All Bran Recipe

[rad14701]

If anyone has been keeping up with my Gerber recipe they may also be interested in this recipe. It is almost identical to the Gerber recipe aside from using All Bran breakfast cereal (or Total cereal) instead of the Gerber Barley cereal. Both LWTCS and I have been tinkering with this recipe and have been more than pleased with the overall results. This is a very simple recipe for novices or anyone else who wants an almost fool proof recipe.

Per 4 liters (1 gallon) of water:

Ingredients
* 3.5 cups sugar
* 4 liters water
* 1 cup crushed All Bran cereal
* 2 tbsp active baking yeast

Process
* Simmer equal amounts of water and sugar for 30 minutes or longer to invert sugar.
* Combine boiled components with cold water and cereal to bring up to total volume.
* Let cool to 95F.
* Pitch yeast.
* Aerate for one hour.
* Cap and insert air lock.

Notes
* No lemon juice was used while inverting the sugar. Doing so may or may not be of benefit.
* A full cup of cereal may be more than required for a 4 liter batch. 3/4 cup should be enough.
* With all of the vitamins and minerals present within this cereal it appears that no other ingredients should be required.
* Should fully ferment dry within 7 days.
* The wash should start to clear by the time the ferment is complete so it can be racked directly into the boiler, leaving the solids behind.
* This recipe should provide good results with pot stills or reflux stills.
* Essentially, 1 liter water, 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup cereal, 1/2 tablespoon yeast, scaled to desired batch size.

Good Luck... Feedback welcome...

[Ugly]

So... if I make a batch of this and drink some will I be able to shit through the eye of a needle at 40 paces?

I experimented with a few of the cereal washes and I'm not sure what it is, but I get a bit of mucky taste and I do notice the difference when I compare it to a similarly prepared cooked grain recipe. Someone in another thread attributed the taste to some added malt in the cornflakes or other cereal and there were other hypothesis. I don't know personally it might be the preservative added to the packing for all I can tell, the point of experimenting is to try it and see if you like it, there's always another recipe to try...

I'm thinking the more pure the cereal the less likely this will be to occur and all bran may just have more uses than freeing up some stuck plumbing. Does any of the wheat flavour carry over here if I pot still it or is there simply too little of it to make an impact?

[rad14701]

I'll let LWTCS give his reviews as my wash is still waiting to be run... In fact, I just started another batch with some minor modifications for fermentation comparisons... It's bubbling away like a machine gun... For this batch I tried adding the cereal and some lemon juice in while inverting the sugar... Once this batch is dome fermenting I'll be running both batches to see what I get...

I also started another batch of Gerber with the same mod's as this batch of All Bran...

[LWTCS]

So... if I make a batch of this and drink some will I be able to shit through the eye of a needle at 40 paces?

Yes Ugly, you will. Or at least feel like you can.
This is recipe is dead simple.
This recipe ferments with a freakishly aggressive display of,,,,,activity.
This recipe does carry over a delightful wheaty aroma.

During this Bran cereal experiment I did not note at any time a "mucky" quality.

I ran both runs low and slow.

On my first run, I ran a stip run and pulled a 16 oz center cut out to compare to my forthcomming spirit run (because tater and a few others like to do single runs). The remainder I ran well into the tails. I wanted to compare the two after Rad had suggested that he was typically enjoying these cereal/ crumb washes with only one run. He was right. Once is very good ( I am sipping a sample of the center cut with white cranberry now).

On the spirit run I added a 16 oz quantity (per 6 quart batch) of wash to insure that I would carry over the nice aromatic quality.

I prefer the spirit run ( assuming I have limitations with running a small scale set up).

My set up is small so i make my cuts more pre-determined as everything on the run happens kinda fast. For this experiment I was looking to get the heart of the heart so to speak. I wanted to compare center to center ( to a degree).

Having said that, The tail end of the hearts and early tails smells very nice. Some of the more experienced gents can certainly render a more sophisticated drink by incorporating previous generations, oaking and generally following their usual techniques for their quality drinks.

I would say that this is a recipe that any body should have and use as it is cheap, easy and renders (I suspect) a dependable outcome. I am doing this again.

