All Bran Recipe

[der wo]

Although nitrogen is availible from the cereals or dead yeast, the yeast will always prefer the easy available nitrogen from the fertilizer or DAP.
I never failed using high nitrogen fertilizers in combination with cereals. And the amount of nitrogen you added is not way too much IMO. But I never used DAP. Perhaps the problem is not the nitrogen but the high phosphate content of DAP. DAP has 46% phosphate and only 18% nitrogen. I don't know. Looking forward to your further experiments and results.

[rad14701]

I have never used DAP so I can't comment on its performance in comparison to 20-20-20 or 30-10-10 but I can state that it's hard to disrupt a ferment with too much fertilizer... I have backed down on the amount I use, most of the time, however...

[Jamco]

This is a very simple recipe for novices or anyone else who wants an almost fool proof recipe.

Per 4 liters (1 gallon) of water:

Ingredients
* 3.5 cups sugar
* 4 liters water
* 1 cup crushed All Bran cereal
* 2 tbsp active baking yeast

Process
* Simmer equal amounts of water and sugar for 30 minutes or longer to invert sugar.
* Combine boiled components with cold water and cereal to bring up to total volume.
* Let cool to 95F.
* Pitch yeast.
* Aerate for one hour.
* Cap and insert air lock.

Notes
* No lemon juice was used while inverting the sugar. Doing so may or may not be of benefit.
* A full cup of cereal may be more than required for a 4 liter batch. 3/4 cup should be enough.
* With all of the vitamins and minerals present within this cereal it appears that no other ingredients should be required.
* Should fully ferment dry within 7 days.
* The wash should start to clear by the time the ferment is complete so it can be racked directly into the boiler, leaving the solids behind.
* This recipe should provide good results with pot stills or reflux stills.
* Essentially, 1 liter water, 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup cereal, 1/2 tablespoon yeast, scaled to desired batch size.

Good Luck... Feedback welcome...

Wow thanks Rad just what I was looking for! I recently watched a short segment on the TV show How It's Made, they were filming at a Canadian distillery, they were fermenting a combination of grains I'd assume enzymes possibly sugar & who know what else to 14% abv @ 104 degrees in 4 days, obviously it grabbed my attention So I started searching and I remembered reading you getting some fast results using fertilizer, used the search bar and found your recipe. Scaled it up to a 50 liter wash on 10/13 and I'm almost finished stripping it right now in a pot still. Anyway as soon as it's done I'm going to start another one today so I can combine the batches and re-distill them together. I got caught up reading at least the first 7 pages of the thread and had to stop and say thank you for sharing your knowledge & experience, I couldn't have done this without you

[rad14701]

Wow thanks Rad just what I was looking for! I recently watched a short segment on the TV show How It's Made, they were filming at a Canadian distillery, they were fermenting a combination of grains I'd assume enzymes possibly sugar & who know what else to 14% abv @ 104 degrees in 4 days, obviously it grabbed my attention So I started searching and I remembered reading you getting some fast results using fertilizer, used the search bar and found your recipe. Scaled it up to a 50 liter wash on 10/13 and I'm almost finished stripping it right now in a pot still. Anyway as soon as it's done I'm going to start another one today so I can combine the batches and re-distill them together. I got caught up reading at least the first 7 pages of the thread and had to stop and say thank you for sharing your knowledge & experience, I couldn't have done this without you

Thanks for the kudos, Jamco...

One thing I want to add is that acid IS required to adequately invert your sugar, otherwise just dissolving in hot water will suffice... The act of inverting separates the glucose and fructose from the sucrose which, theoretically, allows the yeast to perform its task more efficiently... I have posted a summary about inverting sugar in several topics here in the forums - perhaps even in this very topic...

[Jamco]

Thanks for the kudos, Jamco...

One thing I want to add is that acid IS required to adequately invert your sugar, otherwise just dissolving in hot water will suffice... The act of inverting separates the glucose and fructose from the sucrose which, theoretically, allows the yeast to perform its task more efficiently... I have posted a summary about inverting sugar in several topics here in the forums - perhaps even in this very topic...

