"I am an all grain home brewer, so I am familiar with OG & FG. My question is, what should the OG be for a 5 gallon mash of a simple cracked corn and malted barley recipe? I can figure my grist bill if I know this number. I guess another way to ask this is, what should the ABV% be on a final 5 gallon wash ready to go into the boiler.

(Yep... I am brand new at this.)

Thanks..
PWB"

"mtnwalker2, thanks for the quick reply. I like to do my planning ahead and this is a key bit of information I needed to get started. Now that I know what to shoot for I can put together a recipe. I have been brewing beer from malted grain for over three years now and am very comfortable with it. This will be a fresh challenge and another learning curve. I'm looking forward to the process and I know I will have many more questions along the way.

The obvious one right now is to ask why you don't do an ""all barley"" recipe for your whiskey. Are you using oats, rye, wheat or corn in with your grist? Or some of it all?
Can you share a bit of the recipe or is it a family secret?

Thanks...
PWB"

"PWB,
Those of us who injoy this hobby also enjoy others getting started, just as we were helped back then.

Yes, I have done all malt barley. I was referring to not fermenting it on the grain, but sparging it off before the ferment. All others i ferment on the grain. I have done all those you mentioned, plus millet and DWWG wheat germ. Rather than mixing my grist bill, I tend to do each grain seperate, then combine to what tastes good to me.

Right now, the oats and millet are my favorites. The oats are very mild and require little to no ageing. The millet is robust and needs ageing on charred oak for several months. The wheat germ also makes a great drink, is super easy, and is good white or oaked. It also makes a fair beer right out of the fermenter, a hint of cider.

When you choose another grain bill, and if you don't find a recipe to suit you just ask.

Are you going to sour mash your corn for several iterations? I find this helps a bunch, though the sweet run is also good.

Let us know how it turns out."

"Many thanks mtnwalker2. I'm sorry I misunderstood you, but now I know what you mean. Coming from a brewing background, the concept of fermenting ""on the grains"" is a bit odd for me. I have never done that, obviously. As for the sour mash with the corn grist, I probably will do that down the road, but for starters I think I want to ease into it with something I am familiar with, which is the malted barley, oat, rye, wheat route. When I get ready to make my first run I will be sure to report in with my results, both good and less than good.

Again.... many thanks.
PWB"