sweetfeed whisky

[natureboy68]

Collecting the ingredients, and am confused about what sweet feed to get, can anyone give a brand name? What should I get at tractor supply? Pellets or no pellets??
Thanks!

[johnodon]

Collecting the ingredients, and am confused about what sweet feed to get, can anyone give a brand name? What should I get at tractor supply? Pellets or no pellets??
Thanks!

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 2#p7027697

[midnightmaraude]

Just finished running 2nd gen. 3rd generation fermenting now. I love this stuff!

[smokindave]

Ran my first sweetfeed last night on my 2" boka......in detuned mode. No packing on a 5' column with a wide open output. Most of the time I was getting really fast drips or a pencil lead sized stream.

I had a little over a 4 gallon batch of wash around 7-8% I am guessing. Not sure what to make of my results. I am airing it now with coffee filters over the jars, and hope to make a fresh attempt at smelling/sampling this run in a couple days. If can get a little hearts out of it above 40% I will keep those, and rerun the rest as low wines along with my next batches.

Here is what I got:

150ml Foreshots into a test cylinger, and tossed away.......very strong acetone smell.

Then, I collected about 8 jars of 250 ml each.......The 8th jar was really getting pretty smelly towards the end......ABV was around 30%, so I switched to my last jar, #9, and refluxed a while, and then collected another 750mls or so.......this last jar of 750ml was just a hair over 12.5% ABV and is very wet cardboardy, buttery sweet, smelling. Yuck.

I realize that all of this differs from person to person with a lot of variables, but would anyone like to give me a hint about where my hearts would be based on my stats?????

I am pretty sure jars 1 and 2 are pretty much all heads. Both were in the 60-65% ABV Range. Jars 3,4,5 were more neutral smelling, and starting to approach the 50% ABV range at the end. 6 and 7 were each still above 40%, but getting a little sweeter smelling, and a hint of the tails smell. #8, I am pretty sure is mostly tails, and was around 25-30%. Still head temp was just a hair under 200*F. I thought about stopping here, but there seemed to still be a lot of alcohol left in the still, so I kept going........got that 9th jar about 4/5th full, and it was still 12.5% at the end. Had to stop here because I had to do some other chores, and I couldn't babysit the still anymore. Still head temp was about 208 *F at this point, so I figured it was almost done anyway.

My guess is that jars 3, 4, and 5 will be my best chance at a single run drinkable product should I have them, but quite honestly, what I tasted was not at all whiskey like. I am hoping that airing and aging will smooth these out. I am thinking about buying some commercial white dog just to do a comparison on on what white dog should taste like.

I will most likely just take all the jars and run as low wines later on. Maybe keep jar 4 and 5, and see what I get on some oak in a few days. Not sure yet, what will yield me the best results.

Thanks,

SmokinDave

[Sparhawk]

Ran my first sweetfeed last night on my 2" boka......in detuned mode. No packing on a 5' column...

Then, I collected about 8 jars of 250 ml each.......The 8th jar was really getting pretty smelly towards the end......ABV was around 30%, so I switched to my last jar, #9, and refluxed a while, and then collected another 750mls or so.......this last jar of 750ml was just a hair over 12.5% ABV and is very wet cardboardy, buttery sweet, smelling. Yuck.

The bigger issue is, how do you reflux with no packing???

[smokindave]

Ran my first sweetfeed last night on my 2" boka......in detuned mode. No packing on a 5' column...

Then, I collected about 8 jars of 250 ml each.......The 8th jar was really getting pretty smelly towards the end......ABV was around 30%, so I switched to my last jar, #9, and refluxed a while, and then collected another 750mls or so.......this last jar of 750ml was just a hair over 12.5% ABV and is very wet cardboardy, buttery sweet, smelling. Yuck.

The bigger issue is, how do you reflux with no packing???

I shut the valve on my output, and ran it back down the column. Minimal reflux effect I am sure, but it was all condensing and reboiling in the column. Am I wrong? I am using a bokakob with slanted plates........so the condensed distillate was overflowing and running back down the column. Isn't that reflux???

That was just at the end.......not really the point of my post. Anybody have any hints regarding my results. I am planning on reading some more "cuts" threads, but I am just looking for some specific experience people have had stripping sweetfeed.