Well shoot................I threw some Citric acid in the first batch when I was inverting the sugar even though the recipe didn't call for it. Suppose it's too late now's in the fermenter just waiting to cool, should be ready to pitch yeast etc in 20 minutes, guess I might have to wait an extra day or so to finish. I did make a mistake on my first batch and tripled the amount of cereal, I stripped it real slow, since today was the first day I used my new electric boiler I just finished this week, real happy so far. Anyway it was tasting pretty good to me, my 10th quart was 50% and seemed drinkable, I think I'm gonna like this recipe. Gonna have to try some samples in about 5 more minutes..............

[Wiz of Oz]

Big shout out to you Rad and this recipe.

I put together 3 All bran washes this week for the first time ever. I used Rads last recipe posted in the locked version of this tried and true. I followed it to the tee except I used epsom salts vs fertilizer and I went with 3.5 cups of sugar per 4 liters of water. I followed the instructions and boiled water and sugar and cereal and water and cooled to 95F before I pitched yeast.

First wash I pitched Monday around midnight, second and third were on Tuesday around 2:00pm and 4:30pm respectively. I checked on them periodically, they smelled great while fermenting, as I keep them in my downstairs bathroom shower. Its a small room and I keep a little space heater running to keep the temperature up and I kept checking to ensure it was indeed staying warm enough.

I went in and checked the first wash this morning, its original SG was 1.076 and when I checked today around noon, 84 hours since pitching yeast, temperature of the wash was 81F and well my hydrometer only goes to .990 and it was a bit below that mark so with temp adjustment I figured it was in and around .991. In 84 hours! Unreal!

I racked that first wash into a glass carboy and have it out in my garage to see if I can get it to clear up a bit more but I have to say that I was impressed at how clean it came out of my fermenter. I even had a wee bit to taste and quite enjoyed it.

The other two washes should be done tomorrow, I'll check SG and see, then its going to be a busy weekend of stripping for me and I can't wait!

Thanks again Rad for taking the time and sharing this with all of us. Up until now all that I had done was rum. It's all I did my first two years at this hobby and this is my first foray outside of rum and so far I am quite impressed!

[rad14701]

Wiz of Oz, it sounds like you're having great success with this recipe... Please keep us posted on your progress... Will you be pot stilling, or running through a reflux column, upon completion...???

[Wiz of Oz]

Hey Rad I love it so far. I am blown away at how well this recipe works during fermentation and its dead simple to follow.

I don't have a reflux column, well at least not yet, so this will be pot stilled. I will be going for a more neutral with this one as I really want to try Odin's gin and use the All Bran as the base. It's going to be a fun experiment to see how many distillations it takes as I have read that some guys will distill up to 4 or 5 times in their pot still. Seems key is to keep distilling, cutting, watering down and distilling till that back set is clear when done.

I'm going to check those other two washes this morning to see where they are at. Then hopefully get a couple more washes on the go and do some stripping runs tomorrow.

I'll keep the updates coming!

[Wiz of Oz]

Well a busy weekend for me. I started another 3x 25L All Bran ferments on Saturday and they are happily bubbling away downstairs. Today I stripped my first 3 All Bran washes and ended up with around 20 liters of 34% abv low wines. Since I have only done rum washes to date this was hands down the cleanest stripping runs I have done. Hopefully I'll strip the 3 I started yesterday next weekend.
Really impressed so far with this recipe. Thanks again Rad!

[Wiz of Oz]

Stripped the other 3x 25L washes this weekend and I now have a total of around 40L or 10 gallons of 34% abv All Bran low wines in two 5 gallon carboys. Hopefully going to try and get a spirit run done on one of these carboys this weekend coming up.

[Wiz of Oz]

Happy New Year one and all. Keeping my progress updated here. We have had a very unusual spell of cold weather here that is seriously messing with my stilling time and I am getting backed up!

I did however manage to get one spirit run done on one of the 5 gallon carboys of low wines and I fermented another 3 x 25 liter batches of All Bran during the holidays. The spirit run went smoothly albeit a little cold in the garage and took me about 10 hours including set up and break down. I collected in small jars as usual, made a large fores cut as I had not taken anything when I was stripping, and all said and done I collected about 10 liters during my spirit run. I was impressed at how clear my backset was once the run was done after only stripping and one spirit run on my pot still.

