Best sugar-wash?

[Karstr]

What's youre favourite sugar-wash, and why? For a clean product.

[Wildcats]

SSS. Nice easy and clean. My other is All Bran. For the same reason. Cheer's

[Archee72]

SSS too

[Yummyrum]

SSS
viewtopic.php?p=7547092#p7547092

[Salt Must Flow]

Shady's Sugar Shine is my current favorite.

I used to always use Wino's Plain Ol Sugar Wash which is a very similar recipe, but it doesn't have the added boiled yeast for nutrients Like Shady's Shine. I really don't know if there's much of a difference between the two end products, but I don't mind the addition of the boiled yeast.

[Saltbush Bill]

I think you will find that Shadys Sugar Shine will get most of the votes......including mine.

[TwoSheds]

I'm a fan of the TFFV method. I say method because I have done it to the recipe and with some mods.

It's a great base for gin, limoncello, cinnamon liqueur, and even vodka. It throws together quicly and has never stalled or crashed on me which is more than I can say about other sugar neutrals.

But try out multiples. For your taste, ingredients, gear, and methods you'll find one that works for you.

[Demy]

I get my best product by adding a part of barley malt, a little complex nutrient and boiled yeast to the sugar wash. If you add enough malt, often just the malt is enough.

[TwoSheds]

I get my best product by adding a part of barley malt, a little complex nutrient and boiled yeast to the sugar wash. If you add enough malt, often just the malt is enough.

Funny, that's the mod I make to TFFV. Instead of wheat bran which I'd have to buy (and Bob's Red Mill doesn't give anything away) I use leftover wheat or barley malt. Just because I can, I mash it as you would for all-grain then dilute and add the sugar.

I've had mixed results but never been thrilled with sugarheads/gumballheds on spent grain but might get around to trying it again this spring when I do some off-grain distilling again.

[haanbrand]

For me TFFV also. It is easy, cheap and works everytime and comes out super clear for me.
I also use this as base for many other concoctions...

I will have to try SSS out of curiosity now

Cheers

[Karstr]

I have started a TFFV wash, in my pressure fermenter. Hoping the pressure will give it less yeast-taste. Next one I will try a SSS, for comparison.

[still_stirrin]

I’m a fan of Rad’s “All Bran” recipe. Clean, consistent and economical. It makes a great neutral.
ss

[Yummyrum]

Just an odd thought , I stopped making Birdwatchers ( TPW or Tomato Paste Wash) years ago but these guys at Dobsons Distillery have been using it for years and still do as a base Nuetral for their Gins .They have won many awards for their products . They have big fermentation room full of 1000 litre IBCs full of Birdwatchers .
I guess my point is that Birdwatchers is now considered to be an old outdated recipe compared to the newer improved ShadyShine or TFFV but it can’t be that bad if it is able to provide a quality product on a commercial scale .

I really don’t think there is that much difference between any of the popular Sugar washes once you have stripped them and run them through a reflux still . Pot stilling , sure , but that is not really the still of choice for a sugar wash and to be honest , sugar washes are invariable made to be a neutral. .

[Stonecutter]

That is one helluva website they have there Yummy wooo!

Shadylane’s sugar shine has never let me down. It really doesn’t get much simpler than his recipe.
I’ve got about 2 gallons of 50% sitting downstairs right now. It was run through my CCVM rig and so far is the cleanest run I’ve done to date.
IMHO a one and done through a 4x4 plater makes a damn fine drop though too.


Welp, I’m headed downstairs if anyone needs me.
Thanks again Shady

[Renhoekk]

For anyone with a reflux rig that can produce 91% ABV and up, I think the usual go-to recipes all do a good job of making a clean spirit (FFV, TPW, SSS). While there are some differences, in most situations the differences aren’t deal breakers and stillers should pick the recipe they’re most comfortable with.

For pot stillers, my order would be SSS, TPW, FFV (if the goal is to produce a spirit with the least taste and smell)

[Salt Must Flow]

Just an odd thought , I stopped making Birdwatchers ( TPW or Tomato Paste Wash) years ago but these guys at Dobsons Distillery have been using it for years and still do as a base Nuetral for their Gins .They have won many awards for their products . They have big fermentation room full of 1000 litre IBCs full of Birdwatchers .
I guess my point is that Birdwatchers is now considered to be an old outdated recipe compared to the newer improved ShadyShine or TFFV but it can’t be that bad if it is able to provide a quality product on a commercial scale .

