Southern Yam Vodka

[hanon]

Most people would refer to these as sweet potatos, but they're technically Southern Yams. They're actually more red on the outside and more orange on the inside than sweet potatos. They're softer, they taste a little sweeter, and I assume they're less starchy and hopefully will provide a little more gravity to the mash. Here is the recipe:

Boil 8 lbs Southern Yams at a low boil until soft
Take off the skin and mash in 4 gallons of water
15 oz 2-Row
1 oz Acidulated Malt
2 tsp Gypsum
Mash at 144 degrees for 60 minutes
Heat to 158 degrees and mash for 15 minutes
Cool overnight and pitch 1/4 lbs bakers yeast

I plan to let it ferment for 3 days then do a stripping run and a spirit run. I'm not expecting a lot of spirit out of this, but I want to see what a pot stilled Southern Yam Vodka will taste like.

[Bushman]

I know making potato vodka requires a lot a work from everything I've read and some of the commercial folks are making them from potato flakes but I had an excellent potato vodka made from whole potatoes at a micro distillery in my area and it has peaked my interest so keep us informed on your results.

[MichiganCornhusker]

hanon, I've been doing some experimenting with white potatoes, and I think you will be disappointed with your yield from 8 lbs of yams. I think potatoes are around only about 15% starch, the rest being mostly fiber and water. I have read that sweet potatoes and yams have a slightly higher starch/sugar content than white potatoes, but I would definitely suggest kicking up the amount of the taters, and malt accordingly, if you can, in your recipe. Maybe have some calcium carbonate handy, just in case, as I found my mash to become quite acidic from the potatoes. I would really like to hear about your results with yams, keep us posted.

[hanon]

My SG was 1.020. That means the 8 lbs of Southern yams only contributed 13 points of gravity in 4 gallons. Not too good. I thought my pH was a little high at 5.75 measured at ~100 degrees. The gravity was down to 1.006 after 24 hours so it will probably be finished fermenting tomorrow. If I do this again, I will go with 20 lbs of Southern yams and 2.5 lbs of malt so I can at least get an SG of 1.050.

[MichiganCornhusker]

Thanks for the update, hanon, would love to hear how this tastes if you have enough spirit to make cuts.

[SoMo]

Hanon, have you considered the enzymes so you get the yams flavor only? These things are opening all kinds of new doors.

[MitchyBourbon]

How bout sweet potatoes instead of yams?

17 grams of starch per cup

Sweet potatoes also possess beta amylase.

[goose eye]

Just like apples there more than one type.
You got Porter ricans. Queen Ann an so on.
there one that purple that China pay for the
Color they don't want the tater an there a distellery
suppose to be usein them.

So I'm tole

[RNaka]

Greeting,

Been thinking of making a version of shochu using sweet potatoes and came across this article.

http://www.jbc.org/content/44/1/19.full.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Thought it might be of interest

Reed

[SoMo]

Greeting,

Been thinking of making a version of shochu using sweet potatoes and came across this article.

http://www.jbc.org/content/44/1/19.full.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Thought it might be of interest

Reed

That's pretty neat, around here at thanksgiving time they can be had for .19$ a lb. gonna have to try it with my new enzymes, would it be considered a brandy or a whiskey or a mix considering the smaller amount of starch? Interesting to say the least. Thanks.

[MichiganCornhusker]

gonna have to try it with my new enzymes

From that article it looks like the sweet potatoes will convert themselves if simply brought to mash temps for a while. Save the enzymes! I'll be checking this out for sure.
Thanks for posting RNaka, this is inspiring. I like where this thread is going...

[SoMo]

Me too, my interest in the enzyme use was the starch left over on the article definitely worth trying. Sweet potatoes are so yummy any way that their resulting alcohol would have to be good.
MCH you need a new user name, maybe Spud man.
Also most of the sweet potatoes available to us mainstream USA are Georgia Jet variety.