Cuts are still a bit tricky for me as I have only been at this a few years now and have probably only done around 10 or so spirit runs. It is true that with each spirit run it is getting a bit easier to make the distinction but I still feel like I have a ways to go. After cuts were made I ended up keeping around 4 liters @ 74%abv. The other 6 liters I set aside as my feints.

A question for Rad. Should the 6 liters that I have for feints just be added to my next wash that I strip? Or is there something else I should do with it. I have done an all feints run with my rum feints but I have read that rum feints are a special case and can be done in a pot still with success.

I really need my weather to warm up as I still have those 3 x 25L washes to strip and then do a spirit run on, plus I still have a 5 gallon carboy filled with low wines that need a spirit run. Not to mention that I will need to combine those spirit runs together and do at least 1-2 more spirit runs. That is a solid 4-5 days of stilling! Sure wish I could get stilling on just more than weekends!
Cheers

[rad14701]

A question for Rad. Should the 6 liters that I have for feints just be added to my next wash that I strip? Or is there something else I should do with it. I have done an all feints run with my rum feints but I have read that rum feints are a special case and can be done in a pot still with success.

First, congratulations on the successful run...

As for reusing your feints, how you utilize them ends up being personal preference... I use both methods you described... If you are pot stilling then adding the feints along with the next stripping run will help augment the flavor profile while adding more alcohol into your low wines... I use this method most of the time when pot stilling... When doing reflux column runs I usually save all of my feints up from stripping runs and the spirit run for a feints-only run through the reflux column... In fact I just did a 2.75 gallon feints only run a couple hours ago in my 3 gallon electric boiler and reflux column with feints diluted to 40% and ended up with ~3 quarts of 94% after cuts and blending... That will end up being ~6 liters/quarts of 80 proof vodka for the SOH...

[Wiz of Oz]

Awesome! Thanks Rad and that a nice little pull you just did with your feints very nice indeed.

[kimbodious]

From the success and demand for my first batch of this recipe (sort of), I have embarked on doubled production run. This is hopefully to have enough to meet demand and yet have plenty to experiment with ageing. My recipe has drifted slightly from Rads but essentially it is still using a version of processed wheat bran.

I am using homebrand Processed (wheat) Bran which does have any of the added extras that All Bran includes. To make uo for that I add a crushed mega vitamin B tablet (25 litre batch). So the recipe is 500g pack of Processed Bran, crushed vitamin B tablet, 1/3 cup Bakers Yeast and 5kg raw sugar.

But I am not making a neutral. I add 5 litres of backset to the next ferment (generations). Last batch I did 3 generations before the final stripping run. This I am ageing with 1 SD medium roast french oak domino per litre of cask strength spirit (14 weeks to date). I have ended up with a smooth clear bright dark-golden full-flavoured whisky-style drink. My friend set up a tasting comparing the wheat bran spirit (I call seventhirty) with a favourite single malt of his. He is generous with his praise support and scotch. It was hard to compare apples with oranges but the wheat bran spirit came across as being very smooth and full-flavoured but not as complex in flavour as the Glenlivet.

[Wiz of Oz]

Just another update on my progress.

It finally got warm enough that I was able to spend a solid weekend in my garage and a good 15 hours of stilling time. On Saturday I managed to get another 75 liters of All Bran stripped down to around 5 gallons of low wines @ 34%-35%. On Sunday I ran a spirit run of the previous 75 liters of stripped All Bran. It too was around 5 gallons of low wines.

Spirit run went very smoothly again and I ended up collecting approx 11 liters of spirit in small (250ml) increments. Did the cuts last night and I think this whole cuts thing is getting shall I say easier. I say this because while the still is running I have been smelling and feeling the spirit all along the run. Taking some and rubbing it between my hands to see how it feels and smells and then taking notes as to where I think the transitions are happening, heads to hearts, hearts to tails. I left my notebook alone last night and tasted my way through the run and made my cuts as usual. I was pleasantly surprised that where I made my cuts was damn near right on with the cut points I noted during the spirit run. The senses are starting to align and I couldnt be happier!

