Deathwish Wheat germ recipe

[Reverend Newer]

Ran this recipe slightly modified but love it.

To 35 gallons reverse osmosis water I added:


24 oz toasted germ

50 lbs sugar inverted

8 lbs cornmeal (needed using)

quite a bit of magnesium sulfate

used a bit of Red Star DADY and 40g of prestarted Superstart yeast


fought to keep pH near 5 for a couple days....was finished bone dry in 5 days.

Can't see how it could me much easier 'cept without the cornmeal, hehehe. Big drop, highly recommended.

Almost forgot to mention that I pressure cooked the wheat germ in RO water for 45 minutes rather than the standard 90 minute boil.

[fizzix]

Time for something new, and this looks and sounds great.
May have to go with the ferment lid just sitting on the bucket because this thing is reportedly robust and explosive!
Thinking Red Star HOZQ8-529 Premier Blanc Wine Yeast because it's cheap and winey like me.

Cover me. I'm going in.

[zed255]

I largely based my neutral recipe on this, with a minor twist. Works great and goes like clockwork (just keep the temperature in check), so I'm sure the original works well too. Makes a nice drop. I'd consider this with added grains for flavour as a faux whisk(e)y base.

[fizzix]

The wheat germ gods were angry today, my friends.
Came up quick, and caught it before too much loss.

[zed255]

I have found a pinch of Epsom helps control foaming while cooking the wheat germ, plus you were likely to add it anyway...

[fizzix]

I have found a pinch of Epsom helps control foaming while cooking the wheat germ, plus you were likely to add it anyway...

Had Epsom in there. Problem was I swapped propane tanks without re-adjusting to a lower flame.
So my bad.

[Ftero]

Like others, I modified the original recipe a little by adding 1/2lb of Oats and 1/2lb of Peated, Malted Barley to the WG.

I recently found a forgotten jar of this that had been sitting on a couple of sticks of charred, French Oak sticks for a couple of years. Amazing!

I just made a BOP out of a keg someone gave me, and christened it making 15 gallons of this.

[HD_Springer]

I see that "toasted" wheat germ is what the recipe calls for. And "toasted" is just raw baked for a few minutes to make it crispy.

My question is: Would using "raw" wheat germ at the same measurements achieve the same results?

Main reason in asking is cost.

[Ftero]

I've never used the toasted variety, and if you read the recipe on the first page, it doesn't call for it.
I just grab what is in the bulk barrel at the local supermarket. It costs 95 cents per pound here. The quality is identical to the more expensive, small packets sold elsewhere in the store. It also ferments just as well with beet sugar as with cane sugar. That's another place to save some money too.

[nateboussad]

You'll find lots of discussion about inverting sugar prior to using it in your wash. Some say it's easier for the yeast to metabolize, but I haven't found any scientific evidence to support that claim. I think (opinion ON) some of this is due to the relative sweetness of inverted sugar(opinion OFF). The following table may help. It's based on table sugar (sucrose) having a relative sweetness of 100.

Source Relative Sweetness
Sucrose
100

Fructose
140

High Fructose Corn Syrup
120-160

Glucose
70-80

Maltose
30-50





Bluestacks Kodi Lucky Patcher

[Avo]

This sounds like a very interesting recipe, and I will give it a try. To anyone's knowledge, does the wheat germ produce any appreciable amounts of methanol in the heads?

[Avo]

I will try this out in the next couple of weeks, and compare it against the several turbo washes I have made. I have had very good results myself with the turbo's. This recipe will certainly be much much cheaper to produce. I use the T500, I will do a stripping run and then a slow spirit run and double carbon filter, as I do like to make the best I can. I will use it for my 'India jewell' Gin recipe and see how it turns out.

I took note that the top-up total will be 6 U.S. galls (or 22.7 litres) used - and not 6 U.K. gallons which would be 27 litres.

[Avo]

This is a great thread, with a promising recipe. I thought it would be great to keep it alive and thriving, so decided to put my few cents in (or pence) I hope to have great success with it, and hope to report back on my experience with it.

