What'd ya'll make today?

[CR33G3R]

Actually yesterday but I did an all feints/mistakes run through the column.
It is airing now as I type. There was everything in there from over oaked UJ to some not so hot panty dropper and about a gallon of feints from various runs.
I'll see what I get after cuts put it on some JD chips and let it sit for a bit

[cb_j]

I did a Weet-Bix wash for a sac run on my soon-to-be-built pot and thumper.

[Odin]

I made topanimbour vodka today.

Regards, Odin.

[firewater69]

I made topanimbour vodka today.

Regards, Odin.

Odin, what does the tuber taste like? I think I've seen them in the grocery stores, but have never tried them.

[Odin]

Well, it was a sort of challenge. From all the "geists" they make in Germany, today's visitors to my showroom thought that topinambour had the roughest taste. So they wanted to find out if they could turn it into a nice tasting vodka. Smell of the low wines they brought was pretty bad. Intense. Earthy. How they taste "in real life" (not in spiritual life, I mean), I do not know. My guess is a bit like sweet potatoes? Anyhow the vodka turned out good. Pretty neutral.

Regards, Odin.

[Paulinka]

I made topanimbour vodka today.

Regards, Odin.

Wow, that is interesting! We have lots of Jerusalem artichokes in the garden, I really should dig up some if the vodka is tasty. How did you convert the inulin to fructose? Just found some method how to make fructose-glucose syrup from them (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... 200309/pdf), but would love to hear how you've done it.

Thanks,
Paulinka

[Odin]

Hi Paulinka,

Sorry, I really do not know. The mash was made by a German distiller. He also did the stripping run. My tast was just to see if I could convert it into a vodka and we could. I must say that even with a multi plated potstill or hybrid or flute you probably can't. That's why they (Müller Brennanlage Germany) visited me.

Regards, Odin.

[Paulinka]

Dear Odin, thank you for you answer.

[Due51]

Here's what I am thinking about making...

I have a 10gallon ferment of cracked corn&wheat finishing up right now in a big ole bucket. I'm going to rack the wash off the grain into a couple buckets and allow to clear. Meanwhile, I'm going to mash 10lbs of cracked red wheat in one of my igloo coolers (no cook method using enzymes). When that cools I'm going to pour it onto the grain from the previous mash and let 'er rip.

We'll see how that turns out.

[smoCha]

I made a goddamn mess today. 80 lbs of bananas will bubble and foam like no one's business when you throw a cup of yeast in it.

[Kegg_jam]

I made a goddamn mess today. 80 lbs of bananas will bubble and foam like no one's business when you throw a cup of yeast in it.

That mental image gave me a much needed chuckle.

[Jimbo]

Triple Smoke all malt. Sparged, fermentiing the wort only this time

17 lbs 2 row
5 lbs wheat malt
1 lb Briess Cherry smoked malt
1 lb Simpsons Peated malt
1 lb Weyerman Beechwood smoked malt

8 gal mash water,
8 gal sparge water
--------------------
13 gal ferment give or take

1272 American Ale II yeast

[firewater69]

That sounds tasty Jimbo, I like to sparge as long as I don't have corn in the mix, I've been doing several ferments on the grain, & I find it's a bigger pita to squeeze than it is to sparge. Your smoke should come across really nice with 3lbs.

[Radman]

More molasses mix, got two six gallon been fermenting for two weeks! stills not up to much though! pressure cooker as I'm waiting on a keg arriving soon I hope

[ben stiller]

My largest ferment to date. 12 gallons of birdwatchers for some more neutral.

[buflowing]

Final run of the season. Corn and barley. Targeted to refill the barrel that will likely be dumped later this summer.

[firewater69]

I have a never-ending season.

[Beerbrewer]

Made up 20ltrs of Birdwatchers (probably going to turn this into Odin's gin). Also put 5.5ltrs of last years feints at 38% after diluting down from 4.5ltrs of 48%, got about a 3ltrs of end product before cuts.

[Swedish Pride]

Muesli Sugar head - an adaptation of YHBs recipe

300g Oats
300g Jumbo Oats
150g Wheat Flakes
150g Barley Flakes
100g Rye Flakes
250g Cornflakes
3kg sugar
27 liter in total, OG 1.050 to keep the pesky sugar burn away.

First time doing it , sounds tasty enough to me, can't wait to run it

[Jimbo]

So Im runnin this triple smoke mentioned a few posts down. The wash tastes amazing, smokey beer with no hops. Its damn fine. Cant wait to see how this ages up. Ill need to be damn careful with the cuts here on the flute so I dont lose any of the goodness. Ill report back after cuttin and barrelling. Gonna use some used oak (used oak barrel full of used oak sticks) to keep in character with a single malt.