[Ridgerunnr]

One recipe calls for 5 packets of yeast the other only 1????
Is that correct? I have 5g of lavalin ec1118 (1pkg) will it work???

[johnodon]

Ran my first sweetfeed last night on my 2" boka......in detuned mode. No packing on a 5' column with a wide open output. Most of the time I was getting really fast drips or a pencil lead sized stream.

I had a little over a 4 gallon batch of wash around 7-8% I am guessing. Not sure what to make of my results. I am airing it now with coffee filters over the jars, and hope to make a fresh attempt at smelling/sampling this run in a couple days. If can get a little hearts out of it above 40% I will keep those, and rerun the rest as low wines along with my next batches.

Here is what I got:

150ml Foreshots into a test cylinger, and tossed away.......very strong acetone smell.

Then, I collected about 8 jars of 250 ml each.......The 8th jar was really getting pretty smelly towards the end......ABV was around 30%, so I switched to my last jar, #9, and refluxed a while, and then collected another 750mls or so.......this last jar of 750ml was just a hair over 12.5% ABV and is very wet cardboardy, buttery sweet, smelling. Yuck.

I realize that all of this differs from person to person with a lot of variables, but would anyone like to give me a hint about where my hearts would be based on my stats?????

I am pretty sure jars 1 and 2 are pretty much all heads. Both were in the 60-65% ABV Range. Jars 3,4,5 were more neutral smelling, and starting to approach the 50% ABV range at the end. 6 and 7 were each still above 40%, but getting a little sweeter smelling, and a hint of the tails smell. #8, I am pretty sure is mostly tails, and was around 25-30%. Still head temp was just a hair under 200*F. I thought about stopping here, but there seemed to still be a lot of alcohol left in the still, so I kept going........got that 9th jar about 4/5th full, and it was still 12.5% at the end. Had to stop here because I had to do some other chores, and I couldn't babysit the still anymore. Still head temp was about 208 *F at this point, so I figured it was almost done anyway.

My guess is that jars 3, 4, and 5 will be my best chance at a single run drinkable product should I have them, but quite honestly, what I tasted was not at all whiskey like. I am hoping that airing and aging will smooth these out. I am thinking about buying some commercial white dog just to do a comparison on on what white dog should taste like.

I will most likely just take all the jars and run as low wines later on. Maybe keep jar 4 and 5, and see what I get on some oak in a few days. Not sure yet, what will yield me the best results.

Thanks,

SmokinDave

Dave,

Let them air for 3 days. I was absolutely amazed how the smell mellowed at the 36 hour mark. It was night and day!

John

[Sparhawk]

SmokinDave, I imagine the amount of reflux you got with no packing wasn't worth the time it took to do it but to each his own.

Let it air for a couple of days and making your cuts will be much cleaner. Also it depends greatly on what generation you are on it seems to get clearer and easier the higher the generations go.

[brewing304]

I know this has been asked several times, but I have read mixed things on this. So it is not ok to use pellet form sweet feed or it is? I have part of a bag left from deer hunting and it is southern states sweet feed but Itbis all pellet form. I would rather use it for shine if I am able to if not the deer will get it.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

[Ridgerunnr]

Picked up the only avail sweet feed around...heres whats in it:
Grain product, processed grain by product, plant protein,
Molasses, animal protein, calcium carb,salt,manganous oxide
Soduum selenite, vit A,E,D. Ethylenediamine

Plenty of molasses smell..but has pellets..thoughts?

[Dnderhead]

if it was me id git mixed grain like horse feed and use some molasses .then id know what was in it.if you knew what i know you would not use sweetfeed.

[Ridgerunnr]

Dndr...i have easy access to oats m some corn....what would you consider
A good mix and how much molasses

[johnodon]

I collected 800ml of feints (~30% ABV). How much is safe to add to my next generation?

