How I Make Corn Whiskey - Part 1 The Wash 

Also. Don’t be so concerned with your ABV. Sometimes pushing your yeast to process to high of alcohol can lead to off flavors. A good range would be 8%-13% if you want the best flavor. Remember it’s about quality not quantity

Awesome..! Enjoying learning along with you...!

I just recently started watching your videos I stumbled across from Golden to RU-vid one day very interesting and I love the information you give we're both learning

Nice video! Getting started as well. My brother and I are in the process of starting a micro distillery here in Santa Fe, New Mexico!

Outstanding so far. Much thanks, you taught me a lot.

Great videos . Very nice explanation 👌

Back in the day, old time moonshiners had access to lots and lots of corn, but not sugar. Sugar was hard to come by and was pretty costly compared to corn. Hence the reason for using corn (usually malted). They also learned to use malted barley to help convert the corn starches to simple sugars. In my opinion, if you have to add sugar to bump up your ABV, then use corn sugar or corn syrup. I try to never use processed (granulated) white sugar.

Very nice set of videos. I enjoyed your thorough approach and plain spoken dialogue. Interesting and enjoyable... well done.👍

Hey D Glen, I have to agree and disagree with you on that, depends on how far back you go searching. From what I can find, the prohibition Moonshiners in the US used sugar and flavored it with corn, go back a little earlier and it is a different story. Here is an exert from one of the postings on "Home Distillers Forum" "The real "old school" mash brought from the old countries used only corn and water. That's it. They would malt (sprout, grind and dry) some of the corn. They would grind the rest; cook the mast to convert sugars and the malt and wild yeast would convert sugar to alcohol. They used no store brought yeast or sugar. They would then distill in small copper stills, usually double distill and proof down to around 100 proof. They would keep, barter or sell the rest. These guys did it right and had a lot of pride in their product. That was old school."

I sent you a message about the corn temp, also if you lower your abv to 12-13% you can use normal bread yeast like Fleischmann's Yeast with some nutrients and it will give a good flavor...wine/champagne yeast can give a somewhat dry taste.

Thank you. Great recipe and I followed it almost to the letter. No barley, just alpha and Beta amylase instead but got a very good conversion of the starches to 1040.....not as good as your 1045 but quite adequate for my purpose. Ran it nice and slow through my pot still, no thumper. All the hearts and a bit of the tails diluted down to 60% and put on charred white oak chip for 12 months and it was amazing. So complex and smooth.

You have nice presentation. I hope your channel becomes a success.

You've got yourself a great recipe, moonshine culture is huge where I live and I like to keep my recipes traditional. However,instead of useing malts,I just get the alpha and gluco amylase

The first hot water is to open the corn's starches up -just like making porridge. This makes the starch accessible to the malt enzymes that turn it into sugars in cool solutions. Corn can also be malted. Corn vs Sugar -first it was a cost based decision.

I strongly suggest that you utilize some of the heritage corn varieties (some refer to these varieties as "Indian corn") in your mash. The flavors and aromas from these ancient corn varieties far surpass those of more ordinary varieties of yellow corn most people are using today. It is even better if you take the time to malt the corn before milling it.

Starch must be gelatinized before it can be converted. Gelatinization temp for corn starch is 77-80C depending on the type of corn. It needs to be raised to at least this temp, then cooled down to the conversion temp where Amylase (alpha and beta) operate.... about 64-68C before the barley is added. Your hydrometer will show total sugars, NOT fermentable sugars. Holding the temp in the lower range will improve your fermentable sugar percentage, and thus your final ABV. This can effect the total ABV by as much as several percentage points.

all depends upon your malted barley which contains the enzymes that can cut your starch molecule down to sugar molecules.

How is the hand grinder doese work well and how hard is it to do 10 kilos of corn

I dont alway use corn flakes but when i do i touch the corn hole softly so i dont wombat the bilby.

Is adding barley at the end is to release the Amylase to separate mash liquid.

a few in the family will bump up the fermentation w sugar. but Granddaddy never added sugar, just more natural starches, and you can tell when tasting.

Is there a source for 'Dent' corn malt?...

Getting instructions from the internet can be confusing. If you use flaked maize (corn) your temperature would have been right or close to it. For a mash purposed for distillation you want to hold a temp of about 148. That will let your beta enzymes convert starch into simple sugars. In the 150° range you are looking more complex sugars and yeast have a harder time with those. Keep the temp between 146 and 149. You are confusing the two types of corn. Flaked corn and whole kernel corn. Flaked corn is already processed. You used whole corn. That has to be boiled to release starches. It’s called a cereal mash. Without boiling you only converted part of the starch. The rest of the starch is in the kernel still. You have to boil the corn for at least an hour to release the starch. That will thicken the mash to a point where it looks like a thick oatmeal. Then cool it down to 148 and add your malted barley and hold the temp for and hour at least. Watch the magic happen. Within a minute it will turn back into a liquid soup. Now you should have proper conversion and a lot higher sugar measurement.

I'm pretty sure that clawhammer used flaked maize which has already been gelatinised. Cracked corn will need to be cooked for the enzymes to access the starch.

Without sugar it could take 5-7 days for the sugar to come and the alcohol level to reach 15% or so. With sugar and adding it to the hot mash to cook , about 4 days.

hiI like yourself have questions at the similar points that don't seem to stack up like the amount of corn where they had to ferment it distill some amount of graft for a few bottles but stories tell of the gallons they produced

Would be interested to see you do a wheat vodka :-) btw, what did you do with that spent corn?

Nice video. 👍 You could have sparged to get any remaining sugars in the grains!🥃

Wonderful mate, absolutely going to start distilling my own liquor

During half kg grain boiling in 4 ltr water 80°to95° Celceus till 40 mint's after in hot liquid by mistake put half kg sugar & after 2hr liquid temperature 7°Celceus in liquid add 2tbl spoon yeast so fermentaion process will start or not.

