I am trying my hand at George Washington Rye Whiskey. 6 lbs rye, 3.5 lbs flaked maize, 0.5 lb malted barley. I used a brew bag and pretty much did what you did here. When I checked it with iodine I did not get the resulting color I expected so I added enzyme to it and processed again at 153F for 90 minutes. My gravity was only about 1.035, what you got. Now I have added corn sugar and my gravity is 1.082. Im fermenting now and will see how it goes. Im 73 and my arthritis made it difficult to handle a 5 gallon batch in the brew bag. I had enough and had planned to do 10 gallons, glad now I changed my mind. I think I will split my recipe next time and combine the two into 5 gallons in the fermenter and ferment from a gravity of 1.035 if nothing more than to gain some knowledge. I've done sugar washes and rum using both brown sugar and blackstrap molasses, all those turned out very well.
I started using indian corn and its flavor is much better than regular flaked corn. The downside is the extra work since its not already gelatinized like the flaked corn. Its worth the extra effort. Im going to try blue hopi corn next. As far as your low gravity, Im guessing you didn’t use malted rye?
Hi, Randy, nice channel! A couple of comments for you: Since you used flaked corn in your recipe, it is pre-gelatinized and does not need to be mashed at 180 F. You can just heat your water to 155 and mash in all the grains at the same time. Cracked corn (much cheaper) is not gelatinized and has to be heated to at least 180 for several hours. Also, I am puzzled that your Original Gravity (OG) was only 1.035. With your mash bill, assuming your rye and barley were both properly crushed and malted, adding up the total gravity points along with the flaked corn gives you 280 points. Now assuming that you used 3.5 gallons of water, and that your brewhouse efficiency is 85%, and your mash temperature before adding the rye and barley was 158F, your Original Gravity should have been about 1.080 (280 points divided by 3.5 gallons). This is about as high as you want to go since some yeasts will struggle with high gravity wort. If you accidentally were sold rye, which has a diastatic power of 0, and not rye malt, which has a diastatic power of 25, your OG would have been 1.037, close to what you got. Always make sure you use cooled wort for your refractometer since, even with the alleged ATC (automatic temperature correction), cheap refractometers are not very reliable. I suspect that your barley was not malted. You can look up typical malt yields using John Palmers "How to Brew" or use a calculator built into some software packages like Brewsmith. Of course there was nothing wrong with adding sugar but with your grain bill you should not need it. Looking forward to seeing more videos!
George L he mentioned that he collected 6 gallons of wort. My question is that with 6 lbs of sugar, isn’t the rye percentage too low to be a rye whiskey?
Hi, Half Bath Brewing, it’s kind of academic since the regulations are for commercial spirits. The TTB would not approve a rye whiskey recipe with any added sugar. And of course distilling without a Federal license is illegal in the USA. Rye whiskey was made in Colonial America because it grew well there and grain was much cheaper than sugar until the rum trade started. Today, whiskies are tied to traditional recipes, while specialty spirits with added sugar can be allowed if the words on the label are approved by the TTB.
Hey friend. He's sticking closely to that data point 1.090 put out by our other good friend. 8-10% abv for this recipe (I think) will allow more of that flavor profile to come through. Once I stopped chasing the abv I began to get really tasty drinks of quality. Along with slowing down and dialing in my process. I only have three recipes, but I've nailed them down like Granny did cake! Don't get me wrong, George @barleyandhops is one of my biggest mentors
Its extra work but substitute indian corn for the flaked corn. Its well worth it. My local brewers supply is starting to carry the indian corn and blue hopi corn. Apparently the local hobby distillers have abandoned the flaked corn. I now see why. First time viewer. Now subbed!
If your OG is low and you did not get a good conversion from malt or high temp enzymes. Add Gluco amylase at or below 150 F. The Gluco amylase will continue to convert starches (even in the fermenter) at temps 60 to 150 F. I use liquid enzymes. High Temp Alpha Amylase (150 to 190 F) and the low temp Gluco Amylase (
hope it tastes good! I'm about to make a corn, barley & rye mash...all flaked and crushed (I'm lazy...lol) so all I have to do is cook it at 155F for an hour and I'll probably add some sugar as well...sugar is I believe 32 gravity points so well see what my grains say...cheers Randy!