John

[ron71157]

cooked generation III

about 80 OZ....stopped saving at 60 % jar 10..collected another 40 ozs as feints
after much consideration sacrificed jars 9 & 10 to the feints supply

final tally 55 ozs at 69 %

ran my CM reflux with just enough cooling to knock down the vapors and bumped up the heat in an attempt to get it to act more in a "potstill" mode; got a consistent pencil lead stream.
Generation IV in the fermentor tonight just as soon as the backset cools

[FloridaShine]

I will be using Producers Pride All Grain, No Pellets!
Same recipes as posted for Sweet Feed,
Has anyone Distilled this in a 2" Boka Still? Was going to try and run as a Pot Still, This will be my first attempt. Since I just finished My Boka Reflux.
I have a detachable Head, I do have copper packing? So not sure what the best way to run this, Any help would be appreciated
I am starting the Wash in the morning 6 Gallons. I have included a few images of the Boka head and Boiler top I have a 48 inch column for the reflux setup.
I bought a pound of Copper Packing and a bag of 1/4 inch rashig rings. So I should have every thing to go, Also have a detachable needle valve on the output, to run as a Pot Still
Dennis

[smokindave]

2012-12-09_22-50-05_220.jpg

2012-12-09_22-50-05_220.jpg

I will be using Producers Pride All Grain, No Pellets!
Same recipes as posted for Sweet Feed,
Has anyone Distilled this in a 2" Boka Still? Was going to try and run as a Pot Still, This will be my first attempt. Since I just finished My Boka Reflux.
I have a detachable Head, I do have copper packing? So not sure what the best way to run this, Any help would be appreciated
I am starting the Wash in the morning 6 Gallons. I have included a few images of the Boka head and Boiler top I have a 48 inch column for the reflux setup.
I bought a pound of Copper Packing and a bag of 1/4 inch rashig rings. So I should have every thing to go, Also have a detachable needle valve on the output, to run as a Pot Still
Dennis

I just did my first run on my 2" boka. I have a 4' column with my head on top of that. I took all the packing out of the column, ran with the output wide open. Seemed to work fairly well. I collected in numerous jars about (250ml each) just to see what I was getting. I collected 8 jars of 250 ml, starting at about 65% ABV down to just over 20% ABV. I plan to combine everything back together, minus the foreshots, and re-run a second spirit run once I have another stripped batch of wash.

My middle 2 jars in the batch have a really good smell and pretty good taste after airing out for a couple days.

[Ridgerunnr]

Stupid pellets..lol have one bag of useless pellet filled sweetfeed...BUT
Tractor supply has what i need on order and will be here soon.
SO a raspberry filled bucket is taking its place for a few days

[wannaB1]

I ran a little sweetfeed last year and never had a chance to run multiple generations and that's the plan this time.

Hope y'all will clarify a few things for me. I've read a lot on these and never can seem to come away thinking I have my answer.

1. I'm fermenting in a 32 gallon open container and will rack off and let clear for a couple of days once it finishes. Since my racking can will only reach down to right above my sweet feed should I still add some water to keep the yeast happy?

2. I have the container covered with a sheet and wasn't sure what precautions I should take to keep from growing a web for a couple of days.

3. Removing & replacing sweetfeed. I have a hard time telling what is "spent" by just scrapping off the top. Will the spent float if I add water before adding backset with sugar? I've read some say remove and replace 25%....

4. Should I add new grain to the hot backset to kill off any nasties that might be in it? I've only read one person specifically say he did this and no other comments on the subject after.

Hopefully that will get me back going. Thanks!!

[Fastill]

I ran a little sweetfeed last year and never had a chance to run multiple generations and that's the plan this time.

Hope y'all will clarify a few things for me. I've read a lot on these and never can seem to come away thinking I have my answer.

1. I'm fermenting in a 32 gallon open container and will rack off and let clear for a couple of days once it finishes. Since my racking can will only reach down to right above my sweet feed should I still add some water to keep the yeast happy? Water will keep yeast alive for a temperary solution but if left for too long infection will take over as yeast goes dormant. I'd just add sugar and add backset and more sugar after you do your run

2. I have the container covered with a sheet and wasn't sure what precautions I should take to keep from growing a web for a couple of days.Not much you can do in an open ferment, just keep your yeast happy and working and it will reduce chances of anything else taking over.

3. Removing & replacing sweetfeed. I have a hard time telling what is "spent" by just scrapping off the top. Will the spent float if I add water before adding backset with sugar? I've read some say remove and replace 25%....Nothing will be spent in 1 ferment except for the mollassas. You add more sweetfeed to keep the rum flavors with future gererations.

