Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

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lilye
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by lilye »

found this article and now I think things are even more clear to me:

Stripping runs perform a few actions, depending on your gear.

For pot stills and flavored spirits, they increase the ABV of your final spirit run, making it run much more efficiently and allowing for better cuts. So you strip multiple washes to get the desired full boiler charge, than run a spirit run. With all that water out of the mix you can concentrate on cutting good spirit fractions, and at higher ABV.

If you are doing generational mashes, like rum or whiskey, just use the dunder from your stripping runs. Do not use the backset from the spirit run, that is of no use. The dunder from your strips has what you want.

After stripping, add water until the low wines are at or below 40% ABV.

For making neutrals, on a reflux or even a pot still, stripping has another function in that it cleans the spirit of much water soluble crap you don't want. So you strip to a higher ABV, and dilute back down with distilled water. This "washes" the low wines, as the water will take up a lot of the nasties. You'll notice when you do a spirit run of this diluted low wines, the backset smells horrible and is far from the pure distilled water you initially put in. You can repeat this process, especially on a pot still, to further refine your neutral.
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by lilye »

Hi ALL,

the sugar wash (BWS) is still burping. Thought I would give a one gallon "sacrificial" stripping run a try as I have no hydrometer but my wash has a very strong alcohol taste yet still a bit of sweetness.

So, I put the copper coil in the Mr. distiller unit and poured in a gallon of wash that I scooped off the top. Let it run to 150 ml . I just used that to clean some equipment and my counters. I let the rest run testing it periodically with my alcometer. it did get up to 170 proof. I let it run until my sample got just below 20% ABV. this is all mixed together now in a glass container waiting to be collected with my last 3 or four stripping runs as I now know I am good to go.

After all stripping runs are complete, with the 150 ml discarded in each (being extra cautious) will take these low wines and run them through a spirit run with the copper in my air still, I will be collecting them in 18 small jar I have set up for this purpose.

Let see what happens. the taste wasn't terrible this time but prefer a cleaner product.
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by lilye »

Also will make sure that my product is diluted to at least 35% ABV before doing the spirit run
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by DC new to the art »

Hi there, this question may have been answered somewhere, but ...
Regarding the yeast, in the main recipe it says to use fresh refrigerated yeast. On the calculator it says dried yeast. I'm looking to make 23 ltrs of this fine recipe so wondering what yeast I should use. Fresh yeast is much cheaper to buy where I am than dried
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by OregonAaron »

Just started a 10.5 gallon batch of this. This will be my first wash without turbo yeast. Pretty excited to see how it turns out since I have heard all the negative feelings towards turbo yeast. Got this all mixed up and pitched the yeast at the perfect temp and my SP was spot on. Couple hours in and the yeast are going nuts. I have been using a recipe from my inlaws that is corn sugar and turbo yeast, I think it tastes great thru my reflux still. I set aside a sample of my old recipe to compare with this when I'm done. I'm hoping this is as great as i have read because it is much cheaper to make- and honestly more fun. I will keep you posted on how it goes.
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by acfixer69 »

DC new to the art wrote: Wed Apr 22, 2020 1:41 pm Hi there, this question may have been answered somewhere, but ...
Regarding the yeast, in the main recipe it says to use fresh refrigerated yeast. On the calculator it says dried yeast. I'm looking to make 23 ltrs of this fine recipe so wondering what yeast I should use. Fresh yeast is much cheaper to buy where I am than dried
Use the fresh if it's cheaper but either will work fine.
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by The Baker »

Use around three times fresh (block) yeast as against dried.
Obviously dried is much lighter with the water removed.

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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by DC new to the art »

Thank you. I also have another question, where I am, there isnt a item called tomato paste. We have tomato puree, is that the same? Also in this puree it contains a little citric acid. Is this useable?
Tomato paste double concentrate
Tomato paste 28/30%
Pack size: 200G
Information
Ingredients
Tomato Paste (100%)
It has an acidity regulator in it too, citric acid
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Corsaire
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by Corsaire »

Yup, that's exactly what you need.
The ingredients kind of give it away.
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by Undies »

Corsaire wrote: Sat Apr 25, 2020 12:44 am Yup, that's exactly what you need.
The ingredients kind of give it away.
Maybe you need less lemons in the recipe. Get some pH strips to check, they cost almost nothing.
Birdwatchers ingredients calculator: https://birdwatchers.info/
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by lilye »

Yummyrum wrote: Sat Apr 04, 2020 3:17 pm B15F1847-A2E0-476B-96E2-4A672701F260.jpegThis may help . And hopefully not confuse you .
Just an update for all. I ran the remaining 3 TPW or BBW through a spirit run util they were running about 20% ABV. I discarded the remaining foul water for each run. After all striping runs were collected I then took all the low wines ( I am learning new vocabulary and I am loving it) proceeded to do my spirit run collecting them in small pint size mason jars. I found that true to the chart provided by Yummyrum , the most desirable "cuts" were collected in the middle jars . I can not provide exact numbers as I did not right them down. From this 5 gallon batch I saved maybe 1 1/2 liters of what I consider to be barely drinkable product. I am sure that this is my fault and not that of the provider of this recipe. I did use the copper coil in my Mr. distiller unit.This is my second attempt at this recipe and like it even less the 1st time so this is an improvement.

In the meantime, I have tried another recipe "shady's sugar wash". This one went much better even though I was lacking some essential ingredients. Still I am discovering that the heads and tails I find intolerable and am using the head for cleaning and discarding the tails as I really do not have the room , patience or the inclination to keep them all around to be distilled further at a later date. I am actually ending up with very little drinkable product from a 5 gallon wash, maybe 3/4 of a gallon but that is just dandy. I call it success. I could still seek to get better taste and am now doing another SSW and it seem to be even better than the last. It is much dryer to taste, with only a hint of sweetness. Let see what happens.

