sweetfeed whisky

[Sparhawk]

Midnight there is no need to add more yeast unless you kill it.

Night if your going to add the backset for the next generation, don't bother squeezing, just siphon off the liquid available and run it.

[Fastill]

When using the sweet feed it absorbs Alot of the liquid. Do I need to squeeze the mushy sweet feed in a pillow case to get the rest of the liquid or leave it?

If doing several generations, you may gain a little by squeezing out the grain you are replacing, but you are mostly refermenting on grain that is already saturated so you are not losing much until your last ferment.

[Whompus]

Well we're on day 4 and it's still pumping about 1 beat a second. Is the whole fermenting time 5-6 days or do we wait 5-6 days after it's done fermenting?


Another question. If we are going to use some of the back set to do a second generation how do we add the sweetfeed back that we need to replace? Before we poured the boiling hot water over it but if we do that it's going to kill the yeast left in the bucket?

Take the backset you intend to add and put it into a seperate pot while it's still very hot. Stir in your new grain and sugar. Stir several times until it cools down to 90*. Once it's cool you dump it into your fermenter with your old grain and yeast. This way you get to use the heat to help melt the sugar and "cook" the grain but don't kill your yeast.

[nightrider01]

OK fastill I'm very new at this so bear with me here..I'm assuming doing more than one Gen is reusing the grain from a previous ferment. How do I benefit from doing another generation?

[midnightmaraude]

I think the taste is supposed to better w each generation. Remove 25% of the feed. Add new stuff.

I just finished batch 1. Got it at 100 proof. Collected tails and poured into next batch.
Also made my 2nd generation ferment. Whiskey is some work and messy. Gonna save for a gallon and throw it in a battle. The good thing is it does make cuts easier. If u end it at 100 proof u don't need to worry about tails

[midnightmaraude]

WoWow. Air lock is already bubbling and its only been ten minutes

[Fastill]

OK fastill I'm very new at this so bear with me here..I'm assuming doing more than one Gen is reusing the grain from a previous ferment. How do I benefit from doing another generation?

You don't get all the goodies and flavors out of the grain with a cold mash, you can ferment your sugar on the same grain several times before it is used up. By removing and adding 25% new grain in the sweetfeed wash you are doing more to add the molassas flavor than doing anything that helps the grain flavor. I believe that adding spent beer from your boiler (sourmashing) and letting the grain soften over several washes does more to improve grain flavor in your distillate.

[FloridaShine]

I live in the Gulf Coats of Florida,
And trying to find the right Sweet Feed, I have called a few places to ask if all grain and drive there just to find out it has pellets!
CAn we get a list of actual Brands that Y'all use. Like from Tractor Supply. And or name like Purina, Seminole, Purchase pride,
I did see fella listed one. Let sget a list going to help out the rest of us that are New Shiners

Thanks Y'all

[FloridaShine]

Gulf Coast! Duh, Sorry

[midnightmaraude]

So I saved some 80 proof whiskey from the end of the run last night. My friend cane over who was drinking Canadian club. Was nursing it. I gave him a glass of mine and it was gone before I knew it. He said it was so smooth. That's even before it aged.

Question on the 2nd generation. I over estimated and filled it to the 6 gallon mark instead of 5. I tossed some more feed in and a pound of sugar. It's pumping away very quickly. Am I ok?

[frozenthunderbolt]

Question on the 2nd generation. I over estimated and filled it to the 6 gallon mark instead of 5. I tossed some more feed in and a pound of sugar. It's pumping away very quickly. Am I ok?

You will never hurt a mash by using less sugar per gallon, only by using too much. Could have left it as is and it would have been fine.

[Sparhawk]

Midnight, did you do specific gravity readings before and after you added the sugar? While I agree that leaving it alone would have been fine, it will effect the final alcohol percentage of the wash. As long as you have around 1.o6 specific gravity you will have decent output on your still. you can go as high as 1.09 if you want but that high can stress yeast and cause off flavors YMMV.

When I ran gen 1 i got cloudy heads and tails but crystal clear hearts. When I ran gen 2 everything was crystal clear. Is this normal? Did i do something wrong with gen 1? Did I get something unsafe? I have only drank the clear hearts at this point.

