uncle jesse's simple sour mash method

[rolling]

I have it in an air conditioned little workshop I keep at 78° F. It sat right on 80°F the entire ferment. Using DADY in a 20 gallon stainless pot...full!

[DetroitDIY]

Just gave away the last bottle of my original UJSM ferment... have had another 5 gallons aging on oak for the last 8 months that I have yet to crack into. Had to whip up a little label to gift it properly and thought I would share...

[rolling]

I'll be running my 4th generation tomorrow. I'm using this recipe to hone skills on my new still. I recycled the first run, then put up 2 and 3 with oak. I may keep 4 to drink as is, we'll see.

[CuWhistle]

It is a very reliable recipe. Top of my list.

[Tummydoc]

I have it in an air conditioned little workshop I keep at 78° F. It sat right on 80°F the entire ferment. Using DADY in a 20 gallon stainless pot...full!

Did you use a hydrometer to check SG? I take a week at 80 deg F or longer. Suspect you left potential alcohol unclaimed.

[rolling]

Yes. I've been stilling and reloading every Sunday. It's ready Thursday/Friday but I let it sit till Sunday.

[CuWhistle]

I know this is like asking how long is a piece of string, but!
How long would it be possible to rest the corn / yeast pad after racking off? I've got a bit ahead of myself with fermented wash and I have a few things coming up that will command my time over the hobby. I've put some water over it after racking off, it's late winter so room temperature liquids are not even getting above to 16'C in the shed.
Has anybody done this, and if so for how long?

Other options include just putting a small new batch on it to keep it alive or maybe freezing it.

I could just toss it and start again but it's only on 3rd gen going on to 4. Maybe freezing it is an option.

[DetroitDIY]

You can leave a ferment from a sanitized process under an air lock for years. I've left washes of a number of kinds, fermented in reasonably clean, but not sanitized, 55 gallon drums for a few months and been fine. Grains or pulp or such floating on the top may get funky, but I scoop them off and distill the liquid.

My last UJSM run was 9 months ago. I still have the grains, yeast bed, and some of the wash in a 9 gallon PP bucket to add to my next batch when run one... probably in another year or so. I'll judge at that time if it seems decent or not to start things off sour.

[CuWhistle]

Thanks Detroit. I know what I'll do now. I'll sanitize one of my 25 litre ferment buckets, scoop out the bottom of the big fermenter and lock it up under an airlock. Good thinking.

[rolling]

I'm going to run #5 tomorrow. 20 pounds of sugar each run has made quite a bit. I'm moving away from this recipe after this one, but will keep the same yeast bed going.
I put up most of my product in half gallon jars with one 1"x1"x6" oak stick charred on one edge. The oak has all been used before on various projects. Put up at 55%. I also kept some as is taken down to 40%. Haven't even tried any of it yet. I highly recommend this recipe to get going with a new still.

[Syke]

From Thu Jun 24, 2010 6:01 am:

off-topic but this thread has been going since '05,just in case anyone had not noticed.good going dont ya think!!

Oh, yeah, how about now? Still going strong with over 4000 posts.

[CuWhistle]

Makes it a bugger to find a quick answer though. Not that there are too many.

[Uncle Jesse]

Just gave away the last bottle of my original UJSM ferment... have had another 5 gallons aging on oak for the last 8 months that I have yet to crack into. Had to whip up a little label to gift it properly and thought I would share...

THIS IS EPIC!

[schu777]

Ran my first batch of UJSSM through my 15.5 keg - with a 2" riser copper pipe for 24", 90 degrees with about 24" of 1" pipe, down to 3/4" pipe, then a 90 degree into a condenser about 40" long (32" of it being the condenser). It took a while for it all to get nice and warm and going, but once it was going it was pretty much a pencil stream. I took off 200 mils and feed the weeds. With the rest, I collected at 300 mils to check the abv just to learn about it. After taking the measurement, it all went into a 1-gallon jar. After I was down to 30 abv, the propane ran out - which I was surprised it lasted that long.

Getting the next batch to run through, I poured carefully the backset into a small cooking pot, mixed in the sugar. To speed up the cooling process, I took a large cup (42 oz) of ice and cooled the backset down. Added that back to the fermentors. I added back some grain that I scoped out and filled up the rest with filtered soften water (all the water I've used has been through the water softener). The next morning 2 of the 3 were bubbling away with the airlocks, the 3rd one was bubbling, but no action in the airlock - as I must not have an air-tight seal on that bucket. Tonight would be day 2 and I'll have to see how it is doing, most likely it will be Sunday before I can run the 2nd stripping run.

