Gerber

Refined and tested recipes for all manner of distilled spirits.

Moderator: Site Moderator

HookLine
retired
Posts: 5628
Joined: Sun May 13, 2007 8:38 am
Location: OzLand

Re: Gerber

Post by HookLine »

rad14701 wrote:the high level of Sodium Manganese (epsom salt)
Epsom salts is magnesium sulphate, which is what you are after, not sodium manganese.
Be safe.
Be discreet.
And have fun.
rad14701
retired
Posts: 20865
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 4:46 pm
Location: New York, USA

Re: Gerber

Post by rad14701 »

HookLine wrote:
rad14701 wrote:the high level of Sodium Manganese (epsom salt)
Epsom salts is magnesium sulphate, which is what you are after, not sodium manganese.
That's it... It didn't look right when I typed it... Previous post edited...
myerfire
Swill Maker
Posts: 244
Joined: Fri May 22, 2009 1:35 pm
Location: San Francisco

Re: Gerber

Post by myerfire »

I'm finally reporting back on the last wash I prepared where I added the B-comples vitamin by mistake. I let it ferment for 6 days, didn't need to wait that long, I just didn't have time to distill it. Original gravity was 1.072 and final gravity was .993. The spirit came out crystall clear and I am very pleased. I love this recipe.
myerfire
rad14701
retired
Posts: 20865
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 4:46 pm
Location: New York, USA

Re: Gerber

Post by rad14701 »

myerfire wrote:I'm finally reporting back on the last wash I prepared where I added the B-comples vitamin by mistake. I let it ferment for 6 days, didn't need to wait that long, I just didn't have time to distill it. Original gravity was 1.072 and final gravity was .993. The spirit came out crystall clear and I am very pleased. I love this recipe.
myerfire
So, have you tried any of your spirits yet or are you letting it age...??? I'm on hiatus for the summer myself and it's killing me...
myerfire
Swill Maker
Posts: 244
Joined: Fri May 22, 2009 1:35 pm
Location: San Francisco

Re: Gerber

Post by myerfire »

Rad,
The last wash I distilled about three weeks ago came out with a slight off taste to it, just like the previous one. But now that it has been about three weeks, I can't find that off taste anymore. I just tastes fine. I started another Gerber wash a few days ago and it is still bubbling like crazy. It should be ready to distill by Tuesday.
myerfire
rad14701
retired
Posts: 20865
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 4:46 pm
Location: New York, USA

Re: Gerber

Post by rad14701 »

myerfire wrote:Rad,
The last wash I distilled about three weeks ago came out with a slight off taste to it, just like the previous one. But now that it has been about three weeks, I can't find that off taste anymore. I just tastes fine. I started another Gerber wash a few days ago and it is still bubbling like crazy. It should be ready to distill by Tuesday.
myerfire
Did you let the spirits air for those three weeks or were the spirits sealed...??? I've had a batch or two that also had just a light smell that went away after a short time with a coffee filter rubber banded on top of the bottles instead of capping... I also had a batch that ended up with poor cuts due to trying some settings changes after a column modification but I dumped that in with a subsequent run and it cleaned up nicely...
grunger
Novice
Posts: 61
Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:31 am
Location: Canada

Re: Gerber

Post by grunger »

members agree that Gerber is the best.

What a great recipe for a tried and true wash. .
Glad this is in Tried and True!
one more then we'll all go...
XXXX
Novice
Posts: 22
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2009 5:12 am

Re: Gerber

Post by XXXX »

grunger wrote:members agree that Gerber is the best.

What a great recipe for a tried and true wash. .
Glad this is in Tried and True!
A thread for each nutrient tried in a sugar wash, I guess odds are one of his would have to make it in here. :lol:
pumpman
Swill Maker
Posts: 460
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2009 5:43 pm
Location: Halfway up the Fl Turdpipe

Re: Gerber

Post by pumpman »

rad does a lot of work trying new things to help the noobies in this craft. I'm glad it finaly made in here.
Likker in the front and poker in the rear
rad14701
retired
Posts: 20865
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 4:46 pm
Location: New York, USA

Re: Gerber

Post by rad14701 »

Many thanks to those who see the benefits of this recipe and have taken the time to at least give it a try... It's obvious by the posts here, as well as in several other topics within these forums, that it has been well accepted...