Since the end of November I have managed to ferment 225 liters of All Bran. 150 liters has been stripped and had 1 spirit run. The other 75 liters have been stripped and I have one more 5 gallon carboy to do a spirit run on. Once that has had it's spirit run and been cut I should have around 12 liters of cut spirit sitting at approx 75% abv. Then those 12 liters will need to be diluted and put through another spirit run.

Time will tell how much I will keep out of that and whether or not it needs another spirit run. I am assuming that since everything has been stripped and had one spirit run with cuts that the heads and tails quantities will be less the more distillations I do.

I think I may need to get on starting some more All Bran washes. My end goal is to make a good amount of Odin's gin and also have a bunch of "vodka" to drink. Not sure how much that is going to take but I have a feeling I'm no where near having enough.

[Wiz of Oz]

Managed to spirit run my last carboy of All Bran low wines this weekend. So all said and done I have stripped approx 225 liters of wash, which resulted in roughly 75 liters of low wines. All of which has now had one spirit run and has left me with 12-13 liters of approx 76% abv spirit after cuts.

Hopefully this coming weekend those 12 liters of 76% abv will get diluted down with water to 35% or so and get another spirit run. From there I will make cuts and see what I am left with and determine if I need to do another spirit run.

As I mentioned in my earlier posts I am doing all of this in my pot still with the end goal of getting a neutral in which to make some of Odins gin.

With my rum runs it is always a strip, then a spirit run, cuts and aging. This will be my first time running something for the third time. Is it to be expected that there will be less heads and tails cut with each additional spirit run? I am assuming so but you all know what assuming can do. Also do I need to take a fores cuts when doing additional spirit runs?

Cheers
Wiz

[kimbodious]

I messed up blending one time; mistakenly added back a jar of heads. I re-ran the blended material as a spirit run. I made cuts but only collected the equivalent of that mistakenly added jar of heads before I was in to the hearts. There was no tails; just this watery version of the hearts.

I was making a brown spirit (Nutri-Grain recipe using generations) and believed I lost some flavour by re-running.

[Spriit Tisler]

Do you guys spirit run this batch directly or do you prefer stripping it and then spiritizing it?

[cranky]

Do you guys spirit run this batch directly or do you prefer stripping it and then spiritizing it?

I have been known to do it either way, generally I liked to save some of the hearts from the stripping run to add back then rerun everything else as a spirit run. Any more it's one pass through the flute with a little reflux, save the best and make vodka with the rest.

[Wiz of Oz]

Well my first neutral out of my pot still is complete and boy what a labor intensive process, an enjoyable one but very labor intensive. Might need to build me a bokabob in the future to cut down on the time.

I started out with a total of 225 liters of wash, all of which has had a stripping run and 2 spirit runs. I was quite strict on my final cuts on the 2nd spirit run and was left with a little over 5 liters of 68% abv. This will yield me approx 8 liters of 43% abv neutral spirit of which I plan on using about half to do a gin run and the rest I will keep as a neutral.

Since this was my first attempt at a neutral and not really knowing what to expect, I am quite happy with how the final spirit tastes. Perhaps a little disappointed with the end volume I got considering how much time went into this but you get what you get and thats all there is to it.

A big shout out again to Rad for this great recipe and this thread. I now feel confident that I can produce a nice tasting neutral with my pot still.

Next step is my gin run, then back for another round of neutral!

Thanks again Rad!

[Spriit Tisler]

How much do you keep neutrals from this recipe? Like per 40 liters or 10 gallons etc? For last run I got about 3.5 liters of 70% strip which translated into 2.5 liters of spirit which only 1-1.5 liters were kept.

[artooks]

Hi,

I would like to ask a question, in the Tried and True recipes, Rad's All Bran Recipe at page 3 there is the final recipe, about inverting sugar it says that simmer equal amounts of sugar and water, but from what I read it is said that acid or equivalent is needed for inversion, is that so in this recipe also ? or no need for that ?

