uncle jesse's simple sour mash method

[theholymackerel]

Corn is corn is corn.

Cracked corn from a feed store is gonna be an order of magnitude cheaper than brewers flaked maize, but use whatever ya want.

[Kentucky shinner]

I see your from Ky .. Hell I get cracked corn at the co op for 7.50 for 50# sac...

[DOLIKEADRINK]

G'day Everyone
Got a few of questions about UJSSM, I hope there not to silly and have not been asked many times, Ok here goes.
I am on my 5th gen of UJSSM and i am doing a 40ltr ferment and have 3 batches going all has been going very well. I have been a bit worried about my PH been low. I got myself a PH tester today, Batch 1=2.8 2=3.1 3=3.2 I gather this is a little low, I have been adding 1/3 backset and removing the corn that floats to the top and adding 6kg of sugar back to each wash, I have been distilling 30ltrs. I hope this is enough info to answer the questions i have.

1: What is the correct PH
2: What is the best product to increase the PH
3: Bicarb Soda
4: Calcium Carbonate
5: How much should i use
6: Do i remove any of the corn on the bottom of the fermentor
Some of the corn on the bottom of the fermentor looks to be White-Yellow-Brown
There is probably stuff i have missed, "I do appreciate any help" THANK YOU

CHEERS: DOLIKEADRINK

[olddog]

I can usually get to 10 generations before it slows down too much, I have just started a new generation this morning.

1: What is the correct PH

around 5


OD

[Mr.Spooky]

I see your from Ky .. Hell I get cracked corn at the co op for 7.50 for 50# sac...

same here in GA.

[Fleamike]

Well I ran my second run tonight, actually the first using backset. Nice taste, I have been discarding the first 5 oz. And the rest of the run is by taste. Getting about 21/2 qts from 5 gallons of mash as hearts and saving about another qt as feints for the next run. I'll ad some toasted oak chips, age a bit then cut down to 80 proof. My next runs will be with the backset and an 80-20 ratio of corn and rye. I'll keep you all posted

[SuburbanStiller]

I've read and reread these instructions and I hope somebody can help me out. Everything else I've read on the subject says that "sour mashing" requires letting the corn wet rot a little by lactobacillus bacteria and build up some lactic acid in the mash before the yeast set in. I don't see that happening with this formula. I'm sure I've missed something, but where does the "sour" in this sour mash come from?

[blind drunk]

I think it comes from the reusing of backset. I also think that reusing most of the same corn from the previous batch in a newer batch contributes to the lactic acid in the wash. I've read here that lactic acid bacteria is all over corn, so it happens naturally and once you have, it stays. You can't keep the buggers down, unless you want to with inhibitors, etc bd.

[kiwistiller]

Everything else I've read on the subject says that "sour mashing" requires letting the corn wet rot a little by lactobacillus bacteria and build up some lactic acid in the mash before the yeast set in.

It's not a true sour mash, which it sounds like you've been reading about. Afterall, it's not actually mashing... If you want you could sour some corn and use that in your first ferment, it would probably hasten the 'goodness' that appears around generation 4-5 of this recipe.

[WalkingWolf]

I've done the lactic sourering in a quart jar on two different occasions. It was an interesting process as the corn mix went through the various stages. Never had the guts to chuck it into a ferment though. This stuff is r-a-n-k. Raised hogs growing up and just couldn't get over how this smelled like a combination of slop and pig shit.

I've done a few UJSSM style ferments and it will get there by the 4-5th generation. The first few runs aren't bad just they don't contain the "soured" componenet. The upside is once you get it there you can run this ferment for as many generations as you are willing to continue to manage the process.

good luck
WW

[Water Of Life]

Hey guys Im about to start my first UJSSM as soon as I buy a new 60L fermenter. I hope you dont mind a few questions first.
What type of yeast do you guys recomend?
Ive been using bakers yeast for the sugar washes iv run so far but just thinking I may want something hardier for an ongoing ferments.
Is it possible to only run half a wash and then top up again with a bit of sugar and water?
If I save up say 15 -20L of stripped washes, I was going to add the stripped washes in with some more wash to dilute which would leave me with half a fermenter full of unused wash.
And lastly Ive got crushed maize rather then cracked which I understand to be finer then cracked, Is this going to be a problem?