Cheers.

[Tokoroa_Shiner]

Sounds damn fine there Jimbo.

[Jimbo]

Thanks, just wrapped up. pulled 3.5 quarts keep avg 74% off 13.5 gal of wash at 7.65%. Thats 63% yield, Im back to my potstill yields on this one, but thats ok, tasting fine. watered it down some and put just over a gallon in the barrel at 62%. About 7 bottles at drinking proof for 25 lbs of malt. About $3.50 a bottle for a fine smokey triple smoke, all malt whiskey. I do love this hobby.

[midlife-u-turn]

I've got an all malt bubbling away nicely - 13+ gallon mash, 30 lbs (25 2-row, 5 carmel malt) starting gravity 1.058-1.060 range.
Jimbo do you normally Sparge with the same volume as you mash with? Does it make any difference with efficiency? Tips?
Liking the mash in a bag method sure makes cleanup easy.
Let us know how strong the smoke flavor carries over in the last mash.
Thanks much

[MoonBreath]

Ran two runs through my double bubble ...Everything worked flawlessly.. After the initial water valve panic, everything was smooth as silk ..Another 62%, and 61%, very delicious, smooth, very flavorful set of runs ...I've noticed mucho smooth flavor straight from the still with 2-plates..
My single plate has to air and age a couple days to match raw double plate product.
Badass for sure.

[Jimbo]

Jimbo do you normally Sparge with the same volume as you mash with? Does it make any difference with efficiency? Tips?
Let us know how strong the smoke flavor carries over in the last mash.
Thanks much

Yes I do. This time I did 25 lbs in 8 gal mash. Then sparged with 8 more gallons at 170F. I first drain the mash as much as it will go. Then I put in half the sparge water and stir it up real good, repeat the vorlauf, drain, and this time as it goes down I just keep topping up with more sparge water. until its gone. Its a pseudo batch sparge, fly sparge hybrid I guess. Seems to work fine. I got 1.064 in my 13.5 gallons pulled from that run. I put the grain through the mill twice, and used some rice hulls to aid in the filter bed since I had some wheat in there and did a double grind, but thats not necessary usually. I do 50/50 wheat malt/2 row for hefeweizen beers without rice hulls with no issue.

To belabor this yak even longer, this run went to 1.003 but wasnt done fully in 6 days in a cold basement. There was still a thick yeast foam head on it. I ran it anyway but it foamed bad, right into my plates even with the normal 3cc fermcap I use, so I added more, 10cc total this time to keep it at bay during the run. Ran great after that.

PS: Nutmeg, thats a damn fine lookin Leibig!

[midlife-u-turn]

Jimbo do you normally Sparge with the same volume as you mash with? Does it make any difference with efficiency? Tips?
Let us know how strong the smoke flavor carries over in the last mash.
Thanks much

Yes I do. This time I did 25 lbs in 8 gal mash. Then sparged with 8 more gallons at 170F. I first drain the mash as much as it will go. Then I put in half the sparge water and stir it up real good, repeat the vorlauf, drain, and this time as it goes down I just keep topping up with more sparge water. until its gone. Its a pseudo batch sparge, fly sparge hybrid I guess. Seems to work fine. I got 1.064 in my 13.5 gallons pulled from that run. I put the grain through the mill twice, and used some rice hulls to aid in the filter bed since I had some wheat in there and did a double grind, but thats not necessary usually. I do 50/50 wheat malt/2 row for hefeweizen beers without rice hulls with no issue.

To belabor this yak even longer, this run went to 1.003 but wasnt done fully in 6 days in a cold basement. There was still a thick yeast foam head on it. I ran it anyway but it foamed bad, right into my plates even with the normal 3cc fermcap I use, so I added more, 10cc total this time to keep it at bay during the run. Ran great after that.

PS: Nutmeg, thats a damn fine lookin Leibig!

Thanks appreciate it,
I'll see how this batch comes off. I think I'm going to modify my water mash volume next run as I think I ended up with a little more volume than planed. I was a little surprised the starting SG was as high as it was on this one as a result. See what a little modification does next run.

[bitter]

I made 5 gallons of red Ale sorta like Richards red. Only downfall is is takes up a fermentation vessel!

B

[Due51]

Making my biggest mash ever, for me. 20lbs of cracked corn, 4lbs cracked rye, and 6lbs cracked 2 row using my new steam injection system.

[Brutal]

[Paulinka]

Just stripped 10 gal of Birdwatcher's (Faux Cointreau is quite popular in my family), and distilled some aged backset with my multi-malt. It gave a wide, deep flavour into it that came as a bomb at late hearts, some hay, old Virginia tobacco, dark honey, sweet grains, raisins, much like one experience in a well aged whisky.