Ferthy wrote:Newbie question. I’m looking to break in to AG within the next couple months or so and going to give this recipe a try. My question is if any sort of extra enzyme is needed? I see SCD doesn’t list any in his original post but several people have talked about using in here. Unless my math is wrong the DPis just under 50 which would be high enough from what I read. Just wondering if I’m shooting myself in the foot without using any alpha or beta enzymes.
No extra enzymes required at all. Some just toss a little in as cheap insurance, but it's not needed by any means.
Good DP calculation work on your part. Here's a Honey Bear DP report I made as a diastatic tutorial you might want to peruse. (I came up with 41.73°Lintner.)
Good luck with the All-Grain. You picked an excellent recipe.
I had to post 1st tasting of this HB. I couldn't wait to see if I wanted to go forward with this recipe. So I took a bit of some aging HB for only 2 weeks, on some sticks of baked and charred white oak. Not nearly enough time. Well I was really pleased. Gotta order some more grains now to do larger batches. I was drinking better than most store bought even at this early stage. It was weak in character because it had not aged enough to get the full benefit of aging and absorbing the character of the charred oak, but the smoothness and the flavor of the grains came through big time.. I was drinkin green whisky basically and I enjoyed every sip. I cant wait to let it age now and get to its potential.
Another thumbs up for center of hearts off the worm. The honey malt comes through strong. Wheat in late tails.
Plan to add this run to the next to the next to get to barrel proof as I don't do stripping runs.
Inspired to try more specialty malts in the mash bill.
So I have an issue.
I've done a few runs of HBB and all went well. The only problem I had was not getting the conversion I was hoping for, I was always in the low 1.050- 1.054 range tops and it would never ferment dry. So I started to make some changes. I think I made a really bad mistake by switching from soft water to hard water. I think I may have an iron problem due to no fermentation yet. I think using the soft water may have taken care of the iron issue. The reason I think that is because I've never had a fermentation problem using soft water. I've pitch dry yeast and it would take off in a couple of hours. The last batch I made I did a yeast starter and within 30 minutes I could see the yeast was active. This go around, it's been 9 hours with a yeast starter and no activity. The only change I made was going from soft water to hard water. Is there something I can do to save the mash. I hit 1.062 this time so I hate to see it go to waste. The yeast starter I used was the same as HBB on a smaller scale and was bubbling away when I pitched it. I pitched 1 qt of starter to 7 gallons of mash.
Any help would be appreciated.
Last edited by my98xc600 on Tue Sep 04, 2018 7:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
Iron is indeed bad for yeast health.
Are you getting "rust" deposits in your tub and toilet? That's too much.
Also, let's make sure the lid on your fermenter is tight in case you're just going by bubbler activity.
I've caught that loose lid more than once, not snapped down in the back.
Then see if the bubbler moves with just the slightest touch on the lid. It should.
I don't know how to solve high iron, otherwise. Let others chime in for that.
Well, don't I feel foolish now. This morning it's bubbling away like all my other ones have. I never had one take that long to start. The good news is I know I don't have an iron problem. Moderator's feel free to delete my post above.
my98xc600 wrote:Well, don't I feel foolish now. This morning it's bubbling away like all my other ones have. I never had one take that long to start. The good news is I know I don't have an iron problem. Moderator's feel free to delete my post above.
EXCELLENT!
It's weird how sometimes you can have 2 identical mash/washes from the same source and one takes off where the other lags.
It happened to someone just the other day. I'm glad it's going for you, though. Enjoy.
At my place we have hard water and iron is definitely one of the minerals!
I don't know if the other minerals override the iron but it's most definitely there.
I don't have any problems fermenting tho, in fact they run really good in spite of the rusty ass water.
I felt I needed to update everyone after my last panic post. Everything worked out fine and it finished in 5 days. I use US -05 Ale yeast @ 68 degrees. So after starting this hobby (9 months ago) and loving this recipe, I scaled everything up last weekend so I don't have to wait so long to have enough to do a spirit run. I now make 45 gallons and steam injected to extract the starch a little better. It works like a champ. My first batch had an SG of 1.060 and finished at 1.002. I'll bump the corn up a bit more the next go around. Thanks again everyone. This place is awesome.
@fizzix I noticed at the other place we hang out you have a barrel dedicated for honey bear, must be good stuff.
I have been meaning to give this recipe a crack for a while, I must get my ass into gear.
Copperhead road wrote:@fizzix I noticed at the other place we hang out you have a barrel dedicated for honey bear, must be good stuff.
I have been meaning to give this recipe a crack for a while, I must get my ass into gear.
You bet, Copperhead. This is a fantastic bourbon and an overall pleasure to imbibe.
SoCD's choice of specialty malts makes this a unique flavor, with the small bit of honey malt taking center stage.