[WalkingWolf]

Hey guys Im about to start my first UJSSM as soon as I buy a new 60L fermenter. I hope you dont mind a few questions first.
What type of yeast do you guys recomend?
Ive been using bakers yeast for the sugar washes iv run so far but just thinking I may want something hardier for an ongoing ferments.
Is it possible to only run half a wash and then top up again with a bit of sugar and water?
If I save up say 15 -20L of stripped washes, I was going to add the stripped washes in with some more wash to dilute which would leave me with half a fermenter full of unused wash.
And lastly Ive got crushed maize rather then cracked which I understand to be finer then cracked, Is this going to be a problem?

Yeast -- The only yeast I have ever used is EC1118 and I have no complaints.

I have successfully run multiple ferments off of the same yeast bed many times. The key to success for me was not to get greedy. I put 10 pounds of sugar to 5 gallons of water and It works off in about 4-5 summertime days when using yeast for multiple ferments. I do find it takes a day or so longer if it is the first ferment for the yeast. If I added 2 more pounds of sugar this can add as much as 7 additional days to get to 1.000. This will essentially destroy the yeast bed and you will have to start over.

good stillin
WW

[blind drunk]

Ive been using bakers yeast for the sugar washes iv run so far but just thinking I may want something hardier for an ongoing ferments.

Mess around with different yeasts if you're curious, but baker's yeast is pretty damn hardy for what you're wanting to do. Cheers, bd.

[Fleamike]

I'm on my 5th and final run with this batch of corn, rye and wheat. I used a distillers yeast with AG and eve yeilded 12 Qts of 70% corn whiskey. This was my first run and I really didn't pay close attention to my measurements as I've been experimenting with my new still and getting the feel of the runs. I'll save the bsckset and begin in earnest tomorrow with a corn and rye mix. Flavors are very nice, I'll throw in some oak, distress age for a bit and cut to 45%. Next stop is oak barrel aging!!

[Austin Nichols]

Just dropped in here to say thanks to Uncle Jesse for this recipe.

I've been making this for 3 months now without having one little sip of it, finally I have some that's been on oak for 3 months and I'm having a glass of it with lunch

It's bloody bewdifull, the best damn whiskey I ever tasted and even the mrs smiled when she tasted it and said "fuggen awesome"

Cheers.

[olddog]

finally I have some that's been on oak for 3 months

You should try it after 6 months, with a couple of drops of pure maple syrup added.


OD

[Bull Rider]

If you can control the PH of the mash, can (should) you bump up the percentage of backset? I've been using about 75% backset on the last three or four UJSM runs.

I know that the amount of backset will change the PH of the wash, but will too much backset impact the final flavor?

Also, will UJSM continue to age when taken off of the oak and bottled?

Thanks.

Bull.

[WalkingWolf]

I've recycled the whole backset (and pH adjusted with Ca++ Carbonate). I find the "soured" element to be stronger when doing it this way. Not directly proportional but stronger all the same. I've done 25%, 50%, 75% and the whole hog and I prefer the 25% the best. I find this mix to have the best mix of the grain flavor with the soured taste.

[UNRECONSTRUCTED]

I am on my 6th generation of this and the last two times I have racked off my beer there has not been any spent corn floating on top. The last time I racked it off I had a good look at the corn on the bottom and I did not see any spent corn there either. It was all bright yellow. Anyone else had this happen?

[Bull Rider]

I never have floating corn at the end of the ferment. Also, the spent corn looks pretty good until I start skimming off the top two or three inches of spent corn, then i can see the the stuff underneath is brighter in color.

I seldom run just cracked corn, I have been adding cracked wheat, rolled barley, rolled corn or other adjuncts.

Bull.

