Azure Standard Grains for Bourbon

[dtrb]

I was looking through the Azure Standard site's grains and came across a few interesting items. One of which is a 9-grain mix. The mix is made with all-organic medium cracked hard red wheat, oats, dehulled barley, triticale, rye, soft white wheat, spelt, hard white wheat, and brown flax. I am thinking of mixing it with their feed grade course ground corn in a two to one ratio. Pricewise, I can get 75 pounds ( 50# corn and 25# 9-grain) for less than a dollar a pound.
I can do three batches of it using YLAY and several stripping runs and then a spirit run through two bubble plates. Any thoughts on all those different grains? Would it likely make an interesting flavor profile? Is there anything in the mix that would be really off? Thanks for your comments and insight!

Cheers
RB

[shadylane]

Go for it, the 9-grain mix plus corn sounds like the chicken scratch mashes that have been done in the past.
But none of them used YLAY, be the first and give us feed back.

[bilgriss]

Sounds interesting. All of the grains mashed will contribute sugar except for the flax seed, which is much higher in fat and protein and all the carbohydrate content is fiber. But I bet there's not much of that relatively speaking in the mix, and I wonder if the higher fat content will be a plus by helping to prevent foaming in the boil later?

[howie]

there's a similar product in australia i've used a few times, seems to add a nice flavour.
'Macro five grain porridge' in 750gm bags at woolies/coles.
contains Rolled Oats, Rolled Triticale, Rolled Barley, Rolled Rye, Rolled Brown rice.
works out at AUD$4.60/Kg

[dtrb]

Both the corn and the 9-grain are rolled and medium ground. I have Fermsolutions Alpha and Gluco, maybe I should just mash in and do a normal ferment with an ale yeast and save the YLAY for non rolled grains?


Cheers,
RB

[Twisted Brick]

RB, I started buying the 9-grain mix from AS back in '22 intending to make a bourbon out of it. My wife and I liked the change it provided from our oatmeal so we eat it for breakfast and my bourbons drifted more to the high-rye route. (I'm tempted to make 'oatmeal'-raisin cookies with it someday).

The 9-grain mix that I get has grains that are all rolled, not ground. The flax seeds are minimal. I recommend you carefully mill the flakes, especially if you are using YLAY, or your ferment times may be extended. I like to mill mine to slightly less than medium meal.

Let us know how you get on with distilling it.

[dtrb]

Hey Twisted Brick,
I saw the rolled first and had a similar thought as you with regard to using it for breakfast in place of oatmeal and for bourbon. Then I came across the medium cracked version. After some thought, I think I am going to do it as a more normal mash and skip the YLAY for this. Just heat my strike water to about 170-180f and hit it with enzymes at the appropriate temps as it cools. After running it, I will dissolve some molasses and brown sugar in the backset and hopefully get an interesting rum out of it. My Azure drop isn't until the end of the month, so I have some time to prepare.
I am also thinking of adding some to bread flour when I make bread.

Cheers,
RB

[Twisted Brick]

I like your plan to skip the YLAY. This will allow you to measure the PPG of the mix and optimize future batches. Depending on what ABV your beer achieves, adding molasses/sugar prior to pitching should net you more of a rumsky. or at least a custom sweetfeed whiskey.