My plan is to get to 6 gallons of stripping runs - then I was thinking of putting all that in (backset down to 40%abv) and running that for the Spirit run. Since this will be my first collection, I've been reading that people do cuts of 100mils up to 300mils, I'm thinking of doing 200mils for each cut. However, I'm concerned about the amount of product I'd get from doing 6 gallons of striped runs. I would think that of the 6 gallons I would not get the full amount back out on the spirit run. How much in total could I expect to get (including head/hearts/tails) so I'd have a better idea of how many jars to do 200mil cuts.

[DetroitDIY]

Depends on how deep you run in ABV. At distillate collection of 40 ABV (vapor at 40%), your residual stillage should be at about 6.5 %. At 30 ABV = 4%. At 20 ABV = 2.5%. This is the diminishing returns for trying to squeeze every last bit of ethanol out of your charge. Lot's of folks stop at 40%. The heat input (= energy = $) and time it takes for the last bits is just not worth it. But some silly bastards, including yours truely, will run to 20 or 10%.

Let's say your smarter than that, and you decide to collect down to 30%. That means your starting with (according to your numbers) 6 gallons @ 40%, or 2.4 gallons perspective ethanol (6 x 0.4 = 2.4). If you're starting with a higher ABV and cutting with backset down to 40%, then you'll have more volume and at 40% and have to adjust the math. And you collect down to 30% which corresponds to 4% in the boiler. That's roughly 6 gallons @ 4%, or 0.24 gallons of ethanol. So, in my 6 gallons at 40% scenario, you pulled out some 2.15 gallons of ethanol plus a bunch of water out. Of course, your boiler doesn't really have 6 gallons at 4% at the end, because you've been pulling alcohol and water out of it.

Looking at my original pot still run, I ran 2.375 gallons of strip at 36 ABV... ran that down to 10% collected (old habits). Ended up collecting 1.1 gallons at an average of 56 ABV. Ended up keeping 0.35 gallons at an average of 71%.

So you could ball park it by scaling off of that.

And it won't really hurt to collect in small jars (200 ml) to learn, but I shoot for more like 350 ml. And when I know I'm in the good hearts range I switch to quart jars rather than pints. I would definitely do that if I had as much strip as you have.

Good luck Schu. Probably the more important tidbit for your first spirit run on a pot still is to run it slow to avoid smearing so you can pick out where you want to make your cuts more easily.

[DetroitDIY]

THIS IS EPIC!

Cheers to you Uncle Jesse!

Your recipe here makes a great drop and your HD forum is a fabulous gathering point. Thanks for all you've done for us.

DetroitDIY

[Saltbush Bill]

Shes a ripper recipe no doubt about that , this is an excellent recipe for anyone who doesn't care to move on to AG's. Mine has now been going as a constant fermented running on the same yeast pitched on the first ferment "Generation after generation" for about 7 years and approximately 70 generations "stopped counting at around 50 gens ".
Can highly recommend this as a good starting point and a great learning wash for any Newbies.
Experimenting with different grain mixes ,oaks and chars will teach a lot.

[Syke]

Mine has now been going as a constant fermented running on the same yeast pitched on the first ferment "Generation after generation" for about 7 years and approximately 70 generations "stopped counting at around 50 gens ".

Now that's what I wanted to hear! How much backset do you use each time?

[Saltbush Bill]

4 to 5 liters in every 30ish liters of wash .......shouldn't have PH problems at that ratio from my experience.
After a few gens you need to be patient ....the ferment might not take off hard in the first 24 hours or so.
Back when I started stillin an ol stiller told me ..."if a ferment go's slow add a bit less back set next time .....if its going to fast add the normal amount or more..............Ive stuck to that and never had one fail.
Thats just what ol stillers told me ....they might know nuthin

[Yummyrum]

Back when I started stillin an ol stiller told me ..."if a ferment go's slow add a bit less back set next time .....if its going to fast add the normal amount or more..............Ive stuck to that and never had one fail.
Thats just what ol stillers told me ....they might know nuthin

Good stuff Salty , thats what I read about way back n Rum mak’n .... you add Amount of Dunder ( Rum equivalent of Backset ) to adjust rate of fermentation . Lately talk of Dunder is all about Funk and flavour and kinda misses the point it was really added .