At the very least, this is worth a go. Do it Ugly.

Gotta go. I'm scheduled to shit through the eye of a needle in ten minutes and I gotta go warm up.

[LWTCS]

Also,
I did not rack straight to the still as I fermented a twenty liter batch and was in the process of finishing the Apple Sause Wash distillation.

My rig is small so I have to do these in multiple runs.

So I racked the All Bran to the fridge for a couple of days in glass jugs. Lots of suspended solids settled. This really cleaned up the wash nicely. Not clear, but definitely clean.

Rad and I agreed that the final color of the wash has a butterscotch/Mountain Dew soda pop kinda look.

Pic shows All bran on the left and Apple Sause on the right. Just something to gauge it against.

[rad14701]

Here is a picture of an All Bran wash on the left and a Gerber Barley wash on the right... The right jug is slightly tinted green... Both are bubbling away quite happily...

AllBran_Gerber.jpg (15.37 KiB) Viewed 146497 times

[olddog]

Rad's avitar shows the result of overdoing the bran, use with caution.

[LWTCS]

While I still have a small quantity of All Bran, I started another Graham Cracker today.

I would like to compare the two side by side.

They both have a really nice aromatic quality.
Although the Graham Cracker smells good from the start of the production cycle to the end (strip and spirit run). Where as the All Bran (to me ) smells best after a spirit run.

[rad14701]

Well, today, after making some minor still modifications, I finally ran 7 liters of All Bran wash... The unfortunate part of this is that I forgot I was going to run All Bran instead of Gerber and ran it off as neutral rather than doing a strip run for flavor... It ran off pure as can be with the thermometer reading 172.5 F because my cheap digital unit only does half degree increments... No smell and no flavor... Cut some with water and mixed it with pineapple pop and couldn't even tell it was in there...

Sure wish I'd remembered I was running All Bran because that's all I had... I have enough Gerber for two runs so I'll do one strip for flavor and one neutral from that to compare to this... Grrr...!!! Now I guess I need to put down another batch of All Bran... I'd better hurry because I'm gonna have to take the summer off unless I can find somewhere else to run a still...

[LWTCS]

Man thats too bad. I think you would really enjoy the All Bran with the carry over flavor.

White Cranberry and All Bran (or graham cracker) and I'm happy as a clam.
For me the Gerber may be best as a nuetural. I just finished the Gerber spirit run. We shall see.

I think I'm going to run more of Winoe's recipe as the missus seems to prefer the more nuetural.

[nikkow]

what would you classify this under would it be a whisky if oaked? or is it more like a vodka?

thanks.

[rad14701]

what would you classify this under would it be a whisky if oaked? or is it more like a vodka?

thanks.

Run through a pot still and aged on oak it would be considered "faux" straight Wheat Whiskey... Distilled through a reflux still yields Vodka (neutral spirits)...


Edited to distinguish that this isn't a true grain based whiskey....

[theholymackerel]

Run through a pot still and aged on oak it would be considered straight Wheat Whiskey... Distilled through a reflux still yields Vodka (neutral spirits)...

I'd call it flavoured sugarhead.

[punkin]

Cosidering it's allbran, you could call it a 'regular spirit'.....

[rad14701]

Cosidering it's allbran, you could call it a 'regular spirit'.....

If you drink too much of it you really don't care what it's called...

[LWTCS]

If you drink too much of it you really don't care what it's called...

Thats funny right there!

I can't seem to collect enough houch to "age". But even a few weeks in (only) glass kinda smoothed that All Bran out real nice. I am certain that a 5 liter (or the like) batch of spirit would age very nicely.

I do hope someone can collect enough to offer an evaluation (pot still or reflux).

[rad14701]

Well, now that my stilling season is back in full swing I've been able to put down another All-Bran Flakes cereal wash... I decided to fudge with the ingredients a bit to see what happens... For this batch I didn't crush the cereal flakes before measuring so I'd get a more accurate, or less accurate, estimate on required ingredient requirements... Here is how this batch was prepared...