4. Should I add new grain to the hot backset to kill off any nasties that might be in it? I've only read one person specifically say he did this and no other comments on the subject after. It won't hurt and might add to flavor by softening up the grain and pulling out more of the flavors into your wash.

Hopefully that will get me back going. Thanks!!

[wannaB1]

thanks a million!

I have a 14 gallon batch and will siphon off right down to the sweetfeed, so I will still have about 3-4 gallons of actual wort in there. Is there a formula to help me figure how much sugar I should add to hold em over? I'm looking at 48-72 hours before I add backset and all...

[Fastill]

You can keep the ratio up to what the recipe calls for and the same ammount of sugar for the ammount of backset you plan on adding when ready.

[bobz]

To Kentucky Shiner:

Hi---------- I made a batch of this "Sweetfeed Whiskey", and it didn't come out so good. It has an underlying hint of mold to it. I couldn't get the regular, so I bought the pelleted version. and I also didn't use bread yeast. I used distillers yeast. I cut it to 86 proof, and aged it for about a week with some toasted French Oak chips. I have been thinking about running it through my refracting still to get it pure again and just leave it as a vodka. The mess it left in the fermenter was a chore to clean up! I made 3 batches and used the backset for them all. Maybe it picked up those off flavors from that? Next time, I think I'll try some corn liquor.

Bob Z

[FloridaShine]

Hey Y'all,
Do you all use a hydrometer to see when your wash is finished fermenting? or iodine test?
I konw you can just wait till it stops bubbling, but I was going to use a Hydrometer, Bought a hydrometer and Alcoholometer from MileHigh Distilling, Of course both arrived broken, Yeah they replaced but have to wait another week to get. Im in Florida, they in Colorado! I would have though they would have sent faster! even after Josh, Hey I need this asap! Then call back just to find out they shipped regular ground. I bought from homebrew.org, and should have got everything from them they have low rate 2 day shipping! I bought the Making Pure Corn whiskey and test Jar thinking the shipment from MileHigh woould arrive in good shape! Oh well. I know who to order from next time!. Just in case someone orders from these guys!
Dennis

[ron71157]

i wait until the air gap is clear and then check the SG..if its around 1 i think its pretty much done as it would appear that there are some unfermentable sugars in the sweetfeed that might prevent a lower reading.

Have generation IIII fermenting now. this was the first time i did not pitch new yeast and it took 2 days to get going but now is really bubbling away. the flavor gets a little richer with each run.

[BoomTown]

So the question that comes to mind relating to SF whiskey is "To Beano or Not to Beano" How say you?
Boom

[Durace11]

No Beano, the alcohol comes from the sugar so Beano is going to do very little if anything at all.

[Sparhawk]

I ferment in a 32g that has a lid on it, it is not airtight and does not need an airlock. I open it a lot for the wonderful smell.

I usually siphon off about 15 gallons of beer. I replace the grain I want too then put a gallon or so of warm water back in then do my runs. With my pot I have to split the beer into two separate runs. I use the backset from the first first run to mix in 25# sugar, let cool while I run the second then pour it in. Add remainder of water needed to my fill line. Then wait for the lovely aroma.

I have never added any new yeast and have never had a problem with starting.

I usually do OG and final gravity readings for my own amusement. If the final is below 1.000 and the wash is beginning to clear it is ready to siphon. Mine keeps a pretty solid cap until it is done fermenting, then the cap falls. Then you can watch the haze settle in the barrel.

This recipe is so simple I can not believe the amount of complications that people have tried to add to it in the hundreds of pages of this thread, and yes I've read it all.

[Oldskool]

Hey, I tried it as my first attempt. I guess being a newbie after about 6 hours I only got a pint and 1/4 after dumping the first 4 OZ so I gave up, but it tested to 50%abv and has a sweet flavor and smooth. I'm going to try a new batch this week and try to improve my output. I don't think I had a good enough seal on my lid

[Beerswimmer]

I got a 30 gallon wash of this going for the first time last week. I bought "all grains with molasses and protein". Looked good like mostly oats, cracked corn, barley, smells good fermenting. But......I just went to the store yesterday and found out that the main ingredient is soybean hulls. Any guess on how this will turn out?