One of George Washington's original stills was seized by ATF agents in a moonshine raid in 1939 from a family descended from Washington's servants, not slaves. It was one of many he had at the Dogue Run grist mill/distillery on the Mt. Vernon property. A meticulous reproduction was done by Vendome Copper in Louisville of the original still made by R. Bush and Co. in Bristol, England. A Scotsman, James Anderson was Washington's master distiller, who got the distillery in full production while Washington was out fighting the revolutionary war and at full capacity operated 5 stills, and produced around 11,000 gallons per year, which easily made him one of the largest distiller on the entire East coast. Washington himself probably would have rarely actually drank any of this whiskey as he preferred imported madeira or even champagne, so it would be a mistake to think Washington was in amongs barrels of whiskey turning the tap. Washinton's exact mash bill is preserved and is more similar to today's rye whiskey with a larger corn adjunct. The whiskey would have never been bottled as all whiskey at the time was sold bulk in barrels.
I ordered the book Friday morning and it was delivered Sat morning. Fastest delivery EVER from Amazon 👌 2:15 AM and I'm sanitizing equipment trying to decide what recipe to use for my very first mash... So where else would I be but watching and listening to George. Thank You Sir !!
Thank you! I love all the information you so generously give out freely. I made 24 gallons of your sweet potato vodka. It's in the fermenter now, my friends can't wait. Thank you again 💓
Thank you buddy, this was the PERFECT video for me. Was looking for a whiskey mash video using flaked corn, rye and barley. I love that you used a grain bag for straining off the mash as I really didn't want to mess around with grain in the fermenter or later on, as some others do. I like that you mentioned that you could add 3-4 lbs sugar to boost the abv, as that is my plan, though wasn't sure how much corn sugar to add. Just a great video and reassures me that what I was thinking of doing is an acceptable meathod.
Hey George thanks for answering all my questions on the phone earlier! Can't wait to try all your mash recipes and enjoy sipping on some whiskey! Keep up the good work and can't wait for more videos
Just finished mashing in a twenty gallon batch George thanks for helping me reproduce history brother the only thing I did different is I prefer to ferment on the grain. I'll let you know how it goes.
I have the 10 gallon HD cooler for a mash tun as well. Made the following mods: 1. Remove spigot, replace with 1/2" NPT SS ball valve, O-rings on both sides. 2. On the nipple end of the ball valve I installed SS filter. This filter is made from a Stainless water heater hose. Cut the ends off, pull out the silicone rubber core. Use a SS hose clamp to clamp the sleeve to the pipe end in the cooler. Pinch the other end closed and tightly twist SS wire around it to keep it closed. The result lets liquid flow out but not any grain or particles.
I use a false bottom in a 10 gallon cooler for my all-grain beer mash. The advantage of the false bottom is before you run your grain into a bucket you can run some out slowly into a big measuring cup and put it back into the cooler. When you pour it back in try s much as possible not to disturb the grain bed. Repeat the step over and over until the wort is clear. This allows you to use the grain bed as a filter when pulling your wort/mash out of the tun.
Love hanging with you, George! Itz always quite a treat to get a lil side angles and kibbitz on the videos you produce! In this Unprecedented age we live in, the grassroots speak louder than the mediums of bygone eras! 😎💜
@George Duncan I agree with you. I've watched hundreds of hours of your videos. Sure, for someone that just wants a quick "Here's what to do" video, your level of teaching is probably a bit drawn out for them. Me, on the other hand, I like to learn every single detail. I read the comments as well. There is much to be learned in the comments. As a community, we learn from each other. From our successes, our failures and everything in between. Thank you for taking the time to make these videos. Obviously, you earn a living doing what you do. But the volume of responses from you, is quite impressive. That shows just how much you care about what you're doing and the entire community involved. I copied and pasted my comment from from another person's rather disrespectful reply. Just in case they decide to delete it, 5 years later. lol Keep up the amazing work, George. I'm a beer brewer, at the moment. However, in the near future, I'm going to eventually give some of these videos a try.
Thanks for all your videos. They've been a great help. When it comes to the gypsum powder and the acid blend, wouldn't they kinda cancel each other out? Similar to vinegar and backing soda when mixed you end up with a neutral solution with a little bit of salt.
Gday George Gary Brown Prairie AUSTRALIA your shows are marvelous I can't get enough of them can you please send me the George Washington recipe, I can't wait to make it I've just finished a still and a ss fermenter so I'm ready to go Hey George that plastic barrel you used for a fermenter have you thought about 1 or 2 electric frying pans use plastersine tobuild the sides up against the bottom of the barrel tape the pan up tightly to make a good fit then pour some plaster or cement in the Pan let it set and strap it on tightly to your barrel and now you can use the controlled thermostat on the frying pan to meep your temperature constant. Thanks for the help mate ,regards Gary Brown Prairie AUSTRALIA.
