uncle jesse's simple sour mash method

[ProChargedHarley03]

I got my first UJSSM run under my belt was very pleased with the recipe I ran about 12 gallons!! So i got up the next day to start the 2 batch, so pulled out the spent corn dumped in about 4 gallons of backset"that was still 100F from the night before " It help with mixing the sugar in with the corn and pitched in the yeast, buy the time i got the lid on she was bubbling away!!!! 24 hours later its bubbling way more than the first batch. it also smelled way better than the first batch. "before i put the yeast in".Smelled kinda like banbana's....to me i guess

[HellsWintr]

@rgarry I tried to stockpile thru the winter. I ran out about 2 weeks ago. I set up another batch and after 2 weeks, it just worked off. Damn cold weather. The lesson is, when you think you have enough, run a bit more

[Samohon]

@rgarry I tried to stockpile thru the winter. I ran out about 2 weeks ago. I set up another batch and after 2 weeks, it just worked off. Damn cold weather. The lesson is, when you think you have enough, run a bit more

I agree... My UJSSM is always aged to +18 months. I can now tell when I need to get a batch of mash going that I will need for drinking in the future.
I only got there with being caught out with low stocks a couple of times. I now have a small reserve that lives in the eves of the house.. Maturing with the weather....

[Tuckerroach]

I got my first UJSSM run under my belt was very pleased with the recipe I ran about 12 gallons!! So i got up the next day to start the 2 batch, so pulled out the spent corn dumped in about 4 gallons of backset"that was still 100F from the night before " It help with mixing the sugar in with the corn and pitched in the yeast, buy the time i got the lid on she was bubbling away!!!! 24 hours later its bubbling way more than the first batch. it also smelled way better than the first batch. "before i put the yeast in".Smelled kinda like banbana's....to me i guess

I see that you show 65% on your first jar. Is that what you started at? I am asking because I read the post about making cuts and I thought it was supposed to start at 82%. I am running my first batch and I started at 65%. Is this right?

[yankeeclear]

Your starting and ending ABV for the spirit run will depend on a few factors primarily the: ABV of your wash/low wines, type of still (column, pot), height of column, etc.

[ProChargedHarley03]

Tuckerroach!! what i did was filled "11" 1 Liter jars up to the 600ML line, once i got to 35% i filled the last half gallon jar in the pix! so the other 4 half gallon jars are the "9" jars mixed together! so thats way the % are the way they are. so mine didnt hit 82% but i am running my reflux still like a pot still, no scrubbers and no reflux

[Titus-a-fishus]

Hey Tuckeroach
You will be better off doing a few stripping runs and then doing a slow run using the low wines from the stripping runs.
It's faster and gives better results.
When you do the slow run even with a pot still you can get up to 89% abv.

Remember to break down your low wines to below 40% for safety and it helps remove unwanted flavours

Try it and you will see what I mean

TAF

[Tuckerroach]

Hey Tuckeroach
You will be better off doing a few stripping runs and then doing a slow run using the low wines from the stripping runs.
It's faster and gives better results.
When you do the slow run even with a pot still you can get up to 89% abv.

Remember to break down your low wines to below 40% for safety and it helps remove unwanted flavours

Try it and you will see what I mean

TAF

Can you help me find a good read on this? As you know, I put my feints into my ferment. Bad move. I split the ferment and added water and yeast. It worked. Here is my question. What do I do with my stripping runs? When do I add them into the pot? Can I add them in with the next run that I do in my pot? I read that some people collect all the feints and run them as one batch. Or, when you siphon your ferment into to pot, do you add the feints then? One last question. Are low wines and feints the same thing? I read that low wines were taken off the stripping run. I thought that is what feints were. I am also reading a few different things about what to keep. Some people say to toss the heads. Don't run them twice. I know I have a ton of questions. Maybe you can just point me in the right direction. I have no problem reading.

[Fastill]

Tucker, get the idea of using ABV to decide what you keep and what you rerun out of your head. every still is different, and you need to find what you want by using smell, taste, and feel. Uncle Jesse ran this in a detuned reflux still set up so that is the ABV he collected. I have set mine up like this but found the flavor is much better just running stripping runs and a spirit run without any reflux.
I Just run my wash as fast as my condenser will handle and save it all in gallon bottles until I have enough for a spirit run. This is the run that use my senses to make all my cuts, only using a proof hydrometer after everything is done to dilute to aging proof.

