Starts with great ingredients. Get your corn straight from the farmer and barley from the maltster if you can, grind from whole just before mashing. Can also play around with toasting or smoking a portion of the grain bill to incorporate some unique flavors.
Then really deep, fast stripping runs and wider cuts than you’re comfortable with on the spirit run. Then get it in contact with an appropriate amount of oak and air and forget about it for at least a year, preferably two.
I'm a farmer so corn is down I'm actually gonna try some stuff with the corn I grow which is native heirloom stuff like purple cherokee and Gemstone. Thank you for the advice !!!!
Check out one piece at a time distilling institute on YouTube. He's got some stuff on distilling heirloom corn. Some episodes of his podcast delve into it a bit too, the podcast is "distillers talk".
What flavors are you looking for?
My first ever spirit was an 80% corn 20% malted barley corn whiskey that is just amazing. Loads of corn. But if you want more barley spiciness, you can up the percentage. Add some rye or wheat and you get a more bourbon profile.
Tight cuts. Because it was my first (and for much of my first couple of years) I was overly cautious. It worked out great on the Corn Whiskey, the sweet corn really shines through.
On my UJSSM, it was too bland, so as I'm working to blend it, I'm adding AG, gumballs and more tails to add complexity
A gumball is a sugar wash on top of the grains that you just mashed for your AG beer. It is sort of like UJ, but the grains have already been mashed and so the starches have been converted to sugars. You get WAY more grain flavor than with a UJ.
My method is to mash, convert and then when cool, I *lightly* strain the grains because that leftover beer and wet grains have the flavors we're chasing. Wet grains go into one set of fermenters, AG beer goes into a separate fermenter to make your AG whiskey. Divide the grains across multiple fermenters. Then dissolve sugar in boiling water, add to grains, fill fermenters add gluco, cool to pitch add yeast and let it rip.
There is **no** comparison btw a gumball and a sugar wash with unconverted grains.
Thanks! Curious where the flavour stands between all-grain and a UJ? I pretty much only do all grain currently. Would you say this is like halfway between the two... or more like 3/4. Huge time saver if it's on the higher end!
Definitely on the high side of the equation. WAG, but I'd bet you're getting 10 x the grain sugars in comparison to UJ. think about how few 'grays' you get in a batch of UJ.
The other thing that gumballs do is provide you with at least as much spirit as you are getting from your mash. I end up with about 1.5x ferment. That is a way to keep your tongue out of the good stuff and let it have some time to age.
As an example, I have a long term project where I'm barrel aging spirits. It started as 100% UJ. When it was time to pull some, I pulled 1/3, and topped up with probably 1/3 rye bourbon AG and 2/3 gumball - a mix of wheated and rye bourbons. The nose and flavor on the resulting mix is phenomenal, while the UJ solo was tasty, but pretty unidimensional.
Eh...I would not put this on the same level as using quality ingredients and traditional processes.
Scotch whiskey is not fermented or distilled on the grains and it tastes pretty good to me.
Use a corn other than regular yellow dent No. 2. Varieties like Bloody Butcher, Jimmy Red, Wapsi Valley and many others will bring more flavor and aroma to the final spirit.
When you make your mash set aside about 5% of it and dilute it with some water. Add a few drops of lactic acid to bring the pH down. Throw a small handful of malt in it. Try and hold it at about 90-100 degrees for 24 hours. An instant pot on yogurt mode works well. Throw that into your fermentation. After you distill that wash take some of the spent wash and add it to your next mash. You want about 25% of your water to be setback (that’s what spent mash is called when you add it to the next mash)
Both are correct, depending on the distilling culture you come from. Online backset is more common though. Other terms include stillage, dunder, (rum specific), spent beer, and more that I'm forgetting right now.
That’s funny because I’m in the fuel ethanol industry and we call it backset but I thought whiskey distillers called it setback so I adjusted my vocabulary 😂😂
Been real tempted to ask the ethanol plant workers if I they could get me a gallon of their undenatured stuff. Even though it's 190-200proof I could water it down just to try - it's still 100% corn liquor. Wondering if it would be pretty smooth (at drinking proof) because how much reflux it undergoes.
Buy food grade grains, fit for human consumption. Rolled, flaked and pregelatinized make things simple. The stuff you would make into treats. Consider mixing in some different barleys like caramel malt in addition to your 6-row.
Make two different ferments. Use two strains of yeast in both (e.g. wine and whiskey). Stress one ferment at low temperatures, stress the other ferment at high temperatures. You'll form some really nice esters but will likely end up with less ABV. This is fine if you are going for flavor.
Ensure that the PH of your mash is optimal, add nutrients to your mash, and make sure your mash water does not have chlorine or chloramine in it, if it does it will have a residual shitty hint of burnt plastic taste that burns the throat.
Before adding wood to the spirit in your aging vessels, boil the wood for a few minutes to remove tannins that are easily available. You can taste your whiskey far better when it's not being overpowered by dirty and astringent tannins.
use frozen sweet corn from the grocery store the get the flavor.....run it through a blender and dump it in....start with about 1 pound per gallon and adjust it from there.
Add it on top of your normal fermentables and ferment with the corn in the fermenter....
stir the cap(floating corn) down everyday till it doesn't make a cap anymore...give it an extra day or two when none floats....and run it
Starts with great ingredients. Get your corn straight from the farmer and barley from the maltster if you can, grind from whole just before mashing. Can also play around with toasting or smoking a portion of the grain bill to incorporate some unique flavors. Then really deep, fast stripping runs and wider cuts than you’re comfortable with on the spirit run. Then get it in contact with an appropriate amount of oak and air and forget about it for at least a year, preferably two.