[MitchyBourbon]

The enzymes can be isolated and used to convert grains if you aren't partial to sweet potato starch. When I get around to it I am going to try using just the enzymes as a pre-treatment for mashing corn rather than using manufactured enzymes.

http://faculty.mansfield.edu/bganong/bi ... eetpot.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[SoMo]

[quote="MitchyBourbon"]The enzymes can be isolated and used to convert grains if you aren't partial to sweet potato starch. When I get around to it I am going to try using just the enzymes as a pre-treatment for mashing corn rather than using manufactured enzymes.

http://faculty.mansfield.edu/bganong/bi ... eetpot.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow[/

How would you isolate the enzymes, using the chemicals involved doesn't seem good for fermentation.

[RNaka]

gonna have to try it with my new enzymes

From that article it looks like the sweet potatoes will convert themselves if simply brought to mash temps for a while. Save the enzymes! I'll be checking this out for sure.
Thanks for posting RNaka, this is inspiring. I like where this thread is going...

I guess you still need a lot of potatoes to get your SG to about 1.06. I found the information quoted below from a brewer forum. The member, based on the 1920 article, estimated that it takes about 6 pounds per gallon to get the SG to about 1.040 based on about 50% - 60% efficiency.

"I looked back at the 1920s paper, and they used one kilogram (2.2 lbs) of sweet potatoes and ended up with 714 grams of syrup at 37.6 Brix (1.167 in Specific Gravity). 714 grams / 1.167 g/mL = 612 mL or 0.162 gallons. So if 1 kilogram of sweet potatoes in 0.162 gallons yields 1.167 SG, it should yield 1.027 SG in 1 gallon of water. Divide that by 2.2 lbs and you get a potential of 1.0123 SG per pound of sweet potatoes. I assumed this was 100% efficiency and assumed I would get around 50-60% efficiency so I bought 6 lbs of sweet potatoes for a 1 gallon batch hoping for a specific gravity near 1.040."

Reed

[MitchyBourbon]

The enzymes can be isolated and used to convert grains if you aren't partial to sweet potato starch. When I get around to it I am going to try using just the enzymes as a pre-treatment for mashing corn rather than using manufactured enzymes.

http://faculty.mansfield.edu/bganong/bi ... eetpot.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow[/

How would you isolate the enzymes, using the chemicals involved doesn't seem good for fermentation.

Sorry, I did not intend to use harsh chemicals. The purpose of this exercise was to avoid them.

So... I probably wouldn't use ammonium sulfate. Although it is a common fertilizer and some people here use fertilizers as a source of nitrogen. I might use a sodium phosphate though. It is commonly used as a leavening agent in baked goods. However, in large amounts it can cause kidney failure. If that makes you nervous... Someday you may decide to have a colonoscopy and your doctor may have you take a sodium phosphate pill every 15 minutes several hours before the procedure.

That said, maybe I should explain what the function these chemicals are to perform. The enzymes in the sweet potato cannot be obtained by just be squeezing or juicing. The enzymes are contained inside cells. The cell must be ruptured in order to release the enzymes. Various chemical and physical techniques can be used to destroy the cell wall. These techniques can be grouped into five major categories: mechanical homogenization, ultrasound homogenization, pressure homogenization, temperature treatments, and osmotic and chemical lysis.

So there is more than one way to skin a cat or sweet potato. Before using a chemicals I might try blending, freezing and then blending it while frozen. I also don't have a centrifuge, a little sweet potato never hurt no one. There, keepin it all natural.

Time for my milk and cookies

[hanon]

A lot of people refer to yams as sweet potatos. In fact at the grocery store I often think they are throwing sweet potatos and yams together, or at least different kinds of yams because they have ones that are darker on the outside and tougher and less orange on the inside. I can eat a Southern yam raw and IMO it tastes like a combination between a carrot and an apple. Eating a raw sweet potato is almost as bad as eating a raw white potato. I don't think the flavor of a vodka made with a sweet potato vs a white potato would be that much different, but since the Southern yams have a much sweeter flavor, I'm hoping that will come through in a pot stilled vodka. Yams have alpha and beta amylase as well, but from what I've read it seems sweet potatos have more.

