What'd ya'll make today?

[Tummydoc]

Hopefully Bryan meant ready to cool and add the malt. You could convert it with liquid enzymes still if youve got some.

[silverbean]

After the last 3 months of UJSSM I thought I would have a try at all grain. Added 3Kg of fine cracked corn to 16 litres of boiling water, simmered for half an hour then let it sit while I toasted 500g of rolled oats in the oven.

After a couple of hours the temp had dropped to 80C I cooled to 70C and tipped it into my cooler adding another 2 litres cold water to get temp to 65C. Then added the toasted oats, 1.5Kg ale malt and 250g honey malt, stirred it in added a sachet of alfa amylase for insurance and let it sit overnight.

In the morning it was still 45C when I did the iodine test which showed good but not complete conversion. Gravity was 1070 but still needed volume to be topped up. Added 8 litres cold water which brought the temp down to 35C and volume to 29 litres but gravity dropped to 1030, a bit low I was hoping for 1050. In the end I mixed up 1Kg sugar with 1 litre water which brought the OG up to 1050 so I threw in some bread yeast and shut the lid.

An hour later all the grain was sitting on top and its bubbling away like crazy. Now the temp has risen to 39C. Its the first time I have fermented in a cooler but my gen 12 UJSSM still has a couple of days to finish in the fermenter.

Looking back there are things I could have done better, I guess thats the learning process.

[Durhommer]

Jimbos Ag with 2row malt

[rubberduck71]

Just got done with a run of apple cider. Jars are airing out...

Going for a calvados!

[Chill-Stillin]

Just finished a stripping run of an all jaggery ferment. What was special for me this time was that the yeast used was a wild yeast that I harvested from some pieces of cane I picked up from the farm where I get the jaggery! It worked beautifully.
I just split the cane, threw some in the blender and put it in a container with some jaggery water (very low sg) a dash of dap and kept feeding it jaggery water, after a couple days I split it into two containers, kept feeding it and some dashes of dap till I felt that it was enough for a 20 liter wash.
Though even for the final wash i started with a very low sg (thx HD) and fed it a kilo of jaggery a day till I ended up with 4.3 kilos of jaggery in just under 20 litres total volume. It fermented to a hair above 1. so I was happy with that. I kept some wash to add to the low wines from the stripping run and will run a 1.5 slow spirit run. The smell from the strip run was delicious, even the tails were very different to my previous experiences (using bakers yeast.)
The only difference being the wild yeast. I hope the final product will be noticeably different from the ones I have made using bakers yeast!

[NZChris]

That's an interesting project, Chill-Stillin. Please keep us posted.

I'm guessing your jaggery is made traditionally over fire, not industrially under vacuum, in which case I envy you.

[Deplorable]

Stripped the first 10 gallons of a 23 gallon mash of Jimbo's single malt. The squeezin's need a day or two to settle out the yeasty trub.
Got sent home from work for a COVID-19 exposure, so I figured I'd make the best of the paid time off.

[Chill-Stillin]

I'm guessing your jaggery is made traditionally over fire, not industrially under vacuum, in which case I envy you.

Yes it is made in huge steel wok like things and the fire is fueled with the sugarcane waste.
Am running the 1.5 spirit run now

[Beerswimmer]

2 rum ferments have been finished for about a week, today I added 2.5-3 gallons of old dunder to each and will let sit another week before stripping. The ferments were very fruity smelling, the dunder was heavy and smelled like a rotten rum cake.

[rubberduck71]

Working on Gen 5 of Odin's Rye Bread recipe!!!

I have Gen 2 in a barrel aging, Gen 3 in a jar with oak spiral, Gen 4 TBD...

Sipped on some Gen 1/2 blend last night watching football. Love me some rye!

[tombombadil]

I burnt my last high rye bourbon mash this weekend trying to strip it. Im taking a break until I can find a better way to avoid that.

Maybe using a banjo burner with a stainless/aluminum disc would spread the heat out better than a hot plate?

It literally burns right where the coils are. I think a heat diffuser with a hotplate might take too long, but a heat diffuser with a banjo 10" banjo burner might be better?

If that fails im moving on to a banjo burner with a glycol bain marie...

[Windswept]

I burnt my last high rye bourbon mash this weekend trying to strip it. Im taking a break until I can find a better way to avoid that.

Maybe using a banjo burner with a stainless/aluminum disc would spread the heat out better than a hot plate?

It literally burns right where the coils are. I think a heat diffuser with a hotplate might take too long, but a heat diffuser with a banjo 10" banjo burner might be better?

If that fails im moving on to a banjo burner with a glycol bain marie...

I use a sand bath for my glass still. just get a larger container, put about an inch of sand in the bottom, sit your boiler on that and fill the rest in with sand and sit on your banjo burner. Doesn't evaporate like water, won't burn like oil. Takes a while longer to heat up and you have a huuuuuge lag on temperature adjustments.

[tombombadil]

I burnt my last high rye bourbon mash this weekend trying to strip it. Im taking a break until I can find a better way to avoid that.

Maybe using a banjo burner with a stainless/aluminum disc would spread the heat out better than a hot plate?

It literally burns right where the coils are. I think a heat diffuser with a hotplate might take too long, but a heat diffuser with a banjo 10" banjo burner might be better?

