Plus if you know what bourbon is and how it's made it's not supposed to be aged at any more than 125 proof not 65% that equates to 130 proof. I know that's splitting hairs but it's for a reason. The stronger the spirit that faster it will pull flavor from the wood.

Do you plan to make another one alcohol making video? I find it highly relaxing. I like to listen to your calm Clint Eastwood voice and observe how grain becomes whisky... I watched this video a few times and I kind of know the plot already :D

Wow! Very thorough and informative. You didn’t skip a step in showing us your end to end process! Great job and thank you so much for sharing. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🥃 Would love to know how long you age it for, and would love to see a follow up tasting video.

Thanks for the information. I'm not a drinker but I love the process and I do all kinds of different things that are homemade and then I give away at Christmas and my family and friends are always surprised as to what I make for them each year and most tell me that they look forward to my gift more than any of the other gifts they get for one they know it's from the heart and it's not another gift card which seem to be so popular nowadays. This year they are all getting moose summer sausage from a moose I harvested on a trip to Newfoundland.... again ty...

Well done! You got a subscription. Thanks!

One of the best video series I've seen. Thank you

The recipe seems good that still though not sanitary welds or equipment. Thats a rubber clamp for plumbing not for use in alcohol. Some some great places in southern Ontario that can weld for you or just purchase the correct pieces.

Hi Mark, I enjoyed your video and liked the way you made your still work. I'm old school, and this gave me memories of my Grand father building his stills as I also do. I'm 70 and I am still building them after a big break since the early '70's. I like your Burbon videos especially, because it's time for me to finally make some. I have never made any, as the commercial Burbons really don't turn my crank much. I also am not a real quantity drinker, I'm more interested in flavors and building "oddball from scratch" stills, and I only just got back into it after retiring two years ago. So thank you for these interesting videos. Regards, John.

I have been aging cocktails in 2L and 5L barrels for over 3 years now, mostly Old Fashioneds and Manhattans, and I love it. There is a small distiller in my town and I bought some Corn Whiskey from him to age. I put it in a brand new 2L charred oak barrel and kept topping it up as the angels kept tasting it along with me. After a month, it was pretty darn good, after 2 months it was amazing. I decanted it back into the original bottles and sadly, it didn't fill them all back up. So, I brought the partially full bottle back the distillery and shared it with him. His only comment, other than it was damn good, was that it was a bit one note. Your series makes me want to try distilling my own whisk(e)y. Now, I just have to figure out a way to keep it from my wife...

I just wanted to say thank you so much. You have taught me so much! 🤓

Really enjoyed both parts. Thank you.

Good informative video. Many thanks for sharing your wisdom. ++++++

try toasting the oak instead of char. Big difference. Plus, you can then mix those for different tastes. Char is sharper, toast is sweeter, more vanillins.

thanks, if you don't have the best bourbon, you certainly have the best video about making it...

Great video, very informative.

Thank you very much for the informative video. It is so helpful

Great videos Mark! I wanted to give this a try & your video gives me a little more courage.

Excellent explanation. Thanks for posting.

Love the colour of your bourbon. Cheers 🥃

Thank you for the very informative video. I just finished up flavoring a batch of spirit with some oak. I was wondering if you could help me with some questions I had about the wood itself. I did an experiment with baking wood and charring wood. Whereas the baked wood gave off a good flavor, the charred left an unpleasant aftertaste. I am not sure if I did something wrong. I know there are numerous factors to calculate here, but any advice or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Nice video.. You need to more. Very informative.

Just as a suggestion. I now use an alcohol refractometer. It’s so much more accurate and temperature does not effect it. Good job overall. 😊

You’re reading the alcometer / hydrometer incorrectly. It is supposed to be measured from the top of the meniscus, so you actually had closer to 26-27%. This is different to a graduated cylinder (volume) measurement which is read via the bottom of the meniscus. 👍

Hey dude, I think if you used just a little of the enzymes to boost your barley it would make a difference. Corn has a lot of starch and if your barley has lost any of its diastatic power it may not be enough.

Good video. I wish we could sample our whiskies together friend

For all those who want to know the technical term, the spirit run is fractional distillation.

It was bottled on April 10th!!! That's my birthday

Thanks for the great content. I greatly appreciated watching. One comment is you say your grain bill is 60% corn, 15% rye and 15% barley. This only totals 90%. I'm curious as to what your grain bill is? Also seeing the only malt was in the barley, I don't think you have enough enzymes to convert all the starch assuming 2 row. But is you used 25% youre good to go. This maybe why you didn't ferment out completely dry.

Hey! Enjoyed this 2 part series. Curious as to the process of burning your white oak. Also, how come red oak is unsuitable? Thanks for making this walk through!