Anyway, my gravity is still sitting at 1.006, and it's showing activity too so that seems weird. My yeast wasn't very fresh and I also didn't use the skins as I took them off after boiling the yams. If I can find yams cheap enough I'll give it another shot with 20-25 pounds. And instead of boiling I might try heating them to a mash temp and letting them sit for a few hours to soften them up then mashing the with the skins and doing a step mash at 145 degrees for 60 minutes and 155 degrees for 15 minutes without barley to see how much I can get out of them. If I don't get at least 6 points per lbs/gallon, I'll add 2 lbs of barley and give it another 60 minutes at 155. I'll also pitch at least 1/2 lbs of fresh bakers yeast.

[SoMo]

Try roasting or baking first, normally it releases tons of sweet syrupy goodness, collect that too.

[MichiganCornhusker]

So I got me some Yams this weekend. Got 100 lbs, and tried processing them three different ways:

1: Baked 33 lbs at 350 degrees for 1:45. Yams were super soft and mushy, some of them even had a little bit of caramelizing under the skins in a few places. Absolutely delicious, I can see why someone might want to make a syrup out of these. Cut them cross-wise and dropped them with a splat into a 5 gallon pail. They were really really mush. Added about 3 gallons water and brought just to a boil and then dumped into buckets. SG 1.03

2: Chopped 33 lbs into roughly 1/2" thick slices, covered with about 3 gallons water, and brought to 150 degrees. Let them rest for a couple hours. Didn't seem to do anything. Water wasn't sweet at all and yams were still crunchy. Slowly brought to a boil and then boiled softly for an hour. Water read SG 1.03 when done.

3: Ran 33 lbs through my blender and chopped them up into tiny little bits. Looked and tasted a lot like chopped up carrots. My plan was to give these the 150 degree soak, and see if the blender would produce a better yield. But result was same as the other batch, no real action happening after adding about 3 gallons water, and a couple hours at 150 degrees. So, brought to a boil for 1/2 hr. SG 1.03.

Next day I combined all yams slurries back together again and heated them up to 185 degrees, Added 6 tablespoons baking soda to get pH to 5.5, added SEBStar-HTL, and let rest for a couple hours, mixing occasionally. No noticeable change. When temp dropped to 150, added 2 cups lemon juice to get pH to 5.0, added SEBAmyl, mixed up good, twice and left overnight. No noticeable change. Overall SG today at, yep, 1.03.

Whipped up a froth and pitched yeast at 80 degrees.

So, I guess my observation is that the yams will self-convert, enzymes don't squeeze out any more, and there just ain't that much there.
The baked yams just smell and taste so much better than the boiled yams, and I gotta hope some of that will come through the distillation.

[SoMo]

Wow 11lbs to the gallon that's a lot for naught. Let us know what happens. I really thought there would be more available.
Good for trying it out, too bad you didn't go baked all the way that would have been excellent I believe.

[MichiganCornhusker]

Wow 11lbs to the gallon that's a lot for naught. Let us know what happens. I really thought there would be more available.
Good for trying it out, too bad you didn't go baked all the way that would have been excellent I believe.

Yeah, I think for a straight yam batch, OG 1.03 is about as good as it will get. I tried to keep water to a minimum, but things get quite thick. I think my yield ratio is in the same ballpark as yours, hanon.
Good news was that they convert themselves, so no need for malt or enzymes.
There is a guy around here that drives yams up from the south and sells them cheap out of his pickup this time of year. Next time I see him I'm going to get more and make a batch with all baked, those caramely yams were sooo good.

[SoMo]

They are my favorite tuber, actually not a potato but in the morning glory family. I'm definitely going to try this when they get dirt cheap, and it will be with sweet potatoes not true yams. Thanks bro for being a go getter in the experiment department.

[hanon]

I end up over losing over a gallon and a half to yam gunk. I'm crashing it in the fridge now.

[SoMo]

Why not run it dirty, are you on electric?

