blending guide When we started Timber Creek Distillery, my partner and I knew we wanted to create some great hand crafted whiskey using local Florida grains. As we researched the process of making whiskey and designing our distillery to extract the most flavor of our raw ingredients, there was one aspect we just couldn’t make a decision around….and that was what Mash Bill we wanted to use. istilling, much like Respect the raw Dbrewing is very ingredients – Garbage much part science and in, Garbage out. part art form much in the same way cooking At Timber Creek is. Great chefs learn Distillery, we wanted to all of the science and put the raw ingredients technique of creating at the forefront of every- great food, but in the end thing we make, so we what separates a good designed our distillery to chef from a great chef is the chef’s ability treat the grains as gently as possible while to select the right technique for the right extracting the most flavor possible from ingredient AND be able to pair the right each raw ingredient. From this perspective, combinations of ingredients together to cre- we borrowed many techniques from beer ate a great eating experience for their restau- brewers and Scotch distillers. First, we rant guests. Distilling and making whiskey source the best local grains we can get our is very much the same. Every facet of the hands on. We have reached out to many distilling process contributes to the flavor local farmers in the area to understand who of the whiskey and each part of the process had grains available, how the farm processes can be tweaked, tuned, and optimized for and store their grains. Once the grains are a specific flavor profile of a specific grain or sourced, we transport and store them by the raw ingredient. And for Bourbon, these dif- truckload in our grain silos at the distillery. ferent flavor profiles must then be blended into the final product that creates an average or an amazing whiskey. 1 into flour. There are certainly pros and cons milling the grains to each approach. Next the grains get milled to open the grains so we can extract the starches and malting and mashing sugars from them to make our whiskey. There are several techniques that are very The beer brewers and Scotch whiskey common in brewing and distilling. The two distillers have a bit of an easier decision to most common types of milling equipment make given that they both work almost used are roller mills and hammer mills. exclusively with a single grain, barley. In Roller mills are exactly that, they have 2 or addition, they both work almost exclusively more large steel rollers that spin. The grains with malted barley. Malting is the process are then dropped in through a hopper into in which the raw grains are soaked in water the rollers where the rollers then squeeze and kept warm and damp until they start the grains in between. to sprout. During the The roller wheels are process of sprouting, adjustable in width to de- the grains release natural termine just how much enzymes that convert you squeeze them. The starches in the grain rollers also typically have to sugar to be used for grooves on them which photosynthesis so the helps catch the grains seed can grow into a as they roll through and plant. When the seed literally crack them or sprouts, the seeds are tear them open. The then heated and dried goal of beer brewers and out to stop the seeds Scotch whiskey distillers from actually growing is not to crush the grains into a full plant and using but to merely crack them up its stored sugars. For open so that the sugars Scotch whiskey produc- can be released from the grains. At Timber tion, the grains are often heated up using Creek, we have opted to again go with the a fire made of local peat. The smoke from beer brewers and Scotch distillers and we the peat infiltrates the grains and gives it the use a roller mill. smoky, peaty flavor experienced in many Scotch whiskeys. For beer production, The second most common type of mill is most barley is malted and dried using large the hammer mill. And just like its name, ovens or kilns that impart no additional the hammer mill has a set of big metal flavors….although there are many specialty bars that swing around and pulverize the malts used to add additional flavor to beers grains and create a essentially flour out of including chocolate malts, crystal malts, whatever grain you are milling. There are etc. Barley as a grain also presents a bit of a certainly many other types of mills that can problem in that the husk of the grain is very and are used in distilling, but in general, woody and as such, if you leave the grains the end product fits into one of these 2 in the beer or mash too long, the woody categories….either you want to crack the husks from the grain can also impart some grains open or you want to grind the grains tannins into your final product and create 2 some unwanted flavors. For this reason, beer settle in the fermenters for a while and beer brewers and Scotch whiskey distillers the particles settle to the bottom of the tank use roller mills to crack the grains open, and then strain the clear liquid off the top to then they cook the grains in hot water at a keep the clear liquid that becomes the beer temperature of around 145 degrees to allow in your final bottle. The whiskey distillers the natural enzymes to convert the starches are less concerned over these particles as in the grains to sugars and then the sugars they are irrelevant to the distillation process. dissolve in the hot water. Once the cracked barley has steeped in the hot water for a pe- The bottom line is that the beer brewers riod of time, typically about an hour or so, and Scotch whiskey distillers crack the all of the sugars are dissolved. This process grains open leaving most of the barley husks is called “mashing” and there is a whole sci- intact such that it is very easy to separate the ence around this as well. Different flavors, liquid from the solid particles and a major body, and mouth feel can be achieved by reason they do this is to remove the woody varying this process in specific ways. This is husks from the beer as soon as possible to not quite as important to distillers as it is to minimize the tannins that could be released brewers. Brewers aim to produce a finished into the beer or whiskey. drinkable product from the mash itself through fermenting the mash. Distillers, Now, Bourbon whiskey producers have ultimately ferment the mash into beer, but a whole different set of problems when it then distill the beer into whiskey where comes to milling, mashing, lautering, etc. all of the additional body and mouth feel Bourbon is primarily made from corn. The components are stripped away leaving pure TTB Beverage Alcohol Manual states that ethanol and a few essential oils that give the Bourbon must be made from a minimum whiskey some of its flavor. of 51% corn. So by legal definition, 100% corn whiskey can be called Bourbon as Because of the tannins in the woody husks long as it meets the other requirements of the barley grain, both brewers and specified in the BAM. In reality, just like the Scotch whiskey distillers look to separate beer brewers and Scotch whiskey distillers, the beer from the physical grains as soon as the goal is the same….to extract the sugars possible, so after the process of mashing has from the grains so the yeast can eat the sug- completed, the mash is then pumped over ars and make alcohol. The challenge is that to a lauter tun. A lauter tun is a large tank corn is very difficult to malt on its own. It with a metal bottom with lots of slits in it to certainly can be done and is done every day act as a sieve to separate the liquid from the by every corn farmer, but for the purpose barley husks. The fact that the barley husks of distilling, it is more difficult than malting are very woody also provide an advantage barley. Barley malt also has very high levels in that as long as they are not ground too of the essential enzymes required to convert small, they actually create their own filter starches to sugars, so most distillers adopted bed inside the lauter tun and help separate the technique of adding some malted barley out more of the grain particles from the to their corn to let the enzymes in the barley beer. There will always be some small convert the starches in the corn to sugar. particles that make it through the lautering This way, they never need to actually malt process, but there are ways to resolve that corn, just add in some amount of barley issue as well. The beer brewers just let the malt. This also goes for the other grains that 3 are commonly used in making Bourbon. had to make a decision up front on what In most Bourbons you will also find some their “mash bill” would be prior to mashing, percentage of wheat and/or rye grains fermenting, distilling, and barreling.