[Tuckerroach]

Tucker, get the idea of using ABV to decide what you keep and what you rerun out of your head. every still is different, and you need to find what you want by using smell, taste, and feel. Uncle Jesse ran this in a detuned reflux still set up so that is the ABV he collected. I have set mine up like this but found the flavor is much better just running stripping runs and a spirit run without any reflux.
I Just run my wash as fast as my condenser will handle and save it all in gallon bottles until I have enough for a spirit run. This is the run that use my senses to make all my cuts, only using a proof hydrometer after everything is done to dilute to aging proof.

Makes sense. Thanks. I will just keep collecting until I can make a spirit run. I take it you do not want to dilute the spirit run.

[Fastill]

Tucker, get the idea of using ABV to decide what you keep and what you rerun out of your head. every still is different, and you need to find what you want by using smell, taste, and feel. Uncle Jesse ran this in a detuned reflux still set up so that is the ABV he collected. I have set mine up like this but found the flavor is much better just running stripping runs and a spirit run without any reflux.
I Just run my wash as fast as my condenser will handle and save it all in gallon bottles until I have enough for a spirit run. This is the run that use my senses to make all my cuts, only using a proof hydrometer after everything is done to dilute to aging proof.

Makes sense. Thanks. I will just keep collecting until I can make a spirit run. I take it you do not want to dilute the spirit run.

Yes. You dilute to 40% or less, for safety reasons.

[Tuckerroach]

Tucker, get the idea of using ABV to decide what you keep and what you rerun out of your head. every still is different, and you need to find what you want by using smell, taste, and feel. Uncle Jesse ran this in a detuned reflux still set up so that is the ABV he collected. I have set mine up like this but found the flavor is much better just running stripping runs and a spirit run without any reflux.
I Just run my wash as fast as my condenser will handle and save it all in gallon bottles until I have enough for a spirit run. This is the run that use my senses to make all my cuts, only using a proof hydrometer after everything is done to dilute to aging proof.

Makes sense. Thanks. I will just keep collecting until I can make a spirit run. I take it you do not want to dilute the spirit run.

Yes. You dilute to 40% or less, for safety reasons.

Now I understand what TAF meant. Thanks for the help. One last question. Dilute with distilled water or wash?

[Fastill]

Now I understand what TAF meant. Thanks for the help. One last question. Dilute with distilled water or wash?

People use both, I like using spring water, but wash will give more flavor, I feel that with my corn it is cleaner tasting using water.

[troublestylist]

My stripping runs have averaged 40%. On two of the spirit runs, I diluted to 30%...once with water (all-bran) and once with wash (UJSM). Both times, the heads were about 20-25% of the size of the hearts.

However, on one UJSM spirit run, I forgot to dilute. I ended up with more heads than hearts...around 50/50. The extra heads could have built up over the generations of backset, but I doubt it.

Also, it was surprisingly not noticeably higher proof. All three runs were still above barrel strength. I think with my equipment and cutting methods, I could go to 25% and still be at barrel strength.

So whatever the reason, I'm a big fan of dilution.

[Titus-a-fishus]

Hey Tuckerroach
Sorry I wasn't clear.

I've taken up this way of distilling with my pot still to get the best flavour out of this recipe.

Always air your distilate before making any cuts.

1
Fermented wash (plus tails only,added when distilling) distilled as a stripping run - Low wines
Remove the first few jars of distillate where the heads can clearly be smelt.
Tails back into the next stripping run.

Do several of these runs to make up enough for a second distilling.


2
Dilute the low wines to under 40% I use filtered water
Then do a slow distilling run (the second distilling).
Take off the heads again and keep seperate.
The hearts of this run is what I use to oak or make whatever or just drink as is......
After airing that is.
The tails from this run I put back into the next stripping run.

This is the only way I have been able to get corn flavour out of this recipe.
Without the second distillation I get no corn flavour.....
It's there - just hidden.

3
The heads I have collected from the stripping runs and the second distilling run
I add bicarb soda to these and leave for a week or two.
1teaspoon per litre
This converts a lot of the ethyl acetate to ethyl alcohol

This I then run as a seperate second distilling run.
Any heads from this run I discard.
The tails go back into the next stripping run.


OK Guys tear me to bits
What do you lot do?
Where am I going wrong.


TAF

[Odin]

I dilute my low wines with fresh wash, not with water. Gives me more taste, TAF. I like your recycle scheme for heads & tails.

Odin.

