Mocker's Mark Recipe

[Lawfish]

This is my go-to recipe. It is a very close approximation of the grain bill in Maker's Mark (70% corn, 14% barley, 16% wheat). Maker's Mark is one of the few Bourbons on the market that does not use rye and does use wheat. If you make this recipe up and single-distill it with a pot still, it makes a very fine sipping whiskey. The recipe is for a 6.5 to 7 gallon batch.

24 hours before mashing, add 8 lbs. Producer's Pride cracked corn and 4 lbs. Producer's Pride Scratch Mix to a pot and add enough hot water to cover at least 2 inches. Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and let soak overnight.

The next night, put about 3.5 gallons of water and 1/2 gallon backset in a BOP and start heating. While the water is heating, run the grain through a Cuisinart until it is down to about 1/16" pieces, then add to the heating water. Critical to this procedure is the use of a 1/2" variable speed drill mounted overhead fitted with a plaster mixer. Mine is built so the mixer reaches to about 3/4" from the bottom of the pot, and I used a thumbscrew and nut to make a speed controller for very precise speed adjustment (pics to follow). I start at about 80 RPM while adding the batches of grain. Takes me about 12 batches in the Cuisinart to get it all ground up. When temp reaches 150, add 5 cc of alpha amylase (this is basically pintoshine's enzyme procedure) and continue heating until it hits 180. I have taken it to 190 as pintoshine does, but I found I denatured some of the alpha, so I keep it at 180 for one hour. The iodine test is helpful here, but not absolutely necessary. I've found a solid hour at 180 does the job with this fine grind of grain.

After one hour, add 3/4 gallon of backset, stop the agitator and let the mixture cool until it reaches 150 again. At this point, start the agitator again and make sure the temp is uniform. If too hot, allow to continue cooling until it hits 150 (my thermometer will read 135 or 140 at the top, but once the agitator starts again, the temp picks up at least 15 degrees, so taking temp while agitating is critical). Once you confirm 150 with the agitator on, add 5 cc of gluco amylase. Keep agitating until well mixed, then shut off the agitator, cover, insulate and leave overnight.

In the morning, add 3 lbs. corn sugar, agitate again, then pour into your fermentation vessel(s). I use 2 5-gallon buckets with airlocks. Pitch 2 packets of Fleischman's bread yeast, then aerate by adding water through a pressure nozzle on a hose. Final volume should now be 6.5 to 7 gallons.

I've never pulled a SG, as I'm fermenting on the grain, but typical yield after a thorough fermentation and straining is about 5 quarts of tasty spirit at around 110 to 115. There is no sugarhead flavor as the corn sugar merely adds alcohol with no additional flavor. This goes into quart jars with 2 sticks of homemade charred white oak and a handful of Jack Daniels whiskey barrel chips. I prefer to age this in my attic where the temperature swings wildly. It starts turning a beautiful brown almost immediately and after 2 to 3 weeks, it's very drinkable. I dilute down to 90 and bottle and drink at that point.

Enjoy!

[zach]

Nice write up!

I tried to look up the ingredients in the PP Scratch Mix and couldn't find the manufacturer's specifications. The tractor supply site lists " a blend of whole grain and cracked grains"

I did find another thread that said " It's called 'Producers Pride Scratch Grain'. There is millet, milo, cracked corn, rolled oats, rolled barley and I might have missed one or two others." http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 34&t=16337

Do you know the grain mix present in the PP Scratch Mix?

[Lawfish]

Thanks, Zach.

I can't find anything definitive online about the breakdown of grains, but to my relatively untrained eye, it appears to be about 70% cracked corn, 15% barley and 15% wheat. I can only identify 3 separate grains in the mix. I know barley from my years of beer brewing and the other one looks like wheat to me. There is definitely no rye in there.

[corene1]

Is there an ingredient tag on the bag showing contents? It would be interesting to know what , if any byproducts are in it and if there are preservatives in it. Not much in the way of details are posted online that I have found.

[Lawfish]

It has no preservatives in it, I know that. It ferments beautifully. The reason I'm thinking it's corn, barley and wheat is I think my son read off the ingredients when he brought it home (he was supposed to get something else, but came back with scratch, a bit of a happy accident). I'll read it tonight and post a follow-up.

