bread n milk run

[Marshwalker]

I was at the grocery today to pick up some bread, milk, and sugar... well... while there I noticed boxes of pearled barley...then right next to that was Oats ... so I picked up some of both and came up with this:

I have two 6.5 buckets set up with this

7 lbs. of granulated sugar
4 lbs. of cracked corn
2 lbs. of oats (Quaker original/classic)
1 lbs. of pearled barley
1 packet of EC-1118
about 6 gallons of water

I boiled my water cause i aint got no good filter yet and my home is on city water.......dammit.... Let the water cool a bit, dipped out 2 gallons and poured it over the sugar in my fermenting buckets ... mixed the sugar till dissolved... then added the oats...mixed it up a bit.. then added 2 more gallons of water to each...dumped the barley and cracked corn and mixed...added more water up to what i believe should be about 6 gallons and mixed some more...and mixed bout every 30 minutes until it cooled to 90 degrees... added 1 packet of EC-1118 to each bucket and sturred it gently... AAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNND THEIR OFF!!!

Starting SG was 1.060

My wife hasn't figured it out yet, but i forgot to get the milk and bread .. but no worries..she'll get over it .this stuff smells awesome!! I would have to guess this is close to a sweetfeed mix just without the brown sugar and/or molasses... either way, it smells and taste great... can't wait to run it!!

[Prairiepiss]

Sounds good. That's what some would call cob corn oats barley. You could have used brown sugar or added molasses. And had sweetfeed or wet cob. Without it you got fine makings of a nice faux whiskey sugarhead.

I was at the store the other day and I found 4lb bags of Bobs Red Mill 5 grain cereal. I so wanted to bring some home. But I wanted to go AG mash with it. And that would have taken a bunch of bags for my fermenter. So I passed. But I'm still thinking about it.

[Frosteecat]

I've found that mash, like any other recipe, soars on great ingredients and merely plods on average. At your mash size, Marsh, you should really save some coin for the best you can get if you do a similar wash again. Get the fanciest rolled oats...get some good brown sugar or molasses, etc. Keep some of what you make with this batch and then spring for the top shelf stuff, especially on small batches. I PROMISE you you'll see a huge difference.
Fermenting in large quantities obviously makes that a tough row to hoe, but on the small side, give it a shot...I've made a couple washes with Snoqualmie (fancy!) rolled oats, brown sugar, etc. and it is so much smoother and flavorful than the "mixed feed" bulk wash I've done.
Unless yer just gettin hammered...then throw an old boot in there if ya want!

[Marshwalker]

I was at the store the other day and I found 4lb bags of Bobs Red Mill 5 grain cereal. I so wanted to bring some home. But I wanted to go AG mash with it. And that would have taken a bunch of bags for my fermenter. So I passed. But I'm still thinking about it.

I can't hardly go in the store without buying something that sounds good for a mash!!

[Marshwalker]

Keep some of what you make with this batch and then spring for the top shelf stuff, especially on small batches. I PROMISE you you'll see a huge difference.
Fermenting in large quantities obviously makes that a tough row to hoe, but on the small side, give it a shot...I've made a couple washes with Snoqualmie (fancy!) rolled oats, brown sugar, etc. and it is so much smoother and flavorful than the "mixed feed" bulk wash I've done.
Unless yer just gettin hammered...then throw an old boot in there if ya want!

I will do so.....had to give this a go!! I'm not just looking to get hammered...I would really like to get a good drop and savor.

[Marshwalker]

I got to run this wash Friday... I ended up with 12 half pint jars, and 5 pint jars before stopping the run

The run started at %68 and I shut it off at about %45

Jars 1 and 2 had a sweet smell but was full of hell fire!!

The bite in Jar 3 was a bit weaker but still present in majority

In Jar 4 the bite was the minority

Jars 5-12 were pretty consistant

Jar 13 started to get a bit slippery on the fingers and had a different smell (like old water..???) if that makes sense

Jar 14-15 smelled like a hint of ass and bout half mile jogged in socks

I tempered jars 4-12 to %45 and ended up with 2 full and one 3/4 full quarts of 90 proof

The cuts seemed like it took longer to figure out and were less obvious than my corn-n-apple wash... I really had to concentrate and get opinions on smell differences... going by taste, for me, is really hard... even after cutting with water i find it hard to tell the difference between each jar... i can pick out a grainy taste and a sting but thats it... i guess that side of making the cuts will take some time... for now, i am mostly going on smell and the feel between my fingers when rubbed together

With that said, I am still at a lost when it comes to palatability...I don't find this stuff to be all that good... I do know that the apple washes, after stilling, blend awesome with coke for some reason.....at half n half or even with just a splash of coke with ice...the likker disapears...don't know if it's the apple or what but it has no bite whatsoever when drank like this... I haven't put me a cold glass of the new batch together yet but am curious if all these grainy washes are really similar in taste... I'm sure over time my tongue will be better at deciphering...but for now, I really can't pick out "much" of a difference in the smell and taste of the two different washes... is this normal?

After tempering the center cuts to %45, I put some charred oak in 2 quarts of this stuff to see what happens... 1st quart = two 5" charred sticks 2nd quart = two 5" charred sticks and two 3" charred sticks.... i did them different just to experiment...

I started a 2nd generation of this wash with 18 lbs of sugar, 2 lbs more of pearled barley, 2 gallons of backset for the 12 gallon total wash... was really surprised how fast it took off... starting SG was 1.080... I am planning on running 5 generations of it just to see how it goes and to gain more experience...

One more questions: This run only took me 3 hours... bout 35 minutes of that was heating up... i ran it at about 3-5 drops per second... does that seem fast? I read on here all the time about runs that took folks long long long hours for similar quantities of wash.. (bout 10 gallons)... also... does this sound right on the quantity of likker i'm ending up with? I don't feel like I'm messing up but the numbers just don't seem right to me... Thanks!!

[bentstick]

Marsh, seems like you are doing fine!
The only thing is are you running down to 45% and then stopping or are you collecting past and taking it lower in separate containers?
When I ran my pot head I would run down to where I got in to tails,then speed things a little and collect down to about 25/20% and then add that back to next boiler charge!
It does take awhile to get the cut down but it sounds like you have a pretty good handle on what you think is acceptable.
I would also let my white set for a couple of weeks after diluting it seems to let it mello some and all the flavors meld together.

[Marshwalker]

Ive been shutting down after 2 pints into the tails...I probably should collect more of um.