[gascadoux77]

Ive made two stripping runs so far and am on my third ferment. Ferments have worked fine, using backset. I've searched this post but can't figure out how much I should yield from the process. I've collected a couple quarts so far, discarding the first 200 mLs in each run. As this is my first recipe and the first time using my still (pot still 7 gal.) I wonder if I'm doing something wrong during the distillation. It should drip consistently right? It seems to run out in spurts. The thermometer reads around 200F, I think it probably reads about 20 degrees higher than what it actually is. What about steam exiting the the end of the copper coil? Maybe I'm not running it long enough. It's been about 5 hours each time I've ran it. I'm waiting on my replacement proofmeter so I can't keep track of abv. What I have produced tastes good.

[Dnderhead]

yep doing wrong,,, when stripping ,,,run HOT,and FAST, taking all, no cuts and go as far as you want into tales..

[montanadave]

I'm a newbie... but feel pretty confident in the ujssm process after reading all 46 pages of this post twice. There's one thing I didn't see addressed anywhere:

The base ujssm recipe is for 5 gallons of mash, but that volume doesn't account for the added volume of the sugar and corn. (Or does it? Is 5 gallons the total volume? ) For properly scaling the recipe, can anyone let me know the total volume of stuff (developed yeast loaf, sugar, corn, and liquid)?

In my case, I'm reluctant to shell out $18 for a 8 gallon fermenter from the local brewshop when a 5 gallon food-grade bucket from Home Depot is $3. It would be cheaper to just run a few buckets methinks. I'm just not sure how much to scale down the original recipe to account for foaming and backset and solids so I can get several generations in to a ujssm without making a mess or needing to switch to a bigger fermenter.

(My de-refluxed 2" Boka has a 10 gallon boiler for what it's worth.)

Thanks to everyone for the great site and questions!

[Mr.Spooky]

i use the lowes buckets (and the lids) and follow regular instructions.... it works for me!
spooky

[chrisl]

Long ferment: I have a 30 gal ferment going for 26 days now. It had a Sg of .080 and now it is .010. I have it in a 55 gallon blue food grade barrel with two 300 watt fish tank heater running inside keeping the internal temp of 75-80 degrees also under airlock. It is still bubbling pretty good about every 30 seconds. I am just getting so impatient

[emptyglass]

Hi guys.

I'm on the 8th gen now. Just wondering about the yeast situation.

Should I be adding any?

I'm thinking that its running ok, I seem to get a good return each stilling. I seem to get a good fire up each time I add backset. If I leave it for 2-3 weeks it seems all the yeast goes to sleep at the bottom and is exited by the backset, bubbles hard for 3-4 days.
If I do it weekly it seems to be a bit cloudy (mash, I mean, distilled spirit is clear) and the backset reaction is a lot slower, takes 5-7 days to slow down.

I've got the feeling when its done quick (weekly) a bit of yeast is still suspended. Not good for the still, but also loosing some each time.
It feels better doing it every 3 or so weeks. It seems to calm down and hide in the corn (balm?) and is happy for the rest.

Have I been sampling too much, or does my question make sense? As you can tell, I don't know much about yeast.

None of this seems to affect the taste, its all good.

[SwineOnShine]

I'm a newbie... but feel pretty confident in the ujssm process after reading all 46 pages of this post twice. There's one thing I didn't see addressed anywhere:

The base ujssm recipe is for 5 gallons of mash, but that volume doesn't account for the added volume of the sugar and corn. (Or does it? Is 5 gallons the total volume? ) For properly scaling the recipe, can anyone let me know the total volume of stuff (developed yeast loaf, sugar, corn, and liquid)?

In my case, I'm reluctant to shell out $18 for a 8 gallon fermenter from the local brewshop when a 5 gallon food-grade bucket from Home Depot is $3. It would be cheaper to just run a few buckets methinks. I'm just not sure how much to scale down the original recipe to account for foaming and backset and solids so I can get several generations in to a ujssm without making a mess or needing to switch to a bigger fermenter.

(My de-refluxed 2" Boka has a 10 gallon boiler for what it's worth.)

Thanks to everyone for the great site and questions!

