this is my first run... help

[gasking]

I am so new to the world of home distillers that I have not even made my first pot of mash yet. I have made a very simple pot still (I know I will have to do multiple distillations of the same run to get anything approaching the quality I need.) I live in a very rural town and have searched high and low for a "mentor" to no avail, so I will push forward by myself. I am going to the brewers store today (about a two houre drive) and do not quite know what to get. turbo yeast? regular brewers yeast? I just don't know. I wanted to make a sweetfeed mash but am unsure of that as well. if the store has germinated cornmeal I will try it I guess. can I buy plain white cornmeal from the store to use (like white lilly)? And what is the best yeast to use, can I use the stuff at the store? I know I have so much to learn, and I appreciate evreyones patients, and help.

CHEERS!

[Dnderhead]

that depends on what you want to make your not going to fiend corn malt ,there is two ways of making "sweet feed" mash.
one way is to add sugar this will be a grain flavored sugar wash. this is the easiest way and can be good if done right.
and is a good starter recipe. and all you need is the grain of your choice ,sugar ,water, and yeast (bakers works)
( about 1 lb of sugar to the gal.of wash)

the other way is to cook the grain and "convert" with either barley malt (can be bought at brewing store. you need a base malt and about 20% of grain bill)
or you can cook and convert with enzymes.(can be hard to fiend) all grain can be hard to do until you git the proses down.

[gasking]

thanks for the feedback. I am going to start my mash first thing tomorrow. It seems that when I have a handle one one issue I uncover five more that I need to puzzle out. This is going to be a long road, however, I will travle with a sure foot and light heart....

[gasking]

ok today I put about 4 inches of sweet feed (grain for horses) from the co-op into a 5 gal bucket, and 5 pounds of sugar. Filled the bucket half way with hot water, then added a packet of yeast (regular store brand) and mixed well. Then I filled the bucket the rest of the way with cool water and covered with a lid (with vent hole). This is my first attempt at making any kind of mash and I hope it turnes out not to be crap, but I have to start somewhere, after all rome wasn't built in a day nor was the right recipe for good spirits! any way I will keep posting the results for anyone who is interested. any advice, critisism or comments would be appreciated...
thanks

[gasking]

today is the day, my first run. The mash is done working, and I will test my still for the first time today...

[plonker]

So how is the run progressing??

[gasking]

Well my still worked for the most part, had some trouble keeping the coil cool, but devised a fish pump, and tube circulating cold water which seemed to work ok. as for my wash... it came out with sediment in it, and while mostly clear was somewhat cloudy. It was drinkable but I used s sweet feed mixture for my mash and the liqure tasted like well... horse feed but it gave a good buzz and I didn't have a hangover. I produced about 1 1/2 gallons out of 5 gallons of mash this seemed low but is what I expected as I used bakers yeast. All in all it was fairly sucssesfull run. I learned alot and hope to do better next time. I really need a better mash recipe any suggestions?

[noobsauce]

Well my still worked for the most part, had some trouble keeping the coil cool, but devised a fish pump, and tube circulating cold water which seemed to work ok. as for my wash... it came out with sediment in it, and while mostly clear was somewhat cloudy. It was drinkable but I used s sweet feed mixture for my mash and the liqure tasted like well... horse feed but it gave a good buzz and I didn't have a hangover. I produced about 1 1/2 gallons out of 5 gallons of mash this seemed low but is what I expected as I used bakers yeast. All in all it was fairly sucssesfull run. I learned alot and hope to do better next time. I really need a better mash recipe any suggestions?

Considering this site and the HD site have so many recipes and methods that it took me 2 weeks of reading everynight before i even attempted making a wash and still...I recommend you do a large amount of reading on both and then ask all the questions for clarity that you will have.

Not meant meanly but really, have you scrolled down and looked at tried and true recipes for example?

[dropping_planets]

mr. king...... some help

if your drinking all 1 1/2 gallons you distilled out of your 5 gal wash....your drinking a blend of higher and lower alcohols as well as the good stuff....

if you consume enough methanol your gonna die...possibly go blind first...

this can give home distillers like us a bad rep as well as more problems being ourselves...

please spend some time reading....poisoning yourself is one thing but i imagine you don't drink alone....

[CletusDwight]

if you consume enough methanol your gonna die...possibly go blind first...

