the SG high. If the cracked corn isn't too difficult, maybe I'll move onto something trickier like cornmeal.

Are you letting your pressed grains settle out in a secondary before putting it in the boiler?
Think flaked maize/corn might be better than both cracked corn or cornmeal due to higher extraction than cracked and easier filtering than meal?

I should have no problem getting a good boil. I'll just use my 5500w boiler set up on a table and open the drain right into the corn buckets while it's boiling. Also, I use a box built from rigid insulation that can hold up to four 7.8 gallon buckets. It works pretty good for ferments as only a 60w bulb can keep 4 buckets at 85+ degrees F for a whole 6 day ferment.

Think it would keep a couple buckets warm long enough for your mashing instructions?
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 83&t=64963

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

That box is pretty sweet. Looks great for fermenting!

If you are trying the method I use for mashing, I would use the box, but still wrap them sob's in a bunch of blankets. Keeping the heat in the buckets is more crucial then adding a little bit from the box.

[joeymac]

My thinking is that the box alone (not the little bulb heater inside) would keep the heat from escaping to begin with. Any air in the box would equalize in temperature with the mash quickly and the box itself isn't drafty at all. In hindsight, I should have chosen metallized foam insulation board instead of plain pink Foamular and kept the foil facing inwards to retain heat best. But the $15 pink insulation panels were easy to cheaply make a box and a terrarium bulb on a dimmer switch makes it VERY easy to control temps.

I actually have plans to switch from my 4 brewing buckets to a single 28gal square Brute fermenter bucket and build it's own more form fitting little insulated box in the near future. This would let me keep my ability to ferment 24 gallons of liquid at a time, but keep it in one big bucket to make mashing and fermenting on the grain a bit simpler and more consistent.
23"H x 22"W ... not much more space than a keg boiler or 20 gallon brute bucket.
$33 http://www.homedepot.com/p/Rubbermaid-C ... 087851-_-N" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[Shine0n]

My wife made me go to a thrift store and buy some old shitty blankets in order to not mess her beautiful quilts up. Lol

I think the box is nice and I plan on a build of my own since I mash/still in an uncontrolled environment. I will how ever pack the box with my new (old blankets) until I find time to make my 55 gal drum into my perfect mash/fermenting vessel. If that's even possible lol but I'll try!

Keeping the heat concentration confined has been key, and now I have a wort chiller I can drop temp quickly after conformation of good conversion to yeast pitching time to keep out the unwanted nasties.

[NZChris]

My wife made me go to a thrift store and buy some old shitty blankets in order to not mess her beautiful quilts up. Lol

One of my current ferments is wrapped up in the same and I have to loosen them, or add more depending on the weather and the activity of the ferment. The other is in a broken down refrigerator with a couple of light bulbs controlled with an STC-1000 and I haven't had to adjust anything.

[MichiganCornhusker]

The styro boxes work great.
I made mine out of 2", just big enough to hold 2 buckets each and they hold high temps really well even without any additional heat source or blankets.

I let mine sit overnight after cooking and temps are still up around 150F the next day.

[joeymac]

Was hoping you'd chime in MCH. A lot of times I get an idea I later find out you already been there done that and moved on. How bout that apple/fruit press? I had already ordered my fruit press about a week before seeing your fartvader sieve device, but I see you mention that you've tried a press before. Unfortunately, I also saw SCD's mop strainer idea after I ordered my fruit press too. I got all excited with my fruit press idea and pulled the trigger prematurely I guess.

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

For the record, the mop wringer was well in play long before me. I just passed it along and suggested you put it on the barrel instead of the bucket.

[DBCFlash]

Looks like my HBB has stalled out. It's been at 1.03 sg for a day or so. Too cold I think. I've got it in a 10 gallon cooler so I doubt warming blankets will do much due to the insulation, so I think I'll rack it into a regular fermenting bucket and warm it up some. It's at about 60 degrees f right now so I reckon I'll warm it up to about 80 degrees. That oughta get things going again, no?

[Shine0n]

Check the pH as well, mine finished at 1.010 from 1.065 in 3 days but I held 80f for those 3 days, So my pH was of no issue.

Did you go on the grain or no?
My water Is 7 and after the mash was 5ish, I didn't think to check after since I had no problems.
I added the oyster shells as a buffer too.

The cold may have done you in too depending on the type of yeast you used. Mine was plain ole bakers.