All Bran Recipe

[LWTCS]

I stand corrected

Corrected??
Great thing about this recipe (and this hoobby) is that you don't really have to be dead on.
A little push and tweak (within reason) and one can find their own preferences.

The thing is with this recipe, is that the likker it produces is better than people thought it could.

[WalkingWolf]

The thing is with this recipe, is that the likker it produces is better than people thought it could.

++ 2 on that LWTCS.
I've said before and I'll repeat. This recipe on oak will make a real nice flavored liquor. My first run of this and folks were giving me the wide-eyed "YOU made this ???" look. Very easy, affordable and a real clean distillation. Taste great "white" if that's what you prefer.

[Gravel]

Here is a reply to a recent PM...

Without checking, both All Bran and Gerber state 1 - 2 tablespoons per gallon, which would equate to 5 - 10 tablespoons for 20 liters... It would be up to the individual to determine where in that range they want to be... I regularly use 8 - 10 tablespoons of Fleischmann's baking yeast in 20 - 25 liters... In fact, some recipes call for 1.25 - 1.5 cups (18 - 24 tbsp) in a 25 liter wash whereas my recipes recommend .5 - .625 cup... This amount of yeast helps get turbo-like performance, yet doesn't impart the off flavors and taste associated with turbos... Pitching a single sachet of EC1118 would do the job but would take significantly longer to finish... Many members have fine tuned the recipes to their individual preferences... The idea is to provide novices with recipes that will virtually guarantee success without resorting to turbos...

I'm with it now!!!!!
I also like the idea i read in a previous reply of using UJSM backset to begin this recipe...........
It seems like everyone has there own little variation on this ABR, but all with positive reviews

[davidwh]

Hello all,

Big fan of this receipe first up.

I'd be keen to understand other ppls experience when pushing sugar content and temps up.

I understand there are a lot of variables to consider, given...but in general terms, is anyone kicking off with starting SG's = or > 1.10?
Been gradually increasing SG's in each wash and yet to have issues.

In terms of temps, I've moved up from 22c to 26c anyone running higher?

btw last 2 washes finished at SG .93 this seems exceptional ?....or do I need new reading glasses...please no!

cheers,
dave

[rad14701]

That SG of 1.10 is about 15.5% which is pushing the upper limit of most yeasts...

[Braz]

I have actually gone the other way and reduced my sugar content. I am now taking three cups out of the bag and giving it to the wife for cookies 'n such. So I'm using three cups less than 10 pounds for a 20 L wash. This gives me a SG of 1.08. I think that is around 11-12% potential alcohol. My ferments seem to run to completion with fewer hiccups and seem to tolerate a somewhat wider ambient temp range at this level. I try to be kind to the yeasties since they are working so hard for me.

[jawwoody]

It smells great hope it carries to the finial product.

[rad14701]

When I want a more accurate prediction of when I can run my wash I drop to the 12.3% range myself by using only 3.5 cups (1.75 pounds) per gallon... While I have had great success @ 14.1% there are times when that last 2% takes more time than I want to wait depending on ambient temperatures and/or other variables...

[Richiee]

Hi Rad

Made my first All Bran Wash tonight. Followed your recipe to make 25l.

WOW cannot believe the take off, i swear in under ten minutes it was going crazy!!

I have to admit I started on turbos a while back, switched to a standard bakers yeast/tomato paste recipes for neutrals once I found this site and now trying yours. Never had anything go like this, cannot wait to run this through. It also has the added bonus the other half doesnt mind the smell!

Thanks again

[rad14701]

Hi Rad

Made my first All Bran Wash tonight. Followed your recipe to make 25l.

WOW cannot believe the take off, i swear in under ten minutes it was going crazy!!

I have to admit I started on turbos a while back, switched to a standard bakers yeast/tomato paste recipes for neutrals once I found this site and now trying yours. Never had anything go like this, cannot wait to run this through. It also has the added bonus the other half doesnt mind the smell!

Thanks again

Yeah, this is one recipe that doesn't leave you wondering whether or not you did something wrong... I haven't had an All Bran wash yet that took more than 15 minutes to be rockin' and rollin', even with old bakers yeast... That fast initial jump helps convince turbo users that you don't need turbo yeast to get fast ferments... The rest of the process generally finishes the convincing...

Good luck, Richiee... Keep us posted...

[WalkingWolf]

I have to admit I started on turbos a while back,

. . as he feels a wave of quilt sweep over him like a hot July wind.