I really don’t think there is that much difference between any of the popular Sugar washes once you have stripped them and run them through a reflux still . Pot stilling , sure , but that is not really the still of choice for a sugar wash and to be honest , sugar washes are invariable made to be a neutral. .

I may have to give Birdwatcher's Sugar Wash a try for my next batches. Tomato Past appears to be less expensive than boiling yeast for nutrient. The price of yeast has tripled in my area over the last couple of years. It will be a strange change from seeing a nice, hazy yellow wash to a redish looking wash.

Do you think there would be any drawback using Vitimin B, DAP, Epsom Salts and Citric Acid (instead of Lemon Juice) like I normally do with Shady's Sugar Shine?

[shadylane]

Yeast really like Deathwish Wheat germ.
Potstill for a wheat whisky or reflux for Vodka.

[bilgriss]

All Bran or Death Wish. They are clean, but they also have the potential for some nice flavors. So you have a wash that will be great distilled for vodka, or if you want to give it a try, they don't age badly on wood.

[badbird]

Over the years I have ended up with a combination of boiled Wheatbix / biscuits, tomato paste and the usual Epsoms, DAP and sea shells. To me the wheat adds a little something and covers any slight medicinal flavor from the tomato.

[TwoHedWlf]

I may have to give Birdwatcher's Sugar Wash a try for my next batches. Tomato Past appears to be less expensive than boiling yeast for nutrient. The price of yeast has tripled in my area over the last couple of years. It will be a strange change from seeing a nice, hazy yellow wash to a redish looking wash.

Do you think there would be any drawback using Vitimin B, DAP, Epsom Salts and Citric Acid (instead of Lemon Juice) like I normally do with Shady's Sugar Shine?

Hmmm, I Here it's about $5 for 150g container of yeast. The for the 25L batch I just did it used about 1/4 for boiling 1/4 for fermenting. So about $1.25 for boiling per batch. Plus about a buck for vitamin pills, magnesium, don't know how much DAP is because I can't find any.

Vs

Looks like 2 cans(A little bit left over) of store brand tomato paste at $3.60

Probably within a buck or so, close enough to disregard the price difference as a factor, I think.

[Salt Must Flow]

I may have to give Birdwatcher's Sugar Wash a try for my next batches. Tomato Past appears to be less expensive than boiling yeast for nutrient. The price of yeast has tripled in my area over the last couple of years. It will be a strange change from seeing a nice, hazy yellow wash to a redish looking wash.

Do you think there would be any drawback using Vitimin B, DAP, Epsom Salts and Citric Acid (instead of Lemon Juice) like I normally do with Shady's Sugar Shine?

Hmmm, I Here it's about $5 for 150g container of yeast. The for the 25L batch I just did it used about 1/4 for boiling 1/4 for fermenting. So about $1.25 for boiling per batch. Plus about a buck for vitamin pills, magnesium, don't know how much DAP is because I can't find any.

Vs

Looks like 2 cans(A little bit left over) of store brand tomato paste at $3.60

Probably within a buck or so, close enough to disregard the price difference as a factor, I think.

In my area, I used to be able to buy 2 lbs of Fleischmann's yeast for $5 at Sam's Club. Now they don't carry it anymore. Amazon sells 2 lbs for $15 ! ! ! No one in my area sells yeast by the pound or in 2 lb packages. That is my reason for questioning using overpriced yeast as a yeast nutrient.

[shadylane]

Fermax is a readymade substitute for PUGIDOGS "yeast bomb"
But is more expensive per pound compared to the Pugi's DIY option.

[Garouda]

What's youre favourite sugar-wash, and why? For a clean product.

No hesitation, Ted's Fast Fermenting Vodka.
Why? Due to the wheat bran providing nutrients to the yeasts as well as particles for them to stick to, (which helps to keep them suspended in the fermenting fluid).
Reference Dr. Clayton Cone, of Lallemand, Nixon & McCaw (2001) The Compleat Distiller p.13...

