Honey Bear Bourbon

[8Ball]

… try and keep specialty malts as a very low percentage.

+1. me too.

[NormandieStill]

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.

I made a chocolate bourbon, by substituting chocolate malt for the honey malt. I didn't add it with the corn though, I used HT amalase to keep the corn thin, and the chocolate bourbon went in with the other malts. I was very happy with it, although I cooled the corn too fast, and didn't get the level of conversion I was aiming for. I'll try it again at some point. The chocolate flavour did carry over, although the oak overwhelmed it somewhat. It made a great base for Punkin's Muck (Whisky Cream recipe).

[WillieP]

… try and keep specialty malts as a very low percentage.

+1. me too.

Copy that, Thanks!

[WillieP]

I made a chocolate bourbon, by substituting chocolate malt for the honey malt. I didn't add it with the corn though, I used HT amalase to keep the corn thin, and the chocolate bourbon went in with the other malts. I was very happy with it, although I cooled the corn too fast, and didn't get the level of conversion I was aiming for. I'll try it again at some point. The chocolate flavour did carry over, although the oak overwhelmed it somewhat. It made a great base for Punkin's Muck (Whisky Cream recipe).

Thanks NormandieStill.
I haven't looked up his Chocolate Sundae Bourbon yet, but it sounds wonderful.
Cheers,
WillieP

[8Ball]

… try and keep specialty malts as a very low percentage.

+1. me too.

Copy that, Thanks!

Keeping specialty malts at a low percentage of a grain bill is a personal choice. I do multiple small ferments (8-9 gallons) and this allows me to experiment with grain bill percentages. 3%-5% of specialty malts seem to work for me.

[WillieP]

[/quote]

Keeping specialty malts at a low percentage of a grain bill is a personal choice. I do multiple small ferments (8-9 gallons) and this allows me to experiment with grain bill percentages. 3%-5% of specialty malts seem to work for me.
[/quote]

Agreed that it is a personal choice, but I also think that they can be very easily overdone.
My thought is to limit the total tally of specialty grains to 5%.
Certainly going to be interesting. We shall see.
Cheers,
WillieP

[8Ball]

3%-5% of specialty malts seem to work for me.

My thought is to limit the total tally of specialty grains to 5%.

We are on the same page.

[planohog]

first stripping run, very promising! I wanted to steal jar 3 and 4 , took a nice swig, put it back. stay tuned.

[The Booze Pipe]

I'm half way done stripping about 70g of a very similar recipe.

Corn, oats, white wheat malt, honey malt, and be-256 yeast.
Since I'm missing the red wheat malt and the pale malt I'm calling it "Oats & Honey Bourbon" in my notes.

I did it in two mashes, about 35 gallons each.
75#'s of grain and 35g water each.

One mash has been cooked, mashed, fermented and stripped.
I did a spirit run on about 8 gallons of low wines, pretty tasty stuff right off the spout.
Low wines were about 25% and likker is about 60%. Worked out about perfectly for a barrel fill.
The other one is waiting on me to strip it, should be able to get to it soon.

I'm hoping to get enough likker to fill a 5g barrel and top it off once or twice over 12-18 months.
Then I'll use most of the feints for a reflux run and hopefully get some likker for apple pie, blueberry panty dropper etc...
If I come up short I'll go ahead with a 3rd mash

Thanks for sharing this recipe!

I've been playing with this recipe in my head for a while. Since I've put up a wheated bourbon similar to this grain-bill, I thought I would omit the wheat malts, and call it a Honey and Oats bourbon... did a search on the thread and someone had a similar idea! Anyway, thinkigng of mashing in for 45 gallons:
cornmeal- 55 pounds
pale malt- 25
honey malt- 5
oats- 10 pounds

[planohog]

i have a hunch that if the quanity of corn is raised trying to get more out of it, it might cause
the taste of the stripping run to be really strong, almost rank from start to 30 abv.
compared to the first original quanity 8lb corn test. The 2nd test went from 8lb corn meal to 10lb corn meal.
That is where the strong nearly rank taste came in. ( also reported a crappy job on racking ).
There is one more test where cracked corn was used 12 lb. The results unknown

[planohog]

I could nearly drink the mash!
original-oat recipe
9G tap water
9lb cracked corn ( feed store )
1lb redmill extra thick rolled oats
1.5 red malt
1.5 pale malt
1.5 white malt

[The Booze Pipe]

I could nearly drink the mash!
original-oat recipe
9G tap water
9lb cracked corn ( feed store )
1lb redmill extra thick rolled oats
1.5 red malt
1.5 pale malt
1.5 white malt

Did you forget the honey malt?

[planohog]

yes I did fixing --thank you !

I could nearly drink the mash!
original-oat recipe
9G tap water
9lb cracked corn ( feed store )
1lb redmill extra thick rolled oats
.75lb honey malt
1.5 red malt
1.5 pale malt
1.5 white malt

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

I would have maybe tried dropping the corn all together and upping the recipe grain to water ratio. But there was a Honey Bear Beer

[planohog]

All I can say is wow!
Lots of flavor
Took pint 2-12 teaspoon from each
Then added 1oz of water
Approx 40abv
1oz in big ice cube
hBB heaven
I had 4 of those
No head issues can’t wait for another taste