Honey Bear Bourbon

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

Thanks Normie. I appreciate your feedback and am humbled that this is still helping people love the whiskey they make.

[NormandieStill]

Would really love to hear your impression of ylay versus traditionally mash. I’ve heard so many mixed stories of either YlAY is so easy to “it doesn’t taste right”. Frankly if it tastes “as good” it would change my life . Planning a side by side test soon myself but would enjoy opinions ahead of that.

I've not done side-by-side tests. This is the closest I've managed but there are too many parameters to comment on yield, cuts or taste. Especially given I'm steam stripping.

On that subject, my proofed down white has actually louched at 45%!

[grimlock]

My first run at the Honey Bear Bourbon.

The smell alone, oh my. @ShineonCrazyDiamond this smells incredible <3 Will post a follow up once i am into stripping and then spirit runs.

Some pictures:

[Biker24a69]

SCD please forgive me I didn't let it age like I should but damn 4 months in and so smooth
Yes from here on out I'm going with 45 gallon mash recipe since it didn't survive the 5 gallon mash

[TwoSheds]

SCD please forgive me I didn't let it age like I should but damn 4 months in and so smooth
Yes from here on out I'm going with 45 gallon mash recipe since it didn't survive the 5 gallon mash

I had the same experience with the same resolution. The only thing I found difficult with 45 gallon batches is the timing for cool downs.

[Tim Julius]

Sorry to disturb you guys but, I think it’s amazing how smooth it can get in just 4 months. I agree, managing the cooldown for 45-gallon batches can be tricky, but the results are worth it.

[The Booze Pipe]

Sorry to disturb you guys but, I think it’s amazing how smooth it can get in just 4 months. I agree, managing the cooldown for 45-gallon batches can be tricky, but the results are worth it.

Would you be willing to share your grain bill for 45 gallons mash? This is also my capacity. Also, using a wort chiller should help with cooling. Toss that copper coil in and occasionally stir with mortar/ paint mixer.

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

It makes me so happy when people experience this for the first time. A little secret... In many ways I prefer it white. That fresh honey malt flavor fades to the oak into something great, but I always miss that flavor in the first month. Makes it a really great overall recipe. No sweat biker. Drink it like you like it. Just save some so you'll have the opportunity to know for sure.

[Biker24a69]

Yes scd first gallon went white couldn't keep my greedy mitts off it and I do prefer it white

[Stags]

Well boys. I finally got around to mashing in honey bear. I’m so unbelievably stoked.

For a 25 gallon batch I calced things out and tried to stick as close as possible to the original with what I had on hand which resulted in some twists I hope SCD and others appreciate

30 lbs corn (20 blue Hopi finely ground, 10 cracked regular yellow)
5 lbs oats
5 white wheat malt
5 red wheat malt
5 pale malt
2 honey malt
1 smoked malt

I’m hoping for a product with rich honey and faint nut and smoke flavor

Took almost 36 hours to mash in my well insulated 55 gallon barrel (temps also remain in the 80s here in my garage). Used liquid high temp alpha amylase low temp gluco amylase. Initial gravity of 1.052, probably due to using ~22-23 gallons of water and diluting the recipe accidentally.

I’ll also say that because the mash is purple on account of the Hopi corn… when I invited my SO out to look and smell she looked me deadass in the eye and said “what did you do”

When it hit 95 I pitched rehydrated and started Omega Lutra Kveik. And I have to tell you this has been the most violent fermentation I’ve ever seen. I have a Spiedel airlock on the barrel top and it’s looked as if it is about to blow out for the last 24 hours… expected good things but didn’t expect to be thankful for leaving almost 30 gallons of head space…

I will keep everyone posted on how this turns out but based on the smells in the garage… I may need a dedicated fermenter

In case I missed it- has anyone done this as a continuous sour mash?

[Stags]

Strips and spirits done today. Tastes delicious if a little spicy. Thanks SCD. Ordering the materials for the next 6 batches now. You the man

[Dougmatt]

Finally getting around to running 20G of HBB made with angel yellow. Smells very grainy off the still, but a lot like my last HBB regular run from memory. Using YLAY dramatically reduces the effort and the wastage due to curds. It will be interesting to see how this develops versus my previous HBB’s.

[planohog]

HONEYBEARBOURBON.xlsx

(6.34 KiB) Downloaded 39 times

here is a spread sheet for honey bear bourbon. Fill out C4 with water gallons.

warning this is for corn meal only.

