Thanksgiving and Malt Whiskey - Perfect together!

"After its heyday during Prohibition, 'makin' your own' practically died out in the lower 48. Most Americans found it more convenient to buy it than make it. Alaska, however, was and still is a frontier where a trip to the store might be an annual event involving a trip of several hundred miles via dogsled, river boat, ATV or airplane. Your trip to the store might include coping with grizzly bears, belligerent moose, and onions freezing harder than cue balls."

So begins the foreword in the nearly two-decades-old book, the Alaskan Bootlegger's Bible – a well-loved read by moonshiners everywhere. We thought we'd share a recipe from this old favorite for a malt whiskey that is pretty much guaranteed to help you whip up a batch of 'shine perfect for Thanksgiving. 

This beauty of a still – known as "The Expert" – can distill between 1-2 gallons of a wide variety of spirits quickly and easily. Even with a large circle of family and friends, that should be plenty to get you through Thanksgiving Day!

Use this recipe, and your guests will have a Thanksgiving they won't forget (or maybe not remember, depending on how much "thanks" you give out!).

FROM THE ALASKAN BOOTLEGGER'S BIBLE

6 Lb Cornmeal

4 Lb Dried sprouted corn

5 Gal Water

1 Cup Champagne yeast starter

This is a malted whiskey, but not an all-malt whiskey. Assuming you've sprouted and dreid four pounds of corn (now malt), you'll proceed much like you were making beer from grain malt. Crack or grind the malted corn and mix it with the cornmeal. The grist as it's now called, should be mixed with hot water and kept at about 150°F for several hours. The resultant mash or cornmeal mush is not something that will pour through the spout of a mash tun or beverage container, nor can you sparge it. The simplest way to mash the mush is to set the pot in a tub full of hot water and replenish the hot water periodically. Stir this mixture occasionally to help the mashing or conversion along. This is not a precise process, nor is it necessary to get a complete conversion as in mashing for beers. Put the mash in the fermenter and add boiled water to the five-gallon mark. Stir in the yeast when the mixture cools and proceed.

How do YOU proceed now? By relying on the expert guidance we provide in our Simplified Guide To Moonshine, of course – which is yours free with any still purchase!

Posted by Jason Stone on November 13, 2017