I did discard all of the product from my very 1st BWW wash I started about March 30 . Sorry but I guess I am just much more picky/discerning in my taste buds than I thought.

Thanks to all you nice people . be well!!!
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by WhistlerKiwi »

I am currently running a stripping run of my second 25 L birdwatchers wash. The first birdwatchers was used as the sacrificial run on my new still.

I have a quick question about what to do with the stripping runs from the turbo yeast packs I wanted to use up.

To summarise: I have also made two 25 L turbo yeast washes. With both of these I used much less sugar than the instructions to get the SG at 1070.
Both have been stripped out and are sitting in 5 litre containers as low wines, with 5 tablespoons each of bicarbonate added.
I have three more 25 L washes of birdwatchers currently fermenting, which I will also strip into low wines for a future spirit run.

The question is as follows - should I add the low wines from the two turbo yeast strips, with the bird watches low wines, for when I do my spirit run?

Alternatively, should I run separate spirit runs, one each for the birdwatchers and one for the turbo yeast low wines?

Many thanks in advance.

PS. Don’t worry I won’t ever purchase turbo yeast...
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NZChris
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by NZChris »

In my experience, dilution is not the solution and mixing poor product with nice product, means that you now have more poor product to deal with.
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by Saltbush Bill »

Yes keep them separate, you will then be in a position to judge for yourself which is best.
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by WhistlerKiwi »

Great thanks.

I will keep them totally separate. 👍
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by Bartosz »

I'm a bit confused with the whole fresh/dried yeast here. The BW recipe calls for fresh yeast, while the calculator calls for dried ones. Based on the ratio mentioned in the John Stone's book the ratio should apply for dried as well.

I'm currently on my 14th day of BW, with SG at 1.006, starting at 1.09. ~75g of fresh yeast were used for ~25l of water w/o epsom salts.
Stable temps at ~30°C, mixed daily. Probably it's the time to run it now. Can it be that I had to triple the yeast amount because I used fresh instead of dried?

I understand that the ratio between dried and fresh is 1:3, but I'm confused whether I should follow the calculator or the Mr. Birdwatcher himself?
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by Sailman »

I just started my first Birdwatchers and I've got a question about stirring. I went out and purchased a paint stirrer designed to go on the end of the drill and I used this for mixing everything together making sure to break the surface of the water to aerate the wash. Can this be used at a low speed or is a long as spoon better? Is stirring necessary? The wash was made late Saturday night and I pitched the yeast on Sunday morning these pictures are from this morning 24 hours after the yeast.
IMG_20200518_094246.jpg
IMG_20200518_094317.jpg
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by still_stirrin »

Sailman wrote: Mon May 18, 2020 6:01 am....Is stirring necessary?...
No. Don’t mess with it.
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by Sailman »

Cool thanks
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by BoomTown »

Sorry to be a bore folks, but there is something preventing me from seeing posting older than a year, which means
I can’t see Birdwatcher’s sugar wash recipe. Could someone please repost it or send it to my email?

I plan to focus on making a vodka or gin for awhile, and am looking for a ‘pure’ recipe that does’t present many complex flavors in the higher ABV ranges...if there are other recipes you think might meet that criteria better, please let me know.

Thanks in advance, and again, sorry to bother

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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by still_stirrin »

BoomTown wrote: Mon May 18, 2020 7:33 am Sorry to be a bore folks, but there is something preventing me from seeing posting older than a year, which means
I can’t see Birdwatcher’s sugar wash recipe. Could someone please repost it or send it to my email?...Thanks in advance, and again, sorry to bother
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by BoomTown »

Very helpful, thankyou.
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by linuxrulesok »

I'm about to make up a birdwatchers wash, was struggling to find tomato paste and epsom salts.

Having read post on here, it seems that in the UK are using double conc tomato puree. Also was struggling to find Epsom salts without scents and added stuff in it, asked my partner where she thought I could find it, upstairs in the bathroom cabinet was the answer. She had 1kg bag of unopened 100% pure Epsom salts, magnesium sulphate, result!

This will be only my 3rd batch I've made, first two were standard sugar wash and turbo yeast and I wasn't 100% happy with the result.

Will be looking forward to running this as I've also bought copper mesh to pack the reflux column, this will replace the stainless steel scrubbers.
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by BoomTown »

Hmmm, went to CVS for to buy the Epsom Salts. What I got smell perfumey, does that work, or should it be neutral in Oder?
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by Saltbush Bill »

This what I have always used. Doesn't really have a smell.
20200525_160331.jpg
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by NZChris »

BoomTown wrote: Sun May 24, 2020 9:17 pm Hmmm, went to CVS for to buy the Epsom Salts. What I got smell perfumey, does that work, or should it be neutral in Oder?
Epsom Salts are odourless.
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by Yummyrum »

Yeah , sounds like you got some Scented bath salts . Essentially Epsom salts but with oils in them
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by linuxrulesok »

OMG my fermenter has exploded with this mixture, almost nuclear. Woke up this morning and it had blown foam out the air lock!!

That's the trouble I had too, was struggling to find unscented Epsom salts. The bag I've got is from Boots, it says 100% pure and food grade.
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Re: Birdwatchers sugar wash recipe

Post by Saltbush Bill »

Fermenter too full :thumbdown: , nothing like cleaning up a mess to teach ya not to do that again. :lol:
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