Recipe

* 2 gallons water
* 7 cups white sugar
* 2 cups All-Bran Flakes cereal
* 4 tbsp Fleischmann's dry active yeast
* 1/4 tsp 20-20-20

Process

* Inverted sugar in 8 cups water for 30 minutes
* Boiled cereal in 4 cups water for 30 minutes
* Allowed invert sugar and cereal to cool to 95F
* Pitched yeast and aerated for 1 hour
* Added 1/4 tsp 20-20-20 and airlocked

After boiling the flakes there were very few solids left so the only difference between this method and the original is that the original probably had a lot more nutrients, and also flavor components, than this batch... But when you consider that I'm only using the cereal for nutrients, for this batch at least, I'm looking for the bare minimum amount required for a complete fermentation... From there the flavoring component can be enhanced as desired...

More to come...

[rad14701]

Update... The wash started 2009-09-24 has fermented to dry as of this afternoon... That's a 4 day ferment to ~12% with less nutrients than the original recipe specified... Can't wait to run it off as a strip run in my combo still... Probably won't have a lot of flavor due to the minimal amount of cereal but you never know... Worst case scenario, I'll reflux the stripped low wines...

[rad14701]

Well, I'm sitting here sipping on some of the stripped All-Bran spirits as I type... I ran it off in strip mode using my combo still and it came out quite nicely if I must say so myself... Yes, I remembered to strip it in pot still mode this time rather than reflux...

Once the boiler was up to temperature it only took about 30 minutes to pull 1.5 liters off an 8 liter charge... I only collected about another 4 ounces before I was into the tails and that was tossed in with the rest of my heads and tails for addition to a future run... All done without a thermometer, using just smell, taste, and feel... Setup to all stored away took under 2 hours...

I think I need to remove my needle valve as it restricts my take off and I end up getting some unwanted reflux which may have stripped a bit of the flavor I was expecting even with the reduced amount of cereal in the wash...

I think I have a new keeper that I'd put at par with my Gerber... Nice and simple... Started the wash on a Friday and am drinking the resulting spirits the following Wednesday...

[LWTCS]

It's my favorite ( from a pot stilling point of view).

I like corn flakes too, but All Bran is so nice.

[Maverick50]

What was your starting SG, just trying to work out what cups equate to in KG, do you have to invert sugar or could you just throw it in the bin with boiled water, would like to make 5 gallons and dont have a big enough pot to boil that in.

[Dnderhead]

1 cup=1/4 kg

if you want to invert the sugar you could do it separately .then add to water.

[rad14701]

By volume 1 cup = 240 - 250 ml...

I get better ferments if I invert the sugar in one pot and boil the cereal in another... Works better than both in a single pot, from my experience anyway... You don't need to boil all of the water... To invert your sugar you use a ratio of 1:1 - 2:1 water:sugar and simmer just under a boil for 30 - 45 minutes... I use the same ratio for the cereal and just let it simmer low enough to eliminate foaming... I toss the cereal in whole and it renders down to almost nothing... I suppose you could even strain it after boiling but I just use everything... If I'm going to use some boiled yeast I toss it in at the end of the cereal simmer and stir it in just before I shut down the heat...

I shoot for about 12% ABV (SG 1.080) with this one...

[rad14701]

As posted in the "What'd y'all make today" forum

Discovering that I didn't have enough Gerber to make a wash I just finished putting down another 2 gallon All Bran wash... Pitched the yeast 15 minutes ago and already have a 1 inch kraeusen on top of the wash... How's that for FAST...!!! I can tell right now that this wash will have a short ferment time... The last wash didn't star any where near as fast and it was done and cleared in 4 days... My plan is to run this one on Monday, today being Thursday... I haven't inserted the airlock yet, but will within the hour... I'm shooting for 14% for this wash to see how it performs compared to the 12% wash I made the last time...