Thanks

[der wo]

That's right. For inverting you would need to add an acid. Citric acid is what the most here would use. I don't know why rad didn't write it there.
But inverting is an optional step. The most members don't do it.
IMO you should only do it, when you also have calcium carbonate (oyster shells, gardening chalk) at home to buffer the pH before adding the yeast.
Somewhere on hd are detailed instructions to invert sugar. I don't find it at the moment. Perhaps you will find it easier outside of hd with google, bakery or juice making perhaps.

Edit:

So for 1:1 - how much water and citric acid would it be? Is it by weight for volume? Also, I treat all of my washes with 5.2 buffer, so the acid shouldnt be a problem.

Per pound of sugar (2 cups)

1/8 teaspoon citric or tartaric acid

OR

2 teaspoons lemon juice

OR

3/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

from here: http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =3&t=24072

[artooks]

Hi Again,

I want to ask you two questions about this recipe,

First of all I did heat up 1.5 lt of water and melted 1.5 kg sugar in it, in another
Bowl ı heat up 1 lt of water and added the crushed corn flakes I could not find All Bran
Then ı mixed everything in the fermentar boiled sugary water simmered corn flakes
Added epsom salt and mix everything then ı boiled 3 small spoon of yeast and added as well,
Added remaining water topped until 25 lt checked OG: 1.074, aerated with pure O2
then pitched yeast and it immediately Started bubbling.

My 1st Question is: I did not find All Bran what difference it makes if using classic wheat and rice cereal ?

My 2nd Question is: I only boiled water and melted the sugar so what it could change ?

Overall does my proccess looks correct ?

Please correct me if I did something wrong but as is what outcome could I get ?

[der wo]

Rad uses AllBran, because there is a lot of added vitamins and because it is whole meal, what has more vitamins too. I would search for something whole meal and with vitamins. But generally it will work with cornflakes too. Why epsom salt? The original recipe doesn't have it, and the recipe on page 3 has fertilizer, not epsom salt. Anyway, it's ok.

1.5kg sugar, total 25l = 1.074???
Are you sure, you posted the right numbers?
Perhaps 5kg sugar?

Genrally you tend to overcomplicate things like in your other threads. Why? Because you don't have much practical experience. I would simply take sugar, cereal, fertilizer/epsom in the fermenter, pour boiling water over it to sterilize everything and solve the sugar, top up cold to 25l, aerate and pitch yeast. But that's me. You have to jump into the water to learn swim.

[artooks]

Der Wo,

I already did it finished it, if you look at page 3 rad says
Fertilizer or Epsom salt maybe you did not see it, I used a total of
5kg but melted 1.5 kg with 1.5 lt water and added the rest it is already
Fermenting I am not complicating things just asking 2 questions to do it
Better next time.

[still_stirrin]

artooks,

Yeast love magnesium...which is a component of epsom salt (magnesium sulfate). But it also introduces sulfur, which can add a stinky aroma. Fertilizer is nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Yeast love it, the phoshorus is a great nutrient for cell budding. And potassium promotes healthy cell structure. Nitrogen is energy, also good for growth.

So, the salts you use can make a difference.

If you only read 3 pages of the recipe, you missed a lot of discussion here. Keep reading...and keep on keeping on.
ss

[sergiolis]

Hi,
Allbran is plenty of nutrients and vitamins. Actually if you want make it simple and you don't like to add compounds you don't know, you can ferment it straight.
Water+sugar+allbran and yeast is what you need.
I usually add about 4g boiled yeast per gallon because it is also a nitrogen source.
To invert sugar means to separate glucose and fructose molecules that form sucrose. It is a job the yeast have to do but if you do the job you make things easier for it.
1g of citric acid per 1kg of sugar is enough... Time you are heating and simmering the syrup also helps.... Adding this proportion of citric acid you will not change de pH significantly and probably if your water has a standard pH you won't need buffers.
What I'm trying to say is that in particular this wash is very thankful and just with the basic ingredients I mentioned works very well...

[artooks]

Thank you very much Still Stirrin, I am reading it now, vey interesting subject.

Sergiolis, thanks for the explanation, the only thing is I did this with Kellog's Special K, I could not find All Bran so what difference does this make ?

[artooks]

This is Kellogs Special K Nutrients