Outstanding video George, you've outdone yourself with this video! ! I am definitely going to have to do this one. Could you possibly shoot me that recipe?
Just some FYI for anyone wanted to try this recipe. This expands out to be way more grain in the cook pot than you're probably used to, I have a 21.5 Qt cooking pot and could barely get it all in there. I didn't use a sparging bag as I had always fermented on the grain before. If you're going to do this OTG, the grain all ends up at the top and tries to block your airlock while the fermentation is in progress, when its all finished the "cap" will fall. OTG there is really no way to check your SG until the cap falls down.
+thastinger345 Good advice... This is why I used a 10 gallon cooler; I knew I needed the extra room for the grain. I'll do a better job in the future of mentioning this. I normally don't ferment OTG so this was not an issue for me. Glad to hear you did overcome the challenges. George
It was my fault George, there is no way you can explain every potential hitch in your videos. I appreciate you posting the vids and was just passing along my "lessons learned" to anyone that might be able to use them. I now know that I need a larger mash tone if I want to do this again.
+thastinger345 I truly appreciate the comment and it is helpful for others. This is what makes us a growing and strong community; we share information. Don't hesitate to comment and offer any lessons learned. I welcome and appreciate them. George
Willard, thanks a bunch but this is a team effort. Ray and I work hard at getting it right and we rely on our community to make it better. Appreciate the comment. Happy distilling. George
How did this come out for you? can't wait to try this recipe! idk how high of a potential abv you'd produce from this recipe? I don't want to have to double distill it to get a higher proof cause I don't want to take any of the flavor from it. may try it and see what I get then if I want it stronger I may just add more grain to next mash. what's your thoughts on this?
Thanks Mate. I had just ground up some chocolate rye and wanted to know the rest of the method for extraction, I don't have the same equipment but got it pretty close to that method. I dare say I will cheat and put in a kilo of dextrose to bump up the ABV. (And for anyone wondering 155'f = 68'c)
I tried a thrown together recipe I dreamed up and I only produced a 1.036 without sugar added on a 10 gallon. 12 lbs cracked corn 4 lbs rye 2 pounds 6 row. After adding 2 lbs brown sugar 7 lbs table sugar and 8 lbs corn sygar I only got up to a 1.076. Mash ymtun worked pretty good but next time I think I'll turn the corn to porridge in my pre heat water. Probably clog up the false bottom tho. Hopefully the learning process tastes good lol
@@BarleyandHopsBrewing not too shabby 110 proof running the first 4 gallons then 120 on the next 4 with tails thrown in. Got a total of one gallon and one pint after cutting to 80 proof. Final ABV gave me 12% there was two gallons of wash I froze cause I ran out of ice. No aging or oak chip soak yet and it tastes like Jameson with that sweet finish.. couldn't have done it without you. You Da man!
George, Im not a distiller, yet, but I'll bet a sous vide machine would work great with this technique. It would bring the water up to an exact temperature with no monitoring, then the cooler would help hold it at the given temp. If youre not familiar with sous vide, I'll link a video. Like I said, I haven't distilled anything yet but I do have two ferments in progress and am just thinking of future techniques to try. Thanks for all you do! Sous vide link: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Np0LMwqtOVM.html
George, great teaching! I had no idea it was this simple; not much different than brewing beer. I have a friend wanting to make some whiskey, so I'm forwarding this video on to him now. Hey, if I were to use a grain bag in my brewing process, as you have here, along with cooler/chest, would that provide the same results as a rectangular beer chest with copper piping in the bottom of it? If so, why not always use the approach of the bag!? Thanks!
+Shad Hall Good to hear from an old friend. Yes the bag would do the same. I use several techniques in the store so people can see that there are alternatives. George
Now George you didn't finish what ya started! It would be nice to see you re-do this mash from start to finish product. Maybe do a taste test with your buddies Bearded and Jessy.
Whiskey... In Lithuania we have Starka. It is made from Rey or potato moonshine(traditionally 50-60%, commercially 40%) aged in oak barrels. So difference from whiskey is the same like scotch? Well whiskey has corn in it, but I mean, that's it?
Giday George. a nuther great video. thanks again. George may also ask what is that is the name of that moonshiners song that is playing in the back ground. I would love to no what the song /music name is please. All so I would like to no What the name of the Book was that you got the George Woshtion mash recipe from. Thank you so much
Hey George, could you guys do a video on sour mash whiskies? I recently toured the Jack Daniel Distillery and was told "sour mash" was what most are using these days.
Adding the gypsum and acid blend at the same point in time confuses me. George, would you clarify and let ensure if the acid blend should be added to the fermentation bucket to assist the yeast? Thanks George.
