Malted wheat whiskey

[FL Brewer]

I really like wheated bourbons, and I love what malting does to wheat (based on the wheat beers I've drunk), so I decided to make an AG wheat malt whiskey. Anybody else done the same? Would love to hear your thoughts on the finished product, since mine is at least a year away.

My recipe is 100 pounds of malted white wheat, mashed and stripped in five separate 20 lb batches; about as much as my fermenter and half barrel boiler will handle. I mashed naturally, just added hot water at 2lbs grain to one gallon of water ratio, to get me to 150F in an insulated cooler. Usually did this in the evening, and transferred to my fermenter in the morning, cooled to 100F and pitched Fleishman's bakers yeast (just spread a generous dose of the dried yeast on top of the warm mash). After five pot still stripping runs, I've got about eight and a half gallons of low wines at about 35%. Gonna do my spirit run on my VM column when I can get a whole day free, which should be in the next few days.

Will post some updates as I go, but hope someone else has done a similar recipe, would like to hear your feedback. I have single grain AG batches of corn, barley malt, and oats aging now, so once I get this in glass to age, I should have a nice library of AG whiskeys to try some blending .... or just drinking like they are. The corn is a little over a year old now, and I really like that one.

[still_stirrin]

I really like wheated bourbons, and I love what malting does to wheat (based on the wheat beers I've drunk), so I decided to make an AG wheat malt whiskey. Anybody else done the same? Would love to hear your thoughts on the finished product, since mine is at least a year away.

Uh … yah. I use wheat, corn and milo (all from the family farm) to make a nice bourbon. Malting isn’t difficult for wheat, although corn can be a little trickier to malt. Still, quite doable.

My recipe is 100 pounds of malted white wheat, mashed and stripped in five separate 20 lb batches; about as much as my fermenter and half barrel boiler will handle. I mashed naturally, just added hot water at 2lbs grain to one gallon of water ratio, to get me to 150F in an insulated cooler. Usually did this in the evening, and transferred to my fermenter in the morning, cooled to 100F and pitched Fleishman's bakers yeast (just spread a generous dose of the dried yeast on top of the warm mash). After five pot still stripping runs, I've got about eight and a half gallons of low wines at about 35%. Gonna do my spirit run on my VM column when I can get a whole day free, which should be in the next few days.

My suggestion would be to try the process, complete with malting, on a smaller scale to understand what’s in store. It’s easier to manage 10lb. at a time than 100lb. Get good at the process, and larger batches are all “in stride”.

Will post some updates as I go, but hope someone else has done a similar recipe, would like to hear your feedback. I have single grain AG batches of corn, barley malt, and oats aging now, so once I get this in glass to age, I should have a nice library of AG whiskeys to try some blending .... or just drinking like they are. The corn is a little over a year old now, and I really like that one.

I use 5 grains in the wheat bourbon the same as my 5-grain bourbon listed in my signature. However, with the wheat bourbon, I increase the wheat to 50% of the grain bill. And I reduce the corn to 15%. The flaked oats (generic quick oats from the grocery store) is about 10%. Malted barley is 15% and the milo (similar in flavor to the rye malt) is the remaining 10%.

Of note, a wheat bourbon is lighter in “whiskey flavor” than a bourbon. And, a single malt whiskey has a distinct “whiskey flavor” that is omitted from the wheat bourbon. Selection of aging woods and processes do affect both the color and flavors revealed in the whiskey. But, the wheat bourbon is still a nice variation from the normal 50% corn bourbon I make.

I use the grains we grow on the farm as a low-cost opportunity, since it costs me NOTHING for the grains. I keep the grains in one of my chest freezers to retain the moisture content and to kill off any bugs that undoubtedly would thrive in a bag setting in the basement. Oh, it is best to malt the grains when they’re fresh from the field, as their enzymes are the healthiest at that time. Freezing will slow their aging processes, but not kill them.