Great video!! I will offer a small bit of advice. Flaked corn does not need to be cooked ( gelatinized ) , only cracked corn needs to. Sooo, that cuts some time down!! You may want to look into using rice hulls, especially with corn of any kind. This will help with the gooping and difficult or stuck sparge. RIce hulls, corn and cooler mash tuns is where its at.
I made some rye whiskey but it was very difficult to filter the thick mash. I also had some gelatinized corn in the mash which may be the cause of the problem of filtering out (BIAB) the liquid from the mash. Nevertheless, the whiskey that came out when distilling was very good. Region: Sweden
Hi Jim if I got that reading I would split that mash between two fermentors add water to get the reading down you will get the same amount of alcohol and not stress the yeast remember if you stress the yeast you will get off flavors
Hey Randy, Just checking in to see how that rye whiskey turned out? Is there anything you would have done different? I’m looking for a great rye recipe! Oh by the way the rye you used appeared to be a chocolate rye due to how dark it was, or is that normal for malted rye? Thanks for all your videos very informative
Hi Randy, I usually go with 2lbs grain (non malt) per gallon of water, That'll get u in around 1.060. As I watched this it appeared as though u weren't going to get a full conversion, temps are uber important with conversions - I think you left a lot of sugar on the table because of your temps... I don't add my 6-row over 146*F. The goal is to use up all the sugar in the grain and leave the "table sugar" on the table, it has no place in an all-grain recipe. Keep up the good work on the videos!
I keep reading it’s illegal in the states to distill your own spirits due to methanol. But there are tons of videos of people brewing batches, can someone explain to me the legal intricacies? I ask because I want to try making a rye myself.
Hey Randy: You didn't get a good starch conversion @ .035. I make this all the time and I usually get 1.065 or better. My rig is exactly like yours. I used malted rye though in this recipe . I also use aymalse, which I saw you add. I just can't figure out why you didn't convert well. Guess what makes this a great hobby!
@@rjthaxton1882 I used 6 lbs malted rye 1/2 pound of 6 row Barley 3.5 lbs of flake corn (next time i'm use corn meal same taste lot less $ ) 2 oz med. tosted oak ships
Great question you start the corn off first around 180 deg. to what they call gel up it's releasing starches from the corn than as temp. drops to around 150 deg. add in malted grain that has amylase enzymes to convert starches into sugars thanks for watching cheers!
Randy, you do not need to gelatinize flaked corn, it’s already been done. Flaked corn was developed so that hobbyists did not have to boil cracked corn. Just dough in the barley malt and flaked corn together into your strike water and mash in. You can use your process with cracked corn which is a whole lot cheaper and just let it sit for about 8 hours in the mash tun. Your corn will be fully gelled and down to 160F or so and you can add the barley malt.
I am trying my hand at George Washington Rye Whiskey. 6 lbs rye, 3.5 lbs flaked maize, 0.5 lb malted barley. I used a brew bag and pretty much did what you did here. When I checked it with iodine I did not get the resulting color I expected so I added enzyme to it and processed again at 153F for 90 minutes. My gravity was only about 1.035, what you got. Now I have added corn sugar and my gravity is 1.082. Im fermenting now and will see how it goes. Im 73 and my arthritis made it difficult to handle a 5 gallon batch in the brew bag. I had enough and had planned to do 10 gallons, glad now I changed my mind. I think I will split my recipe next time and combine the two into 5 gallons in the fermenter and ferment from a gravity of 1.035 if nothing more than to gain some knowledge. I've done sugar washes and rum using both brown sugar and blackstrap molasses, all those turned out very well.
you are doing fine and yes the corn can be a hand full i have been thinking of adding a block and tackle from the ceiling to help with this Cheers!!
I started using indian corn and its flavor is much better than regular flaked corn. The downside is the extra work since its not already gelatinized like the flaked corn. Its worth the extra effort. Im going to try blue hopi corn next. As far as your low gravity, Im guessing you didn’t use malted rye?
good work sir ive been lookin for this receipe and now we have it ...
Great 👍
Hi, Randy, nice channel! A couple of comments for you:
Since you used flaked corn in your recipe, it is pre-gelatinized and does not need to be mashed at 180 F. You can just heat your water to 155 and mash in all the grains at the same time. Cracked corn (much cheaper) is not gelatinized and has to be heated to at least 180 for several hours.
