8Ball’s Sipping Whiskey

[8Ball]

Grain bill percentages are:

76% Corn -17% Rye (12% unmalted/5% malted) - 7% Malted Barley
All @ 2.3#/G

Add a little epsom salts, gypsum, citric acid & lime to adjust your water to 6.0 pH +/- 0.5

Heat coarse ground corn in 6.0 pH water up to 190F with high temp enzymes and hold for 60 minutes at that temp. I use an overhead mounted 1/2 inch drill & paint stirrer.

Then add the unmalted rye and slowly heat up to a full boil & hold the boil for 15 mins. Cut the heat and do something else for awhile. Then add some cold backset, about 12% of your mash volume. Check the pH & adjust if needed to keep it between 5.0-6.0.

When the mash drops back down to 190F, add more enzymes and keep it in the optimal 190-175F zone for 30 more mins. Let it cool down to 150F & add the malts. Hold the temp 149-145 for 30 minutes, then it drift down to pitch temp while incrementally adding liquid gluco enzymes @ 130/120-110F.

Make a starter with some of your converted mash added. About 1-1/2 grams of yeast per gallon works good.

Pitch the starter (FermPro-917) @ 90F. An on grain ferment should be done 4 days later. Everything that I squeeze through a nylon paint bag goes into my propane fired copper pot, no thumper.

Strip & a 1.5 spirit, wide cuts. Age in a Gibbs barrel or in glass on toasted & charred white oak or you can leave it clear, your choice.

Makes a good piggy-back sugar head too, although I add a couple more pounds of malts with the sugar.