[ScottishBoy]

My last batch of All Bran finished so fast I thought it stalled..

[crazyk78]

Hey guys, when you are talking all bran are you talking the cereal http://www.kelloggs.com.au/Home/Product ... fault.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

OR are you talking 100% Bran.

[LWTCS]

The cereal or a similar generic version

[crazyk78]

Thanks.

I think I've seen just plain Bran that's why I asked.

[rad14701]

All Bran cereal, the name brand, or generic, works best because it is fortified with all of the minerals and vitamins that yeast require... That fortification is the main reason why washes ferment so rapidly and efficiently without additional ingredients... It will either say All Bran "Original" or "Complete" and will have 100% of all of the nutritional values, which is what you should look for...

[olderdog]

Thanks RAD for the All Bran recipe, put my 1st sugar wash together today following your instructions (approximately) and within 15 minutes of pitching the yeast it was foaming like crazy. I left 6" of room in the fermentor for bubbles and now see I need a larger container, within 4 hours, the lid (put on loose) was lifting. 20 liters of water, 21 cups of sugar, 7 cups of Bran and 12 tablespoons of Flieshmans yeast (1 teaspoon in the simmering wash). I inverted the sugar in 8 liters of boiling water for 1/2 an hour then added the Bran and simmered for another 15 minutes. While all this was going on, I finished putting together my condensor and reflux column, I still have to figure out how best to seal the lid on my cooker but will hopefully have the whole apparatus ready to roll by the time the wash has finished. Am hoping to aerate the wash again tomorrow then put the lid on the fermentor with an airlock (if the foaming settles down). Today is Thursday and I hope to do my first run next Tuesday after doing a few vinegar/water runs for cleaning and testing, does this sound reasonable to you?

My rig is a 20 liter cooker (propane fired) with a 4ft x 2 inch reflux packed with SS scrubbers, 3/8 copper condensor in a 4 inch PVC pipe.

Any last minute advice would be appreciated by you experts out there, good or bad.

Great site, will let you know how it goes.

[davidwh]

Rad,

Your a F'ing guru!
As per previous posts been pushing the limits of temp and starting SG. I run paralell wasshes for c/f.

here's last result:
Starting SG 1090
Finishing SG .995
Run at 28C
completed in 2.5 days +1 day for racking
Just finished still run... turned off the pwr(Yep its true...still more to go I expect) at 2.750lt @ 93.5 - 91 %abv...
How good is that...a man has to be happy when the wash out lasts him...bed time!
again my many thanks.

cheers
sleepy bo boos dave

[ScottishBoy]

Question about the taste of the fresh 1st run distillate:

I ran a run last night and I think I dragged the tails through the hearts. Im trying to figure how bad it was. Can someone give me a good description of the distillate's taste after it has cooled and aired? Right now Im getting a medium burn on the front of the lips and a very slight sweet earthy flavor with a sweet malty aftertaste and a very slight sweet earthy flavor like then a small afterburn. Its the burn Im wondering about. The corn makings I do dont have this kind of burn through the hearts.
Just wondering. It is VERY possible I killed this batch by heating it up too quickly.

[rad14701]

ScottishBoy, it does sound like you may have pulled a bit of late heads and/or early tails into your hearts... A small amount won't hurt, as long as you don't mind the taste... If all else fails, dilute it and run it again... In my experience, it cleans up nicely if I've been a bit sloppy or have been experimenting with still settings and decide on a second distillation...

[ScottishBoy]

Yeah. Im thinking thats what I did too. I was just wondering if anyone could give me sensory description of what a properly done AB tastes like. This batch I wouldnt give to my mom, so I think I will settle it out and re-run it.

[rad14701]

Yeah. Im thinking thats what I did too. I was just wondering if anyone could give me sensory description of what a properly done AB tastes like. This batch I wouldnt give to my mom, so I think I will settle it out and re-run it.

The closer to 95% you run it the cleaner it will taste... When run at ~95% it has virtually no taste and or smell... When I run it at 88 - 90 percent it will have flavor and a small amount of burn... The headsie lip burn doesn't come through in this lower range, however, if proper cuts are made... I'm more than happy with 93 - 95 percent when shooting for clean neutral spirits...