For those who think this recipe isn't deserving of the Tried and True classification, consider the following:

The recipe is dead simple and almost fool-proof for beginners.
All ingredients can be purchased at your local grocery store.
The recipe scales up and down easily.
It's hard to mess up on recipe proportions.
It doesn't stall - at least not at normal temperatures.
It can be tweaked for turbo-like ferment times, for a fraction of the price, without the need for fining, carbon filtering, and whining about how it still tastes like crap.
It makes very clean neutrals.
It's well suited for casual home distillers with limited space and resources.
It doesn't require messing with grains, malting, enzymes, etc.
It's about the cheapest fool-proof wash you can make.
No offensive smell during fermentation.
It will even ferment without inverting the sugar or boiling the cereal.
Apartment dwellers can flush the leftover solids (yeast and cereal) down the toilet.
It can be pot stilled or run through a reflux column.

Need I say more...??? Nope, that pretty much covers it... The recipe performs as expected and presents few if any surprises, aside from being so darned simple... Personally, I don't have the time, equipment, space, or money, to tinker with grains these days... Nor can I deal with the smell or the byproducts due to current living conditions... While it may not be "traditional" it supplies me with more neutral spirits than I can drink...
moose
Novice
Posts: 44
Joined: Mon May 18, 2009 1:54 pm

Re: Gerber

Post by moose »

Started a bach last week....10 gallons, so check my math :)

40 cups sugar
40L water
10 cups cereal
20 tsp yeast (distillers)

followed the instructions as listed...init. SG 1.06 final SG .97 (took about 5-6 days...we were out of town, so don't know exactly when)

racked it straight to the boiler (man was that stuff clear!! :) )

started the strip run but had to stop early (had to fix dinner for the fam. they have no sense of priorities :wink: )...2.5L high wines so far, will finish the rest tonight...
scarecrow
Swill Maker
Posts: 374
Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2009 2:26 am

Re: Gerber

Post by scarecrow »

Can I ask what Gerber is?

It looks like rolled oats or rolled barley, but the "looks like potato flakes" has got me stumped.

You guys have all the good stuff over there.

Congrats on a great recipe.

scarecrow
moose
Novice
Posts: 44
Joined: Mon May 18, 2009 1:54 pm

Re: Gerber

Post by moose »

Gerber=baby food

comes in tiny thin flakes that turns to yummy mush when milk added for the little squealers to gum up
moose
Novice
Posts: 44
Joined: Mon May 18, 2009 1:54 pm

Re: Gerber

Post by moose »

couldn't fine the "edit" button for my previous post, but wanted to add that I had to use gerber rice...all they had
pumpman
Swill Maker
Posts: 460
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2009 5:43 pm
Location: Halfway up the Fl Turdpipe

Re: Gerber

Post by pumpman »

Rice apple is what I started with and it works good.
Likker in the front and poker in the rear
myerfire
Swill Maker
Posts: 244
Joined: Fri May 22, 2009 1:35 pm
Location: San Francisco

Re: Gerber

Post by myerfire »

I looked all over Recipe Development and couldn't find this, finally check Tried and True and here it is. I did a four gallon wash before and it turned out great and rather than go from my notes, I wanted to recalculate for a 6 gallon wash from the original recipe. This recipe is great.
myerfire
myerfire
Swill Maker
Posts: 244
Joined: Fri May 22, 2009 1:35 pm
Location: San Francisco

Re: Gerber

Post by myerfire »

Wow!!! I heated up 6 gallons of water to 95 degrees, added 10.5 lbs. of sugar, 1.5 cups of Gerber multi-grain cereal, juice of two lemons and a heaping Tbsp of gypsum to bring down my local water ph from 8.8 to 5+. I also added one vitamin C, a multi vitamin and 5 Tbsp of Liquor-Quick. After it was all dissolved and mixed up I added 13 Tbsp of bakers yeast and after about two minutes there were not bubbles, but a steady stream of air coming from the blow off tube. I started with an airlock, but it couldn't handle the volumn of air.
myerfire
rad14701
retired
Posts: 20865
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 4:46 pm
Location: New York, USA

Re: Gerber

Post by rad14701 »

myerfire wrote:Wow!!! I heated up 6 gallons of water to 95 degrees, added 10.5 lbs. of sugar, 1.5 cups of Gerber multi-grain cereal, juice of two lemons and a heaping Tbsp of gypsum to bring down my local water ph from 8.8 to 5+. I also added one vitamin C, a multi vitamin and 5 Tbsp of Liquor-Quick. After it was all dissolved and mixed up I added 13 Tbsp of bakers yeast and after about two minutes there were not bubbles, but a steady stream of air coming from the blow off tube. I started with an airlock, but it couldn't handle the volumn of air.
myerfire
Did you add 5 tbsp of Liquor-Quik turbo yeast AND 13 tbsp of bakers yeast, or Liquor-Quik essence...??? :shock: The amount of Gerber sounds low unless you are using turbo yeast, which would negate the need for the bakers yeast... Could you clarify,please...
HooBilly
Novice
Posts: 26
Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2009 1:33 pm
Location: In the middle of the cornfields, between the lakes

