My experience with no-boil all-grain bourbon

[wrathskellar]

Thanks to the many threads here on no-boil from more experienced distillers, I recently tried my hand at making an all-grain bourbon in the simplest way possible. Fermented and distilled two different recipes now using the same basic method, and so far so good. I'm posting this here not so much to add anything new to the previous discussions, but maybe I'll get some helpful critiques to improve the recipes, the yield, or my process.

So here's my story ...

First off, I like to work in large batches. I use 15 gallon beer kegs for distilling, with a simple pot still head. Fermentation is in 53 gallon food grade barrels. I've got no way to cook large amounts of grain, so this is an attempt to make do within the limitations I'm saddled with.

Recipe #1, high rye bourbon:
Total grain bill of 37 pounds of grains, at 62% corn, 27% rye, 11% barley

23 pounds of feed store rolled corn
4.5 pounds brew shop rolled rye
5.5 pounds malted rye ground as coarse as the brew shop's roller mill would go
4 pounds malted 2-row barley ground coarse

I boiled 10 gallons of water in a beer keg. Now since the bottom of the keg is REALLY hot at this point, I hosed it down a bit until my buddy and I could handle it with a couple layers of thick towels. This was dumped into the fermenting barrel on top of half the corn and half the rolled rye. After a good stir with a paddle, the temp was about 188 F. Covered it up and set another 10 gallons of water to boil. Stirred a couple more times while waiting.

Fifty minutes later the temp was about 171 F. Then the rest of the rolled corn and rolled rye were added, and the next 10 gallons of hot water. Temp came up to 182 F. Covered the fermenter and waited. Stirred it every 30 minutes or so.

About 2 hours later the temp had come down to around 160 F, so all the malted rye and malted barley were stirred in, bringing the temp to 155 F. I added about 4 T of alpha amylase powder, stirred it in, and covered it up.

Fast forward two more hours. Temp has dropped to 140 F and the mash had clearly thinned quite a bit. So 4 T of gluco amylase powder got tossed in and stirred up. Covered it up and just let it sit.

By the next morning after a quick stir, the temp had dropped to the mid-80s F, so I pulled a quart or so of wort, and started about 1/2 cup of Red Star baking yeast in it to re-hydrate. Taken with a freshly calibrated refractometer, SG at that time was 1.041. Now according to the calculator I used, that's in the range of 70% efficiency. Not awful for as simple as the process is, but I'm sure there are some pretty easy improvements I could make. I can think of a couple: insulating the fermenter is one, and waiting longer for the enzymes to do their magic is another. Maybe a pre-soak?

Recipe #2, No rye bourbon (really this was just to use up the rest of the grains I had on hand):
Total grain bill of 40 pounds grains, at 82% corn and 18% barley

23 pounds of feed store rolled corn
7 pounds malted 2-row barley ground coarse

The same basic process was used. Half the corn, plus 10 gallons of really hot water, and 45 minutes later, the rest of the corn and another 10 gallons of near-boiling water. At about 160 F add the malted barley and alpha. At 140 F, add the gluco. Wait till morning for it to cool to pitching temp, pull some wort, re-hydrate the yeast, and pitch.

This time the OG was 1.037.

Both barrels were stored outdoors all week in perfect weather with daytime highs in the upper 70s and nighttime lows in the mid-50s.

A week later the SG of both batches had dropped to a smidgen above 1.000 (this time taken with a hydrometer). Lack of time made me wait another week before distilling. SG had barely budged in that time.

I figure each batch was somewhere around 5% ABV. Does that sound about right?

For each batch I just pulled about 13 gallons of clear liquid off the top, leaving a very wet grain bed behind. Single distilled, nice and slow through a simple pot still head with an 18" column with about 6 inches of loosely rolled copper mesh in it. Tossed a fair bit of foreshots, and jarred about a quart or so of heads for later. I cut off the hearts at about 40% and collected the tails down to about 20% for another run.

Total yield for recipe #1 was about 3L at 44%. Total for recipe #2 was about 3.5L at 45%.

So now what to do with those leftover grains and the 15 gallons or so of liquid? I combined them, and made a sugar head. To 4 gallons of hot water, I dissolved 16 pounds of table sugar, and added that to the new grains a bit at a time while stirring (don't want to kill those yeasties!). I also added a bit of alpha and gluco powder for good measure. Within an hour the grain bed had risen to the top, and you could hear it fizzing like crazy.

I didn't take an SG reading here because I'm not sure either a refractomer or hydrometer would give an accurate result with a water / alcohol / sugar solution. But 16 lbs of sugar in 20 gallons of liquid should produce almost 6% ABV, plus the 5% already in there, I figure 10% potential under average conditions. We'll have to wait and see what the final yield is after distilling, but I suspect it'll be close to double either of the all-grain batches. Whether there's much grain flavor is an open question too. I suspect so from my earlier experiences with sweet feed sugar heads and such.

I'll give that another week or so to ferment off, depending on the weather, then press the grains in a mop bucket, pour it off to a secondary, let the liquid settle out any trub and sediment for a couple hours, and siphon the cleared wort into the beer keg. I figure I'll recover at least 10 gallons of wash. I have about 2 gallons of feints from prior whiskey runs that I'll add to the keg, and then distill it like before.

The product from those first two batches is resting comfortably now with a couple toasted oak sticks in the jars. One of the sticks in each jar has one side charred under a propane torch. They'll stay on the shelf in the garage for a few months, given a shake and some air every couple weeks, until I'm happy with the color and flavor.

I'll drop an update in a couple weeks when the dregs get run.

Happy stillin' to y'all!

[Twisted Brick]

I like your inventiveness based on the tools you have available, and your high-rye grain bill made me drool. The starting temps worked out great on that batch; your fermenter will definitely benefit from some insulation. Your alpha enzymes may be different, but mine works best between 176-190F. A half-gallon or so of backset from a previous batch should help with the pH. The malts will provide a higher return if they are mashed at 150F or under, resting at 155F is living dangerously. Instead of a presoak, I believe you'll get a couple more points if you can mill all your corn and rye finer, maybe through a corona and a drill motor. Lastly, you may want to consider double-distilling your hard-earned wash. I think you'll appreciate the difference.

Otherwise, nice job. Cheers!

[Tummydoc]

Twisted is correct, finer grind and double distill.

[puddingwar]

It sounds pretty good fairly close to Shineoncrazydiamond's Easy large batch mashing post. I agree grinding will improve yield, you could also up your lbs of grain to gal of water to increase the yield with minimal effort and cost, because they is something so nice about just opening a bag straight from the feed store into the mash.