[autotech]

my wash stalled today,i had done 15 20l wash and all finshed at 10%,i made 4 16l washes and put 18 cups of sugar in each 1.09 sg may have been on the fat side and 1 wash at 1.08 it started to clear in 7days at10% the others stalled at 1.04 also it was cool in the basment when started put sleeping bag around washes ,i move all washes to outside it has been 95 deg here for days,i add some yeastes to day, did i do right? this has been a good recipe i love it,thanks for the help

[olderdog]

Question for RAD or others using the All-Bran recipe. My wash, All-Bran, sugar, dead yeast and Flieshmans yeast has formed a thick gelatinous mass on the top (about 1-2 inches thick), quite sticky and difficult to break down and redisolve in the wash. All below is bubbling nicely and smelling very alcohol rich to the nose (3 days into creation). This is the 2nd sugar/all-bran wash I have done, the first one had the same thing happen to it. It was a 4 gallon wash which I used as a cleaning run on my new Reflux still. It came through quite nicely although it had quite a noticable odor to it. I threw out the first couple of ounces then collected the rest just to see how it tasted. I tried a small sample and found it very potent with a very metallic after taste, probably from the new equipment. I threw away the balance. I hope to run my first keeper batch in 4-5 days and am hoping it comes out a little less odourous without the after taste. Re the mass on top of the fermenting wash, is this a normal phenomemon or do you think I am doing something wrong. Thanks to all for your dedication to us novices.

OLDERDOG

[LWTCS]

How would you describe the odor Olderdog?

What kind of still are you running I wonder?

I ran a batch a while back and was running low on All Bran so I used some boiled trub for aditional nutrient and it was kinda pukey.

After distilling and airing was fine though.

[olderdog]

LWTCS, the oder was kind of swamp like, quite strong, musty I think with a hint of perhaps diesel ? Tasted like what I used to run back in the 60s using whatever fruit I could get, very hot on the tongue, a bit of a burn but high in alcohol. Back then I had a Reflux using a glass tower but never got around to packing it with anything. The product I ran yesterday was as close to RADS recipe as I could get, put it togetther last Thursday and it went off like a bomb. It was the mass on top of the fermenting wash that had me somewhat concerned, do you think this is normal?

olderdog

[olderdog]

LWTCS, forgot to mention my new equipment.....5 gal pot with 2 inch x 40 inch reflux tower. About 34 inches of lightly packed SS scubbers, fired with propane.....hope this helps.

olderdog

[rad14701]

I guess I'd have to question the cereal itself, or the amount... I've never had anything more than a short duration krausen form, nothing thick and crusty... Are you fully dissolving the All Bran flakes...??? The off taste and smell of the spirits sounds cuts related...

[LWTCS]

Boiling the cereal gives the thick cap. Normal stuff I'd say.

Does sound cuts related. U strippin then a spirit run?

[olderdog]

Hi RAD, I am using name brand All- Bran (Kelloggs, I think), on the first batch I put together, I inverted the sugar for 30 minutes, added some yeast, then added the required amount of cereal and simmered for another 15 minutes. Poured the hot mixture into my fermenter then added water to the 4 gallon mark, checked temperature and at about 98.0F, added my yeast. Stirred with my electric drill to aerate and mix for 15 minutes. Within about 20 minutes, it was working, very strong action happening. I checked on this mix about 2 hours later to find this acumulation on top, thick and somewhat geletinous?, I managed to disolve most of this but by the next morning it had reformed again. Again I broke this up and tried to introduce it into the mix with some results. The brew was working well under this floating blob so I wasn't to concerned. It is not like a crust so much as a mass, full of air bubbles and very slippery, definitely congealed.

I ran this as a cleaning batch yesterday after removing the blob and accumulated sediment and was somewat dissapointed with the smell and taste, hopefully it was the new equipment.

3 days ago I put on a new batch using the same ingredients, I inverted the sugar with some yeast and poured this into a larger fermenter, added the required water to the 9 gallon mark. I boiled the All-Bran in a gallon of water then added the hot mash to the fermenter, as I was pouring this in, the hot mash began to congeal immediately as it met the cooler wash. At about 98.0F I added my yeast and stirred vigorously for 15 minutes. Perhaps I should be letting things cool somewhat so temperatures are similar. The new batch is fermenting quickly. I stirred things up this morning, breaking up this blob as well as I could but it reformed again a bit later. Very high alcohol smell this morning, almost brought tears to my eyes.....smelled so good. If you have any ideas, let me know.....thanks.

olderdog