I don't care about the taste that may come from the bran, with my VM still I get a neutral even from a molasses wash...
TFFV is a bulletproof recipe that never stalled or crashed. I got one batch that failed, but it wasn't TFFV!

[Yummyrum]

……with my VM still I get a neutral even from a molasses wash...

I’m too far from you to pop around to have a taste Garouda , but also as a firm admirer of the VM and it’s ability to make a neutral , I’ve never been able to knock the Molasses out of an all Molasses Rum wash even after a prior stripping run . …… There is always a distinctive Rum backbone . ….. not that I mind , I deliberately use it to make a Bacardi style White Rum .

[Garouda]

Hi Yummy, you are always welcome to drop by.
I usually have three stripping runs for one spirit run. To get a neutral from molasses I do not use my 50cm boiler but a smaller one, 40x40cm, the ferrule is Ø6" so I gain the eight of my Ø8"-->6" reduction and I make the riser as high as possible. The higher the riser, the purer the product, the sky isn't the limit, but the roof...
At the moment, I'm more in the Bourbon sector, but I have some TFFV stripping runs to treat, so I'll take a photo of my still at max height to show you.
To be honest, the first time, I did not expect to get a neutral. I noticed it when tasting the product.
I usually collect two bottles @250ml and the rest @ 500 ml, and I taste each 500ml bottle to check the quality.
I do not claim that all the product is a neutral, only part of the heart, maybe 50%-60%, I do not remember, I use the rest to make rum, after adding some tails and sometimes a few cc from my second 250ml bottle. The neutral becomes gin and an orange liqueur like Curaçao, we have untreated oranges in the garden.
Remark: molasses is also sugar and this post is also about TFFV sugar wash...

[still_stirrin]

I’m with Yummy on this one.

When making a molasses ferment/rum, I usually strip and then run through my VM reflux column (an insulated 2” x 1 meter, glass marble packed column). And because I use the raw deer-lick molasses to make it, I often have to run the final (reflux) cut through the potstill one more time. And still, the white rum has a molasses flavor.

Perhaps if I used white sugar and some brown sugar to make the wash, it might clean up as a neutral with a strip + spirit run through the VM. But, I still favor Rad’s All Bran recipe for making a neutral spirit.

I guess we all have our own (unique) equipment, recipes, and processes which allows us each our own (unique) products.
ss

[Garouda]

I guess we all have our own (unique) equipment, recipes, and processes which allows us each our own (unique) products.

You got it...

[Boozewaves]

What's youre favourite sugar-wash, and why? For a clean product.

Here's a different answer for you .
I use the UJSSM recipe with no added backset , I say this because the corn I can buy locally in big bags and water from the tap (from a reservoir 3 miles away) work so well together . I don't even have to add yeast , seems there's enough natural yeast with the corn , I just get the wash to around 25-30 celsius and it goes off on its own.

There are extra steps before each run but they are not much trouble

large batch of bentonite slurry before it goes into the boiler , not expensive and easy to do . I have two 25 litre containers I put finished wash in , I add it to one , when it settles I syphon off everything but the bentonite and small corn pieces into the boiler through a sieve , add the bentonite to the next container , I reuse bentonite 4 times

carbon filter the low wines , gets rid of residual corn flavours and makes it easier for me to do cuts . I can't do them by smell , I have to taste test diluted

it may seem counterproductive to use corn and then thoroughly filter the corn flavour out but this recipe finishes a ferment quickest for me , and its easy to do , add bag of corn , top up with hose from condenser output while dumping sugar bags in every now and again and its off .

a third of spirit run charge is water and I do 1 hour full reflux . hearts taste like water , very clean . The first time I did it this way I thought a condenser hose was leaking into the collection jar , added a mini hydrometer and it went all the way down

probably seems ass backwards to some but it gets me the best vodka or neutral so I stick to doing it this way

[Karstr]

When I search this forum I find that many used to use fertilizer for a sugar wash. Is this still beeing done? Or are the tomato, boiled yeast or wheat bran better options?

[NZChris]

I use DAP when doing wheat bran and tomato paste. I also use it on the garden.

BTW, wheat bran and tomato paste are my least favorites for making neutral, I make something very similar to SSS.