sweetfeed whisky

[jmashspirits14]

I got rolled barley, cracked corn, whole oats, a d pure feed grade molasses. Im going to make my own sweetfeed and mash it with enzymes. The only two things are the feed store was out of plain cracked corn so I had to get cracked corn with 12% whole wheat in it and the onlything I have to measure molasses off of is to just add molasses until I reach the color and darkness in the water I get when I make sweetfeed wash with the all grain from TSC. Unless someone kows about how much molasses to add? Im going to grind the oats since they are whole and im going to attempt to grind the whole wheat grains that are in the cracked corn. Ill let everyone know what kind of mess I make!

[Antler24]

I got rolled barley, cracked corn, whole oats, a d pure feed grade molasses. Im going to make my own sweetfeed and mash it with enzymes. The only two things are the feed store was out of plain cracked corn so I had to get cracked corn with 12% whole wheat in it and the onlything I have to measure molasses off of is to just add molasses until I reach the color and darkness in the water I get when I make sweetfeed wash with the all grain from TSC. Unless someone kows about how much molasses to add? Im going to grind the oats since they are whole and im going to attempt to grind the whole wheat grains that are in the cracked corn. Ill let everyone know what kind of mess I make!

No need no crack if your not mashing. Molasses should be very small amount, less than 5% iirc. I'd just add a cupful if it was me.

[W Pappy]

In my opinion you will get better flavor carryover with cracked and dont be shy with the Molasses.
Just have a good idea what your SG will be before you add.

[Antler24]

In my opinion you will get better flavor carryover with cracked and dont be shy with the Molasses.
Just have a good idea what your SG will be before you add.

Your clearly more experienced than me, so take what I say with a grain of salt:

In an earlier post in this thread I was told cracking grain was only beneficial if mashing. Also, I'm almost positive molasses content should be less than 5% of the ingredients. If you want more that's fine but to follow the original recipe I think at most was 5%.

[Southern comfort]

I've been making sf for several years now. We just found out my wife has celiac disease. Which means she cant eat or drink any thing with gluten in it. No wheat rye barley oats and so on. So my question is after this mash has been distiled would it still contain gluten or would distilling remove the gluten.

[W Pappy]

In my opinion you will get better flavor carryover with cracked and dont be shy with the Molasses.
Just have a good idea what your SG will be before you add.

Your clearly more experienced than me, so take what I say with a grain of salt:

In an earlier post in this thread I was told cracking grain was only beneficial if mashing. Also, I'm almost positive molasses content should be less than 5% of the ingredients. If you want more that's fine but to follow the original recipe I think at most was 5%.

On a 6 gal wash I use 1 bottle of molasses works great your basically doing a rumskey so do what you like.And you defiantly get a richer corn flavor with cracked in my opinion.
Again do what like but give it a try some time and compare the 2 hell at worst you will only have more whiskey to drink.

[Konrad Arflane]

I've been making sf for several years now. We just found out my wife has celiac disease. Which means she cant eat or drink any thing with gluten in it. No wheat rye barley oats and so on. So my question is after this mash has been distiled would it still contain gluten or would distilling remove the gluten.

Found this...hope it helps?

http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/copin ... Drinks.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Also, this:

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/gluten- ... -5716.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Best recommendation I can make is get your wife on a completely gluten free diet, then introduce SF whiskey on a limited basis, have her monitor her reaction to it. If no reaction to a small amount, have her try a bit more...

Until she's inebriated enough to clean your pipes!

j/K...

[S-Cackalacky]

I've been making sf for several years now. We just found out my wife has celiac disease. Which means she cant eat or drink any thing with gluten in it. No wheat rye barley oats and so on. So my question is after this mash has been distiled would it still contain gluten or would distilling remove the gluten.

Found this...hope it helps?

http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/copin ... Drinks.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Also, this:

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/gluten- ... -5716.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Best recommendation I can make is get your wife on a completely gluten free diet, then introduce SF whiskey on a limited basis, have her monitor her reaction to it. If no reaction to a small amount, have her try a bit more...

Until she's inebriated enough to clean your pipes!

j/K...

Both my wife and my daughter have Celiac disease. My wife doesn't drink grain whiskey at all. The only thing my daughter sometimes drinks that may be grain based is butterscotch schnapps and has never had a reaction. I've heard of people with celiac having a reaction to one brand and not another. I'm thinking it could be cross contamination of some kind. I've heard of some makers putting a little backset in the final product as a flavor component, but don't know for sure. I would suggest for what you make yourself, be very careful with the protocols you use and do as stated above, and introduce it slowly to your wife.

Edit: BTW - A puke could be a major problem too. You would need to thoroughly clean and rerun.

