Help making sweet feed recipe smoother

[Bavis54]

Hi, I've been making a sweet feed moonshine for while, it's simple, always does good fermenting, and is fairly good to drink, it's just rough as hell, I mean it burns from tongue to toes. Was hoping some of you guys could gimme ideas on how to smooth it out or tell me what I doin wrong. Here's recipe- in a 10 gal fermenter, 18 lbs sugar, 15 lbs sweet feed, and fleishmans bread yeast. I boil 2 gal water, dissolve sugar, add feed, then add water to fill fermenter. Once cooled to 90 degrees I pitch yeast. It always does a good complete ferment, and then I run it through my 12 gal copper pot still. No thumper just simple worm type condenser . Usually makes 1 1/2 to 2 gal of 140-120 proof descent liquor. Tails usually about 80 proof. It's not bad it's just gotta be way to make it smoother, maybe I need to add thumper ?or do multiple distillations? Or maybe I need add diff grains to recipe? Any help here be greatly appreciated

[jb-texshine]

Bet a dollar that if you tried the sweetfeed recipe in the tried and true section thst itll be a bit smoother due to a lower og. Also,you dont mention the size jars your collecting in to make cuts. Are you making cuts?

[Bavis54]

I'll try other recipe n see how it goes, yes I've been making distinct cuts, started with pint jars, but this stuff- from the first shots thru the hearts, tails , and backings is all rough as can be. Of course the proof is different but far as taste and just the bite- I jus need to get it smoother- my father used to make white liquor for years before his death, after I never found his recipe. He could make a really smooth , good corn liquor. That's what I goin for. Mine has a classic moonshine smell, taste, it is just so rough. I'm making a thumper now- I'm hoping this will help smooth it out too.

[cuginosgrizzo]

Hi Bavis, at what proof are you tasting it? I hope not 120-140, but diluted to 80 or thereabouts.

Also, I gather that you are single distilling it, did you try double distillation? It yields a far better product, even without a thumper.

[Bushman]

Hard to guess the percentage in pounds of Sweetfeed to the one in the Tried & True section that is measured in inches but 18 lbs of sugar seems like a lot of sugar for a wash in a 12 gallon boiler. My other thought is you might be a little to liberal with your cuts.

[Bavis54]

After I run it, I been taking the hearts, n using the tails I temper to 80-90 proof before tasting it. I've also used good water to temper. 80 proof is generally where I temper to n put in jars. This stuff is so rough I can't even make apple pie out of it , or flavor it with plums or peaches. The flavor takes, but it's still got such a bad burn u can't stand to drink it. Last run I took 2 gallon of a previous run-at 120 proof n dumped in my mash just before a run, after distill it was still fiery as ever. I'll back down on sugar and try double distill n maybe put some age on it. Thanks for ur ideas

[Bushman]

I think you might be stressing it raising the abv with the amount of sugar. On a 12 gallon wash I would not go above 14 lbs sugar and probably closer to 10-12 lbs. What are your OG and FG readings?

[Cleco]

Are you using a good quality sweet feed?

[bitter]

I find the sweet feed has a little bit a rum a little roughness myself.

When I ran mine I stripped it all and then ran spirit run each batch (42g at a time)
Then when I make cuts made really marrow tight cuts and it tasted better than my one and done run (about 35% of potential alchol). Also run low and slow makes things nicer.

I am not a huge fan of rum and I get a similar roughness from Sweet Feed.

Personally I found my UJSSM nicer as it got into later generations.

As mentioned above try for lower say 8-9%
I mixed my COB up using quality Corn Oats and Barley than added molasses I found it better than the stuff I got from the feed store as it had a bunch of stocks etc in it.

Look into fermentation temperature.. Is it in the right range for your yeast? Maybe try a different yest suited to the temp of were you ferment. US05 Nottingham s04 shoudl all produce a nice drop. Bakers will also but I can't use in the winter as ferment is in the high 50's

We will see in time were mine goes as I have 7g of SF 5 on oak and 2 white in gallon jugs.. that I make in july/august. Its taking some time to come around but I under oaked it.. trying to get a more Canadian like lighter whiskey with the tight cuts and lighter on the oak.

B

[bilgriss]

All good advice.

Lower gravity, temperature control, careful cuts and distill twice. Fast and furious to strip on the first, slow and methodical to control your cuts on the second.

Also, give it some time. A corked product set aside for a little while will smooth out noticeably. Many folks won't touch it for a month or a year.