I'm in the process of fermenting DWGR. It's certainly a very potent brew - I followed the recipe to the letter. I put on an air lock at 7 p.m. last night, and happened to wake up at 3 a.m. this morning and it was bubbling merrily away. I went back to bed smiling, greatly pleased that it was on it's way. When I woke this morning, I said hello, what's wrong here? - no bubbling. I noticed there was a foam plug blocking the air-lock, and the plactic lid was distorted! - it was ready to blow I pulled out the grommet and there was a whoosh of escaping c02. I had caught it in time - no damage to the ceiling. I removed the air lock/grommet and substituted a length of plastic pipe which I emmersed in a demi-john with a little water. This lasted a couple of hours and finaly blocked. I then remembered how commercial brewers fermented in huge wide tubs with no air-locks, the huge production of C02 coming off the mash was enough to put a barrier up against contamination. So what I did was to invert a 100ml plastic beaker over the lid hole and sat a 200 gram weight on the top to stop it shifting. It's working fine (a waterless air lock) after 2 hours there is some foam being pushed out from under the beaker and plenty of c02. When the ferment quietens down I will put an air-lock on again. I hope to report back later with success on the fermentation & distilling.

[spiff]

I started making this recipe and the issue that I had was the germ wanting to scorch. Otherwise seems like a very easy recipe to follow. I might have found a good alternative to standing at the pot for 30 minutes of stirring... I brought 5-6 gallons to a boil, let it sit 20min, and then add the germ. I can't say for certain how it compares, but I suspect its very much the same if the consistency once done is any indication. 5-6 gallons of boiling hot water has enough capacitive heat to stay that hot for hours.

[Avo]

Hi, I have made this several times. I started off using the T500 then upgraded to a 8 gall Mile Hi rig with a 3 Kw heater.
I use a Rheostat to control the boil. As soon as I get to the boil, I wind the voltage right down to just a quick simmer, I do stir occasionally whilst doing other things. I run it to the recommended time in the recipe. The elements are in the boiler with the mash and I have never had the wheat germ scorch. When the mash is finished I strain the wheatgerm into a bag, then I strain again. When I ferment I leave the bag of wheatgerm in the fermenter to extract all beneficail nutrients from the W.G. Before distillation I remove the bag let clear then rack, leave again for a day and rack again into the still.

[kakashi]

Whew, I just read a lot of posts to get to here.

I've done a few TPW runs so far, and they are pretty good, but I find a hard candy flavour in the liquor. That is quite possibly because I am a noob and was too greedy when doing the head cuts.

I'm trying this recipe out. I settled on a much shorter cooking time for the wheatgerm, based on feedback from @Rad14701. It was actually on the stove for a good hour or more, but I kept needing to top it off with cold water to adjust the "liquidity" as it came to the boil. I didn't want it to burn on the base of the pot, so I stirred often. I had to use two pots, since I am making enough for 85L of liquor, and that meant a *LOT* of wheatgerm and boiling. I'm either going to buy a 20L stock pot or use my Robobrew system next time. I'd prefer the pot for it's much easier cleaning.

There was some black stuff on the bottom of the pot, but not enough I think to affect the overall flavour. I picked out what I could.

I don't have a 120L fermenter as yet, so I split it all up between 3 x 30L fermenters. I measured out sugar for each and took a best guess at wheat mush for each. A few hours later, after a pitch of standard baker's yeast it is all bubbling away nicely. NOTE: it is not explosively bubbling, but I think this is because I am using Australian wheat germ. I'm not sure what is different, but it might be our very strict food regulations.

The lids are on loosely for now. They would be fine locked down with the airlocks off. In fact, I have one bubbling like mad with it's airlock in. It's fine here in Australia. It's really noisy, but not in danger of putting a Jackson Pollack on the ceiling. It's currently 25c, so take that as you will.

I'll try and report back once it's fed through my still.

[fizzix]

I hope it comes out well for you, kakashi. This Wheat Germ is a terrific drink.

[Avo]

I hope it comes out well for you, kakashi. This Wheat Germ is a terrific drink.

Agreed the taste is good as it comes, but if wanting a neutral just carbon filter. The wheat germ initially is the nutrient, and produces a good trouble free ferment.