[Southern comfort]

Ok thanks alot guys for the info.

[acts of the wolf]

I have a 5th gen inching along right now. Down to 1.008 at the moment, it was 1.011 ish yesterday. This stuff is like lemon grade sour I can't wait to run it. Smells awesome.

[jmashspirits14]

I plan to mash with enzymes which is the reason for purchasing the grains and molasses seperately otherwise I would just use the all grain to make a sugar wash. Im going to mash the grains with enzymes then add the molasses before pitching yeast. I know the alcohol content will be much lower but if this all grain sugar wash makes such a good drink than mashing with enzymes should make an even better drink. Cant really use the all grain for an enzyme mash because only the corn is cracked and to attempt to grind or crush the all grain would probably result in a sticky gummed up grain mill.

[S-Cackalacky]

Jmash, I was thinking of trying the same thing, but won't be able to get to it for a while. Let us know how it turns out.

[jmashspirits14]

I sure will! I think your the one that told me before if I tried it to let you know how out turns out.

[jmashspirits14]

Today makes 17 days on the sweetfeed wash I made following this recipe, most of my washes dont exceed 12 days tops. Is this average? I use Red Star Active Dry Distillers Yeast and no nutrient because the wash is fermenting on the grain. My SG was 1.081. Oh and its at 9 seconds between bubbles so it hasnt slowed much at all. I have not checked the gravity since.

[Konrad Arflane]

Does it smell and taste sour?

If so, it's done.

[jmashspirits14]

I haven't taken the lid off, I hate opening the fermenter before the wort is finished. I usually wait until the bubbles are at least a minute and a half apart. I may have to check this one.

[S-Cackalacky]

Check the temp and the PH. My guess would be that the temp is too low. I've never had a SF ferment take that long. The last ones I did were done in less than 4 days.

Edit: Did you aerate before pitching the yeast?

[jmashspirits14]

Sure did, I always airate. The ph is in the mid 5's and my fermenting temp stays at a consistant 74f. Get this though, my cherry still wine is done today after 7 days and all my batches ferment in the same place. I use D.A.D.Y yeast, red star brand.

[jmashspirits14]

Its finally done after 23 days! I know now why it took so long, the recipe called for 8 tbls of yeast and it just seemed like a waste to me so I used my normal 1.5 tsp and I would say thats why it took so long but I did end up with a final gravity of 0.999 resulting in a 10.7% abv. Next batch ill double my yeast at 1 tbls. Ill keep adding another 1.5 tsp each batch if I,need to until I find the sweetspot! No pun intended. Hope my first rumskie comes out good, I know alot of people prefer this recipe over many others. Im about to find out what all the hype is about. I may add enough distilled water to end up with an even 10% abv. What do you all think? Also any advice I may need to know when running this recipe is welcome.

[Kegg_jam]

23 days seems like a long time for SF. Mine go for 4-5 days at 82f. I tend to over pitch the yeast a little on the 1st gen and throw in a B-vitamin and a pinch of Epsom or a little DAP after a couple of generations. 5 gallon batches.

[S-Cackalacky]

Its finally done after 23 days! I know now why it took so long, the recipe called for 8 tbls of yeast and it just seemed like a waste to me so I used my normal 1.5 tsp and I would say thats why it took so long but I did end up with a final gravity of 0.999 resulting in a 10.7% abv. Next batch ill double my yeast at 1 tbls. Ill keep adding another 1.5 tsp each batch if I,need to until I find the sweetspot! No pun intended. Hope my first rumskie comes out good, I know alot of people prefer this recipe over many others. Im about to find out what all the hype is about. I may add enough distilled water to end up with an even 10% abv. What do you all think? Also any advice I may need to know when running this recipe is welcome.

Yes, 1.5 tsp is a little lite on the yeast. That would account for a slow start and maybe even a slow ferment - not large enough colony established in the anaerobic stage to carry it through. That might account for the long ferment time. If you plan to follow the recipe and do additional generations, I would suggest trying to strengthen the colony by pitching additional yeast for the next generation - couple of tablespoons. But, for the third and subsequent generations, no need to pitch additional yeast. Just let it go with the colony you have established. Be sure to aerate each new wash.

I wouldn't bother watering down the wash (10.7% to 10%). It won't effect the quality at all. The only thing it will possibly do is decrease the ABV of the final distillate (a little bit). If you plan to strip to low wines and then do a spirit run, just run the strip(s) as fast as your condenser can handle, pull fores, and collect everything else as far into tails as you want. Run the spirit run slowly and collect in small containers for cuts.

Good luck with it.