[NormandieStill]

Finally getting around to running 20G of HBB made with angel yellow. Smells very grainy off the still, but a lot like my last HBB regular run from memory. Using YLAY dramatically reduces the effort and the wastage due to curds. It will be interesting to see how this develops versus my previous HBB’s.

My last run was YLAY based as well. I got that grainyness from top to bottom but put it down to having steam stripped the slops (total flavour bomb). It's now over 6 months on oak so I should try some soon. It's hard to compare it to what little remains from my previous batch of HBB because my cuts have gotten so much better in the meantime.

Just started another small batch of YLAY HBB a few days ago to top up the left over low wines from my previous run. I run 8kg grain to 23 litres of water which fits nicely into my 32 litre fermenters. Three of these, steam stripped to 25%, produced about 5 litres more low wines than I could fit into my boiler.

[planohog]

HONEYBEARBOURBON.xlsx
here is a spread sheet for honey bear bourbon. Fill out C4 with water gallons.

warning this is for corn meal only.

wow the math is wrong on the honey. should be. C4 * .0834 WATCH OUT but easy fix.

unable to edit the sheet.

sorry guys

[planohog]

Timing:
Using large ice chest that will probably hold 12 gallons. Ran 9 Gallons of wild boil on 8lb corn and .75 honey-malt. Note: the drill motor and paint mixer helps 100% with the dough balls, 11 hours to 148F.
During that time I added enzymes htl at 185F(6pm) and Gl at 156F (ph 5.6)(0350am) added malt 145F (0621am) . 10:30am tested iodine, not black, tested gravity 1.030 at 144f. (converted around 1.050 ). (total time = 17h ) I'm looking at waiting it out, to see if I can get a little more out of the grain around 80F ish.
I'm also considering just pitching in the ice chest, its going to be some work to get that mess into a ferment vessel. The chest should be pretty clean, I scrubbed it then added boiling water then, cleaned that out for the final setup. No matter what happens, its a run-it. Any tips. ( this is my first HBB).

[subbrew]

Timing:
Using large ice chest that will probably hold 12 gallons. Ran 9 Gallons of wild boil on 8lb corn and .75 honey-malt. Note: the drill motor and paint mixer helps 100% with the dough balls, 11 hours to 148F.
During that time I added enzymes htl at 185F(6pm) and Gl at 156F (ph 5.6)(0350am) added malt 145F (0621am) . 10:30am tested iodine, not black, tested gravity 1.030 at 144f. (converted around 1.050 ). (total time = 17h ) I'm looking at waiting it out, to see if I can get a little more out of the grain around 80F ish.
I'm also considering just pitching in the ice chest, its going to be some work to get that mess into a ferment vessel. The chest should be pretty clean, I scrubbed it then added boiling water then, cleaned that out for the final setup. No matter what happens, its a run-it. Any tips. ( this is my first HBB).

I would not expect any more gravity, as 1.030 is on the high end already, the 1.050 must be a reading error as you do not have enough grain. You have just under 1 lb grain / gallon water. I usually shoot for about 2.25 lb grain / gallon of water. My last batch was 100 lb grain in 40 gallons of water. Depending on conversion that will give 1.060 to 1.065 OG

You could just finish and run it or you could add some sugar if you want a better yield.

[planohog]

hmm well trying to troubleshoot, back on page 1 , 5 lbs cornmeal to 6 gallons of water. water in gallons X .834 = corn. ( 9 X .0834 = 7.5 ) I used 8lbs corn meal. I see looking at my timing post I was not clear on that aspect (cornmeal). Gravity at 1.030 was on 144 F , converted that due to calibration at 60F, it should be more like 1.050 ish. ( i hope ). Does that clarification help, I hope to get process ironed out, I appreciate your comments.

[subbrew]

hmm well trying to troubleshoot, back on page 1 , 5 lbs cornmeal to 6 gallons of water. water in gallons X .834 = corn. ( 9 X .0834 = 7.5 ) I used 8lbs corn meal. I see looking at my timing post I was not clear on that aspect (cornmeal). Gravity at 1.030 was on 144 F , converted that due to calibration at 60F, it should be more like 1.050 ish. ( i hope ). Does that clarification help, I hope to get process ironed out, I appreciate your comments.

