Has anyone made Washingtons rye whiskey before

[Newtothis]

Found an interesting article and thought I’d see if anyone tried this before.


“ This classic recipe for making whiskey was copied from The American Distiller by Michael Krafft, 1804.

Into each cask or hogshead, throw nine gallons of water heated to ninety degrees of Farenheit’s thermometer, to which add forty pounds of Indian corn meal; agitate the mass briskly, and let it stand two hours, that it may open and prepare the grain for dissolution; now twelve gallons of boiling water are added, and briskly worked with the oar, then suffered to stand fifteen minutes – on the top of this, four gallons of luke-warm water are gently poured, and ten pounds of malt gently worked on the top, so as not to intermix with the corn meal, which is in that state suffered to stand thirty minutes, then fourteen gallons more of boiling water are added to the mass, and worked as before: this in that state is suffered to stand sixty minutes, then forty pounds of rye meal are now added, and worked well, and just as before the whole mass is suffered to stand from two to four hours, in proportion to the state of the weather: the calculation is, when cold water filled to within six inches of the top of the cask, will bring down the whole mass to seventy-five degrees. It is now yeasted … covered … and left until fit for the still."

- The American Distiller, or the Theory and Practice of Distilling by Michael Krafft, 1804”

[6 Row Joe]

Lol Might be a good recipe if you can get past all the the's and thoughts of the old language. It sounds like a lot of rests in between the grain mashing. That's a good thing.

[Saltbush Bill]

search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&keyw ... ngtons+rye
Quite a few I think.

[Newtothis]

search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&keyw ... ngtons+rye
Quite a few I think.

It looks like it was talked about quite a bit, but I can’t seem to find info that people made it.

[still_stirrin]

search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&keyw ... ngtons+rye
Quite a few I think.

It looks like it was talked about quite a bit, but I can’t seem to find info that people made it.

Sometimes you actually have to READ the threads. Here’s one post where Yonder chimed in: viewtopic.php?p=7579063#p7579063

He’s around here still, so send him a PM with specific “recipe” questions. Note - there are other brewers here who’ve brewed George’s historical recipe. If you “dig in”, you’ll get plenty of things to read. It’s YOUR investment, so “invest wisely”.
ss

[Newtothis]

search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&keyw ... ngtons+rye
Quite a few I think.

It looks like it was talked about quite a bit, but I can’t seem to find info that people made it.

Sometimes you actually have to READ the threads.

If you “dig in”, you’ll get plenty of things to read. It’s YOUR investment, so “invest wisely”.
ss

Sometimes i don't want to or need to go through all the posts on a particular subject, as it seems you will do the research for me, thank you.

Or i can just ask the group. Its great group for that. My choice really.

[Dr Griz]

Setting aside all the mashing instructions (which may or may not be all that helpful with current malts and mashing techniques), it looks like roughly a 45/45/10 corn/rye/malt mash bill. I usually see the "Washington" rye mash bill (a bit of a misnomer, since the whole business was almost certainly the brainchild of his manager James Anderson) to be something like 65/35/5 rye/corn/malt, which is pretty standard for a Maryland-style rye.

That being said, it makes for a tasty drop, but it can be a bear to distill -- the high-rye content makes for a goopy mess that will scorch and puke if you so much as look at it funny. And, for my taste, it really needed three passes through my pot still and a fair amount of time aging before it was ready for prime time.

The mash bill you described might actually be a bit easier to run, and a little easier on the tastebuds.

[nzbourbonguy]

I've made several batches of the traditional 65/30/5 mash bill, once even using a wild captured yeast. It has always turned out like a quality lower rye content rye whiskey. Way closer to bourbon than the 80-100% rye that I've made.

Currently doing the stripping runs on a 45/45/10 mash bill that fermented with a cyprus fermentation stave in it. So far, the yield on the stripping runs have been promising. I'll follow up when I do the spirit run and results.

[EricTheRed]

I have extracted the process into the 21st century!

Water quantity is a thing to be clarified. Did the US already use the US Gal (3.78 L) or since they were still using the Imperial Gallon (4.54 L)?
After all, the US had just split with the English - who obviously used the imperial gallon.

Total time for mashing looks to be 5:45 to 7:45 resting time + actual mashing time.

[nzbourbonguy]

Just finished the spirit run.