[MartinCash]

I made 20 gallons (90 L) of DWWG wash intending to run it through the VM column for a slightly grainy neutral to use for a few projects. Fermented with bread yeast at 30 C / 85 F.

I let it clarify until there was very little yeast in suspension.

I stripped it in three batches and it smelled so good I saved a jar of hearts from the last stripping run, I think it was coming out at more or less 50% at the time. I wanted to let the missus taste it. The jar tasted so good it lasted only a day or so. Now the whole batch is getting run thrugh the pot still... forget turning it into neutral!

[HodyMac]

I just did my first stripping run this afternoon.
I turned the heat down about half way through for a ½ pint of hearts. Then powered back up.
Over all pleased. The wife likes that small bottle. I’ve got another 6 gallons to strip, then the spirit run. But, so far, happy with initial success!

[Evil Wizard]

I wish there was more speculation here about what the wheat germ is actually doing for us in the ferment.

I was reading about how the high lipid content of oats suppresses ester formation. http://scottjanish.com/case-brewing-oats/

Wheat germ has less lipids than oat germ, but it is still considerable (previous posts mention a glueyness in the backset that may be an emulsified oil)

so my suggestion is that:

the lipids from wheat germ are suppressing the formation of congeners which cause "sugar bite."

Additionally the speed of the ferment is preventing other flora from producing the precursors of these congeners. And of course the germ is providing nitrogen and other nutrients.

Does this ring true for any of you?

[MartinCash]

I once made Teddysad's Fast Fermenting Vodka with twice the amount of wheat bran (so the same amount of wheat bran as Deathwish has wheat germ) and they came out very similar, so I'm not sure there's that much difference. I think DWWG is a bit smoother but also TFFV is a bit easier to make.

[passiton]

Just my 2 cents, I’m no expert and someone please correct me if I’m wrong. I just ran this recipe x4 and really liked the results. But to make things easier you don’t have to cook all this at once. By heating the sugar with citric acid and wheat germ you are making inverted sugar with wheat germ. You can make the inverted sugar and wheat germ separately. This can be done days or weeks ahead of time and separately, by adding say 20lbs of sugar to two gallons of water plus citric acid and getting it to temp and hold for at least 30 min. This is inverted sugar, lots of info out there about how to make it. Once cooled store until needed, it can last many weeks. Cook the wheat germ down in water the day of mashing in, or even days before but refrigerate until ready. Then just mix all together with hot water to amount needed aerate check ph, temp, check specific gravity and pitch yeast. This is basically how I did mine but in the same day, next time I will invert sugar a week ahead so it’s not so much work on one day.

My striping run yielded a very pleasant nice smelling drink starting at 65% and stopped collecting at 20% spirit run on VM still yielded a very nice spirt at 95-94%

[Brewfiend]

Decided I'm going to make this wash.

[planohog]

water in gallons = X
sugar in lbs = X * 1.67
wgerm in oz = X * 2.67
citrixacid is teaspoon = X * .167

easy to make spreadsheet to calculate your wash values.

[shadylane]

Decided I'm going to make this wash.

Trillions of yeast will love you for it.

[planohog]

trying for 9 gallon wash, boiled 6, added 15 lb sugar,24 oz wheatgerm, 1.5 teaspoons citrix acid 88% ,
running at 212 for 90 min then going in 14 gallon ferment container, will add 3 gallons of chilled water to start the cool down.
ill pitch some ditillers yeast and some ec1118 at 80F and hope I do not flood my garage. ( I will probably create a yeast bomb , get it going in a jar then deploy it. ) ill get a PH,SG reading when it cools down . stand by,.

[planohog]

1.068 SG and PH 5.9 temp 120F and decreasing. this should yield 9 abv if I can get it down to 1.0 , seems normalish numbers with other data i have taken. this morning the foam is growing, its like that old movie the blob, contained , for the time, at 6 hours . is there t-shirts for survival ?

[planohog]

All I can say is WOW, that is nice. Great Producer, in stripping run. Im going to steal some hearts for testing later.

my FG=1.01 ABV about 7.9% ( you need to rack your wash, even after paint strainer. ) there was lots of trub.

[planohog]

maybe sometime I could add a couple of pounds of white corn meal and see what that does to the taste, Its Good Good Good.