Hello from Middle America

[navpoint]

Hi everyone,

Glad to be here! I’ve been an all-grain homebrewer for about five years, mainly focused on beer, and I’ve recently decided to dive into home distilling. I’ve ordered my first still and can’t wait to get started.

I’m currently a pilot in the Air Force and homebrewing has always been a great way for me to decompress. I really enjoy the science and flavor development and distilling feels like the next logical (and exciting) step.

I’m interested in making all types of spirits, but my ultimate goal is to produce and age my own bourbon. Until then, I’ll be cutting my teeth on vodka and rum while I learn the ropes.

Looking forward to learning from you all and being a part of this awesome community!

Cheers!
Navpoint

[WithOrWithoutU2]

Welcome. Many beer brewers make the transition. Those skills will serve you well.

[subbrew]

Welcome. You might want to reconsider the vodka to learn on. That will require a reflux still of some sort, which has more of a learning curve than a simple pot. A good many of us here did our initial learning on UJSSM (check in the tried and true recipe section). It is a sugarhead (a wash that uses grain to supply flavor but sugar supplies the fermentables) that, when aged is a pretty good bourbon like drink.

With your brewing background the jump to all grain whiskey recipes will be an easy lift. One hint, whatever volume you thought you would ferment, at least double it. Volumes in this hobby are multiples of homebrew volumes. Took me awhile to understand that one.

[MooseMan]

Welcome to the forum, and to the hobby Navpoint.

All grain beer knowledge is a great start, you'll be making bourbon before you know it.

To echo Subbrew, UJSSM is a nice easy way to lean in to recipe development, then you can use your experience to go from there.

Get plenty of reading done around here, starting with the links at the bottom of this page.
Also read all you can about YLAY as that might help to kick start your bourbon journey, it did mine.

Enjoy!

Moose

[navpoint]

Welcome. You might want to reconsider the vodka to learn on. That will require a reflux still of some sort, which has more of a learning curve than a simple pot.

The still setup I went for has quite a bit of modularity. They only thing I can’t do is gin right now. I will eventually but didn’t want to spend the money on a gin basket that will sit around for months.

Good point though, I have reviewed UJSSM recipe and it would be a good one to test everything out on. Going to start a fermentation this weekend so it will be ready to run when the still arrives and I can clean it. I have two 7 gal stainless conical temp controlled fermenters that I plan to use simultaneously. Making 10 gal wash for my 13 gal still. I typically brew 5 gallon batches so this will be a big leap in volume but shorter brew day all together. I’ll post questions and progress as I go!

[higgins]

I was an all-grain homebrewer for over 20 years when I started this new hobby about 5 years ago. I had no interest in doing sugar heads, so I jumped right in with an AG bourbon using a recipe I put together.

My first batch was 16.2 lbs feed store cracked corn, with 6 lbs rye grain and 3 lbs pale malt crushed in a homebrew grain mill. Did the boiling water on corn and rested overnight, added other grains and mashed the next morning. Fermented on-grain and squeezed the grain afterward. Stripped and spirit run on a pot still. I got a pretty low yield on this first one ... probably about 45% efficiency and about 1.2 liters of product. And it took about 18 hours of time.

So I quickly realized that for time efficiency I needed to do much larger mashes, or many more of them, and crush my grains much finer. I also started using SCD's large batch mashing method. I went from using 2 6 gallon buckets to 2 30 gal HDPE barrels and now mash 50-70 lbs of grain per mash. My net from each batch is around 2 gallons @ 60%.

And you don't need a gin basket to make gin. Check out the topic on Odin's Easy Gin.

[Rusty Ole Bucket]

Welcome aboard Navpoint!

I'm sure your brewing experience is going to flatten your learning curve considerably. I feel like the recipe development and SOPs are the hardest part, especially for all grain. Making beer rain is the easy part, boil it and condense it, making it taste good is something else. Jump in and have fun!

Rusty

[BlackStrap]

Welcome navpoint

Good to have you on board.

Be Safe and Have Fun!
BlackStrap

[subbrew]

Just for reference, I was a 5 or 6 gallon brewer as well. First year I did four 6 gallon batches of UJSSM and a double 6 of rum. Lot of work for not a lot of bottles. Second year I bought a former pickle barrel to ferment in and started 40 gallons ferments. For some numbers, 90 lb of grain, 40 gallons of water. Squeeze grain after ferment gives 36 +- gallons of distillers beer. Let solids settle and siphon off for about 33 gallons available for three stripping runs. Three strips give 9 to 10 gallons low wines at around 30 abv for the spirit run. Which gives around 2.25 to 2.5 gallons of hearts to keep. Dilute that down to 60 abv and you end up with a bit less than 3 gallons of aging stock depending on your cuts.

[navpoint]

Love the numbers you guys are throwing at me. Sets my expectations for what I have currently with home brew gear. I have a bourbon recipe in mind and a mill here at the house. I might do a small run and see how it goes aged with oak staves. Eventually I want to get a badmo barrel to fill and age properly. Feeling motivated! Thanks for the warm welcome!

[shadylane]

Sounds like your on the right path, start small and work your way up.

[subbrew]

I did find that my conversion was not great when running the corn through the monster mill I had for brewing. Recommend getting a burr mill so you can grind corn to a course meal texture. Since not worried about lautering or tannins I ended up running my entire grain bill, barley and all through the burr mill when making bourbon.

[PalCabral]

The biggest step up from brewing beer to make whiskey is the scale and ambition. The volumes are different and 25L batches have their challenges. And forget about nuisances in the end product when you add 2% chocolate malt. It wont show up, Or if it does it was not what you wanted. And realize it is a money sink. Once you are in it, dollar rolls will roll unless you are a handy fella. Best of luck, my friend! You will do great!

[OtisT]

Welcome Navpoint. I want to share a different experience with regard to speciality malts. I have enjoyed using speciality malts in small quantities, and I can taste/smell what they add to a spirit. There is a Christmas Chocolate Bourbon recipe here on HD that I just love. Not hard to identify the 5% Chocolate malt in that. With something like the Honey Bear Bourbon, the honey malt can be a bit hard to identify, made easier when comparing to other whiskeys you may make. As with anything, it can take time practicing to learn to identify the differences. Having a well cut spirit can really help bring out the special smells/tastes.

[sadie33]

Hello and welcome!!

[TDick]

Welcome!
You sound much more experienced than me when I jumped down the rabbit hole.
FWIW, I started out making small batches for my 5 gallon pot, then figured out - duh - just as easy if not easier
to mash/wash for 3 stripping runs,
then combine for your spirit run.
There are several Tried & Trues you should read over to see what sounds good.
My favorite is Jimbo's Wheated Bourbon & Gumball viewtopic.php?f=14&t=39617
Whether you choose wheat or rye, it just made sense to me.
When you find one you like, do a pre-flight checklist and read through the WHOLE DAMNED THREAD!
Then you want to go back through like a roadmap until you know exactly what steps to take, and what roadblocks you might encounter.
Best of luck!