Hi George, you're doing a great job educating us newbie's in the art. I'm trying to put together an all grain mash recipe for vodka, and I want to use wheat grain with malted wheat. How much of each should I use for a 6 gallon mash to get an ABV of 10%?
George, do you have a home brew shop? If so where are you at? I haven't started distilling, too nervous about doing it until the laws change, if they ever do! But I would love to start brewing my own beer and wine,Im not a wine drinker but home brewing is so interesting that I want to try! Love your videos, thank you very much for taking the time to share your vast knowledge!
I’ve been watching this for some time your channel. But we’re the second update? Doe we always have to add all theses extra things u do or can we still make it the way they did for the general?
Hi George, it seems that 1/2 of malted barley won’t have the conversion power to convert other 9.5 pounds of grain. It’s only 5 Perecent of the total grain bill. Should there be more malted barley? Thanks
George, love your videos! Could you please advise as to the size of your Home Depot cooler and do you have a false bottom in it. I am new to distilling and have a lot to learn. Thanks for for any advice on this. Chuck Angola, IN
From what I've studied, GW's rye was NOT aged in charred oak barrels but rather shipped in UNcharred barrels and drank clear. George, what is your opinion sir?
Hey George! First off man thanks so much for doing a great job on ALL of your videos. Its been a great resource as we are getting started in the distilling process. My question is: My friends and I have done a few test runs using a corn only mash to get our still tuned and to better understand its functionallity. (55 Gal 6" 6 tiered Reflux Still...its a beauty) The problem is we are having a rough time converting the corn. An example of this is we used 20 Gal of water and 40lbs of milled corn with 4 teaspoons of alpha amylase and gypsum heated with propane burners in a 30 gal mash tun at 165/170 degrees F. We did this for 7 HOURS! Added a gallon or two in the sparge of the grain...And still when doing an iodine test it came back still black and not dissolving into the test liquid from the mash as you have done in several of your videos. Basic question is what are we doing wrong sir?
Amylase is sensitive. If you are at or near 170 you can inoculate it and thus make it non-responsive. Be careful of this. Temperature is critical when using amylase. Your target (perfect) temp is 155F with no additional heat added to it. George
Going on my list to try. Have you fermented on the grain George? Reason that I ask is because that's the way I learned maybe a good idea for a video start to finish a batch each way to see what way works the best.
+Lysle Roe Actually malted wheat would work on its own since it has been malted. Diastatic power is listed as degrees lintner. Base grains like 2 row is 140 so there are plenty of enzymes to work for you since 30 is all that is needed to convert itself. Malted white wheat is 160 and the red wheat is 180. This means that you can steep these at the right temperature and convert the starches to sugars alone or add flaked products with it and convert that as well. Any flaked or rolled grain will require a little help so to answer your base question; absolutely..... George
1st time comment - I have just made this for the 1st time and I’m about to run it through my pot still. My question is what style of oak do u normally use once you have your finished product?
Mr George ( Brew Father )! I hope your having a great weekend. I've been studying the videos hard and trying to come up with my own method. Because as you show there are many. I plan on using a good spring water for everything I do or try to do lol wine, beer,spirits. So my Question is across the board on all three would it be OK to balance PH first to 5.2 then add the teaspoon of gypsum per 5 gallons then acid blend to the starting water of any recipe I try. Or all water I plan to use in the batch. I see different things being done to different recipes and types I was wondering if the method I described would be good for all. Thanks again for all you do.
Adjust pH if needed after mashing no need to adjust water when starting. PH video answered that counts for beer to. Because grain drops the pH naturally. So gypsum to assist in the extraction process then test pH after the mash is done. Only question left is acid blend. Still studying.
I understand. I used the acid blend before I learned much more about it and it affects. Now I use acids individually. Thanks for keeping up with us. Happy distilling George
@@BarleyandHopsBrewing Thank you Mr George funny thing is about an hour ago I watched the video with you and chase and that was the exact discussion. Learning learning thanks again.
Love all the barleyhops vids,question about using malted rye instead of flaked rye or straight rye. Will malted rye work and give the same flavor with the corn with out using the barley or do I need the barley for flavor too?Reason I ask is i can only buy malted rye here(Costa Rica) .
The malted barley is there to convert the flaked rye and corn into fermentable sugars. If you are using malted rye you don't need the barley at all. The malted barley will convert itself and the corn. George
Get yourself a colander which fits over the tun, lift the bag up and set it on to the colander to drip. You can sparge the grains with a couple of litres 170 deg water to rinse remaining sugars out and give it a 'gentle' press / squeeze. Leave it there until dripping stops.
I enjoy your video's. I would to make this but I have a question. How does this George Washington Rye compare to the one you sell George Washington Rye Clone? And how much will you get from the George Washington Rye Clone? Thanks
