Cereal Bourbon-esque

[stone_cold]

This is my biggest "cheater" recipe. I made this a little over a month ago and it's been aging on charred oak and uncharred oak for about 3 weeks. The color is good and the flavor is smokey with a nice oak finish. There is very little charred oak in it so the smokey will ease up a bit as it airs but it taste really, really nice as it is right now. The flavor is alot like Woodford Reserve and hard to tell the difference in a blind tasting I did with some friends.

10 pounds of sugar
2 tsp of citric acid
1 large box of Corn Flakes (breakfast cereal) any brand
1 large box of "Grape Nuts" (breakfast cereal)
5 Beano tablets crushed
Bakers yeast (I used a three pack of "rapid rise")

In as large of a pot as you have add the sugar and citric acid and as much water as you can safely bring to a boil. Boil for 30 minutes or so to invert the sugar. Pour the cereals into at least a 7 gallon fermenter (bigger is better). Now pour the boiling sugar water over the cereal and stir. After the cereal is soft you can add cool water up to the six gallon mark. Allow the mash to come to room temperature then stir in the beano and yeast. Stir really well sloshing it around to add a little air to the mash. Cover and air lock.

I did a stripping run and then a spirit run then cut it to 60% and started it aging. For a gallon of 60% spirit I used a 3/4 X 3/4 X 4 charred oak strip and 2 3/8 X 3/4 X 4 uncharred strips.

This is basically a sugar wash with cereal added for flavor but it's much better than I ever thought it would be. Give it a try

Enjoy,
Stone

[msrorysdad]

Well, I've been tastin all day, started with a bloody mary at 11 went to whiskey and cola after, so I'll try to be brief, and spell check. That sounds good for some reason, I'll try a ten gallon wash next week. Thanks

[stone_cold]

I forgot to add the following to my first post so here it is.

I mixed the lees really well then dipped out a quart jar full to use as starter for the next batch (thanks Pint). I added 2.5 gallons of backset and another 10 lbs of sugar to the fermenter, topped it up with cool water, allowed it to come to room temperature, added back a quart jar of fermenter leftovers, replaced the top and airlock. The ferment went alot faster with the backset but I've not had time to run it yet. I plan to run it this weekend.

I think this recipe works because you have corn, wheat, and barley malt along with some vitamins so it seems to ferment pretty well. If I were to change anything I may drop the sugar a bit on the second mash because of the leftover from the first run and backset, other than that this is a nice whiskey after aging a bit on oak. It was not very good straight out of the still with normal whiskey cuts but the oak cleans it up really fast (about 3 weeks) and I'm sure it will just get better with time ---- I'm very happy with it.

Stone

[stone_cold]

I ran the backset version of this recipe over the weekend and I must say it's MUCH better than the first batch. The flavor was good right out of the still so I can't wait to get a little on oak to age.

My cuts were pretty basic 80% down to 65%. I saved all but the first 100ml as heads and combined them with the tails as feints.. I'll use them in the next run.

I sugared up the slop and back into the fermenter it went for another round. I didn't add any more cereal this time so we'll see how it works.

Later,
Stone

[wineo]

Thats interesting.Think of the possabalitys.Honey bunches of oats,shredded wheat,grape nuts,etc.I have thought of doing a blend of wheat germ,and corn flakes,or cornmeal,but havent tried it yet.Thats what I love about this hobby.No rules!!
wineo

[stone_cold]

I love grape nuts and the little local store I shop at had all there cereals for $1 a box (10 for $10) so I bought corn flakes and grape nuts (store brand of course). As I was eating some grape nuts I started reading the side of the box to see what they were made of (I always thought they castrated grapes, but I was wrong ).

It seems they are mostly wheat and barley malt then the light bulb came on . I had remembered reading on homedistiller.org (the mothers milk I was brought up on) that you could flavor sugar wash by adding corn flakes and I had already been making deathwish's WG recipe so I thought I'd use what I had.

No real method went into how much cereal to use. I knew that deathwish's WG worked well with 10lbs of sugar and that sounded like a good start. I try to keep my mashes to 1.5 lbs of sugar to a gallon of water so I was in the ballpark. Not knowing how much flavor to expect I thought I'd start with a big box of each and then adjust from there. Really in the back of my mind I thought that if it didn't work I'd just make Vodka out of it and add that to my experience list. I have been very pleasantly surprised at the results and the cost is right too. $2 for the cereal, a bit or citric acid (could have been lemon or orange juice), bakers yeast and a few pounds of sugar. The beauty of this is in the economy. After the first mash you don't need yeast or citric acid again and the flavor just gets better.

I can't begin to tell you guys how much I've learned from all of you. Harry taught me how to make a good whiskey over on the yahoo board, pint has taught me economy in the process (and how to make a great power controller) and the rest of you guys have taught me to try anything once, take notes and reproduce what works ---- now that's a great community.

Humbly,
Stone

[CoopsOz]

I can't begin to tell you guys how much I've learned from all of you. Harry taught me how to make a good whiskey over on the yahoo board, pint has taught me economy in the process (and how to make a great power controller) and the rest of you guys have taught me to try anything once, take notes and reproduce what works ---- now that's a great community.

Humbly,
Stone

Here, Here. I second that.

[msrorysdad]

I like the way you think, you think about my drink, I think

[stone_cold]

About your drink I do think, not a mink or a sink or a skunk with a stink. Only a drink, just a drink a drink drink drink drink I say with a wink

msrorysday you need to change your name to Dr Seuss

[grainhopper]

Hey Stone cold,

How many runs have you gone with this recipe or did you just stop there.
Eventually i want to learn how to do a grain bill, but i think this would suffice until then.

[Cats-a-fighting]

I too have used Grape Nuts but I didnt even think about the Corn Flakes. The Grape Nuts I used was the same receipe but I used charred cedar chips and removed them after a month. I got a really different taste and aroma out of that batch. I love to try anything and like my Grandpa says "There is nothing that Vanilla Extract and A&W Root Beer can't fix!"

[stone_cold]

Hi Grainhopper,
I did a total of three runs with this recipe using backset in the last two. This is a very easy and nice little drink. After oaking for a few weeks it's about as good as any I've had.

Try it, you'll like it.

Later,
Tony

[blanikdog]

I can't begin to tell you guys how much I've learned from all of you. Harry taught me how to make a good whiskey over on the yahoo board, pint has taught me economy in the process (and how to make a great power controller) and the rest of you guys have taught me to try anything once, take notes and reproduce what works ---- now that's a great community.

Agreed Stoned. Harry taught me how to make rum - or rather, his great, great, grandpappy did - and he also taught me about dunder/backset. What a difference this one little thing made to my spirits.

Now I cant wait to try deathwish's wheat germ delight, but I'm flat out like a lizard drinkin, doing continuous runs of rum. Maybe next week.

[grainhopper]

Here is an answer tater.

http://www.pot-distiller.org/viewtopic.php?t=54

[stone_cold]

Hey Tater,
I use it to breakdown complex starches to simple sugars. You really don't have to have it in this recipe since the sugar is there for the alcohol but I thought I would try to convert some of the starches in the cereal just for kicks.

The other reason I used it was because I had it on hand and it didn't hurt

Later,
Tony