Home Distiller

I'm speechless. That is a lot of hard work lost. You have my condolences.

Perhaps an afternoon grinding corn by hand and then another afternoon squeezing mash by hand will instill some appreciation for the amount of work that goes into 5 gallons of finished bourbon.

Edited to add: My middle son is 10 and one of my deepest fears is that I will come home to exactly what you describe some day.

I've stopped fighting my inner demons. We're on the same side now.

Opdog wrote:I'm speechless. That is a lot of hard work lost. You have my condolences.

Perhaps an afternoon grinding corn by hand and then another afternoon squeezing mash by hand will instill some appreciation for the amount of work that goes into 5 gallons of finished bourbon.

+1 to what Opdog says ShineOn. I'm so sad for you. Sounds like it's time to teach that boy how to ferment and distill, and he can start working on refilling that Barrel. Good bonding, and he owns you. Maybe two barrels, one for each of ya, and he gets the small one.

My minion is 12 years old, and I know some day soon I'll need to start locking up the booze. If he's like me, it will be to keep him from burning things with it.

True that, opdog.

Honestly, I'm just a little annoyed for you that he probably didn't wake up with the hangover he deserves.

Don't save the rest. Do me a favor and enjoy it the way it should be.

Wow! Lotta work down the drain on f$%$$ers that surely didnt appreciate it. But after you calm down, maybe realize that the bigger issue now may be security. A lot of irresponsible people now know you have/had a bunch of good hooch. And it sounds like an epic barn burner that those kids will talk about the rest of the year.

Second the notion of putting that kid to work for his redemption though, assuming he knows about and can be trusted with the hobby. Personally, mine dont know. I trust 'em with bottles around the house, but not about blabbing to their friends, who blab to theirs etc.

On the bright side I think it could be inspiration for a great label or 2 for the next batch.

Well, on the bright side, it wasn’t 80% alcohol, at least it was diluted.

still 125ish, I'm having one myself right now and all I can say is WOW!
SCD, this was fine from the start and now has become even finer. This is one damn fine bourbon!
Definitely T&T material, my vote is in for YES

Shine0n wrote:still 125ish, I'm having one myself right now and all I can say is WOW!
SCD, this was fine from the start and now has become even finer. This is one damn fine bourbon!
Definitely T&T material, my vote is in for YES

Mine has been in a barrel for a mere 3 months.
1/2 finger sample tonight blew my goddamned mind.
This is Pro stuff here.

Lol. Thanks guys. I appreciate it. I'm working on becoming one of the cool kids so I can get in the club

Shineon, on Saturday I emptied my first barrel, with HBB. I proofed it down to 45%, so I now have 5 gallons of awesome 6 month barreled Honey Bear. I wish I could have poured you a glass tonight. But in your honor, the first glass.
If you find a way to make it to Truckin's, then I will pour you that glass.

We should wake that thread up, btw

Looks tasty, I know mine was!
I'd like to make it out there but my work has me consumed and will for the rest of the year.

I need to look up the location as I may be able to drive down for 1 day. Who knows!?!?!

I seen a 5 gal barrel for 113$ at my brew shop and my go buy it and keep in my attic under lock and key. lol

its from Waco TX and I forgot the name but it's once used.

Shine0n wrote:Looks tasty, I know mine was!
I'd like to make it out there but my work has me consumed and will for the rest of the year.

I need to look up the location as I may be able to drive down for 1 day. Who knows!?!?!

I seen a 5 gal barrel for 113$ at my brew shop and my go buy it and keep in my attic under lock and key. lol

its from Waco TX and I forgot the name but it's once used.

it is a balcones barrel.

That's the one! Man I couldn't remember the name, thanks?
I may go grab it today

Looks like the word is in .

Tater wrote:Looks like the word is in .

Thanks Tater!!
Congratulations, SoCD!

SCD, you so much deserve this as you helped me more than I can thank you!
You go boy, can't wait for the next one.

This drink is for you bubba- ahhhh
cheers

Shine0n

Tipping a glass of HBB to you SCD
Congrats !!

OVZ

Hey, thanks a alot guys, and thanks Tater for considering it! I'm really humbled that it made such an impact, and for those that thought so much of it as to recommend it to other members. I'm honored.

Still Life wrote:I had been using a nylon screen over a 20 gallon trash can to strain the grain. But that's a slow, clogging, pain in the ass.
Going to try manually squeezing it through a clean white pillow case this next batch.
If that's equally inefficient, may have to get one of these:

mop bucket.jpg

In fact. Screw it. Convinced myself to order one.

