My Strawberry Concoction

Information about fruit/vegetable type washes.

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apdb
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My Strawberry Concoction

Post by apdb »

A couple years back, before changing careers, I was a cook. I worked in a very high volume cafeteria. The breakfast shift had me using strawberry as a topping for the waffles and pancakes. When the customers went through the buffet line they would scoop the berries out of the insert with a slotted spoon leaving behind the remaining syrup. Common practise was to replenish the berries and the syrup went down the sink. We would serve around 300 to 600 people at breakfast everyday.
The strawberries came into the loading dock in 20l pails with the label describing the ingredients as 4 to 1 strawberries to sugar. That's it.
I watched this go on for quite some time and decided it was time for me to rescue the tasty sweet juice. I started filling 1l water bottles (after drinking) with the syrup and bringing it home a little bit each day and throwing it in the freezer. I managed to collect quite a bit before running out of space.
Jump forward to yesterday. The SOH wants her deep freeze back. Its been far too long saying I'm gonna do something with this stuff so here I go.

Another thing to add is I've also been collecting bananas as well. In my house if a banana gets even the slightest bit of brown on it then that's the end of it. Bunch of banana snobs around here. I started saving them in the freezer, thinking I'll bake bread with them but they just collect too fast. So I got about 40 bananas in their peels too.

The plan:
I've pulled everything out and begun thawing them. I'm typing this on a break at work so it's not all in front of me but i'll put the numbers up here after I get home and count everything. Off the top of my head I think I have about 30L of this stuff (before watering it down)
In my head I'm thinking of watering down the syrup with room temperature tap water to about SG 1.040 to 1.050 (7.5%-9.0%ABV)
Squishin up the bananas and throwing them in after measuring gravity.
Add in some pectic enzyme? (probably not needed because there's not much fruit pieces left)
Check and adjust pH to .... hmm not sure?
Adding some kind of nutrient for yeasties. Maybe a bit of tomato paste because it all I have. Or possibly some 20-20-20?
Hitting it with a bomb of EC1118
Divide it into a bunch carboy's with bubble valves or cling wrap with holes.
Potstill with my concentric dual reducer on 15.5Gal, 5500w Camco

Pics as things happen.

Feel free to comment or even redirect if you have some ideas on how to proceed.

Aaron
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Mikey-moo
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Re: My Strawberry Concoction

Post by Mikey-moo »

Sounds like a good plan! I'll be following this one with both interest and envy :-)
Best place to start for newbies - click here - Courtesy of Cranky :-)

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apdb
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Re: My Strawberry Concoction

Post by apdb »

Typical me I over guessed how much I had. Turns out I collected around 21 litres of syrup. I checked the gravity and it comes in at SG 1.120 (15% potential). I'm gonna hold off on watering down for now in hopes that someone may chime in and offer a nugget of wisdom. Nothing worse then someone giving advise after the damage is done.
apdb
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Re: My Strawberry Concoction

Post by apdb »

Look at that colour. This is the same juice you get when making a Panty Dropper.
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apdb
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Re: My Strawberry Concoction

Post by apdb »

... I'm lying in bed (I work nights) and get to thinking, "I got a gallon of Rads Allbran backset sitting here as well!"
After I water down this syrup to get to a workable potential, I'm gonna thin out the flavour. If I add that backset it could help out some... but why stop there?
We got this cupboard full of half eaten cereals. My wife is always throwing boxes of half eaten stuff away because the kids won't touch it. I could add a bunch of half stale cornflakes, raisin bran, and mini wheats to make the ultimate breakfast of champions. I'll bust it all up in my huge granite mortar and pessel I got for my birthday. At least when everyone is eating their breakfast and I'm sitting at the table having a sip, all will be right in the world.
Shine0n
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Re: My Strawberry Concoction

Post by Shine0n »

Damn right! ID cut to 1.090 myself and call it good. MAKE a good yeast bomb and not use bread yeast, use dady or ec1118. Keep us updated :thumbup:
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NZChris
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Re: My Strawberry Concoction

Post by NZChris »

I suggest you do the bananas separately. There is thread here somewhere on getting them to convert that you should read.
apdb
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Re: My Strawberry Concoction

Post by apdb »

I'm leaning towards not using the banana. There's not enough there to be useful and I'm interested in what a strawberry and maybe cornflake would taste like.
apdb
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Re: My Strawberry Concoction

Post by apdb »

So today I went for it. I did throw out the banana. After combining and mixing all the containers of syrup (20.9Litres) my gravity came to SG1.140 which I added about 4Litres of Allbran backset. I watered it all down to the suggested SG1.090. I sorted through the cereal cupboard and found Cornpops, Cornflakes and shredded wheat which I ground up to flour consistency and added that as well. I added 2.5 teaspoons of DAP and hit it with 20grams of EC1118.
I split it into two carbouys and put it next to the heater.
Aaron
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apdb
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Re: My Strawberry Concoction

Post by apdb »

A quick update....
These carbouys look like a snow globe from all the action of the CO2 swirling around the cereal I added...
Pictures are newest to oldest.
Aaron
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The taller carbouy. Taken this morning.
The taller carbouy. Taken this morning.
The cap is disappearing
The cap is disappearing
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apdb
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Re: My Strawberry Concoction

Post by apdb »

Not sure why, but the fatter carboy is moving slower then the taller one. The only thing that differentiates between the two is the EC1118 packets that i added. (i didn't bomb) I only put two 5 gram packets in each (after reconstituting in water) then stirred them in. The fatter jar is working but just way slower. The taller carboy is churning and moving large amounts of gas even this morning. It seriously looks like a snowglobe after a good shake. I'm going to leave them both for another day to work off. I will take a sample from each jar to see where the gravity is but if they are different, I am planning on combining them both together, lees and all in a primary with a lid on top. I figure that no nasties can take hold now and everything should finish nice and dry. When I am happy with gravity i will put the whole mess outside and cold crash it. I will then rack it all back into a carbouy until I can run it through the potstill.

Aaron
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Kareltje
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Re: My Strawberry Concoction

Post by Kareltje »

Do the hands clap at night?
apdb
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Location: big ole'island on the West Coast Canada, soon to be underwater when the big one hits

Re: My Strawberry Concoction

Post by apdb »

I combined the whole lot together and and let it work off for a few more days. I racked it twice now to clear the yeast. I did like I said and cold crashed the whole thing outside on the deck in a single carbouy. A point of interest.. the tall carbouy that looked like a snowglobe didn't finish dry, yet the one that looked to be lazy and not moving exceptionally quick finished dry (Under 1.000) (champagne yeast?)
The flavour is amazing for a sugar wash with the bit of sweetness left after combining the two. If I didnt plan on removing the water, this would be a delicious drink all on its own. Im in no hurry as you can see.
When i get to it, I will strip this down as fast as she'll let me then combine this run with two gallons of AllBran feints (heads,tails) to do a slower spirit run. It"s a mishmash but I think all these flavours are gonna go well together in the end.
Aaron
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