by bradsgonetrekkin » Thu Apr 14, 2011 9:17 pm
I'm looking forward to playing with the grain bills for this style of whiskey.
So far I've kept to the straight cracked corn aka Uncle Jessies Sour Mash recipe from HD (around $25 for a 20kg bag at the local stock feed place), with around 4kg of corn and 3.5kg raw sugar per fermenter to start and probably around 2.5kg of fresh cracked corn to replace the spent corn after each successive ferment.
I just made use of my 23 litre fermenters (I have 3) I use for my home brew, once you add the corn etc and fill up to the 23/24l mark you can generally get around 13 litres of 9-12% wash per fermenter to strip.
I got to 6 generations of stripped (I was getting around 7-8 litres from around 39 litres of wash), than ran out of storage space. With the final spirit run (all of the stripped runs into the still plus enough water to make alcohol strength in boiler 40%), I ended up getting around 6 X 5 litre demijohns at 65% (being very conservative with cuts) to age and oak.
I'm experimenting now with flavours from different styles / methods of oaking between american oak v french oak v toasted v toasted and charred sticks. So much good stuff to experiment with, and I'm keen do do the same with a mix of grains for next run once I get my new pot still head finished, fix up my heating element and get another keg to store my product in.....I have a 20kg bag of rolled barley in the shed now to mix with the corn, but the friggen rats have just found it!!!! Might have to get a sealable bin I think.
To anyone out there who likes bourbon, its worth doing this style rather than just adding the essence. It takes a bit longer, but its worth it. Instead of the "smell but no taste" you get from neutral plus essence, you get both with this type of recipe, and it just gets better with age! :D