nastiest mash you've seen or done?
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nastiest mash you've seen or done?
I got in touch with my long time friend whose father-in-law made the first moonshine I ever tasted. Rotgut nasty stuff back in the very early 80's.
So I asked him more about it and mentioned that if memory served me correct his father-in-law distilled off wine for his hooch.
My pal laughed and said "Ha! Yeh either that or Gatorade!"
Now I was unaware that you can ferment Gatorade, and if you managed to do it, would you dare taint your still by charging and distilling Gatorade? And if so, would you actually have the courage to taste your distillate?
Yikes. Anyone tried it?
So I asked him more about it and mentioned that if memory served me correct his father-in-law distilled off wine for his hooch.
My pal laughed and said "Ha! Yeh either that or Gatorade!"
Now I was unaware that you can ferment Gatorade, and if you managed to do it, would you dare taint your still by charging and distilling Gatorade? And if so, would you actually have the courage to taste your distillate?
Yikes. Anyone tried it?
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Shhh... don't let the secret out to anybody.manu de hanoi wrote:distilling Crocodiles ????
I expect that there's enough preservatives in that stuff to prevent any fermentation whatsover.
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"Don't steal. The government hates competition."
"Believe none of what you hear, and only half of what you see"
20lt small pot still, working on keg
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yeh
I thought the same thing about preservatives but trust me this guy isn't being thorough enough for a starter. I'd like to see if it works with some bakers yeast.
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Let me preface this by saying the content of this post is not for beginners by any means. It deals with fungus that is completely safe but could easily be confused with other fungus.
A couple years ago, I set out to find the elusive, Aspergillus Niger mold.
I started by making some corn mush. For those not familiar with this it is a boiled and then baked corn dish made from mostly corn and water. I generally go on to fry this sliced up for breakfast.
Back to the story. Aspergillus niger is a swiss army knife of enzymes and is the common equivalent to Aspergillus Oryzae which is Koji Mold for fermenting sake.
So I collected some mud samples around my place, eight total different sources. I was looking for the particular strain that would convert corn starch.
I added water to the mud samples and let it settle. I swabbed the liquid from the top of the mud samples onto 48 mush samples in small disposable cups, and put them in my egg incubator. In five days I was blessed with exactly one sample that had the mold I wanted. I identified it with my digital microscope.
So now I had my mold samples all spoored out. I made a large batch of hominy because the texture of hominy is similar to that of rice when done well. I inoculated a small portion of hominy and put it back in the incubator. After two days the spoors had grown the expected web of roots and was just starting to get a shadow of black spoors on top.
I then ground and mixed this large growth of fungus with the rest of the hominy which was also ground.
Then I inoculated with yeast and covered with water. Man did this stuff ferment. It made the expected amount of alcohol, but it had a really bad side affect.
This was the worst, puke smelling fermentation I ever did. When I filtered the liquid from the corn, the smell was so bad my wife smelled it through closed doors, in the house from 250 feet away.
When I distilled it, the scent of the spirit was not as bad as the original wash but it did stink like puke. To this day this is the worst wash screwup I have ever done.
There is good news to this story though. I repeated the experiment twice more with the same spoors. The second batch came out a cross between sake and corn being sweet corn and dirt like mushroom scent and flavor. The third batch was the same as the second. It is not bad but not my favorite.
The best result is that this mold can convert uncooked starch to sugar at the same time yeast ferments the sugar and I have made up to 22% abv with bakers yeast due to there never being much sugar in the wash at a time. Also, this mold makes citric acid out of sucrose sugar too. The citric acid left from the growth of the mold contains the alpha and beta amylases for converting starches.
I have not been very successful making the results consistent. There is too much "Dirt" around to not end up with contaminated batches of mold.
A couple years ago, I set out to find the elusive, Aspergillus Niger mold.
I started by making some corn mush. For those not familiar with this it is a boiled and then baked corn dish made from mostly corn and water. I generally go on to fry this sliced up for breakfast.
Back to the story. Aspergillus niger is a swiss army knife of enzymes and is the common equivalent to Aspergillus Oryzae which is Koji Mold for fermenting sake.
So I collected some mud samples around my place, eight total different sources. I was looking for the particular strain that would convert corn starch.
I added water to the mud samples and let it settle. I swabbed the liquid from the top of the mud samples onto 48 mush samples in small disposable cups, and put them in my egg incubator. In five days I was blessed with exactly one sample that had the mold I wanted. I identified it with my digital microscope.