Also, I am puzzled that your Original Gravity (OG) was only 1.035. With your mash bill, assuming your rye and barley were both properly crushed and malted, adding up the total gravity points along with the flaked corn gives you 280 points. Now assuming that you used 3.5 gallons of water, and that your brewhouse efficiency is 85%, and your mash temperature before adding the rye and barley was 158F, your Original Gravity should have been about 1.080 (280 points divided by 3.5 gallons). This is about as high as you want to go since some yeasts will struggle with high gravity wort. If you accidentally were sold rye, which has a diastatic power of 0, and not rye malt, which has a diastatic power of 25, your OG would have been 1.037, close to what you got. Always make sure you use cooled wort for your refractometer since, even with the alleged ATC (automatic temperature correction), cheap refractometers are not very reliable.
I suspect that your barley was not malted. You can look up typical malt yields using John Palmers "How to Brew" or use a calculator built into some software packages like Brewsmith. Of course there was nothing wrong with adding sugar but with your grain bill you should not need it.
Looking forward to seeing more videos!
Thanks for info, always good to get input Cheers!
George L he mentioned that he collected 6 gallons of wort. My question is that with 6 lbs of sugar, isn’t the rye percentage too low to be a rye whiskey?
Hi, Half Bath Brewing, it’s kind of academic since the regulations are for commercial spirits. The TTB would not approve a rye whiskey recipe with any added sugar. And of course distilling without a Federal license is illegal in the USA. Rye whiskey was made in Colonial America because it grew well there and grain was much cheaper than sugar until the rum trade started. Today, whiskies are tied to traditional recipes, while specialty spirits with added sugar can be allowed if the words on the label are approved by the TTB.
Hey friend. He's sticking closely to that data point 1.090 put out by our other good friend. 8-10% abv for this recipe (I think) will allow more of that flavor profile to come through. Once I stopped chasing the abv I began to get really tasty drinks of quality. Along with slowing down and dialing in my process. I only have three recipes, but I've nailed them down like Granny did cake! Don't get me wrong, George @barleyandhops is one of my biggest mentors
Exactly 💯 %
Its extra work but substitute indian corn for the flaked corn. Its well worth it. My local brewers supply is starting to carry the indian corn and blue hopi corn. Apparently the local hobby distillers have abandoned the flaked corn. I now see why. First time viewer. Now subbed!
that sounds good!!
If your OG is low and you did not get a good conversion from malt or high temp enzymes. Add Gluco amylase at or below 150 F.
The Gluco amylase will continue to convert starches (even in the fermenter) at temps 60 to 150 F.
I use liquid enzymes. High Temp Alpha Amylase (150 to 190 F) and the low temp Gluco Amylase (
As always thanks for the info
Cheers BigEdsGuns and you also have a great Thanksgiving
hope it tastes good! I'm about to make a corn, barley & rye mash...all flaked and crushed (I'm lazy...lol) so all I have to do is cook it at 155F for an hour and I'll probably add some sugar as well...sugar is I believe 32 gravity points so well see what my grains say...cheers Randy!
you got it i'm sure that it will be good Cheers!!
Great video!! I will offer a small bit of advice. Flaked corn does not need to be cooked ( gelatinized ) , only cracked corn needs to. Sooo, that cuts some time down!! You may want to look into using rice hulls, especially with corn of any kind. This will help with the gooping and difficult or stuck sparge. RIce hulls, corn and cooler mash tuns is where its at.
Thanks for the tips! and also found that high temp enzyme work great to loosen up the blob and it can go in at 190 deg.
How big a batch you fermenting for what size still. 5gal, 10gal, 15gal, 20 or 30 gal?
8 gallon still
I made some rye whiskey but it was very difficult to filter the thick mash. I also had some gelatinized corn in the mash which may be the cause of the problem of filtering out (BIAB) the liquid from the mash. Nevertheless, the whiskey that came out when distilling was very good. Region: Sweden
yes corn can be a pain but the taste is worth it Cheers!!
Randy was the six row crushed?
Could the starches in t?he rye an barley be completely converted with out being ground
?
the grains need to be milled not powder but cracked open so hot water can get in
If you would get the reading of 1.125 will give you more alcohol to distill out. Use a high alcohol tolerant yeast so it doesn't stall.
