All-Grain Safety Net Bourbon is a wash recipe targeting original gravity 1.070 with a cracked corn + barley + rye + white sugar bill. Use it as the starting fermentation for whiskey runs in Broover, or as a reference template for your own variation.
Sugar bill, yeast, nutrient, target original gravity, and fermentation temperature band. These values pre-fill the New Wash form so you're not retyping them every time you start a fermentation.
Beginner-friendly bourbon. “Safety net” = 2 kg of white sugar backs the grain bill so even an incomplete starch conversion still ferments out at the target ABV. Authentic bourbon flavour from the corn-heavy grain bill (≥51% corn for US legal bourbon naming), with rye for pepper backbone and malt for enzymatic conversion.
PRE-FERMENT (this IS the work — don’t skip): 1. Heat 20 L water to 70°C, add cracked corn, hold 70–75°C for 30 min. 2. Raise to 85–95°C, hold 30–60 min for CORN GELATINISATION. Corn starch needs higher temp than barley to gelatinise — this is the step beginners skip and regret (unconverted starch = thin yield + starchy haze). 3. Cool to 65°C. Add crushed malted barley + rye + alpha-amylase enzyme. Hold 60–90 min for SACCHARIFICATION (starch → sugar). 4. Cool to 24°C. Dissolve 2 kg sugar in fresh water, add. Pitch yeast.
DISTILLATION: Strip off-grain (use a grain bag or rack off solids — scorched grain in stripping run ruins the batch). Then spirit run on combined low wines. POT STILL preferred for bourbon character. Cuts: discard ~50 mL foreshots per 25 L wash, heads taper into hearts around 78°C vapour, hearts to ~92°C, tails saved for next strip.
AGING: NEW CHARRED AMERICAN OAK (level 3 or 4 char) is the legal requirement for “bourbon” in the US — also the source of the vanilla-caramel-tannin character. 6 months minimum on chips, 2+ years on a small barrel for proper character.
GOTCHAS: “Bourbon” is a legal US term (≥51% corn, new charred oak, distilled to ≤80% ABV, etc.); for non-US producers it’s a style descriptor. Scorched grain = bin the batch.
Source: Clawhammer Supply blog + HD forum threads. Typical OG 1.065–1.075, FG 0.995, wash ABV 8–10%.
Broover is the workflow app for craft and home distillers — track every wash, distillation run, and bottled lot from a single screen with full provenance from kettle to bottle. Clone this recipe to your account and Broover pre-fills your next wash from these settings; strip and spirit runs link automatically, and the bottled lot at the end traces all the way back to this recipe.