Cornflakes Whiskey (CFW) chat thread

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Cornflakes Whiskey (CFW) chat thread

Postby Zak Griffin » Mon Dec 16, 2013 7:56 am

There's a few guys here using this recipe, and more guys asking about it all the time. I have to give credit to Odin, who can be found elsewhere on the net, for giving me the idea. I've modified his recipe a bit to suit what I've got available... my fermenter is 50L, so this recipe makes 40-45ish litres. I never was one to get too exact with this kind of thing, which explains why I'm making bourbon out of breakfast cereal.

Ingredients:

Ferment #1
• 2L of Corn Flakes
• a good squeeze of lemon juice. I use 2 medium lemons' worth. Not sure why.
• 7kg of sugar
• 4 or 5 tablespoons of baker's yeast. Or, a measurement I refer to as 'a good sprinkle'
• Water to top up to 40-45L. Make sure to leave enough room in the fermenter for a bit of a cap.

Procedure:

If you make this for the first time, you need to:
• Boil 10L of water
• Crush/blend/chew up and spit out the Corn Flakes, and add them to the boiling water
• Cook them until you've got a big ol' pot of cornflake stew. Something like yellow porridge.
• Throw the hot water with the crushed Corn Flakes into your fermenter;
• Boil another 10L of water, dissolve the 7kg of sugar in it, and add it to the fermenter.
• Add the lemon juice/citric acid
• Top up to 40L with cold water, and let it cool to 25-30 degrees
• Add the yeast, give it a gooood stir, and pop your airlock on.

I don't have a designated distilling spot yet, so my fermenters sit outside under the patio/verandah... it ferments out in about a week (ish...), then I let it clear for a couple of days.

I rack it off into the still through a stocking to catch any chunky bits, and leave most of the yeast/grain bed in the fermenter. Scoop out and discard a litre or so of spent grains, and add 20L of cool water to the fermenter to keep the yeasties happy.

Run it hard and fast through the pot, and collect 7 or 8 litres of low wines down to 20%. Put the low wines aside for later.

After the run, collect 7-8L of backset. I tip it into my mixing pot straight after the run, while it's still hot.

For generation #2, #3, and on and on, you'll need:

• 1L of Corn Flakes
• 7 or 8L of backset
• 7kg of sugar
• Water to top up to 40-45L

• Crush the Corn Flakes and add them to the pot of hot backset. Sit on the stove/burner.
• Cook for 5 minutes (or until you've got cornflake porridge) and add it to the fermenter
• Throw the hot water with the crushed Corn Flakes into your fermenter;
• Bring another 10L of water to the boil, and dissolve 7kg of sugar in it. Tip it into the fermenter, and you should be somewhere near your 40-45L... If not, top up with water.
• Check the temp: it should be somewhere between 25 and 30 degrees. Give it a good stir.

All things going well, your yeast bed should still be alive from generation 1... Leave it for a few hours and you should start to see some action in the airlock. If you don't see anything happening after 12 hours (it has happened to me, I threw hot backset straight onto the grains and cooked my little yeasties :sad:)

• Add another good sprinkle of yeast, give it another stir and pop your airlock back on. It should start bubbling away in an hour or so.

Once you strip 4 or 5 generations through the pot, you should have enough low wines collected to water down to 40% and do a nice slow spirit run...

I drank a fair bit of this stuff white, before my oak arrived, and it's definitely drinkable as a mixer. I had a bottle of my white CFW and a bottle of Jim Beam at a BBQ here a while ago and the CFW was gone before anyone had touched the Beam. After 8 weeks on toasted oak, however; Phwoar. Delicious. I'm going to put a charred stick into my next batch to try to get a bit more colour happening.

The reason I went with CFW as opposed to a UJ/BWKO etc, was purely because of availablity of ingredients... I have no HBS or feed store anywhere local, but I do have an IGA down the road! Obviously there's variations that can and will be made, using different grains/cereals, but I'll leave this one here as the original and we can all work off of it :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: Cornflakes Whiskey (CFW)

Postby Frothwizard » Mon Dec 16, 2013 8:06 am

Good write up Zak!

:text-+1: for this recipe.

I've just put 9L of my CFW on oak so we'll see what happens in a few months time with that!
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Re: Cornflakes Whiskey (CFW)

Postby ABV 95 » Tue Dec 17, 2013 6:43 am

Hey,

Pretty new on this forum and new with bubblers, but what can i expect when i run this treu a 4-plated bubbler? 8-} I don't collect low wines for a number of runs, and then put them together to make a single spirit run or am i on the wrong track hier?
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Re: Cornflakes Whiskey (CFW)

Postby Bushy » Tue Dec 17, 2013 7:55 am

One run thru your bubbler mate. Thats what you made it for. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: Cornflakes Whiskey (CFW)

Postby 1 2many » Tue Dec 17, 2013 3:55 pm

Thanks Zac I have noticed a few members playing with sort of recipe interesting will have a go at this myself. :handgestures-thumbupleft:
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Re: Cornflakes Whiskey (CFW)

Postby Zak Griffin » Sat Jan 25, 2014 5:25 pm

Just a quick update on this... I've had a 4L of 65% on oak for a month now, 2 x 2L jars... One with charred and toasted oak, one with just toasted. This is the results so far:

Image

Charred and Toasted is on the right... Left is just toasted. They are smelling gooood! I'm gunna leave them for at least another couple of months...
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Re: Cornflakes Whiskey (CFW)

Postby 1 2many » Sat Jan 25, 2014 5:33 pm

Is that one domino per bottle (2 ltr) zac?
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Re: Cornflakes Whiskey (CFW)

Postby Zak Griffin » Sat Jan 25, 2014 5:39 pm

I had 2 in each for the first 3 weeks, then I took one out of each... Don't want to over-oak it. Should've specified that in the first post haha
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Re: Cornflakes Whiskey (CFW)

Postby SBB » Sat Jan 25, 2014 9:41 pm

Thats a bonza piccy Zak, if it tastes half as good as it looks it will be a good drop.
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Re: Cornflakes Whiskey (CFW)

Postby Beerfridge » Sat Jan 25, 2014 11:50 pm

done a simular mix this arvo used 1/2 a box of generic weetbix and 1/2 a pkt of generic cornflakes with 80 gms of lowans yeast ,

i am still waiting for BREWCRAFT to send me some viable malt yeast ordered b4 christmas they were going to send me some yeast with 2 weeks use by date.


anyway we persavier .got a copper potstill comming for my boiler so hoping this all comes together.


quick question has anyone ever fermented at 20C with bread yeast does it work ?? will it ferment out as i am new to this yeast coming from beer
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Re: Cornflakes Whiskey (CFW)

Postby Beerfridge » Sat Jan 25, 2014 11:52 pm

with 6 kg of generic sugar as well forgot that bit :) og 1090
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Re: Cornflakes Whiskey (CFW)

Postby Zak Griffin » Sun Jan 26, 2014 6:18 am

You might find your wash stalling at 20°, but it might be alright... Bakers yeast seems to like it a bit warmer, at around 30°...

Cheers SBB. The charred + toasted is smelling a bit more like a Jack's, while the just toasted isn't as smokey, and a bit sweeter, like a Wild Turkey...
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Re: Cornflakes Whiskey (CFW)

Postby kiwikeg » Sun Jan 26, 2014 7:02 am

I have found that brand name cornflakes give better flavors in this wash than the no brand ones.
great write up of the recipe :handgestures-thumbupleft:
I have done a few batches of this and its very drinkable as whitedog, but I mainly used it for making blended bourbon whisky if there's such a thing.
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Re: Cornflakes Whiskey (CFW)

Postby Zak Griffin » Sun Jan 26, 2014 7:27 am

I agree KK, I used home brand cornflakes in the first batch, and Kelloggs in the latest, and the Kelloggs definitely give a better/stronger flavour...
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Re: Cornflakes Whiskey (CFW)

Postby Beerfridge » Sun Jan 26, 2014 10:47 am

ill se how it goes then with the temp and if it stalls ill bring it out and warm it up :)
and ill keep in mind the kellogs for the next lot cheers for the info
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Re: Cornflakes Whiskey (CFW)

Postby wynnum1 » Mon Jan 27, 2014 6:21 am

What about the flaked corn sold for beer brewing.
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Re: Cornflakes Whiskey (CFW)

Postby Brendan » Mon Jan 27, 2014 9:16 am

wynnum1 wrote:What about the flaked corn sold for beer brewing.


Yep much better mate; you can essentially make an all grain mash with it too.

The cereal recipes are more for people who don't have access to certain supplies, and are just relying on supermarket ingredients.
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Re: Cornflakes Whiskey (CFW)

Postby Zak Griffin » Mon Jan 27, 2014 9:17 am

I assume it will work...

The idea of using breakfast cereal Cornflakes is that they're readily available... I don't have a homebrew shop or feed store in my town, so I have to make do with what I can buy from the supermarket.
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Re: Cornflakes Whiskey (CFW)

Postby Beerfridge » Mon Jan 27, 2014 9:23 pm

ok guys just a update my mash/mix/wort ...what every ya call it has been in my temp controled fridge for over 2 days now the temp strip is saying 20C the indapendant thermometer is saying 20C..... and the mash/mix/wort is still bubbling along like crazy, i am jusy curious if anyone has done any stuff on the red lowans bread yeast.

i did a tpw last time and it got to ,998 and wouldnt go any lower.

i guess its not a brewing yeast but it goes dry as fuk even dryer than fuk if i had a beer that went to .990 i woulkd chuck it .

anyway ill keep ya up to date as i reacon that the bread yeast has to be a ale type yeast for temps and well 20C should be good as less fussel alcohols to get rid off .
please bare with me as my last tpw that i did all it did was smell of fussels even in the hearts .


i am just experimenting b4 i get a pot still head 4 my t500 boiler
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Re: Cornflakes Whiskey (CFW)

Postby Canadoz » Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:10 pm

To date, I've been experimenting with whiskey mashes of all types short of AG brewing, including part and whole Malt extract brews, and the top favourite among my test group is still Corn Flake whiskey. A couple of people really like my Wheat whiskey (both malted and not) aged on french oak, which I find has a very stringent bite to it. I think the thing about the corn flake whiskey that pleases a larger selection of people is that it has a mellow flavor from the start, even as white dog. It seems pretty hard to overpower that corney mouth feel and taste, it forgives much.
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