Again, I wouldn’t want to commit an untried recipe (and brewing process) with a 100lb. grain bill. I always like to know ahead of time how the product will turn out. You may be a bigger gambler than I am though, so YMMV.
ss

[FL Brewer]

Hey SS, thanks for the reply. I like to go big or go home, lol. Seriously though, I've gotten to where I understand the process well enough that all my batches end up being very drinkable. I want to have a nice aging stock, and I know I'll use it for blending, so not worried about having too much. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna like it, just wanted to get some advance tasting notes so I would know what to look for. I also have thirsty friends that will make sure to help me keep my aging stock from getting out of control.

[FL Brewer]

Should also add that my standard bourbon recipe is 50% corn, 30% malted wheat, 20% malted barley, I've made that several times and been happy with those batches. All my whiskeys (except the all barley malt ones) are aged on new charred oak. I even did one of the jugs of barley malt whiskey with new oak because I only had enough once used oak for the other four jugs. That actually is a nice variation on Irish style, definitely sweeter, more bourbony than the traditional used oak version.

[NormandieStill]

I have a wheat and oat whisky that I made using porridge oats and unmalted wheat (10% oat) with HT enzymes for the mashing. The resulting whisky is smooth and very drinkable after only 6 months on charred oak. I can get raw wheat for peanuts at the local farm and have successfully malted a small batch but I need to scale up my drying system if I want to home malt enough for a full run.

[Twisted Brick]

I did a white wheat whiskey a while back and it did not disappoint. I've kept it white to compare to the next batch which will be aged either in glass or a badmo (light or no toast) barrel. The wheated bourbons I've made were with red wheat, which is noticeably different from white wheat.

[rubberduck71]

This thread has inspired me!

I will be experimenting in the near future...

Duck

[FL Brewer]

Finally got a whole day free to do my spirit run.... I use a VM still head for spirit runs, it gives very nice head compression. I ended up with about 3 quarts of heads (maybe a little bit more, I'm eyeballing the level in a one gallon jug), and a little under three gallons of hearts at 177 proof, very little tails. The heads to hearts and hearts to tails transitions are pretty sharp when I run at a low/moderate heat from the propane burner, I'm estimating about an 8 or 10 to 1 reflux ratio during heads; took me a good 6 hours to collect the 3 quarts of heads running at about 2.7 drops were second (I counted the number of drops in 10 seconds and divided by 10 to get that number). After making the heads cut, opened up the valve to get to about a 2 to 1 reflux ratio for the hearts, and ran for another five hours or so until the unpleasant tails flavors started to appear, at which time I made the tails cut.

I'll be preparing the the wood and diluting to 120 proof for aging. I use an old half of a Jack Daniels barrel from Home Depot as my wood source, cut into 3/4 x 3/4 x 8 inch sticks, wrap in aluminum foil and toast in the oven at 400F for two hours. After completely cooling (usually the next day), I give them a medium/heavy char and rinse thoroughly in water. I age in one gallon glass jugs 3/4 full with one stick of charred oak in each. I will cycle them through the freezer (one day in the freezer, one day in the sink at room temp) for a month, then they will go into the attic for the rest of the aging cycle. About once a month I open the jugs to get a little air exchange. The attic is 110F on summer afternoons, which I'm sure speeds up the aging considerably. My whiskey is drinkable after a year, good after two, and the small amounts I've been able to keep for three years is excellent, even when I thought I messed up the cuts. Time on oak cures all.....

After diluting to 120 proof, I should have a little over 4 gallons of aging strength whiskey, or 5 three quarter full jugs, which is pretty consistent with what I'm getting from most of my batches from 100 pounds of grain. Getting to three years and still having some left is the reason I've gone to bigger batches, it's easier to have a nice aging stock when I make more. I've also found that I can do wider cuts when I'm aging that long, which gives a fuller, more complex flavor than if I made very narrow cuts, which is consistent with what I've read on this forum.