Recipe

* 2 gallons water
* 8 cups white sugar
* 2 cups All-Bran Flakes cereal
* 1/2 tsp boiled yeast
* 4 tbsp Fleischmann's dry active yeast
* 1/2 tsp 20-20-20

Process

* Inverted sugar in 8 cups water for 30 minutes
* Boiled cereal in 4 cups water for 30 minutes
* Mixed the invert sugar, cereal, and 1/2 tsp yeast
* Topped to 2 gallons and allowed wash to cool to 95F
* Pitched yeast and 20-20-20 and aerated for 1 minute

Notes

* For this wash I only aerated for 1 minute before pitching the yeast and then for 1 minute immediately after to mix it into the wash.
* Ambient temperature in the fermentation closet holds steady at 78F.
* No hydrometer readings have been taken, on purpose. I have an experiment going that I may divulge at a later date.

I'm almost liking this recipe better than Gerber simply because it's a bit cheaper, can be made to ferment faster with less fuss due to more nutrients in the cereal, and can either be pot stilled for flavor or refluxed for neutral spirits...

[LWTCS]

I feel like a broken record, But.......

For all the reasons you just stated is why I love this recipe.

As I recall, the All Bran has been my most aggressive ferment to date (behind the metamucil).

[rad14701]

Why do I always put down a wash I want to monitor and then go out of town for the weekend...??? I didn't get a chance to check this last wash I put down on Thursday until yesterday (Monday)... It was done and the yeast had dropped... Not sure when it finished but it was still plugging along nicely Saturday morning... Just tested it about an hour ago and it's definitely done with an SG of 0.980... Probably won't be able to run it until Thursday...

So, yet another All Bran wash that was finished and cleared in 4 days... And this was a 14% wash as opposed to the last one which was only 12%... I need to grab another box and more sugar... Probably ought to grab more Gerber while I'm at it... Still have a few more experiments to do with that too...

The remaining questions related to this All Bran recipe that remain are:

How little cereal, boiled yeast, 20-20-20, and active yeast is required to maintain this level of fermentation efficiency...???

Will others be able to duplicate the success that I have been able to achieve...???


For anyone following my cereal recipes, as much as I may not want to say it, I think All Bran is an even better performer than Gerber... Why...??? Because it has more vitamins and minerals, based on an adults dietary needs rather than those of an infant or toddler... The additional boiled yeast and 20-20-20 are only for a more expedient ferment for those of us who are impatient...

I pay $1.99 for a 17.3 ounce box of generic All Bran cereal which has exactly the same ingredients and nutritional content as the original name brand... And without looking it up, this box makes about 12 gallons of wash... That equates to about $0.16 per gallon of wash for the nutrients if you omit 20-20-20 and boiled yeast... Add both of those and call it $0.25 on the high side unless using yeast sachets...

[LWTCS]

For anyone following my cereal recipes, as much as I may not want to say it, I think All Bran is an even better performer than Gerber...

Wonder why you would prioritize your thought process that way? You presented The All Bran before the Gerber.

Clearly you have neglected the older son when the baby was born.

But seriously, seems your interest has been rekindled.

[rad14701]

For anyone following my cereal recipes, as much as I may not want to say it, I think All Bran is an even better performer than Gerber...

Wonder why you would prioritize your thought process that way? You presented The All Bran before the Gerber.

Clearly you have neglected the older son when the baby was born.

But seriously, seems your interest has been rekindled.

I pretty much started messing with them at almost the exact same time... My initial reason for moving forward with Gerber before All Bran was because of the smell factor... While my first All Bran washes were on the odorous side, recent ones haven't presented a noticeable odor... Upon further comparison I'm finding that the added nutritional value helps the All Bran perform better... It takes far less coaxing to attain rapid and full ferments and the results are easily repeatable...

I just ran off this last wash in combo mode and ended up with 1.75 liters of mildly flavored spirit... Not sure if I'll run it again for neutral spirit, because a buddy needs some for Swedish Glug, or if I'll save it and run my catch-all jug again... I'm leaning towards the catch-all jug...

[Photonic]

I've just found this thread and can't wait for one of my fermenting bins to be free so that I can give this a go.

I've not had much luck finding Gerber, but All Bran is universally available... fantastic!

I plan to oak it but with oak flakes in the bottle.

[LWTCS]

I've been oaking mine with 3/8 x 3/8 x 6" sticks with an alligator char.

I'm really happy with the results.