I'll answer your question with a rhetorical question of my own.DesertStill wrote:why is glass frowned upon?
How would you like high order alcohol all over the floor with an open flame nearby when that mason jar breaks? Hmmm?
tp
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I'll answer your question with a rhetorical question of my own.DesertStill wrote:why is glass frowned upon?
S-Cackalacky wrote:Well, a little research never hurts, but it's butt simple. Rack off your wash and leave the grain bed and other trub in the bottom of the fermenter. Run your wash and when finished, use a gallon or two of the hot backset left in the still to dissolve the sugar for the next ferment. Add enough cool water to this to make up the difference in volume. Before you add it to the fermenter, scoop out about a third or so of the old grain and add that much fresh grain back into the fermenter. Add the backset/sugar/water mix to the fermenter and let it work. It might take a few hours or maybe a day to start up again. Just keep doing this for several generations. Some folks have gone up to 7 or 8 gens before having to reset and start over.
The biggest issue seems to be PH. The backset is fairly acidic, so keep a check on the PH and adjust it as necessary.
The backset is what makes a sour mash a sour mash. Add sugar to the backset then add to the fermenter. Top off with water for your 1.070 SG. As long as you leave the still sealed, the backset will remain fairly sterile.Raging56 wrote: 1. Do I HAVE to use the backset? ..I assume not. But, is there a benefit to using it? I'm just trying to understand what it might do to help (besides raise the PH that I need to correct). Its a little harder using the backset. plus, it usually sits for a few days before I get around to collecting it. 99% of the time I finish my run late at night, I shut off the gas and I just go to bed. I assume its still ok after sitting if its sealed...but, I just checking. making more "sugar water" by itself is easy enough if there is real no up side to using the backset.
Yep!2. I got a 55 gallon barrel of sweet feed wash...I'm going to drain it down to just above the grain...Then Ill add a sugar wash mix (with or without backset..not sure yet) Then what? Do the yeast that's been sitting there in the bottom "come alive"?
Add sugar/water until the SG in the fermenter is 1.070. Keep records of your ferments. You'll need them in successive generations.3. The liquid that is mixed in with the sweet feed currently at the bottom of the barrel...will that mess up my SG at all of the new sugar water I add? Or do I just make a sugar wash with a SG of say 1.07, top off the barrel and call it good?
You can do that. Sure.4. one more bonus question... in a 55 gallon (plastic) barrel....has anybody installed a spigot just above the grain line to make it easier to take out the liquid rather than a racking cane? just curious if there is any down side to doing something like that (maybe grain possibly clogging it etc) Seems like it would be pretty slick if I leave enough space above the grain bed.
Sackett, what brand of molasses was it that was so bad? I have some I'm ready to use but don't want to use the same brand... Was "sulphured" molasses the problem or was it just bad stuff to begin with?Sackett wrote:Well, now dont i feel . Seems my trouble wit sweetfeed was my molasses. did a rum run, n it it had the same awful taste as last sweetfeed. back to my original source for molasses, n we'll see
No, I didn't add anything to it. I think I just went a little deep into the tails.goblin wrote:did you dilute any with water?
something similar happened to me, i think my water, or not adding product to the water, i added water to the product. maybe i had tails. i dont mind a little haze, i am going to drink it any how.
Thanks for that feedback. that will be very helpful. does it stink up the place when distilling?Bigbob wrote:Hey jdisme... I like the smell it reminds me kinda of cut grass, but I'm using a commercial sweet feed. Not sure with what you have if it's much different. As it ferments it loses the sweet smell and then it could be called unpleasant . Sorta sour
It shouldn't make much of a smell unless you have a leak somewhere. I had a small leak once and the whole house smelled of booze.jdisme wrote:Thanks for that feedback. that will be very helpful. does it stink up the place when distilling?Bigbob wrote:Hey jdisme... I like the smell it reminds me kinda of cut grass, but I'm using a commercial sweet feed. Not sure with what you have if it's much different. As it ferments it loses the sweet smell and then it could be called unpleasant . Sorta sour
Hmmm. I brewed this up using the standard Tractor Supply all grain. Pot still stripping run, fast run on the boka with a lower temp/abv to clean it up a bit and it had a whiskey taste just white. Put some on oak for a month and my whiskey drinking buddies loved it. I have one bottle of the heart of a stripping run from one batch aging away. It just came out pretty good right off from that first run.bearriver wrote:I made this with wet cob (sweetfeed) premixed at the feed store 1st gen. To me there is no SF flavor. Tastes like pot stilled Birdwatcher's, which IMO is very unpleasant. Something must have went wrong...
Gonna start another batch again today. This time I will mill the SF and add a quart or two of extra molasses. That hopefully will give me some SF flavor to the distillate. Milling premixed SF might not work because of the molasses content but we will see. Fingers crossed.
The all grain feed in the purple PAPER bag. What they sell as 12% Sweet Feed in the synthetic bag is the stuff with alfafa pellets. Don't use that.rollmeown wrote:Been looking over this recipe but haven't found any thing yet about crude protein. Tractor supply has sweet feed but all had crude protien. Is this okay? What brand do most get at tractor supply store?