Anyway ... back on topic ... Saltys UJ gets better every time I get to try it .
It’s been a while . Can’t wait .

[Saltbush Bill]

Have edited the last post I made to say 4 - 5 litres in a 30L wash.......I use 8L in a 60L ferment. Some of that 60L is grain bed so nearer to 50L of actual liquid. In the fermenter....including the dunder.
Had a couple of UJs at time of last post.

[rolling]

I'm running my second batch after switching out all of my corn for flaked rye. This one has rye backset and feints also. Behaving well and sure smells nice. I guess I'm no longer running Uncle Jesse's recipe so I'll lay low unless someone wants details on the outcome. I've got a lot of 1/2 gallon jars of the original recipe put up on wood now. I've kept some white, but not much. Been a busy season.

[schu777]

Run my second batch last night with the first batch included - went to about 30-35%abv - I ran it hard with a very constant stream, good pencil lead size and had to stop mid-way as the kids were being nuts. Started back up and took about 15 minutes to get back to where I was. Of the 9 gallons of wash plus the 1 gallon and a pint of the first run, I ended up with 2.5 gallons all put together. Due to the speed that the stream was going, I pulled every 400 mils and tested each one just to learn. I know that I'll have to work on getting a much slower pace for the spirit run, but I think it will be possible but will take nearly all night long to do so if not more than that. I'm planning on putting on a pulled pork while the boiler is warming up. Tonight I'll get the next 3rd batch going, as it was late, I was tired from the weekend and just was hot. Last time I ran the first run it was hot and humid, again it was last night. I sure hope that isn't a trend.

[rolling]

As I've said, I have several batches up on wood or sitting white. It's different! The white I've been sipping has been a pleasure. I've yet to try my rye variation, but am hopeful it's as interesting. In a few months I'll dig into my batches up on wood.

[schu777]

For my 4th batch, I finally got my PH tester - 3.0 and 2.9 another bucket. I did a search and found some using Pickling Lime and put in a teaspoon. I decided to do that and just see how it reacts. First, when I was warming up the leftover wash, I felt my bucket and was cold, so I started to pour it into my keg to warm up. Just about when I was getting done, I saw my corn at the bottom. DOH! I grabbed the wrong bucket. Well, didn't lose anything other than maybe some yeasties. Anyway, I put in my backwash with sugar mixed into each bucket. I added a teaspoon of Pickling lime to each bucket and stirred the whole thing up and came back the next morning (7 hours later) and all three buckets going like mad! I'm hoping that by stirring all the contents resulted in a better starting of it, but will see.

[6 Row Joe]

Back on March 30th. (about 6 months) I put some 120 proof Uncle Jessies/ rye on oak. Damn is it starting to get fine. At 120p it is very warming without a bite. Nice and smooth with a spicy finish from the rye. O just diluted it to 60p and it has a nice spice from the start and a smooth mouth feel.
I will have to go back and see if I wrote down what my grain bill was. I don't usually leave a paper trail. I know I added flaked rye as an adjunct sInce UJSSM doesn't boil to mash. I usually produce 3 gallons to match the equipment using 5# of cracked corn and 4# of sugar. I bet I added 1# of flaked rye but I will look back to see. Give it try if you like Rye. I can't imagine what it will be like at 9 mo. to a year.

[rolling]

I scooped out all of the corn and replaced it with rye flakes when I experimented with it. I then just kept it going as with corn. The first batch had corn backset, after that all rye. I ran it three or four more times and the rye held up well, didn't get mushy at all. I don't think the rye is as interesting to sip as the corn version unaged. We'll see how it all ages and go from there. My still is down at the moment while I do a complete restoration on my supershed.

[fizzix]

I scooped out all of the corn and replaced it with rye flakes ...I don't think the rye is as interesting to sip as the corn version unaged.

Don't let this fool you about rye. I guarantee you do a rye MASH and you'll be in flavor city.

[rolling]

Great to hear! I've got a LOT of it in both white and up on wood.

[Tater]

You fellas wanna talk other then uncle jesse's simple sour mash method take it to proper forums/topics or start your own .