I've never made a 5 gallon batch, but I can tell you that the 6 gallon batches I've made take up right at 8 gallons of space in my 10 gallon fermenters. A 5 gallon batch should take up somewhere around 6-6.5 gallons of space, I'd guess. Headspace has never been an issue for my batches...using Prestige WD plus AG whiskey yeast it has never foamed up...just fizzes away like crazy. If it were me doing it in 5 gallon buckets with the yeast I use, I'd try running two 3.5 gallon batches and see what happened. That'd give you about 7 gallons to run in your 10 gallon boiler.

[montanadave]

I can help answer my own question a few posts above now that I've finished my first run. (woot!)

The Home Depot/Lowe's buckets are just barely 5 gallons. The lids available at Home Depot don't have a rubber gasket and don't seal well enough to make the bucket airtight. The lowe's lids are thinner, but look like they they might be more airtight, though still not perfectly airtight. After not being able to monitor the bubbling speed on my airlock (all the co2 was escaping out the gaps in the not-tight-lid, so I went and bought a airtight lid from my local brewshop, which worked like a charm on my Home Depot bucket. Airlock started going crazy.

After first ferment, the corn and yeast after siphoning off the beer were about 1/3rd of the way up the bucket. Their approximate volume of solids was 1.75 gallons. (I had used 20 heaping measuring cups of cracked corn (8-10 cracks per kernel) to get to 7 lbs. 14 lightly heaped cups of sugar to get 7 lbs. I ended up with about 3.25 gallons of beer to distill.

With all the initial ingredients in, I had my fermenting bucket as full as I could get it with just enough clearance for the rubber stopper holding my airlock; maybe 1.5" from the brim of the bucket. I took 1 gallon of water, boiled it, then dissolved in the sugar, and then added it while just after boiling to the empty fermenting bucket to sanitize it. Then I added cold water and corn to halfway up the bucket. Stirred and aerated like crazy for a few minutes. Added more tepid water until the bucket was nearly full and at about 80*F. Added one packet of Lalvin EC-1118, let sit for 10 min, then stirred in like crazy. There was no foaming or spilling even with the bucket nearly full. No mess got into the airlock. It bubbled happily for 7 days, and then slowed. Left two more days to let solids settle. Top 2" of corn looked good until I scraped it off and saw bright stuff further down.

In retrospect, I think for those using Home Depot/Lowe's 5 gallon buckets, you might adjust the recipe down to 70% of original values, seeing as how you just get 3.5 gallons of actual beer (liquid), and the original recipe calls for 5 gallon volume of liquid. I will be doing this and running two buckets to get a good 7 gallon charge in the still, as mentioned above.

On another note, if you are drilling your own airlock hole, make it as small as the bottom (smallest part) of the stopper. I made my hole about the size of the middle of the stopper, and it goes into the hole about 3/4 of the way. This means it sticks into the bucket about an inch, which forces me to leave extra head-space. Bummer. The lid I bought at the brewshop had a smaller hole, the size of the smallest part of the stopper and the stopper only goes in 1/4 of the way, which is only 0.25". Much better. That's an extra 1" of mash I can fit in there.

[homestillin]

Quick question gentleman,
I ran the first ferment of UJSSM last weekend as a strip run and backset 30% to the next ferment. To this point everything is going well. It picked right back up and took off. My Question is - should I run 3 or 4 as strip runs then do a final clean up run of them or do clean runs on each one this point forward. I'm sure everyone has his own way. Can I let the backset cool over night then add it to the ferment or is it best to cool it quick and get it in there.

[rad14701]

Quick question gentleman,
I ran the first ferment of UJSSM last weekend as a strip run and backset 30% to the next ferment. To this point everything is going well. It picked right back up and took off. My Question is - should I run 3 or 4 as strip runs then do a final clean up run of them or do clean runs on each one this point forward. I'm sure everyone has his own way. Oh, and by the way does anyone have a trick to cooling the backset besides bags of ice and stirring.

Most folks do multiple stripping runs and then do a single spirit run once they have enough low wines to fill the boiler...

Considering how you should only use ~25% backset, just plain water and time will do the cooling... Too much backset can cause pH issues... Add any additional sugar directly into the hot backset... This should all be covered within this topic if you have read it in its entirety...