Moonshine is one of America’s best spirits, but making it exceptionally well is somewhat a challenge. Americans living in frontier states have historically distilled excess grain to create the beverage, we now know as moonshine. Grains are the key ingredient for the famous liquor and choosing the best grains for making moonshine is essential to get the drink right.
In a Hurry? Here are Our Top Choices
However, everyone has a different idea in terms of which grain is the best for making moonshine because each grain has its unique flavor. As moonshine becomes increasingly popular, it’s shedding its reputation as a strong liquor that can immobilize and blind people to a loved beverage.
A significant number of people have started turning to the practice of making your liquor. To help these people, we have compiled a list of the best grains for making moonshine, so everyone can enjoy some home-grown drink.
Why Do We Need the Best Grain for Making Moonshine?
Grain seeds are a vital part of making whiskey (scotch) or bourbon. These grains contain the starch that people convert to sugar with the help of special enzymes in fermentation. The entire process of distillation and germination to create the grain-based spirit e love today.
Although every mash recipe is unique, people who don’t have experience brewing their drinks don’t know which grains are best for making moonshine. Most moonshine makers use barley as the primary grain for alcohol.
This is why 2-row and 6-row malts, as well as other types of distiller’s malts, are barley. In comparison, wheat has a weaker taste, compared to barley’s strong flavor. Mostly, recipes for bourbon, gin, and whiskey are usually a combination of barley with other grains, where brewers use rye or wheat depending on their preference.
The 6 Best Grains for Making Moonshine
While vodka is a neutral spirit you can make from practically anything, most people use wheat to process it. Likewise, some people even brew moonshine entirely from wheat and rye, because they prefer a lighter taste. Here are some of the best grains for making moonshine available at the market:
Malted Barley for Moonshine Whiskey Mash by North Georgia Still Company (5 lbs.)
Malted grains from North Georgia Still are some of the best in business. Making moonshine from Malted Barley for Moonshine Whiskey Mash can give brewers a unique taste that many love.
After you make whiskey from these grains, you’ll notice that the barley produces sweet flavors supplemented by hints of brown sugar and caramel. Users often describe the beverages having a tasteful nutty, roasted, toffee, and flavored cereal quality.
Key Features
- Sweet nutty, roasted, and toffee flavor
- Origin: America
- Grain type: base
- Milled: no
- Lovibond Range: 40 L
Brewmaster – GR312E Malt – Rahr 6-Row – 5 lb
Moonshine veterans will tell you that 6-row barley gives a stronger flavor to the next. Although the flavor is a matter of preference, the Brewmaster Rahr 6-row flavor offers the best of the 6-row variant.
Brewmaster Rahr 6-Row has been cultivated in the land of the free and the home of the brave, so you can enjoy the traditional flavor. Supplemented by a base grain type, the Lovibond range of these grains is from 0 to 100, so they are available in varying shades. However, you may have to mill the grains yourself before you start making moonshine.
Having additional enzymes stored in additional heads of barley, this grain converts starch to sugar more smoothly. Fans who have developed a taste for lighter drinks will find the drink a little too strong for their liking, but the whose you enjoy a knockout flavor will appreciate the unique flavor Brewmaster GR312E Malt Rahr 6-Row gives off.
Key Features
- Strong flavor
- Origin: America
- Grain type: base
- Milled: no
- Lovibond Range: 0 – 100 L
Malted Wheat for Moonshine Whiskey by North Georgia Still Company (5 lbs.)
Making moonshine from Malted Wheat for Moonshine Whiskey is a little weaker compared to the barley variant. After you make whiskey from these grains, you’ll notice a lighter flavor and taste. The flavor is known for a taste similar to whole wheat bread with a dab of honey. If you make it well enough, you’ll taste whiskey with brown bread and malted tones, as well as shades of cereal notes on the surface.
Key Features
- Sweet brown bread, honey flavor
- Origin: America
- Grain type: base
- Milled: no
- Lovibond Range: 4 L
Briess Special Roast 1 lb
50° L Briess Malting – Special Roast malt is known for its intense biscuit-like flavors described as tasting like bran flakes and Sourdough bread. Similar to Victory Malt, which color is 28 Lovibond, Special Roast is even more intense and with a darker color that registers at 40 degrees on the Lovibond scale.
Use it at around 10% of your recipe to get the signature Sourdough flavor that many brewers appreciate in ambers, browns, porters, and stouts. Use a smaller percentage to add the bran/biscuit complexity to IPA’s, Marzen/Octoberfests, or any other style where you want to add some unique flavors and layered depth.
This malt is drum roasted and is included in the category of malts called Biscuit Malts.
Key Features
- Country Of Origin: China
- Item Packaged Weight: 5.0 lb
- Biscuit, bran flakes, and Sourdough bread flavor
- Origin: America
- Grain type: base
- Milled: no
- Lovibond Range: 50L
Rye Malt (1 lb) Milled by Briess
3.7° L Briess Malting is great for making German-style Roggen beers. Although the liquor is powerful enough to leave a slight haze, it has a unique fruity, spicy flavor that many people desire.
Rye Malt is fully modified. The grain will perform well in a single temperature infusion mash after you use it less than 20% of total grist. Before you start brewing a drink for yourself, you must mash the grain.
Key Features
- Milled
- Has a unique fruity, spicy flavor
- Brown color
Brewmaster – GR300EM Malt – 2-Row Pale – 5 lb Milled
Brewmaster – GR300EM Malt – 2-Row Pale is a lighter variant of the 6-row variant. Similar to the typical 2-row brewers’ malt, the grain has a relatively low enzyme content. Moonshine made with 2-row was mostly flavorful, and the initial taste is followed up by a rich malty sweetness.
Users report that the drink has unique malty, sweet and nutty notes as well. Brewmaster makes the grains from 2-row spring barley. This makes the grain the ideal malt for ales and special lagers.
If you are looking for a suitable grain for subtle color correction of regular lagers, you should choose Brewmaster – GR300EM Malt – 2-Row Pale. The grain has also been milled to make the job of making moonshine easier.
Key Features
- Lighter, sweeter taste, followed by unique malty, sweet and nutty notes
- Origin: America
- Grain type: base
- Milled: y
- Lovibond Range: 0 – 100 L
Our Final Thoughts
There is nothing better than enjoying a glass of perfectly made moonshine while sitting on your porch with your friends. We hope this list will help you pick the best grain for making moonshine, based on your preferences and taste.