But with that corn is white wheat, red wheat, malted barley and honey malt. You do not mention any wheat or malted barley. Corn, max potential is 37 points per lb. So if you have perfect conversion, from the corn you would get 37X8= 296 points in 9 gallons = 33 points or 1.033 gravity, no one gets perfect conversion.

[NormandieStill]

But with that corn is white wheat, red wheat, malted barley and honey malt. You do not mention any wheat or malted barley. Corn, max potential is 37 points per lb. So if you have perfect conversion, from the corn you would get 37X8= 296 points in 9 gallons = 33 points or 1.033 gravity, no one gets perfect conversion.

added malt 145F (0621am) .

He did say he added malt. The exact amount is left as an exercise for the reader!

[planohog]

mash bill,
8 lb corn meal ( yellow )
.75 lb honey malt
1.5 pale malt
1.5 red malt
1.5 white malt
9G water.
I like the math there { get 37X8= 296 points in 9 gallons = 33 points or 1.033 gravity, } I might be a far as I can already 1.030

[subbrew]

But with that corn is white wheat, red wheat, malted barley and honey malt. You do not mention any wheat or malted barley. Corn, max potential is 37 points per lb. So if you have perfect conversion, from the corn you would get 37X8= 296 points in 9 gallons = 33 points or 1.033 gravity, no one gets perfect conversion.

added malt 145F (0621am) .

He did say he added malt. The exact amount is left as an exercise for the reader!

I took that to mean the .75 lb honey malt, but I see it was later clarified that the rest of the malt bill was added

[subbrew]

mash bill,
8 lb corn meal ( yellow )
.75 lb honey malt
1.5 pale malt
1.5 red malt
1.5 white malt
9G water.
I like the math there { get 37X8= 296 points in 9 gallons = 33 points or 1.033 gravity, } I might be a far as I can already 1.030

corn 37 points per lb
Wheat malts 38 points per lb
barley, pale malt 36 points per lb
honey malt 37 points per lb

((37x8)+(3x38)+(.75x37)+(1.5x36))/9 = 54.6 or 1.055 so given the entire recipe your 1.050 is very much in the ball park.

[planohog]

That is very cool information. I will plug that info into a spreadsheet.

with that information looks like ill be at about abv=5 ish


corn meal ( Stone Ground Whole Grain Yellow Corn. No additives or preservatives ) might need to be changed to ten lbs to
get a little more SG , it comes in easy to use 2lb boxes. most of the cornmeal sells in that quantity.

again thank you. for the super information.
next time ill go
10 corn
1 honeymalt
2 pale malt
2 red malt
2 white malt
9 gallon
should be just under 1.07

[planohog]

The original amounts, most people seeing 1.060 ish . If you use any corn as( gallon * 1.167 )
so the original would look more like this

[planohog]

Found by calculations. HBB
65% corn
5% honey malt
10% red wheat malt
10% white wheat malt
10% pale malt

total weight of all grains =X
weight of each grain = Y
(Y/X)*100 = percentage of that grain in the total grain bill.

[WillieP]

To SCD and all those who have contributed to this thread,

Well, I just made it through the entire thread. WOW!
There is a wealth of knowledge in there. (And for those of you who are willing to take the time to read it all, you will most likely find the answer to the question that popped into your head after just reading the first page.)
I want to make the original to have as a base to compare to and then try it with different specialty grains. (I ended up with a bunch of different 1-pound packs of a huge variety.) (Like 30 pounds worth) (Local home brew store went out of business) SCD mentioned using a caramel malt as a substitute for the honey malt, that's what gave me the idea. I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel. I understand this is a T&T.
I was just curious if anyone else has varied what specialty malt they used, and how it came out for them?
Input and words of wisdom are welcome.
Cheers,
WillieP

[scubatech]

I made it with 1% each of caracrystal wheat malt, extra special malt, carapils copper malt and caramel 120L malt. Probably overkill, but lots of caramel/toasty notes and keeps getting more complex as it ages.

[WillieP]

I made it with 1% each of caracrystal wheat malt, extra special malt, carapils copper malt and caramel 120L malt. Probably overkill, but lots of caramel/toasty notes and keeps getting more complex as it ages.

Sounds delicious.
That would only be 4% specialty malt, if you excluded the honey malt, or was that in addition to the honey malt?

Thanks for the reply,
WillieP

[scubatech]

It was in addition to the honey malt.

I had previously made a small 3 gallon batch that used 4 or 5% each and they just overwhelmed the other grains. So I try and keep specialty malts as a very low percentage.