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In my quest for the idiot-proof novice sugar wash recipe I have done a lot of experimenting... I may have come across the simplest sugar wash possible... I'd like members to give this recipe a try and give feedback on your results...

Now, because I still don't have my hydrometer and alcometer here at the apartment, I can't comment on actual results but the yeast was still active once the ferment had completed so more sugar could be added... I was shooting for about 12% ABV to be safe with bakers yeast rather than my usual 14%...

The Gerber Recipe (as tested - see notes below):


Per 4 liters (1 gallon) of water:

Ingredients
* 3.5 cups sugar
* 4 liters water
* 1 cup Gerber Barley flavored baby cereal
* 2 tbsp active baking yeast

Process
* Simmer equal amounts of water and sugar for 30 minutes or longer to invert sugar.
* Combine boiled components with cold water and cereal to bring up to total volume.
* Let cool to 95F.
* Pitch yeast.
* Aerate for one hour.
* Cap and insert air lock.

Notes
* No lemon juice was used while inverting the sugar. Doing so may or may not be of benefit.
* A full cup of cereal may be more than required for a 4 liter batch. 3/4 cup should be enough.
* With all of the vitamins and minerals present within this cereal it appears that no other ingredients should be required.
* Should fully ferment dry within 7 days.
* The wash is almost clear by the time the ferment is complete so it can be racked directly into the boiler, leaving the solids behind.
* With this wash I collected approximately 1 liter of neutral spirit from 7 liters of wash.
* More alcohol was present than collected.
* Resulting "white dog" was clean and smooth, and should age well on oak if desired.
* This recipe should provide good results with pot stills or reflux stills.
* Essentially, 1 liter water, 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup cereal, 1/2 tablespoon yeast, scaled to desired batch size...

Good Luck... Feedback welcome...

Rad,
I'm going to start this in a 20 liter batch tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

ferment time, color, smell etc.

I'll follow your instructions, or would it be best to vary things a bit for the sake of base line results?

Although it seems that based on the other cereal/crumb recipes, the variables are most telling during distilling.

Sounds like a nice easy wash. I'll give it a try with two 20 liter washes. The first wash I'll follow your recipe exactly. The second wash I'll add the cereal to the boiling water then invert the sugar with a 1/2 tsp citric acid. I'll post the results in a week or two. Seems to me that the cereal adds proteins that grow stronger yeast that are able to ferment higher cleaner washes. Mind you my target Abv is usually 10-12%.

Nice wash recipe! Simple and not messy! The wash I made adding the cereal to the boiling sugar solution then boiling it for an hour resulted in me losing another airlock. Within 3 hours of dropping my yeast starter it foamed up and blew the lock off! The wash I made following your recipe foamed up about 4-6 inches in the fermenter. It's been 5 days and they're still bubbling once every second. Once it stops bubbling I'll transfer the carboys outside to cool and clear then run each and compare taste and yield. From the smell of things this should make a nice whiskey! I'll post results next week.

Glad to hear the comparison, Trapperjones...

Sounds like you're on target to finish pretty close to within a week which is very efficient for such a simple recipe... I might have to try the boiled cereal method myself now that you've proven how much of a difference it makes...

I ended up with about a liter of 80 proof from 7 liters of wash that's as smooth as any of my other spirits and didn't even require airing... There was more alcohol to be had but I didn't feel that it was worth the time using a small scale still... Let us know how distillation turns out...

How big is that box/how many cups of barley? Just wondering as I'll check the prices next time I'm in the store and compare to buying malted barley at the homebrew store.
I've done lots of cracked corn/sugar wash/purple passion/now have cran-raisin..this might be next!

goinbroke2 wrote:How big is that box/how many cups of barley? Just wondering as I'll check the prices next time I'm in the store and compare to buying malted barley at the homebrew store.
I've done lots of cracked corn/sugar wash/purple passion/now have cran-raisin..this might be next!

It's an 8oz box with about 3.75 cups of cereal that looks like instant mashed potato flakes... I think you might be able to stretch a box to do a 20 - 25 liter wash if you didn't want to go exactly by the recipe... The proportion part is what needs some refinement... From my results so far I'm guessing that about 3/4 cup per gallon/4 liters would suffice...