Re: Gerber

Post by HooBilly »

Sounds like ya got a homemade jet engine going there... Thats a lot of yeast.. Let us know how that works out for ya
myerfire
Swill Maker
Posts: 244
Joined: Fri May 22, 2009 1:35 pm
Location: San Francisco

Re: Gerber

Post by myerfire »

The Liquor Quick is some sort of nutrient designed for sugar washes. This is the first time I used it. The only yeast was the usual bakers yeast. The wash ended up, after adding all the ingredients to the water at 90 degrees, but after adding the yeast, I looked the next morning and the temperture had climbed to 98. It is about 60* in my garage, so I had wrapped a blanket around the fermenter to keep it warm, but after seeing 98, I unwraped it and it has since cooled back to 89. Still producing a lot of CO2.
myerfire
myerfire
Swill Maker
Posts: 244
Joined: Fri May 22, 2009 1:35 pm
Location: San Francisco

Re: Gerber

Post by myerfire »

One more thing, on the can of Gerber, it said that it promotes "brain and eye development". Do you think this will come through for me when I distill? I can use all the help I can get.
myerfire
rad14701
retired
Posts: 20865
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 4:46 pm
Location: New York, USA

Re: Gerber

Post by rad14701 »

myerfire wrote:One more thing, on the can of Gerber, it said that it promotes "brain and eye development". Do you think this will come through for me when I distill? I can use all the help I can get.
myerfire
One could only hope, but doubtful...

Do you have a link for the Liquor Quick nutrient...???
myerfire
Swill Maker
Posts: 244
Joined: Fri May 22, 2009 1:35 pm
Location: San Francisco

Re: Gerber

Post by myerfire »

I got it from Mile High http://www.milehidistilling.com/Yeast_Nutrient_s/64.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
myerfire
Swill Maker
Posts: 244
Joined: Fri May 22, 2009 1:35 pm
Location: San Francisco

Re: Gerber

Post by myerfire »

Oh, there was one more thing that I did, and that was to charge the wash, I gave it a 60 second shot of oxygen http://morebeer.com/view_product/16604/ ... ial_System" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
myerfire
rad14701
retired
Posts: 20865
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 4:46 pm
Location: New York, USA

Re: Gerber

Post by rad14701 »

myerfire wrote:I got it from Mile High http://www.milehidistilling.com/Yeast_Nutrient_s/64.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
Thanks... Found that one and several others but haven't been able to find the manufacturer, which is what I'm most interested in finding...
myerfire
Swill Maker
Posts: 244
Joined: Fri May 22, 2009 1:35 pm
Location: San Francisco

Re: Gerber

Post by myerfire »

I don't know if this is any help, but it says on the package that it is a product of Canada and packaged by Winemakeri, Inc.
www.winemakeri.com
myerfire
rad14701
retired
Posts: 20865
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 4:46 pm
Location: New York, USA

Re: Gerber

Post by rad14701 »

myerfire wrote:I don't know if this is any help, but it says on the package that it is a product of Canada and packaged by Winemakeri, Inc.
http://www.winemakeri.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
Perfect... Thanks...
User avatar
LWTCS
Site Mod
Posts: 12836
Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: North Palm Beach

Re: Gerber

Post by LWTCS »

Gerber expensive???
It costs the same cost as any typical box of cereal.

Also, IMO Gerber is the best choice of the cereal washes to render a neutral. Certainly not to “add flavor”. Any flavor carry over is pretty negligible.

All Bran, Cheerio, Cornflake, Graham Cracker have far better carry over flavor.

Gerber is here because:
Its easy, its safe, it works, it gets used and continues to get more popular.

Just an observation.
Trample the injured and hurdle the dead.
myerfire
Swill Maker
Posts: 244
Joined: Fri May 22, 2009 1:35 pm
Location: San Francisco

Re: Gerber

Post by myerfire »

I just finished distilling two 5 gallon washes, one Gerber wash and one other sugar wash. The Gerber wash came into hearts quicker and lasted longer. From now on, I'm going to stick with the Gerber wash.
myerfire
User avatar
LWTCS
Site Mod
Posts: 12836
Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: North Palm Beach

Re: Gerber

Post by LWTCS »

Yet another testimonial.
Trample the injured and hurdle the dead.
Post Reply