First Time Question aka I may have goofed up HELP PLEASE!

[JayTeeDee]

Hi folks I’m totally new to this and needed some help/advice.

I been home craft beer brewing for a few years I decided to try my hand at making some shine. I culled together some instructions and tips for making my first mash from some video resources and sites.

I found these to be most helpful:

http://accomplishedidler.blogspot.com/2011/03/makin-whisky-part-2.html

http://www.clawhammersupply.com/blogs/moonshine-still-blog/11454449-corn-whiskey-recipe

http://howtomakebooze.com/how-to-make-moonshine

So I decided to try to make my first batch. I thought everything was going really well until I realized that I might have made a big mistake in making the mash. In my haste and excitement and reading the instructions wrong. I used crushed barley and the sugar instead of the malted barley!!! DOH! I’m already a week into fermentation and everything appears to look and smell fine according to the instructions. However with my oversight did I mess up my batch and have to dump or will I be fine to go and and distill?

I used 5lbs of regular yellow cornmeal instead of crushed corn, 5lbs of regular white sugar, 2lbs of crushed barley from the home brew shop, and 5 gallons of distilled water if that makes a difference.

I bought a couple pounds of the dry malted barley today for a new batch to do it the right way next time. But what say you about this one?

Thank you in advance for the advice

Take care folks!

[JimmySutton]

Did you by chance take a starting gravity reading?

With just the sugar (not counting for any sugar you will get out of the other ingredients) if you ferment down to 1.000 you will yield around 6%.

I’d just let it ferment and then run it. It will be fine.

[JayTeeDee]

Thanks for replying Jimmy! Unfortunately I did not. My hydrometer had broken and I had to buy a new one. But I have a new one for proofing. I also used a Turbo Distilling Yeast which I learned after isn’t all that recommended. This one But oh well. It’s been in there 5 days. With beer I usually leave it for about two weeks. I was planning on distilling today but I just had another beginner issue. My home still I received was missing a important piece so I just emailed the seller for a replacement. So I’m forced now to leave it for another week.

I made a second batch last night the same as before but this time I used Bread yeast and a lighter grain bill. So hopefully it will be fine. I’ll hold off on using the malted barley until I see how these batches turn out.

Thanks again

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