I started another batch today and added the cereal and some lemon juice during the invert sugar process to see what difference it makes... And as if that wasn't enough changes, I used more sugar and less cereal...

rad14701 wrote:

goinbroke2 wrote:How big is that box/how many cups of barley? Just wondering as I'll check the prices next time I'm in the store and compare to buying malted barley at the homebrew store.
I've done lots of cracked corn/sugar wash/purple passion/now have cran-raisin..this might be next!

It's an 8oz box with about 3.75 cups of cereal that looks like instant mashed potato flakes... I think you might be able to stretch a box to do a 20 - 25 liter wash if you didn't want to go exactly by the recipe... The proportion part is what needs some refinement... From my results so far I'm guessing that about 3/4 cup per gallon/4 liters would suffice...

8oz box? Here it's 227g for $3.49 If it's the same box then that would be pretty good.

goinbroke2 wrote:8oz box? Here it's 227g for $3.49 If it's the same box then that would be pretty good.

Same thing, goinbroke2... Just a little pricier in your area... There are several flavors but the Barley has the greatest nutritional value per "serving"...

I love this one! It's simple and covert. No one would look at you funny if you're buying baby cereal, sugar, lemon juice, and baker's yeast at the grocery store. I need to give it a try at I run my current sugar wash.

Here is a picture of an All Bran wash on the left and a Gerber Barley wash on the right... The right jug is slightly tinted green... Both are bubbling away quite happily...

The Gerber pictured above was finished yesterday and is clearing nicely at the moment... I'll probably rack it off by the end of the week so I can start another batch...

Anyone else have an update on their progress with this recipe to report...???

Well, just to update folks, I finally used my 5 gallon (20 liter) plastic water cooler carbouy to make another Gerber wash... I tweaked a 12 liter recipe just a bit... I pitched the yeast almost exactly 48 hours ago and, believe it or not, the wash was finished when I checked it 2 hours ago... I thought there may have been a problem with the wash last night at midnight but it must have been pretty much finished then...

So, what were the tweaks aside from the larger wash than usual...??? I used 2.5 gallons (10 liters) of water, 7 cups (3.5 pounds) of sugar, 5 tbsp of bakers yeast, 1/4 tsp of Epsom Salt, 1/2 tsp of 20-20-20, 1.5 cups of Gerber Barley Cereal, and 1/2 cup of Wheat Germ... Seems I was running low on the Gerber so I brought the volume up with the Wheat Germ I had on hand...

The wash fermented out to just under 10% in under 48 hours, and probably under 36... But I wasn't satisfied with that so I had to tinker some more... Using a small sample I added a bit more sugar and it fired right back up... Considering the success with the sample I added another pound (2 cups) of sugar and the wash is right back in business with a layer of cereal back on top... If all goes well it should finish at around 12% or so, perhaps by tomorrow morning...

All tweaking aside, this is turning out to be a very reliable cereal & sugar wash that's pretty darned hard to mess up - unless you manage to get an infection... And it handles modifications fairly well, so far...

Edited to correct measurements.

Ferment finished rather quickly.
I did not get the freakishly aggressive ferment that I got with the All Bran.
I will use a little more sugar on the next round also.
I racked to the fridge in my glass jugs and a SS stock pot.

Just an observation as I am thinking about members inquiring about very neutural washes and the like. The quantity in the SS Stock pot seems to be much more clearified than the quantity in the glass jugs. Am I imagining this?

Hey guys just wondering has anyone tried the rice cereal? My wife couldn't find any barley so I told her to get the rice/apple flavered cereal instead. On Sunday night I boild 7.5 lb sugar with 1 tbsp lemmon juice for 30 minutes then added cereal and cooked for 5 more minutes. I made a starter with 2 cups water, 2tbsp sugar,1tbsp cereal and 3 tbsp yeast and this stuff took off. In 20 minutes it foamed out of the 2 qt sauce pan I had it in. At 8 pm I Put it all together in my 5 gal water bottle and put in the garrage witch is up in the 80s now and the ferment went fairly slow for some reason. One bubble per second through half inch hose in a mason jar Starting sg was 1.079 and I looked in on it today and it had stopped. Sg is now at 1.030. So I just hydrated 2 more tbsp of yeast and dumped it in and it foamed up quikly, I thought it was going to come out all over the floor but it stopped right at the top. Stired it up and recapped. I will let you guys know what happens with it later this weakend.