Great video! I loved it and learned somethings. Can you describe how you disposed and calculated the amount of Methanol?

Thank you sir for your information.

Well done mate.

so cool

What a great series of informative videos for the Urban Hillbilly. One question, I note that you separate the tails, but do you take off the heads? and how do you know when to cut over between heads and harts?

The big bottle...that you put away...have you still got it lol ?

You may have answered this already so I apologize, but what was your total cost of raw grains to yield the 4.5L of bourbon? And total time you took you think?

Hi sir I had finished my first distiliton following ur whole process but I’m convincing about the second distiliton should I bring whole alcohol that what I already got and put them again in still pot and do another distiliton ?

What about the heads?

hi mark, you are using reflux, is there any flavor loss? i know as reflux systems are removing flavor from spirit. usually using for made vodka or high proof alchol

Mate been watching your utube video making bourbon,I'm confused ,you have gone thru the whole tedious process of grain mash ,fermented and stripping run thru pot still setup and accumulated all the runs and NOW you convert the pot still to reflux,WHYbecause all a reflux still is strip all flavours to a neutral spirit with no taste.Why did you do that process. I thought you were trying to maintain the grain flavours

Hi, I just watched your video and I really enjoyed it. However I have two questions: 1. You mentioned that you distill the mash not later than 72 hours after starting the fermentation process. Is it really matters if the distillation is made later? If so, how big is the difference? 2. Do you reduce the strenght od alkohol after the aging or during the aging process? Looking forward to your reply. Grestings from Poland, Greg

Mark, I did not see any references to removing foreshots, do you not discard any foreshots from your spirit run?

Do you have another video for how you made your rum?

How often do you have to make new charred wood to use , or I guess how long can you use the charred wood before it's no good?

great video, I am about to buy my first stil , any recamondations

dearest. i want to thank you for the wonderful videos. i just have one question. you put the new bourbon to aging when the bourbon is at 65 percent alcohol. why that ? we usually buy bourbon that is 40 percent alcohol. thats what the jack daniels looks like. 40 42. why is that difference ? or do you re-dillute it again with water after you age it , in order to bring it from 65 to 40 ?

Great video! Why not use red oak chips for aging? I thought they used white oak because that’s what they had… I have red oak… Thank you!

Great 2 part video Mark, thank you for sharing. Sorry for the late question, but did you char the oak yourself? Also, do you ever feel deflated when you consider that you effectively got 4ltrs from 8 mash runs equaling 144ltrs? :D Thank you again for your time

GREAT video . Thx. Not that its about cost, but I wonder if you've tracked how much the products cost vs. just "buying a bottle".

Hi Mark! Fantastic video. One thing I don't think you mentioned that I had a question about was the heads. Did you not pull off any of the heads? You talked a lot about the tails, so that made me curious what you did with the heads. Thanks in advance.

I am having trouble understanding the quantities.. How many fermentation buckets did you have in total? My impression was that you ran the entire bucket from the first video to get 2L from the stripping run? In total you ended up with around 20L of stripping runs, so there was more that we didn't see?

Job well done Sir!👏. Had a question on when to add flavors? Could you buy white oak barrels mix whatever flavor you wanted in the barrels let it age for however long then chop the barrels up and stick in glass? Vs adding straight to bourbon? Thanks.

Well done and very informative. I would double down on sugar get some volume . If i had to listen to that woman running her mouth like that all day . drinking heavily and making barrels full would be the top priority.

hello sir, my second (spirit) run hearts section smells like green banana. heads section smells like bourbon. is it something wrong? or i should i add heads to hearts a little bit? thank you.

You didn't get rid of the foreshots.They are poisonous.

Why would you run it reflux? That kinda defeats the whole purpose. You want that flavor from the grains otherwise just make a sugar wash.

What piece of wood is added for colour? Please

Will you be my friend

How long do you age it for

How do you get rid of the methanol during the first stage? Your viewers need to know that. Methanol is poison, ethanol is not. There are different boiling points for the two. Thank the good lord for making methanol have a lower boiling point. To all newbies, get rid of the methanol by temperature control before you even take a sip. Methanol will ruin your day, possibly kill you, at the very least give you an incredible hangover. I hate to be a buzzkill but this is pretty important. I can't believe you left this step out.

Virgin project ha ha ha 😂👍🏻🏆 Funny!

Did I miss the iodine test?

Jimmy cracked corn and I still don't care...lol...

That is not a beverage good sir 😂

Straight alcohol

Plus if you know what bourbon is and how it's made it's not supposed to be aged at any more than 125 proof not 65% that equates to 130 proof. I know that's splitting hairs but it's for a reason. The stronger the spirit that faster it will pull flavor from the wood.