[hanon]

It a copper pot still as pictured in my avatar. I like to keep it reasonably clean. I'm looking to get so little out of this, it's not really worth potentially having burnt yam inside it. There is a ton of orange crashing out of it as well, so I will probably get 2 gallons out of it.

[MichiganCornhusker]

Found this online:

Food Sugar (g) Starch (g)
Potato 1.2 17.3
Yam 0.5 23.1
Sweet potato 6.5 7.5
Grapes 15.5 0.0

[hanon]

I got less than 1/2 gallon of low wines at less than 10%.

[hanon]

Doing the spirit run. Dumped 25 ml of foreshots and took 100 ml cuts, but didn't really get a clean hearts cut as the second cut was already getting tails. The heads/hearts cut was 110 proof and the hearts/tails cut was 80 proof. The heads/hearts cut was actually cleaner. I threw them together and diluted down to 80 proof. That's barely over 200 ml of 80 proof spirit out of 8 lbs of Southern yams and 1 lbs of barley, and I wouldn't be surprised if the barley accounted for close to half of the spirit. The only way I would do this again is if I ran into a phenominal deal on yams or sweet potatos because it seems it would take well over 20 pounds of them to even get a 750 out of this. It's a lot of work too. I think I'll stick with my single malts.

[MichiganCornhusker]

Doing the spirit run. Dumped 25 ml of foreshots and took 100 ml cuts, but didn't really get a clean hearts cut as the second cut was already getting tails. The heads/hearts cut was 110 proof and the hearts/tails cut was 80 proof. The heads/hearts cut was actually cleaner. I threw them together and diluted down to 80 proof. That's barely over 200 ml of 80 proof spirit out of 8 lbs of Southern yams and 1 lbs of barley, and I wouldn't be surprised if the barley accounted for close to half of the spirit. The only way I would do this again is if I ran into a phenominal deal on yams or sweet potatos because it seems it would take well over 20 pounds of them to even get a 750 out of this. It's a lot of work too. I think I'll stick with my single malts.

I feel your pain, hanon. I'm trying to deal with my 100 pound mess of yams. I think the enzymes actually melted the whole yam, skin and all. I bag strained the whole mess, basically just straining it all through a bag for no real reason. I got very little solids out of it, maybe 2 gallons of garbage from a 100 lb batch. I usually get 10 gallons of stuff out the bag on a run like this. So, I wound up with almost 30 gallons of fermented yam beer. And I will need to add more water to it to be able to strip it without scorching, it's so thick and slimey, like cold tomato soup. I just stripped the first 10 gallons and got barely a quart of 40 proof..... I'm going to see this through to the end, but I won't be doing this again. And, you're right about the grains being half the take in your recipe: I MIGHT end up with a single fifth from 100 lbs of yams. Being able to say it's 100% pure yam brandy just ain't enough satisfaction to be doing this ever again. Shoulda made pies.

[MichiganCornhusker]

Well, a month later I've finally gotten around to doing my cuts on my yam spirits. Collected spirit run in 1/2 pint jars, half full, so about 4 ounces each. Would have been pretty easy to drink half the yield just tasting for cuts! I actually wound up keeping everything but the first and last jars. As I tasted the different jars, I wasn't too optimistic about this one, but the sum is greater than the parts: once blended all together, it tastes much better, and unlike any of the individual jars. Heads and tails play well together!

I gotta say, this isn't bad at all. It has a nice sweetness, maybe something I could talk myself into thinking of as "fruity". Very smooth, no burn at all at 90 proof. Lots of flavor, more brandy than vodka. Definitely makes me want to keep going back for another sip. 100 pounds of yams = 1.5 quarts spirit. I guess I'm including this update for a sense of closure, as I can't suggest that anyone spend 100 pounds of yams this way. It's a shame, too, because it's an interesting spirit. And if nothing else, I learned that yams are not sweet potatoes, they are more like fat carrots. Thanks for the inspiration, Hanon, it was an interesting experiment.