Hey, pumpman, all of the Gerber cereals have pretty much the same nutritional values so the Rice should work just fine... Keep us posted... Not sure why you may have encountered a lag there... The Beech-Nut cereals are about the same as the Gerber and should work just as well...

I'm running off a 7 liter batch as I type this... I need to get a bigger SS pot for my stove top unit, or toss my electric element into one...

As I mentioned in my previous post I ran off 7 liters of Gerber yesterday... I pulled off about 800ml at 172.5F before I had to tear the rig down... By that time I had to back down on my take off rate to where even though I knew the was more good alcohol to be had I just didn't have the time expend in retrieving more... Sure hate wasting good alcohol though... The spirit is as neutral is neutral can be, without a hint of smell or flavoring... I'll probably strip run the next batch from the same ferment for a bit of flavor...

Well, I ran off the last 7 liters today in reflux mode rather than stripping... Don't ask me why I didn't strip it... I guess I just like neutral too much... This time I ran just a bit quicker while still maintaining good reflux for experimentation purposes... I ended up with about 750ml...

Most of the run was at 174 degrees and I didn't change the reflux rate throughout the run... I collected about 60ml of foreshots and heads at 172 and then went into hearts at 172.5... I collected about 5 drips per second right up to 178, then the temp started rising fast even if I dropped the collection rate... I switched collection containers and opened the needle valve to eliminate reflux and the temp rapidly rose to 206 and sat there... I could smell the tails coming over so I must have stopped collecting right before the heads came over in the refluxed spirits...

Now I'm out of wash and I'll definitely be making more Gerber... This one will be my main wash at this point but I'll be continuing to experiment... Definitely a keeper... I've gotta see if I can get another batch to ferment to dry in about 36 hours again... Hmmm... A 36 hour ferment to dry at over 11%, that distills to good clean neutral spirit, with grocery store ingredients, with no off tastes or smells , and no filtering... If those criteria sound good then give this one a try...

would this be considered a whisky if you add oak to it anyone try?

thanks.

nikkow wrote:would this be considered a whisky if you add oak to it anyone try?

thanks.

Yes, this would be considered "faux" straight Barley Whiskey (Irish Whiskey) if you run it through a pot still and age with charred oak...


Edited to distinguish that this isn't a true grain based whiskey....

It whould????

No way.

It's flavoured sugarhead.

Dnderhead wrote:It whould????

More of a straight Barley Whiskey than anything... Wouldn't be Irish if it wasn't made in Ireland, plus there's no malting or blending... And no actual grain, of course...

theholymackerel wrote:No way.

It's flavoured sugarhead.

Yeah... I consider it more of a recipe for neutral spirit than anything... An alternative to turbos...

How is it a whisk(e)y when the largest volume ingredient (other than water) is sugar?

Whiskey ain't made from sugar.



PS: I'm not sayin' it isn't any good. I'm just sayin' it is not whiskey. OTOH, seein' as how it's flavoured sugarhead I doubt I'd be able to drink it, but that's just me.

I'm not knocking the recipe sounds like a good easy recipe. but not whisky. sugar head or as another forum I'm on calls it "rumskey"

with the exception of using barley cereal this method sounds like dwwg.

grunger wrote:with the exception of using barley cereal this method sounds like dwwg.

Yes, the Gerber Barley cereal is simply the nutrients for the sugar and also serves as an adjunct by providing some flavoring to the fermented wash and final product if pot stilled... DWWG, by definition, works the same way - it's just more expensive...

I'll be pot stillin my rice batch this weekend rad if I don't have to work. It finaly fermented out to .980 and I racked it off the lees a couple of days ago and its clearing nicely. I'll let you know how it comes out. Hopefully beter then my first sugar wash.