To supply some additional information I am using a pot still made from 1-1/2 inch copper attached to a 42qt Stainless steel pot, reduced to 1/2" going through a 36" leibig condenser.

[midnightmaraude]

[quote="Sparhawk"]Midnight, did you do specific gravity readings before and after you added the sugar? While I agree that leaving it alone would have been fine, it will effect the final alcohol percentage of the wash. As long as you have around 1.o6 specific gravity you will have decent output on your still. you can go as high as 1.09 if you want but that high can stress yeast and cause off flavors YMMV.
quote]

I did not. I don't have one of those hydrometers. I see what you mean though. I'm hoping the extra one pound of sugar to the one gallon of water is okay. The recipe called for 7 pounds of sugar and to top up to 5 gallon mark (that's with the sweetfeed in it). So surely I'm under the 1.4 lbs of sugar or more per gallon of water.

I will invest in one of those hydrometers you speak of though. I only have hte one that measures alcohol %

[ron71157]

Ran number 2 yesterday..very clean and smooth

the harvest

set up III with 1.5 gallons of backset bubblin nicely this morning. Was using bakers yeast but didn't like the flavor or aroma..although not as present in this batch.
Using Prestige w/AG on this run..will see if it makes a difference.

[smokindave]

How much activity have some of you noticed in your ferments of this recipe? I am getting a bubble in the airlock about every second.

I ran short of sugar on my initial mash, so I did about 4.5 inches of PP All-grain sweetfeed in a 6.5 gallon bucket. I added 5lbs of sugar, and topped up to 5 gallons with water. I figure I am somewhere in the ballpark of the right amount of sugar, if not a little light. This is just for a cleaning run, so I am not too worried.

I based my yeast on the original amount in first post of this thread, but it seems off. Bakers yeast comes in 1/4 oz packets. Tater quoted using 5 packets or 8 TBlsp. I think this must be a typo. 1 packet would be 2.5 teaspoons, so 5 packets would be like 4 Tblsp.

Yeast quantities somewhat baffle me.....seems like everyone uses different amounts. I saw on the parent site where is states to use 4 grams per gallon of wash. That is not very much. Maybe the weight vs. volume is throwing things off. Wouldn't 4g/gal be 20 grams. 1 packet of bakers yeast is 17 grams. So that would not even be 1.5 packets per 5 gallons.....a lot different than 5 packets.

I also make a starter with some cooled wort.......3 cups of wort and I added 4 teaspoons of Red Star yeast. It was really working up good after about 15 min. I waited 2 hours for my big batch of wort to cool to 100*F, and then I added that in.

Seems like when you make a starter, it would be hard to know how much yeast you are adding at pitching time, because the colony has grown..........

As it sits right now at 3 days of fermenting, I am getting about 1 big bubble in my airlock every second, and it still sounds like rice crispies in my fermentor bucket.

Am I in good shape??? I have read hundreds of posts and threads, and the parent site, and there seems to be a lot of conflicting info out there regarding yeast.

Thanks for all the info and wisdom, I will figure it out eventually through trial and error.

Smokindave

[Durace11]

Yeast amounts vary a lot but for bakers yeast it never hurts to over pitch a little because it's so cheap to buy. 1-3 tablespoons for a 5 gallon ferment is fine, you can get away with one but two never hurts and three is fine but probably overkill. The more you start with the quicker your ferment will get into full swing, therefore, the quicker it will finish. Truely, the lag time should never exceed 1 day so at most over pitching saves you about 1 day as compared to a 24 hour lag time.

If you made a starter you are fine starting a starter with one of the small packets just throw the whole packet in there, wait 24 hours, then throw the whole starter in your cooled wash. if it sounds like rice crispies it's working good, leave it alone and don't open it up to check on it. Once it sounds like it's done, wait 2 days, then open it up and check on it.

[ron71157]

all of my three runs go nuts almost immediately...sounds like roar for acouple of days then setlles down to the rice crispies until its dry...about 5 days with bakers will see about the prestige.

[midnightmaraude]

all of my three runs go nuts almost immediately...sounds like roar for acouple of days then setlles down to the rice crispies until its dry...about 5 days with bakers will see about the prestige.

I don't think I have ever heard this roar you guys speak of? Hmmmm....