Final recipe & results
Cornmeal - 8.1Lbs (3674g)
Rye Flour - 8.1Lbs (3674g)
Toasted Barley - 1.8Lbs (816g)
Water - 6 Gallons

SG: 1.080
Final Heart Cut: 1.8L @ 74.8% ABV

This whiskey is very interesting. It is very sweet, fruity, spicy, and buttery. Its like the love child of a bourbon and a rye new make. I would absolutely make this recipe again.

[Bolverk]

Just finished the spirit run.

Final recipe & results
Cornmeal - 8.1Lbs (3674g)
Rye Flour - 8.1Lbs (3674g)
Toasted Barley - 1.8Lbs (816g)
Water - 6 Gallons

SG: 1.080
Final Heart Cut: 1.8L @ 74.8% ABV

This whiskey is very interesting. It is very sweet, fruity, spicy, and buttery. Its like the love child of a bourbon and a rye new make. I would absolutely make this recipe again.

Did you use enzymes or just the natural DP of the barley?

[nzbourbonguy]

I did use exogenous enzymes for the mash.

[Tedd squirrels]

KVAS-Whiskey RYE (Kwisky)
So. The sawdust head had the following thought about preparing rye whiskey, a super-duper class of noble vodkas of the 18th century. We show how this whiskey will look in the light of the intricacies of brewing technology (methods) from Teddy and Squirrels.
You need to take 0.5 kg of rye crackers, 2 kg of rye red malt and add water heated to 65 * C in an enamel pan of up to 15 liters. Wrap in a blanket and leave overnight. In the morning (after 6-8 hours), the mash should be filtered to remove sediment; kvass can be made into a bubble on the sediment by adding water and sugar. There is no sugar in the resulting wort, as when mashing malt with diastase, so we add 3-3.5 kg of sugar to the wort. Next, add three or four fresh cone hops (a handful of grains), add selenium Se in the amount of 5...55 mcg per 100 g of wort, add water to 15 liters and bring the wort to a boil, cook for about 2 hours until until the hops drown.
Periodically remove the foam - these are hop resins and coagulated malt proteins that can spoil the taste. We also look at the surface of the wort with an eye. If it turns anthracite black and shiny (reflective) like a mirror, then you're done. Next, we filter the finished wort to remove hops and sediment and cool it to room temperature 20-25*C for sowing yeast. The initial gravity of the wort should be approximately SP.GR 1.126 or P*29 (BRIX).
We use yeast “Hop Expert” - one package (100 g). After the end of fermentation (4-5 days) until the fermentation reaches 16-18% vol., pour the rye mash (without removing the yeast sediment) into 3-liter jars (flasks) - 4 pcs. and put it on cold crush (in the refrigerator with a temperature of +5 * C). All. Four portions of rye mash are ready for the next four distillations.
Distillation is carried out on a 10 liter copper alambique, equipped with a cap in the form of an onion helmet. Bulk: rye mash 3 l + 1.2 l chicken liver broth, boiled with onions (about 20 minutes) + 0.86 l rectified alcohol = 5 l strength of about 25% vol. Distill once in a salt steam bath without selecting heads until the jacket boils and the product volume is 2 liters.
Distillate 2 l with a strength of 60% vol. Infuse for several days with fermented red rye malt (40 g) and burnt Kursk malt (10 g). Next, filter and age under vacuum on oak sticks fermented with mycelium of Shiitake fungi for 6 months. After 6 months, filter the rye kvass whiskey, dilute with spring water to a strength of 42% vol., pour into 0.5 liter glass bottles. Let the drink rest for another three months and drink in moderation, depending on your state of mind.
Label. Copyright photo: rye field near the village of Loban, Kirovo-Chepetsk region:

[Konsekvens]

search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&keyw ... ngtons+rye
Quite a few I think.

It looks like it was talked about quite a bit, but I can’t seem to find info that people made it.

Sometimes you actually have to READ the threads.

If you “dig in”, you’ll get plenty of things to read. It’s YOUR investment, so “invest wisely”.
ss

Sometimes i don't want to or need to go through all the posts on a particular subject, as it seems you will do the research for me, thank you.

Or i can just ask the group. Its great group for that. My choice really.

Your choice, but maybe not the best way to get future questions answered.