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Seriously...

I was running some corn out over the weekend and I noticed that this batch tasted a bit different than the last. I had used the wash from the previous batches , let it cool, sugared it, and then reintroduced it to the leftover wash. I did this with both batches. The only real difference that I see is that there was some malt in each one. A light pale malt and I didnt use much. It was still a sugar wash with corn in it, but it came across so nicely. I did use a lager yeast in these because I was looking for a certain tolerance to low temps.
Its a nice sweet, crisp taste that has a tiny burn and a little tickle in the front of the tounge, but when you sip it, this lovely sweet taste washes through your mouth and ends high up in the back of your throat. I can barely feel the stuff go down and it tastes like honey with a slightly grainy taste to it. It sort of reminds me of Honey Nut Cheerios ( Wtf?) Im used to getting it where it has a bite to it and really needs to let it lie in oak for a while. BTW I took this off a 1 foot column, no packing and dropped the first 200ml, then took about a pint of heads, I collected from 87% to 47% and I proofed out at a final 59 proof. Then I ran the rest for tails. This wash was a low volume so I dropped in some corn tails I had sitting around.
But damn! it is SOOOO good. Its so nice, I dont even want to oak it.

So now I have to ask the question:
When you are working with Corn, what does your first run taste like?

Hi SB. Just finished a sweet feed sour mash run, (40% Corn, 60% Rolled Barley, Rolled Oats and Mollasses. I was going to re-introduce the first run without backset back to the still as fiegns, but after cutting carefully to the hearts decided to keep it. It is so smooth, has a corn/barley nose and on dilution to 40% with H2o, I could'nt feel it going down. The grains definately show through on both the taste and smell, but my friend, who is a seasoned single malt drinker said it was a very distinct taste with a character of its own. I love it.

The Sour Mash run after It had fermented out with backset added was, well IMHO, good enough to put into any likker store. The smell and the taste only got better once i had tempered it down from 55% abv to 40% abv. It has a sort of caramel/vanilla nose that my wife really enjoys and the taste was completely different from the first run. Iam very happy with it and will up my results to the HD board soon. The cuts were done very very carefully. Anything that I thought tasted or smelled a bit iffy was discarded to the feigns jar. I also take a very generous amount (200ml) of forshots, but the lawnmower seems to like it.

These runs were done on a simple pot still. Into the middle (hearts) run I was collecting at 62% down to 47%. This gave me an average abv of 55%abv. 20L wash at 11% gave me just under 2 Litres of the good stuff.

The sun is shining in Scotland at the moment, so i'm off to the mountains. (Usually rains )

S.

(EDIT) I will start to age some of this sour mash when I get to the 4th generation, if I can keep away from it...lol S.

I am glat to hear your liking the sweetfeed whiskey.. I wish more would try it. I love it.

Kentucky shinner wrote:I am glat to hear your liking the sweetfeed whiskey.. I wish more would try it. I love it.

Yeah KS, really can't thank you enough for the recipe. I think it would really take a bit of experimenting to get it even better than it is! I do think that aging would be a path I would follow. But, as I said above, I would need some will power to keep it from my tastebuds. L (wife) says, thanks for recipe... TTYS shinner.

S.

Edit: Sorry for hijacking thread SB. I know its not 100% corn like UJSM, but I just had to share it...S.

Taste like corn with a lite earthy taste if i use dry corn malt.A grassy taste if I used dry rye malt or green corn malt.A slight uncharred bourbon white dog taste if using malted barley

tater wrote:Taste like corn with a lite earthy taste if i use dry corn malt.

mmmmmmm. exactly. but seems to loose taste when its been open a while.

My first run (low-wines) taste like corn gatoraide...only not quite as salty and drier.

Thanks Guys!
Lots of good descriptors here and I think I know what I did. I may have used too much light malt in it, but its really strange how the sweet corny taste came through punctuated by the malt. Even my wife commented on it.
It IS loosing this flavor as it sits.
Oddly enough this seems to have happened with another batch I did, but I dont remember putting a lot of malt in, maybe a cup for 5 gallons.

This may or may not be a happy accident. Time will tell.
Thanks for the feedback though!

SB