Still Life,
Was going to run my Honey Bourbon today but have just spent 3 hours squeezing the mash through cheese cloth
and now I'm stuffed, so it will get distilled tomorrow.
From the 56 liters of mash from my 2 fermenters I got 42 liters of wash.
Am going to save the spent mash to add to the next batch. How much should I add to
each 26 liters when I make up the new mash. Also should I keep all the alcohol below 10% and use that
in the new batch or just a liter or so?
Cheers.

ausibatla wrote: Still Life,
Was going to run my Honey Bourbon today but have just spent 3 hours squeezing the mash through cheese cloth
and now I'm stuffed, so it will get distilled tomorrow.
From the 56 liters of mash from my 2 fermenters I got 42 liters of wash.
Am going to save the spent mash to add to the next batch. How much should I add to
each 26 liters when I make up the new mash. Also should I keep all the alcohol below 10% and use that
in the new batch or just a liter or so?
Cheers.

Sorry~ Each of my batches is ad hoc and done, so I can't help you in this territory.
Interesting concept, though. Could save some grain expense for subsequent ferments.
On the other hand; if it's spent, it's spent.
Let's see if there's any other takers for your question.

I have had very good results with spent grains by adding sugar water for another ferment. Jimbo highlights this in his Gumball thread. I know it seems blasphemous but after soaking in a charred oak barrel I think it actually is better than the all grain it is spawned from.

Thanks fellas. Thought I'd read somewhere that you keep a small amount
of spent mash to the next batch to make it better.
Cheers.

I think this is going to be my first bourbon batch (on my own still) time to go and check my grain store and see what I have Great reading thanks guys

Sent from my SM-T670 using Tapatalk

ausibatla wrote:Thanks fellas. Thought I'd read somewhere that you keep a small amount
of spent mash to the next batch to make it better.
Cheers.

Hi Ausibatla. I use my spent grains from HBB for a molasses/sugar head. (I call it Bourbrum.) I run it like a rum, using some HBB stripping backset in my ferment. (required some PH adjustment up for the ferment) I also use the feints from my previous run of bourbrum in the spirit run of the bourbrum.

I do save my heads from the HBB spirit run and add those to my next HBB spirit run.

Just my preference. Folks do it different. Otis

Jafa5 wrote:I think this is going to be my first bourbon batch (on my own still) time to go and check my grain store and see what I have Great reading thanks guys

You won't be let down!

OtisT wrote:

ausibatla wrote:Thanks fellas. Thought I'd read somewhere that you keep a small amount
of spent mash to the next batch to make it better.
Cheers.

Hi Ausibatla. I use my spent grains from HBB for a molasses/sugar head. (I call it Bourbrum.) I run it like a rum, using some HBB stripping backset in my ferment. (required some PH adjustment up for the ferment) I also use the feints from my previous run of bourbrum in the spirit run of the bourbrum.

I do save my heads from the HBB spirit run and add those to my next HBB spirit run.

Just my preference. Folks do it different. Otis

I have a chance to get an oak barrel to put my bourbon in to age (for a week or two) but it has had wine aging in it. Will that affect the bourbon a lot or will it just give a slightly sweeter taste.
Incidentley, I got 10 liters at 30% out of 41 liters of wash on my first batch of HBB last week.
Cheers.

ausibatla wrote:I have a chance to get an oak barrel to put my bourbon in to age (for a week or two) but it has had wine aging in it. Will that affect the bourbon a lot or will it just give a slightly sweeter taste.
Incidentley, I got 10 liters at 30% out of 41 liters of wash on my first batch of HBB last week.
Cheers.

Hopefully some else can answer this. Never done a barrel, let alone a wine barrel. I was just given my first barrel, a 5 l new oak barrel, and am fermenting HBB right now to fill it.

Congrats on your batch of HBB.

Articles about wine and port barrel aging.
I'd say go for it.

http://thewhiskeywash.com/whiskey-style ... ine-casks/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

http://thewhiskeywash.com/whiskey-style ... ty-treats/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

MichiganCornhusker wrote:Articles about wine and port barrel aging.
I'd say go for it.

http://thewhiskeywash.com/whiskey-style ... ine-casks/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

http://thewhiskeywash.com/whiskey-style ... ty-treats/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

I'll give it a go. Just thought I'd put the question out there because they're so bloody expensive.
Cheers mate.

My buddy owns a winery, he uses oak spirals - i age in glass jars using those.

Note that those articles talk about finishing, not aging itself. Well, some of the scotch never sees a bourbon barrel, but for bourbon, it has to be first fill and charred. Wine barrels are never charred, only toasted (I think). Without the char, it wont taste like bourbon. It may be great, but fresh charred oak is what bourbon tastes like. So, finish in that wine barrel after its sat on/in charred oak. Or maybe char the wine barrel?

I'm about to do a 45 gal ferment of HBB, I plan on 2 sipping run since I have a 15.5 gal thumper I'll do all clear in boiler and grains and mess in the thumper for 1 and boiler only for the last unless I have too much then thumper will be used followed by a spirit run and aged in a 5 gal Balcones barrel.

Now here's the twist, I'm going to infect the backset with soil and potatoes trying to get some additional esters not really equated to bourbon but what the hell.

I'll then add 10-15% infected to low wines and see what happens, I'm not sure what the hell I'm thinking but I'll never know if I don't try.

If I'm not pleased with the blending I will not ruin my barrel but rerun as low wines with another proper ferment.

Shine0n