[Tuckerroach]

Very nice. Thank you for taking the time. That was very clear and helpful. I have a gallon of low wines saved up and two more 5 gallon washes fermenting right now. I should have enough for a spirit run in the next few days. I did make a mistake and left the heads in my first gallon of low wines. Can I still use it? I do pull about 5 oz of 4 shots out of a 5 gallon batch, but I didn't pull all the heads.
TAF, thanks again for the break down. This forum is great. Odin, Blind drunk, LWTCS everyone is very patient and quick to help. I read a lot, but I get confused easy. I am learning every day. Hopefully I am close to my first spirit run.

[troublestylist]

Not sure you have any problem . A stripping run doesn't have the heads taken out yet.

I do something very similar to Titus, except I rerun my tails in a spirit run, rather than doing them twice more by putting them in a stripping run. Plus, I also keep my heads separate to use as a neutral. There's never much tails in heads, so cleaning them up is easy...one sided cuts.

[Titus-a-fishus]

Hey Tuckerroach

+1 with troublesylist

Leaving the heads in the low wines isn't a mistake.
It is just a different method to what I use.

The reason I keep the heads seperate is it makes the cuts easier and cleaner.
There is still heads in the low wines as there really isn't a clear/clean hearts in the stripping run.
That's what I was meaning by sayihg "take the first few jars with obvious heads smell".

Stripping runs knock down the volume from the wash quickly and only partially clean up the spirit.

The method I use is just from reading what the other distillers are doing and developing that method.

Glad it helps.

Experiment with what you have.....
There is no real hard and fast rules with this..... it's what you make it.

Cheers
TAF

[rgarry]

After a separate post about yeast mutation (an issue for home brew but not spirits), I have decided to push my UJSSM further than I usually do. I'm up to my 5th generation and will get about 7 before I leave on vacation for 1 week. My options are to siphon off the wash and let sit till I come back and run it or just let it sit for 1.5 wks beyond finished fermentation. I know if it sits too long that it can seconardarly ferment and the post here suggest that at that point it should be pitched. If I siphon off the wash, I can leave enought behind that the yeast will stay alive but limit secondary fermentation. Or I can let the whole thing sit and stop worrying and see what happends. Any advice?

[Odin]

As long as you keep the backset of your last generation (in your freezer, f.i.), you can start up where you left off.

[rgarry]

I run 2 washes side by side and doubt I will have room in the freezer. Might be able to freeze 1/2 of it

[big cheese]

I have run several of these now and two sweet feeds. i like this recipe the best. If I am not going to mess with all grain at the moment as it seems like a lot of time is there any reason to try some of the other washes? From all that i have read on this site most people like this one the best. I was looking at the gerber and the all bran recipe. Are those worth trying or is this the best easy wash?

thanks,

Big Cheese

[Odin]

Gerber is so so, All Bran is good. As a whiskey it will give you a light wheat whiskey profile. As a vodka it is great. At least to my opinion.

Odin.

[Barney Fife]

I completely forgot about a wash one time, and found the bucket about 2-3(or was it more? I started a thread here, about it, I think) months later. Popped the lid, and it smelled great. Ran it, and it was very nice. Don't worry about a couple week's vacation; have a good time, and when you get back, you'll have a very dry, well fermented wash waiting for you.

[likkerluvver]

+1 - What Barney says.

Also: I freeze 1 gallon of backset when I pause a run of sour mash for more than a few weeks/months. I use it to make up a 3 gal mash when I resume. I use all the backset from that strip (~2 gals) to make a 6 gal mash.

That seems to keep a fair degree of continuity going. I can then upscale (no more than doubling the volume of each subsequent mash) if needed. I then resume my regular procedure.

[Odin]

Same approach here, LL! It's a perpetuum mobilae.

[curtisbowling]

what is the purpose of adding backset to origanal mash?flavor? why not just add sugar and water.what if you are running sugar wash will this add the nessasary nutrients.sorry for stupid questions ,but ive always been told theres no such thing as a stupid question,only stupid results from people who dont ask.thank you all.

[Odin]

The long answer is: read the thread. Really, you should.

The short answer is:
- Backset is well cooked yeast & grains, so provides excelent nutrients for the next ferment;
- Backset is acid, lowering your PH, giving the yeast an environment in which they can perform better;
- Consecutive generations of backset will improve & augment taste;
- Energy stored in backset (it's hot) can be used to melt new sugar.

Odin.

[curtisbowling]

i did read the thread and thanks but this particular mash is turbo,only sugar no corn or bran or any nutrients.your answer is what i thought it would be but wanted to be sure i will probably throw this crap away just thought since its here why not use it.thanks very much for your reply.gonna try gerber next time just used what was available.thanks