Mac's Bourbon Whiskey Knock Off (BWKO) Discussion

[cattery]

I've been using this basic bwko recipe for about 8ish years, but I've always been scared to change it up because it is my staple and I hate pouring product down the drain if an experiment fails. But I thought this time I would give it a bit of a shake up :dance:

2x
70lt fermenter
10lt cracked corn
2kg Weyermann Cararye
1.5kg Tungamah Baudin malt
8kg sugar
50ish lt water

The aim is to cut off some of the sweetness of the corn and spice it up a bit
The wash is as dark as Toohey's old.
Smells VERY different coming off the still on the first strip.
I think it'll age with a bit more complexity, but we'll see :-??

Pic is of the saved wash for watering down my spirit run.

[cattery]

Oh and I started off with some frozen backset from last season, so no sweet run :music-deathmetal:
Using Distillamax SR yeast, worked a treat last season for 12 gens.

[bluc]

Noice :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[stillts]

@Cattery, that looks like an interesting version. How is it going so far?

[Wellsy]

I know what you mean cattery
I started using raw sugar and have always been to scared to go back to standard. I did add some rye as a variation at half the amount of barley and I like it. This is definitely my go to wash

[cattery]

@Cattery, that looks like an interesting version. How is it going so far?

The first couple of strips had a bit of "spice" in the hearts, it began to mellow out by about 4th gen.
I've got about 30lt of 60% on oak at the moment. Two lots of 15lt one on toasted french, and 15lt on charred.
I also just picked up a fresh 10lt barrell ready for the next spirit run. Then I'm done for the season :happy-partydance:

[stillts]

sounds yumworthy!

[Wellsy]

Don’t know who told you there were seasons cattery. Definitely stilling time all year round

[akkanomore]

I have done 7 generations and decided to save backset from gen 7 and start fresh with new grains, yeast but saved backset. Is it ok to continue using backset or does there come a time when you should start again from scratch?

Thanks.

[Wellsy]

The backset tends to get acidic which often leads to slower and slower ferments.

Once they started slowing up I tended to start again but a lot of that depends on how much backset you use

[akkanomore]

Ok. Thanks. I still have PH at 510. See how I go. Only using about 15% backset

[Wellsy]

I am often up around 25%. Things slow up after about gen 7 or 8 for me :)

[cattery]

Starting a new season. Going back to my roots of full corn (ujsm) this time as I didn't notice enough difference after 10gens to warrant the extra expense of barley/rye. also going back to Baker's yeast because the stillamax sr was a little too "clean" for my tastes.

[cattery]

Second gen pumping before the first gen strip is finished. :music-deathmetal:

[BigRig]

Is that ibc a fermenter or used for cooling ?
How big are the olive barrels ?

[cattery]

The IBC is for cooling, placed a couple of pond cubes in there so it doesn't go foul. The olive barrel's are 70lt each. Only filled to 40lt charges. 10kg corn + rackable charge +headroom which comes into play later in the season because I need to add calcium for pH which in turn adds frothyness.

[Scrappy]

Do the wheat and barley grains need to be milled or do they go in the fermenter whole?

[BigRig]

In this recipe you are using the sugar for alcohol but cracked at a minimum to get as much flavour out of it.

[MattSmith]

Doing my first batch of this right now. 1st gen just fermented out in 3 days (1.07 > .980). Might strip it Thursday and get the 2nd gen started.

[Wellsy]

This one always fermented out fast for me Matt

This is definitely my go to recipe :)

I often throw a little bit of rye in it