I use Bakers yeast with this recipe with good success. Some others I see use US-05. Can anyone give a comparison of taste that have experience using both. Or any other yeast that your happy with.
Full_moon wrote:I use Bakers yeast with this recipe with good success. Some others I see use US-05. Can anyone give a comparison of taste that have experience using both. Or any other yeast that your happy with.
I used EC-1118 and D.A.D.Y.
I made a mental note not to use the EC-1118 again but don't remember why. Maybe yield?? And the D.A.D.Y. was too bready.
Just one 6-gallon ferment of each, and it all blended well as a forgotten memory with my regular bakers yeast concoctions.
Picked up the ingredients for 25 gallons of this today going to use the Ferm Solutions 927 yeast, hopefully we will get it in the fermentor tomorrow
thanks
B.S.
When the student is ready the teacher will emerge.
Big Stogie wrote:Picked up the ingredients for 25 gallons of this today going to use the Ferm Solutions 927 yeast, hopefully we will get it in the fermentor tomorrow
thanks
B.S.
BS, looked up the 927 yeast and it sounds great. a fermenting temp betweem 80-95F what are you going with? Get back to us on this one, really sounds interesting. Just pitched some bakers yeast about an hour ago at 81F. This recipe still amazes me at what great flavor and mouthfeel. I cant get past 6-8 weeks of aging on oak before I start drinking it.
my variation on the hbb is to sub the corn for crimped barley crushed 2x in the cereal killer, comes out very nice. still in the 1060s. aged on charred toasted oak and a piece of sherried oak. a little irish honey bear
got my first batch in the fermentor, i need to refine my corn process I only got 1.048 but I think I let it cool to fast its bubbling right now though
B.S.
When the student is ready the teacher will emerge.
Big Stogie wrote:got my first batch in the fermentor, i need to refine my corn process I only got 1.048 but I think I let it cool to fast its bubbling right now though
B.S.
Ifr you used cracked corn, its best to run it through your corona mill if you have one. I consistantly average 1.063-65. I use Pintoshines method of mashing though. check out his youtube video.
You will be fine though, strip it, run it- age it and enjoy.
I ran about 13 gallons and my yield was poor took about 11 pints average about 85%, I will say this however it’s very well could be the best thing I have made so far right out of the parrot, also the least amount of heads too. We are headed in the right direction thanks for the help and advice, great recipe
When the student is ready the teacher will emerge.
round 2 on the wash. 28 lbs yellow cornmeal, 24 gallons of water. this was done in 3 batches using the ferm solutions enzymes, let it cool to 150 and add 6 lbs 2 row, 6 lbs each white and red wheat plus 3 lbs of honey malt in a 30 gallon plastic drum. let it sit over night, it cooled to 95 and i got a temp corrected 1.061 OG, added enzymes and the 048 yeast took off within 5 minutes. still a bit shy of the 1.071 i was expecting but I am much happier. i think the fine grind of the cornmeal made the difference and adding some extra malt to get the diastatic power up was the key. Next up is I just ordered a bag of distillers malt to replace the 2 row
When the student is ready the teacher will emerge.
A high compliment to my HB Bourbon. Had some guests over Thanksgiving day. I knew some of them liked Scotch & Bourbon. I bought some Dalwhinnie single malt Scotch. This is a really nice scotch. poured them all some and then poured them some HBB. They all complimented it highly and that's all they drank from then on. The Dalwhinnie was still there and a very serious dent in my HBB. They could not believe that it was not some expensive bourbon I had purchased.
Congrats Full Moon! I bet that just made your night. Love those moments when the ones that know walk past their favorite to grab your bottle. Makes all the effort worth it.
Thanks for sharing the experience. That's the beauty of this recipe. Not only a simple process, but the blend of grains really makes a balanced complexity, with that finish that stacks up to the big boys
Good job man!
"Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!
You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond."
SCD, have you ( or anyone else for that matter) tried this recipe with toasted oats? My next batch of HBB will be using toasted oats, and I’m excited to know if I can taste a difference.
instead of wasting all of the corn after a batch of HBB I have been doing a sugar head with the leftovers. I usually give it a couple of weeks and then I can syphon from the top down to the sediment on the bottom, today when I went to do that I had a cap of grain and cornmeal about 2" thick at the top. any ideas what would cause it to float instead of sinking?
Canuckwoods wrote:instead of wasting all of the corn after a batch of HBB I have been doing a sugar head with the leftovers. I usually give it a couple of weeks and then I can syphon from the top down to the sediment on the bottom, today when I went to do that I had a cap of grain and cornmeal about 2" thick at the top. any ideas what would cause it to float instead of sinking?
CO2 trapped in the grains would be my guess. Try gently knocking that cap down after the fermenting is done or near the end of the ferment then wait for things to settle. Do it gently so you don’t add oxygen. Otis
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