How is sour mash whiskey made

Sour mash is a traditional and widespread process in bourbon making and a legal requirement for Tennessee Whiskey. Traditional sour mash bourbon is also double distilled in pot stills.

Sour mashing is also a process which can be used in brewing. Brewers use it to enhance the quick production of lactic acid, which gives beer its sourness. Leave the fermentation bucket off to the side and start the distilling.

The first run is not a sour mash as it did not have any backset added to it. Always do a stripping run on the first sour mash wash. Run the still hot and fast with no packing material, collect everything that comes out of the still.

Save this stripping run as we will add it to the next wash we distill. Remove half of the floating corn and add it to the compost or feed it to the chickens. Add another 3. Add the hot backset and 7 pounds of sugar to a bucket not the fermenter and use an immersion chiller or an ice bath and cool it to 75 degrees. Once the backset and sugar mixture has been cooled, add it to the fermenter.

Add another yeast starter, a new airlock, and let it ferment for another days- or until fermentation is finished.

Once the 2nd fermentation is finished use an auto-siphon to transfer the liquid into a copper moonshine still. Once the wash liquid has been added to the still add the stripping run from the first run into the still. After the wash has been transferred into the still- the fermentation bucket will have the spent corn and yeast left behind. Distill the sour mash whiskey making sure to discard the foreshots. Save the tails and add them to the next run. Once the backset and sugar mixture has been cooled add it to the fermenter.

Repeat the same process. This process can continue for as long as the distiller desires. The Balvenie 14 Caribbean Cask Review. Rye See All. Few Rye Whiskey Review. Blog See All. What to Mix With Jim Beam. What Is Sour Mash Whiskey?

Richard Hammond. What Is Sour Mash? Although making whiskey is a fairly simple process, it does involve several few steps: Malting Optional and milling — If you are making a malted whiskey, the first step involves soaking grains in water so they germinate — a process known as malting.

This process changes the chemical structure of the grain. Once the grain is germinated, it is dried. The grain is then milled into a powder to prepare it for mashing. Mashing — Mashing consists of adding water to the grain and agitating it. The fermentation process involved in keeping a sourdough starer active often causes the bread to have a consistent fine sour taste that many people enjoy. The origin of the sour mash process for making whiskey is not clear.

Many people credit Dr. James C. Crow with the invention of the process, but other people give the credit to Dr. Jason S.