If that fails im moving on to a banjo burner with a glycol bain marie...

I use a sand bath for my glass still. just get a larger container, put about an inch of sand in the bottom, sit your boiler on that and fill the rest in with sand and sit on your banjo burner. Doesn't evaporate like water, won't burn like oil. Takes a while longer to heat up and you have a huuuuuge lag on temperature adjustments.

That's cheaper than a diffuser or glycol so I'll try that first. Thanks for the advice!

[Windswept]

It's going to stink while it burns off the organics, depending on how clean your sand is.

[Demy]

These days I am making wine, soon I will distil my pomace!

[Grappa-Gringo]

tried a kale sugar wash yesterday.... added a bit of tomato paste to it too!.... we'll see where it goes from there
GG

[rubberduck71]

I burnt my last high rye bourbon mash this weekend trying to strip it. Im taking a break until I can find a better way to avoid that.

Maybe using a banjo burner with a stainless/aluminum disc would spread the heat out better than a hot plate?

It literally burns right where the coils are. I think a heat diffuser with a hotplate might take too long, but a heat diffuser with a banjo 10" banjo burner might be better?

If that fails im moving on to a banjo burner with a glycol bain marie...

I saw some cheap burner plates in the grocery store over the weekend. They're intended for diffusing flames and heat from electrical elements.

Found this one on amazon that might help ya:

[Chill-Stillin]

I'm guessing your jaggery is made traditionally over fire, not industrially under vacuum...

I thought jaggery or panela is always made that way, i.e. in big steel pots over fire and no vacuum.

[JesseMarques]

I'm guessing your jaggery is made traditionally over fire, not industrially under vacuum...

I thought jaggery or panela is always made that way, i.e. in big steel pots over fire and no vacuum.

In Brasil we call "rapadura" instead of panela, always boiled over fire, tradicionally wide copper pots, like a bowl
I imagine you got something similar to this (wich we call "açúcar mascavo" = brown sugar):
https://photos.app.goo.gl/9wfjhKgNLZxbezs78

Nice to see you using sugar cane's wild yeast!
How long it took to ferment your wash?

[dntinsley]

Distilled my pear wine last night. 7 gallons only got me a quart and a half but the taste was nice. Took the dunder and started a citrus rum.

[Bushman]

Distilled my pear wine last night. 7 gallons only got me a quart and a half but the taste was nice. Took the dunder and started a citrus rum.

Congratulations With your run, your introduction was a bit sparse what type of rig are you running?

[Deplorable]

Started the 2nd mash on my single malt barrel journey.

[dntinsley]

Running a t500 with a copper dome. Finding the the thermometer in the line varies from the lazer.

[Bushman]

Put up 5 gallons of hard cider, 3 gallons of one recipe and 2 of a lighter one.

[Chill-Stillin]

I'm guessing your jaggery is made traditionally over fire, not industrially under vacuum...

I thought jaggery or panela is always made that way, i.e. in big steel pots over fire and no vacuum.

In Brasil we call "rapadura" instead of panela, always boiled over fire, tradicionally wide copper pots, like a bowl
I imagine you got something similar to this (wich we call "açúcar mascavo" = brown sugar):
https://photos.app.goo.gl/9wfjhKgNLZxbezs78

Nice to see you using sugar cane's wild yeast!
How long it took to ferment your wash?

A little over a week in total, the final wash with the wild yeast 'starters' about 4 days with step feeding though.
Ended up with 1.8ltrs @ 70 as keeps. Thx for the tips!

[tombombadil]

I burnt my last high rye bourbon mash this weekend trying to strip it. Im taking a break until I can find a better way to avoid that.

Maybe using a banjo burner with a stainless/aluminum disc would spread the heat out better than a hot plate?

It literally burns right where the coils are. I think a heat diffuser with a hotplate might take too long, but a heat diffuser with a banjo 10" banjo burner might be better?

If that fails im moving on to a banjo burner with a glycol bain marie...

I saw some cheap burner plates in the grocery store over the weekend. They're intended for diffusing flames and heat from electrical elements.

Found this one on amazon that might help ya:

Ya, thanks for sharing.

Ordered a stainless one with aluminum in the middle. I'm going to try this with the hotplate. It's only a 1500w hotplate and it only seems to scorch right where the coils are so maybe spreading it out via the diffuser will solve the problem.

If I still get scorching I'm going to have to try the banjo burner with sand approach. Trying to figure out how to hook a banjo burner up to my houses natural gas is going to be another adventure...

[v-child]

I use an old 10" table saw blade. I've pretty much avoided distilling on the grain though.

[v-child]

You'll have to change the jet(s) to use natural gas on a propane burner. The burner manufacturer should be able to set you up with the correct jet.

[DSmith78]

Went to strip 80l of kveik hornindale fermented corn whiskey this weekend. Charged boiler with first load and and as the column started to heat.... my controller went pop! Waited for it to cool and poured back into the fermenter while I wait for new controller to turn up.

[still_stirrin]

Brewed a German dopple bock Saturday (O.G. 1.074) and my 5-grain bourbon Sunday (O.G. 1.064). The airlocks are buzzing today.
ss