[jmashspirits14]

Thanks for the suggestions. I dont do a striping run because I dont get low wines. My hearts normally blend between 150-160 proof depending on wash/mash abv before diluting. Getting those proofs from one run theres no need for me to do a srip right? Im not fully familar with reusing grains and yeast for gernerational fermentations so I dont do it quite yet. Are all the grains reused or a portion and you add new grains to it and is that only done with washes or is it done with mash too? Thats what makes a sour mash a sour mash right? I dont know enough about it to reuse grains. I know one thing, this stuff makes a great damn drink!

[S-Cackalacky]

Jmash, all of what you're asking is included in the first few posts of the thread. Just go back and read some of it and it should become more clear for you. You could also read the condensed version of the UJSSM recipe. It's basically the same process - just different ingredients.

[jmashspirits14]

I got it, the only thing I don't know is some people save and use 3-4 gallons of backset after distillation for the next batch and some reuse 3-4lb of the spent grain for the next mash. Which is the better choice? Both each time or is that overkill?

[shadylane]

Every one has their opinion, mine is to use spent grain instead of backset.
If the last ferment wasn't perfect then pasteurize the spent grain and pitch new yeast.
Either way a dose of calcium carbonate will adjust the pH and give the yeast something it needs.

Since I'm making suggestions.
Use the original sweet feed recipe and use the spent grains as part of a yeast bomb.

[Konrad Arflane]

Per the recipe...

If you wish to do generational iterations, you will scrape the top few inches of spent grain from the grain bed. Using backset (approx. 20% of total liquid volume) from a run in a clean bucket, add enough grain by volume to replace what you scraped off the top of the fermenter (understanding it will soak up some water...expand...) along with new sugar which will dissolve in the hot backset ...add more water (to make up your volume, or at least to lower the temp so it won't kill your yeast bed in the original fermenter)...add back to the original fermenter, top off with water if needed, aerate...let ferment (original yeast bed from fermenter will reactivate) until done...rack off, repeat.

If you wish, you can also add a bit of new molasses to the bucket with backset, new grain, eventually water to cool it to non-yeast bed killing temp...up to you..before adding all back into the ferment.

My ferments are about 5 to 5 1/2 gallons each, so about a gallon of backset is appropriate...YMMV depending on your total ferment volume.

Adding backset will reduce the pH, so you may need to compensate for that. Oyster shell (approx. a cup per 5 gallon ferment) will help, but once a new batch is mixed (aerated) you may need to take additional steps to make sure a low pH doesn't stall your ferment.

[W Pappy]

Normally your spent grain will float to the top when you fill your bucket just take that out and replace that amount.

[Konrad Arflane]

Normally your spent grain will float to the top when you fill your bucket just take that out and replace that amount.

While that may be so, isn't it preferable that the new grain be introduced via either hot backset, or hot water, to release some grain flavor to this sugarhead?

I would think scooping it from the top of the cooled ferment and adding more would release little of the grain flavor to the next batch?

[S-Cackalacky]

Normally your spent grain will float to the top when you fill your bucket just take that out and replace that amount.

While that may be so, isn't it preferable that the new grain be introduced via either hot backset, or hot water, to release some grain flavor to this sugarhead?

I would think scooping it from the top of the cooled ferment and adding more would release little of the grain flavor to the next batch?

You could probably add your new grain to the hot backset along with the sugar, but I don't see that it's necessary. I usually rack off the cleared wash, and then scoop off the spent grain. I add new grain to the ferment bucket and then add the backset/sugar mix after it cools to below 100dF. I aerate with a small oilless air compressor and pitch the dry bakers yeast on the surface, lightly cover and watch the magic happen. Seems to always result in more than enough flavor.

Heating/cooking the grain could have a down side. It could release some starches that could cause foaming and a puke when distilled. So, if you go that route, you might add a couple pats of butter or a couple tbls of cooking oil to help prevent foaming.

[1965 wite]

Normally your spent grain will float to the top when you fill your bucket just take that out and replace that amount.

While that may be so, isn't it preferable that the new grain be introduced via either hot backset, or hot water, to release some grain flavor to this sugarhead?

I would think scooping it from the top of the cooled ferment and adding more would release little of the grain flavor to the next batch?

You could probably add your new grain to the hot backset along with the sugar, but I don't see that it's necessary. I usually rack off the cleared wash, and then scoop off the spent grain. I add new grain to the ferment bucket and then add the backset/sugar mix after it cools to below 100dF. I aerate with a small oilless air compressor and pitch the dry bakers yeast on the surface, lightly cover and watch the magic happen. Seems to always result in more than enough flavor.

Heating/cooking the grain could have a down side. It could release some starches that could cause foaming and a puke when distilled. So, if you go that route, you might add a couple pats of butter or a couple tbls of cooking oil to help prevent foaming.

are you adding more yeast to each new generation?