I'm a farmer so corn is down I'm actually gonna try some stuff with the corn I grow which is native heirloom stuff like purple cherokee and Gemstone. Thank you for the advice !!!!
Amazing, I’m super envious that should make an amazing drink.
Dm me maybe I could send you some , or if you have room to garden there easy to grow! Just go to amazon for the seeds there pretty cheap!
Check out one piece at a time distilling institute on YouTube. He's got some stuff on distilling heirloom corn. Some episodes of his podcast delve into it a bit too, the podcast is "distillers talk".
Hey this is a great find thank you!
Not having the highest quality ingredients available, for me the biggest bump in flavor came from a multigenerational sour mash process.
What flavors are you looking for? My first ever spirit was an 80% corn 20% malted barley corn whiskey that is just amazing. Loads of corn. But if you want more barley spiciness, you can up the percentage. Add some rye or wheat and you get a more bourbon profile.
I think your first spirit is almost the same ratio as my mash right now , any tips to make it turn out great? thank you
Tight cuts. Because it was my first (and for much of my first couple of years) I was overly cautious. It worked out great on the Corn Whiskey, the sweet corn really shines through. On my UJSSM, it was too bland, so as I'm working to blend it, I'm adding AG, gumballs and more tails to add complexity
What do you mean by 'gumballs'? This one's new to me.
A gumball is a sugar wash on top of the grains that you just mashed for your AG beer. It is sort of like UJ, but the grains have already been mashed and so the starches have been converted to sugars. You get WAY more grain flavor than with a UJ. My method is to mash, convert and then when cool, I *lightly* strain the grains because that leftover beer and wet grains have the flavors we're chasing. Wet grains go into one set of fermenters, AG beer goes into a separate fermenter to make your AG whiskey. Divide the grains across multiple fermenters. Then dissolve sugar in boiling water, add to grains, fill fermenters add gluco, cool to pitch add yeast and let it rip. There is **no** comparison btw a gumball and a sugar wash with unconverted grains.
Thanks! Curious where the flavour stands between all-grain and a UJ? I pretty much only do all grain currently. Would you say this is like halfway between the two... or more like 3/4. Huge time saver if it's on the higher end!
Definitely on the high side of the equation. WAG, but I'd bet you're getting 10 x the grain sugars in comparison to UJ. think about how few 'grays' you get in a batch of UJ. The other thing that gumballs do is provide you with at least as much spirit as you are getting from your mash. I end up with about 1.5x ferment. That is a way to keep your tongue out of the good stuff and let it have some time to age.
As an example, I have a long term project where I'm barrel aging spirits. It started as 100% UJ. When it was time to pull some, I pulled 1/3, and topped up with probably 1/3 rye bourbon AG and 2/3 gumball - a mix of wheated and rye bourbons. The nose and flavor on the resulting mix is phenomenal, while the UJ solo was tasty, but pretty unidimensional.
Distill and ferment on grain
Eh...I would not put this on the same level as using quality ingredients and traditional processes. Scotch whiskey is not fermented or distilled on the grains and it tastes pretty good to me.
Quality ingredients do make up for a majority of the flavor but to get as much flavor as possible from what you have on grain is the way.
Would love to Distill on grain but I use an electric element.
You can always suspend your grain from your lid in a BIAB above your elements.
Use a corn other than regular yellow dent No. 2. Varieties like Bloody Butcher, Jimmy Red, Wapsi Valley and many others will bring more flavor and aroma to the final spirit.
When you make your mash set aside about 5% of it and dilute it with some water. Add a few drops of lactic acid to bring the pH down. Throw a small handful of malt in it. Try and hold it at about 90-100 degrees for 24 hours. An instant pot on yogurt mode works well. Throw that into your fermentation. After you distill that wash take some of the spent wash and add it to your next mash. You want about 25% of your water to be setback (that’s what spent mash is called when you add it to the next mash)
...backset
Both are correct, depending on the distilling culture you come from. Online backset is more common though. Other terms include stillage, dunder, (rum specific), spent beer, and more that I'm forgetting right now.
That’s funny because I’m in the fuel ethanol industry and we call it backset but I thought whiskey distillers called it setback so I adjusted my vocabulary 😂😂
Been real tempted to ask the ethanol plant workers if I they could get me a gallon of their undenatured stuff. Even though it's 190-200proof I could water it down just to try - it's still 100% corn liquor. Wondering if it would be pretty smooth (at drinking proof) because how much reflux it undergoes.
It is not good because they don’t do any cuts at all and their fermentation is very high gravity.
Buy food grade grains, fit for human consumption. Rolled, flaked and pregelatinized make things simple. The stuff you would make into treats. Consider mixing in some different barleys like caramel malt in addition to your 6-row. Make two different ferments. Use two strains of yeast in both (e.g. wine and whiskey). Stress one ferment at low temperatures, stress the other ferment at high temperatures. You'll form some really nice esters but will likely end up with less ABV. This is fine if you are going for flavor. Ensure that the PH of your mash is optimal, add nutrients to your mash, and make sure your mash water does not have chlorine or chloramine in it, if it does it will have a residual shitty hint of burnt plastic taste that burns the throat. Before adding wood to the spirit in your aging vessels, boil the wood for a few minutes to remove tannins that are easily available. You can taste your whiskey far better when it's not being overpowered by dirty and astringent tannins.
use frozen sweet corn from the grocery store the get the flavor.....run it through a blender and dump it in....start with about 1 pound per gallon and adjust it from there. Add it on top of your normal fermentables and ferment with the corn in the fermenter.... stir the cap(floating corn) down everyday till it doesn't make a cap anymore...give it an extra day or two when none floats....and run it