So now I had my mold samples all spoored out. I made a large batch of hominy because the texture of hominy is similar to that of rice when done well. I inoculated a small portion of hominy and put it back in the incubator. After two days the spoors had grown the expected web of roots and was just starting to get a shadow of black spoors on top.
I then ground and mixed this large growth of fungus with the rest of the hominy which was also ground.
Then I inoculated with yeast and covered with water. Man did this stuff ferment. It made the expected amount of alcohol, but it had a really bad side affect.
This was the worst, puke smelling fermentation I ever did. When I filtered the liquid from the corn, the smell was so bad my wife smelled it through closed doors, in the house from 250 feet away.
When I distilled it, the scent of the spirit was not as bad as the original wash but it did stink like puke. To this day this is the worst wash screwup I have ever done.
There is good news to this story though. I repeated the experiment twice more with the same spoors. The second batch came out a cross between sake and corn being sweet corn and dirt like mushroom scent and flavor. The third batch was the same as the second. It is not bad but not my favorite.
The best result is that this mold can convert uncooked starch to sugar at the same time yeast ferments the sugar and I have made up to 22% abv with bakers yeast due to there never being much sugar in the wash at a time. Also, this mold makes citric acid out of sucrose sugar too. The citric acid left from the growth of the mold contains the alpha and beta amylases for converting starches.
I have not been very successful making the results consistent. There is too much "Dirt" around to not end up with contaminated batches of mold.
I too feel like I might be just piling things together after reading pinto's experiments.
But year before last I had a bumper crop of the biggest, sweetest and juicest watermellons that I had ever laid eyes on. So the great thought hit me to juice these things out and make so "sweet red wine", well come to find out, I was not as well versed in the watermellon wine making as I had thought. I am still not sure what happened, but ferment temps were way high, and the amount of yeast pitch was way low for the amount, about 60 gals. After a few days of stiring the cap in and so on the mash took on a very sour smell, and a somewhat sour taste. In keeping track of the sg. it fermented off to very dry and with alittle added sugar made the most awful wine that I have to date ever made. Armed with my distillation knowledge, limited as it was and to some extent still is, this went into the pot. Came out crystal clear and I was sure had everthing fixed. Not so by along ways, the aftertaste of something just not right had proceeded right out of the pot and into my new bottle. I was still not worried, I placed this batch in the filter unit I had made up and sure that the fix was only hours away, nope not a chance, this stuff not only smelled bad still yet but had a taste that no normal human could stomach. No more watermellons this year, not in wine anyways.
But year before last I had a bumper crop of the biggest, sweetest and juicest watermellons that I had ever laid eyes on. So the great thought hit me to juice these things out and make so "sweet red wine", well come to find out, I was not as well versed in the watermellon wine making as I had thought. I am still not sure what happened, but ferment temps were way high, and the amount of yeast pitch was way low for the amount, about 60 gals. After a few days of stiring the cap in and so on the mash took on a very sour smell, and a somewhat sour taste. In keeping track of the sg. it fermented off to very dry and with alittle added sugar made the most awful wine that I have to date ever made. Armed with my distillation knowledge, limited as it was and to some extent still is, this went into the pot. Came out crystal clear and I was sure had everthing fixed. Not so by along ways, the aftertaste of something just not right had proceeded right out of the pot and into my new bottle. I was still not worried, I placed this batch in the filter unit I had made up and sure that the fix was only hours away, nope not a chance, this stuff not only smelled bad still yet but had a taste that no normal human could stomach. No more watermellons this year, not in wine anyways.
Check out jack kellers wine sight for watermellon wine.Its not an easy thing to make.
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I can understand how this was a fast fement, as most animals do not digest near all the feed they eat, kinda like it is cheaper to fatten two hogs instead of one, but I too have to ask WHY would you make shine from it?One shovel of fresh horse turds, sugar and hot backset to sterilize. Added cold water and pitched the yeast. It was one of the fastest fermentations I've done. Still have full jar of the shine, smells good, but don't know what it tastes like.
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would you even think about drinking it without distilling it?arkansas wrote:I can understand how this was a fast fement, as most animals do not digest near all the feed they eat, kinda like it is cheaper to fatten two hogs instead of one, but I too have to ask WHY would you make shine from it?One shovel of fresh horse turds, sugar and hot backset to sterilize. Added cold water and pitched the yeast. It was one of the fastest fermentations I've done. Still have full jar of the shine, smells good, but don't know what it tastes like.
All my friends are wineo's and i like gin...bastards
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