[Tracyman0111]

As a newbie, Ive been getting lectured a lot here about not using nutrients in my simple sugar-water-yeast mashes.....does the sweet feed contain enough of the nutrients that Im hearing about??

[ron71157]

Well it would seem like you do need nutrient for a sugar wash. See wineos POSW in the tried and true section..but a grain mash you wouldn't, but then I'm new at this.. Good luck

[johnodon]

I am almost exactly 4 days into my ferement and teh hydro is telling me 1.005 (started @ 1.058). So, I figure a couple mroe days and I will be down to where I need to be. Once that happens, I plan on cold crashing the wash for a day to get everything to settle out.

Then...my maiden voyage on the new pot still.

John

[Pyewacket]

Fun stuff. I have made this recipe several times. I plan to run it out to 3 generations: 15gallons fermenting now, next week strip that and use the backset as well as the yeast bed to start 15 additional gallons, 3rd week strip and use the backset for a final ferment. Once the last batch is stripped...that should fill my boiler for the spirit run.

I should get a few gallons of barrel strength 55abv...I plan on using my stocking stuffer (JD barrel chips) and oak/age them for as long as I can stand.

[BareKnuckles]

Sipping on some aged on charred oak SF as I type... Just put 13 gallons in the boiler yesterday. Gotta wait a couple days to run though. Out of town workin... I pretty much only ferment SF barring some all grain that I'm attempting and the occasional brandy from me screwing up wine...
The folks that drink my hooch prefer it over UJSSM...

[OGB1952]

New subscriber...running the basic recipe with a twist...SF had right ingredients, but Pelletized, turned to mush. 5L mash, 4 inches feed, boiling water, 5lbs sugar, etc. pitched a box of gerber baby cereal into it, then distillers yeast for a 21L batch, plus two Fleishman's year packets. Sounds like popcorn in a microwave after only 30 minutes of pitching the yeast, but I'm afraid it will burn itself out. Can I add sugar after now approx 14 hours? Have I wasted my time and resources altogether? Do I even need to add sugar? I haven't checked SG, temp is a happy 80F...

[OGB1952]

See previous post. Here's an update. Checked SG at abt1.3 just now. Temp in the mash tun is 88F. Bubbling away. I aerated this bitches brew and threw in another Lb of inverted sugar. Total volume in the tun is abt 27L. Never been so unsure of a run as I am this one. Always used sugar washes, or the gerber wash. Just shopping around for an opinion here cuz I am gonna run it even though the alcohol potential looks like only about 5% right now. THOUGHTS anyone?

[Fastill]

See previous post. Here's an update. Checked SG at abt1.3 just now. Temp in the mash tun is 88F. Bubbling away. I aerated this bitches brew and threw in another Lb of inverted sugar. Total volume in the tun is abt 27L. Never been so unsure of a run as I am this one. Always used sugar washes, or the gerber wash. Just shopping around for an opinion here cuz I am gonna run it even though the alcohol potential looks like only about 5% right now. THOUGHTS anyone?

Must mean 1.03SG

[johnodon]

I was going to ask this in a more appropriate thread but since I see it referenced here so much I figured I would try here...

Why is it that later generations produce a better product? Is it simply because as generations progress there is less (for lack of a better term) "flavor" in the grains which can be extracted and this produces a smoother product? Just a total guess by me but would love to hear the real reason.

John

[OGB1952]

Correct on my entry...SG was 1.03...could be related to the particulates in the mash. Anyone have thoughts about the remainder of my two posts? Just curious as a first timer dinking around with the tried and true recipes...

[Fastill]

I was going to ask this in a more appropriate thread but since I see it referenced here so much I figured I would try here...

Why is it that later generations produce a better product? Is it simply because as generations progress there is less (for lack of a better term) "flavor" in the grains which can be extracted and this produces a smoother product? Just a total guess by me but would love to hear the real reason.

John

Just the opposite, Flavors get more concentrated because the grain softens and gives up more of its goodies, plus the use of backset helps enhance the flavors of the grain.

[PNWnewbie]

I'm on my third run of this recipe and have one question. If my whiskey starts coming out cloudy, is it able to be salvaged or does it need to just be added to the next still run? It occurs well before the tails but some of it is cloudy and I wasn't sure what this meant.
Thank for the advice.