Is that malted corn your using ? How do you convert the startch into sugars if its not malted ? ? ?

I would hace has add water to your Left over grain, sugar and yeast

How much does this make? I'd love to make just a small bit to try, maybe about a mason jar's worth, and I can figure out the numbers from there if I know how much this recipe yields. Thanks!

Malting your corn or using alpha amylase would have made a great difference.

Hi can you tell me where you got your corn from? I'm in Brisbane and having a bit of a time finding it in australia

You should have allowed the mix to ferment with all that corn in the mix a lot of it would have converted to sugar. You only want to get rid of those dregs before you distill. no sugar should have been necessary.

Hey man, thanks for the great video. The music could be definitely improved, it sounds like you're making that in a funeral home.

What heating strip did you use?

50 gallon minimum for corn mash.... 10-12 % target... pure corn shine not a small batch thing... Also malted corn vs malted barley

I always add 10 to 15 grams of ec

What if we used sweet corn as the base?

AMYLASE SUBSTITUTE...Beano! crush one tablet per gallon of water and dissolve in a little water... brilliant!

Yes 20 kilos of corn is very impractical when American Moonshiners made moonshine corn was cheaper than sugar

How do you reduce the temperature down to 66 degrees before adding the Barley unless you live in a igloo somewhere in Alaska? Room temperature would be greater than 66 degrees?

You said 19L/or 5 gallons boiler. Why 3 batches? The ingredients is for 5 gallons - no?

What happens if the PH level is to low?

You def need to get it hotter than 160. You are trying to gelatinize the corn releasing starch then converting the long chains @ 160

Making a beer mash is very similar. However, I would boil the wort to remove any wild yeast or bacteria. Who knows where that grain has been, the sugar would not be any cleaner. They load it with caterpillar front end loaders. After all that work I’d be worried about getting an infection. Best of luck with your brewing.

Moonshiners most definitely do use sugar.

You need to put some rye in your mash

so how did the old timers do it

Firstly your techniques are yours and if they work for you than that’s all that matters. I will say that American moonshiners did use a separate sugar to get their alcohol yield and the corn was usually corn meal that was added for flavoring. At least after prohibition because they couldn’t run a big operation and taking the time and space to malt grains just wasn’t something they did. As far as potential ABV it doesn’t make a difference in final proof it makes a difference in volume of product. Most scotches start off at 6 to 8 percent and going higher than 15% in a smaller fermenter can result in a stuck fermentation. Again I am not saying anything is wrong or right and what works for you is what works. My opinion however would have been to double the amount of corn and since it’s cracked and not flaked I would have set it to simmer at about 145 degrees F (I’m American so Celsius frightens and confuses me) for about 20 minutes so it’s a really thick porridge type consistency then raise the temp to about 155 degrees F add the barley and hold that temp for an hour. Once the barely has done its job it will look like a thin soup. But again that’s my method and my opinion. I love to see home distilling videos because here in America we still have this ridiculous stigma attached to it and equally ridiculous laws against it. Thanks for sharing

Didn’t see you use the iodine, really think the corn should have been thicker once properly heated, then check for starch with the iodine (a drop or two in a teaspoon size sample should turn real black). Add your malted barely and hold to temp for an hour. Check again with iodine (will stay clear if all the starches have been converted). Converted starch = sugar, sugar+yeast=alcohol.

The kid practicing piano in the other room is killing me...I made it to 3:31...

Can u say sugar hangover flavor flavor flavor where's the flavor

save you some time.. you can just float the hydrometer in your bucket - you don't need to ladle it into a beaker every time at the beginning stage.

Sugar spirits is rum. Moonshine rum is not very nice. What is being made here is a blend of whiskey and rum. Pure corn whiskey is delicious and can be bought commercially as Heaven Hill Mellow corn whiskey. Go for 8% corn/malted barley mash and distill 3 times to 70%. Cut with water to 45% ABV.

dont make it hard for yourself use cornflakes instead (yes the breakfast cereal ) its cheap and works, I would def try the corn as you have as a reference point or for experience. you can do this hobby on the cheap with nothing but items from the local grocery store with excellent results.

Um...'old moonshiners' did, in fact, use sugar. Lots of it.

Man you are a serious chatter

I like all your videos but why the funeral parlor music?

What a waist of mash,first let mash set over night to sour..use 3 buckets and leave mash in wash 4 days should be ready over time goes up to 7 to 8 ..can use mash 6 to 7 times..after first run put back sets in 30% up to 50%

The corn wasn’t malted. That’ s thé reason for so poor shugar rate.

Is that centagrade or farinhite

You can use horse feed that has molasses. It already has cracked corn, oats, and other.

I really don't think this can be called a corn whisky. being as most of the sugar is from sugarcane

Amylase enzymes can help convert starches. Alpha. Beta

Barley and Hops Brewing has many good videos on this subject check them out.

Cracked corn and liquid corn malt is all you need no yeast no sugar

You said you used cracked corn you should have used whole corn and ground it up. recipes are there to give you an ideal of what to make not to follow specifically. your not making beer ferment on the grain and 10% is what you should push for at most and 5% at least, if your looking for volume make larger batches MUCH larger batches I use 20 gallon garbage cans and get about 2 gallons per run and I don't make a super strong distillers beer from it

21 days will be too long.

Ditch the funeral music

That's why Jack Daniels is Jack Daniels and good good wiskey is not Jack Daniels

You speak pratical Google speaks theory. Why are you chatting upset

16% alcohol is rather low for whiskey

OMG....Too much talking and no t enough doing