Hi Jim if I got that reading I would split that mash between two fermentors add water to get the reading down you will get the same amount of alcohol and not stress the yeast remember if you stress the yeast you will get off flavors
I really appreciate your quick reply. Thank you. Love your videos, keep them coming!!!
hey Randy if you had flaked rye instead of malted rye would you add it at the same time as your corn?
I think so Cheers!!
Hey Randy,
Just checking in to see how that rye whiskey turned out?
Is there anything you would have done different? I’m looking for a great rye recipe!
Oh by the way the rye you used appeared to be a chocolate rye due to how dark it was, or is that normal for malted rye?
Thanks for all your videos very informative
Was the rye malted?
yes
Hi Randy, I usually go with 2lbs grain (non malt) per gallon of water, That'll get u in around 1.060. As I watched this it appeared as though u weren't going to get a full conversion, temps are uber important with conversions - I think you left a lot of sugar on the table because of your temps... I don't add my 6-row over 146*F. The goal is to use up all the sugar in the grain and leave the "table sugar" on the table, it has no place in an all-grain recipe. Keep up the good work on the videos!
Thanks for the tips!
What sanitizer is that? You never wash it off and right in the mix it goes
It is called Starsan it is sold at all your home brew shops I found it works great and it is no rinse
Is there a part 2 to this video?
sorry was no part two (can not remember why?) cheers!!
It may be because I drank part one !
@@stevedarnall8556 could be
Hey Randy, can you send me that recipe for that American ride please?
I keep reading it’s illegal in the states to distill your own spirits due to methanol. But there are tons of videos of people brewing batches, can someone explain to me the legal intricacies? I ask because I want to try making a rye myself.
yes plenty of people distilling that is all I can say Cheery
You are correct. It is illegal without a permit, which I think are reserved for commercial distilleries.
@@jhanlon241 that’s pretty much what I read. I’ll just stick to brewing beer I think
Is the rye malted?
And yes
Part 2??
Sorry to say but I had camera problems
Hey Randy: You didn't get a good starch conversion @ .035. I make this all the time and I usually get 1.065 or better. My rig is exactly like yours. I used malted rye though in this recipe . I also use aymalse, which I saw you add. I just can't figure out why you didn't convert well. Guess what makes this a great hobby!
Thanks for sharing I need to make again and see if i can get my numbers up and yes great hobby always learning Cheers!!
Did you cool the mash to ~160 f before you added the barley? If not, that would explain the low SG reading.
I'm new to the craft, but I wish these videos would add the actual recipe, cooking numbers, amount of amalyse etc for us newbs.
@@BlackSwarm1 Okay, I can help. Check out George @ Barley and Hops. He has a very complete recipe/demonstration of George Washington's Rye whisky.
Do you have a list of materials needed/what you use?
I will post a list for you as soon as I can ( by the way it turned out fantastic)
stillworks and brewing awesome! Thank you. Me and a couple buddies are wanting to start this as a hobby!
@@rjthaxton1882 I used 6 lbs malted rye 1/2 pound of 6 row Barley 3.5 lbs of flake corn (next time i'm use corn meal same taste lot less $ ) 2 oz med. tosted oak ships
stillworks and brewing - awesome thanks! Also what kind of still did you get?
@stillworksandbrewing how long is your whole process per batch?
i think the rye be better ground into a powder for more flavor
Hi Ronald Could be, might try that next time Cheers!!
Great video, why not add the rye and the corn together?
Great question you start the corn off first around 180 deg. to what they call gel up it's releasing starches from the corn than as temp. drops to around 150 deg. add in malted grain that has amylase enzymes to convert starches into sugars thanks for watching cheers!
Randy, you do not need to gelatinize flaked corn, it’s already been done. Flaked corn was developed so that hobbyists did not have to boil cracked corn. Just dough in the barley malt and flaked corn together into your strike water and mash in.
You can use your process with cracked corn which is a whole lot cheaper and just let it sit for about 8 hours in the mash tun. Your corn will be fully gelled and down to 160F or so and you can add the barley malt.
@@glleon80517 Thanks
Give the amount of grain in the patck
6 lbs rye, 3.5 lbs corn .5 lbs barley….and 6 lbs sugar. Can’t be good if sugar is one of the main components.
all I can say tasted good Cheers!!
Is the 6 row malted?
Yes