[Swedish Pride]

I did this with flaked maize and both the wheat and barley malted, It's only about 3 months or so now but getting quite nice. Actually I may just have a sample seeing as you got me in a bourbon frame of mind

[Lawfish]

Nothing on the bag to reveal the actual contents, so I'm sticking with my original eyeball assessment of barley and wheat.

[zach]

Thanks for the update on the Scratch Mix. I'm thinking I'll try it with a bag of scratch as well as make my own mix with red wheat.

I found this article on Makers's

http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2012/03/w ... akers.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

This article said they keep the wheat under 160 F to avoid any bitter elements from developing which would be impossible to do with the scratch mix.

Also said they age at 110 proof which is what you do.

[PartingGlass]

These the ones?

[Lawfish]

Good stuff, PartingGlass. Mine doesn't have a label. I took another close look this morning, as we were out of chicken feed and I had to give some to the hens and it looks to be much thicker in barley (or it could be wheat, but the kernels are quite dark) than I originally thought. Perhaps the formulation has changed. At any rate, it makes a delicious drop. There's something in the final product that has a distinct slightly sharp taste.

[bitter]

This video confirms your grain percentage. They also use a roller mill not a hammer mill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkAtdtewjb0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

More details of there cooking/mashing procedure also.

Might have to try this one.

B

[Lawfish]

Great video, bitter. It's always good to see how the pros do it. Hard to believe they ferment wide open and allow guests to put their hands in the fermenting wort! I'm so accustomed to sterile procedures from making beer that it blows my mind they allow that kind of contamination. I guess the still takes care of any non-yeast contamination.

[bitter]

You will notice they only took the guy to the tanks fermenting pretty well, or done. A lot less chance of contamination. I starsan everything guess old beer habbits die hard.

B

[zach]

So I finally picked up the TSC chicken scratch in an attempt to give this recipe a try. I made some modifications as I didn't use any corn sugar.

I mashed the scratch grains separately from the corn. I did two mashing /stripping runs with corn only (Booner's protocol) Then I did one strip of the scratch only mash using enzymes.

The Chicken Scratch has corn, wheat, barley, and milo. The low wines from this run looked slightly yellow. I ran the stripping run kind of dirty as I didn't wait for the ferment to clear up. The Scratch Mix is kind of a nice addition to a corn only without having to pay home brewing prices for grain. ($10/50 lbs)


Just finished a spirit run with the combined low wines . After tossing the heads and tails and diluting to 50%, the white dog is the best I've made. Maker's is one of my favorite whiskies. I can taste some of the same vanilla in this white dog that I pick up in Maker's

I've got a just over a gallon at 130 proof. Now I'm looking for some charred oak, patience and a good hiding spot that I won't find for a year.

[Shine0n]

Better let someone else hide it bubba, lol
I can't hide crap from myself but my wife is a master of hiding my stuff.

Glad it worked out for ya, how the world did you get vanilla already without aging? Just curious is all

[bilgriss]

Last time I bought scratch grains at Tractor Supply, the tag listed ingredients as a third each, corn, barley, and wheat. I might need to start another batch soon....

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=65611

[hellbilly007]

I made up a recipe very similar to this a few years back, corn plus scratch feed minus corn sugar. The only real variation was that I pitched Safbrew S58 yeast (it was at the LHBS and I was experimenting). I wasn't fond of the peppery finish from the yeast, otherwise it was a smooth drink. Now I need to go look for it as I put it away for another day. Hopefully I labelled it.

[zach]

milo.jpg (18.9 KiB) Viewed 4353 times

The mix had maybe 10% milo in addition to the 50% corn, with balance being barley and wheat. I used baker's yeast.

The hearts of the corn only distillate that I used had a very sweet to buttery taste that I pick up on the tip of my tongue. The result of the combined strip has a flavor that is farther back on the tongue. The vanilla I pick up is very faint compared to an aged whisky.

My conversion efficiency was better with the Scratch as I got 1.068 with 22 lbs /11 gallons of water where I'm getting 1.060 with the TSC cracked corn using the same ratio.