Well that's true, but no need to scare the pants off the guy dp.

The methanol you get at the end is only the methanol that was in the beer (wash) to start with. You wouldn't expect to die right away from drinking it . Most (probably all) cases of poisoning come from people adding stuff like antifreeze to bootleg liquor in third-world countries. Oh, and good 'ol alcohol poisoning if you drink enough...

But you really do need to learn about cuts Gasking. Apart from the poisonous methanol, there's some pretty vile-tasting/smelling stuff comes over in the distillate that you want to get rid of to make a real whiskey/rum/brandy.
Then you need to age it - makes a HUGE difference to taste. Maybe add some toasted oak etc.

I don't have any problems with somebody jumping in at the deep end - that's what I do. Much more fun than pussy-footing about in the shallows. But like dp says, have a look around - plenty of good recipes and advice.
I'd suggest a rum, based on blackstrap molasses (horse feed/tonic fed to racing studs). I use 7kg molasses + 5 kg sugar in 25 litres water and bakers yeast. Quick and easy. No cooking, no messing.

You say 'it came over with sediment in it'? You mean in the distillate? That suggests the still was running too hot, too fast and foaming so it 'puked' wash out of the condenser. Yeah - that would taste like horse feed.

[noobsauce]

if you consume enough methanol your gonna die...possibly go blind first...

Well that's true, but no need to scare the pants off the guy dp.

The methanol you get at the end is only the methanol that was in the beer (wash) to start with. You wouldn't expect to die right away from drinking it . Most (probably all) cases of poisoning come from people adding stuff like antifreeze to bootleg liquor in third-world countries. Oh, and good 'ol alcohol poisoning if you drink enough...

But you really do need to learn about cuts Noobsauce. Apart from the poisonous methanol, there's some pretty vile-tasting/smelling stuff comes over in the distillate that you want to get rid of to make a real whiskey/rum/brandy.
Then you need to age it - makes a HUGE difference to taste. Maybe add some toasted oak etc.

I don't have any problems with somebody jumping in at the deep end - that's what I do. Much more fun than pussy-footing about in the shallows. But like dp says, have a look around - plenty of good recipes and advice.
I'd suggest a rum, based on blackstrap molasses (horse feed/tonic fed to racing studs). I use 7kg molasses + 5 kg sugar in 25 litres water and bakers yeast. Quick and easy. No cooking, no messing.

You say 'it came over with sediment in it'? You mean in the distillate? That suggests the still was running too hot, too fast and foaming so it 'puked' wash out of the condenser. Yeah - that would taste like horse feed.

Ummm...dont know why you used my name..i know what im doing and make cuts...I AM the one who told him to read and learn.

[HookLine]

if you consume enough methanol your gonna die...possibly go blind first...

True, but not relevant. Extremely unlikely there will be a high enough concentration of methanol even in the low wines to do any real harm, except maybe a bad headache the next morning. If he was trying to drink just the concentrated fores, then it might be a very different story. Not only would there be higher levels of methanol, but also acetone, ethyl acetate, etc, all of which are pretty nasty. But diluted out over the whole low wines it is no real danger.

Beer and wine do not have any fores or heads removed, and people are not going blind and dropping dead from drinking them. Most of the stories of methanol poisoning are due to unethical moonshiners who added various things, such as methanol, to their product to bump up the profit margin.

this can give home distillers like us a bad rep

As can giving out incorrect info. The dangers of methanol poisoning in our hobby are a bit over rated, IMHO. Methanol is very toxic, and I am all for safety first, but let's keep a little common sense about it. There are only tiny amounts of it in our washes and distillates. You would have to go well out of your way to get methanol poisoning from our hobby. Basically you would have to drink only fores, and I defy anybody to be able to do that!

http://homedistiller.org/methanol.htm

[big worm]

lets start over and address this one item at a time.
did the final sperit have sediment or the wash before distilling? the liqure should be sparkling clear.

[Dnderhead]

from what I gather you only distilled off at (I'm estimating) 20% .
if it was cloudy you ran to hot/fast

Id run it agin, going much slower ,do so in some jars so you can sort them out and save what you like.

[CletusDwight]

Ummm...dont know why you used my name..

Abject apologies Noobsauce, That was a mistake - I meant the OP. (I've edited my post)