First potato wash

[fiery creations]

Now I see why most posts said the juice isn't worth the squeeze (man there's a lot of squeezin').


45# of potatoes
12.5% malted barley
5 gallons of water
3 tbs Red Star dry yeast


Steamed the potatoes whole. Mashed. Then combined with water, and slowly added the barley while heating up to 63C. Left for an hour. Starch test passed and OG of 1.074. I lifted my 400 mash BIAB to see how it worked with potato soup. Surprisingly, it seems to work great. One could definitely squeeze it dry if they felt like putting in the work. After a few attempts I decided to ferment right in my mash pot and strain later. I have no idea why or how Jesse only uses 3 gal of water for this. I might have well have been using putty at this water level.

From what I calculated even with the malted barley this will cost roughly $12 a bottle to make some good hearts cuts of potato vodka.

One huge issue I ran into was poor heat transfer to the slurry. My pot's thermometer was reading 20C higher than measuring it directly. This made me wonder just how off all my temps have been for the last couple hundred gallons of AG mash. It was so bad that by the end the water under my false bottom was rapidly boiling before the slurry hit 63C. I figured it's probably better to have some of the enzymes denature than not hit the right temp and have them work at all.



Questions

1) Is there any way to not have that weird heat distribution issue? I stirred constantly, but it seemed like it just wouldn't get through my BIAB.

2) On Jesse's video he doesn't use a BIAB or from what I could tell a false bottom. Wouldn't this mix be prone to scorching?

3) Any tips on a way to squeeze this and other grains besides a mop bucket? Every one I've looked at has a very small squeeze bucket and would require me to split my grain into so many batches to squeeze.

4) Roughly what ABV is coming purely from the 12.5# of malted barley? I did not expect to have over 10% potential alcohol, and will definitely use a bit more water next time.

5) Jesse ran it through 4 plates. If I do this and the hearts are still too strong, will anything be different if I huck it back in the boiler and run it again with more plates?

[fiery creations]

I regret doing this before being able to strip on the grain.

200 pounds of tedious labor later and I may have enough to do 1/3 strips. This stuff requires a lot of tending to and has an enormous amount of sediment.


Would all this be able to be including if I was heating with a steam wand?

[Dathhu]

Seriously, how many different things are you trying to do all at once?

Seems like you keep popping up in so many different threads every day, different washes, different mashes...

Potato vodka, corn mash, steam stripping...

Maybe just slow down a touch, try making one thing a couple times. Learn from one recipe, see what went wrong, what went right.

Throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks is just not going to set you up for future runs if/when you do try to repeat something.

[fiery creations]

Seriously, how many different things are you trying to do all at once?

Seems like you keep popping up in so many different threads every day, different washes, different mashes...

Potato vodka, corn mash, steam stripping...

Maybe just slow down a touch, try making one thing a couple times. Learn from one recipe, see what went wrong, what went right.

Throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks is just not going to set you up for future runs if/when you do try to repeat something.

As many as I can for the next month I have off before all my time is gone and I can’t dive into any hobbies again for a while.


And I’m far from throwing shit at the walls to see what sticks. I’m spending hours a day reading and learning about a hobby and trying it. Keeping what works and trying to learn more and tweak what doesn’t.


Am I beholden to a time schedule?

[Oystercracker123]

I want to know about the mp38 or mp40. Last transferable one I saw for sale was $25k and went fast.

[fiery creations]

I want to know about the mp38 or mp40. Last transferable one I saw for sale was $25k and went fast.

Ha. I wish it was a transferable. Just a replica wall hanger.

Shot a couple transferables. Definitely loved it over the Thompson and other comparable era guns.

[Dathhu]

Seriously, how many different things are you trying to do all at once?

Seems like you keep popping up in so many different threads every day, different washes, different mashes...

Potato vodka, corn mash, steam stripping...

Maybe just slow down a touch, try making one thing a couple times. Learn from one recipe, see what went wrong, what went right.

Throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks is just not going to set you up for future runs if/when you do try to repeat something.

As many as I can for the next month I have off before all my time is gone and I can’t dive into any hobbies again for a while.


And I’m far from throwing shit at the walls to see what sticks. I’m spending hours a day reading and learning about a hobby and trying it. Keeping what works and trying to learn more and tweak what doesn’t.


Am I beholden to a time schedule

I get the limited time schedule, and yeah, I see from your comments you are actually reading.

My problem, which becomes your problem, is lack of time.

Spirits take time.

Give your neutral a week, give your gin a month, give your rum a year, give whisky as long as possible...

Good luck with your journey, please don't rush it too much.

[fiery creations]

Seriously, how many different things are you trying to do all at once?

Seems like you keep popping up in so many different threads every day, different washes, different mashes...

Potato vodka, corn mash, steam stripping...

Maybe just slow down a touch, try making one thing a couple times. Learn from one recipe, see what went wrong, what went right.

Throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks is just not going to set you up for future runs if/when you do try to repeat something.

As many as I can for the next month I have off before all my time is gone and I can’t dive into any hobbies again for a while.


And I’m far from throwing shit at the walls to see what sticks. I’m spending hours a day reading and learning about a hobby and trying it. Keeping what works and trying to learn more and tweak what doesn’t.


Am I beholden to a time schedule

I get the limited time schedule, and yeah, I see from your comments you are actually reading.

My problem, which becomes your problem, is lack of time.

Spirits take time.

Give your neutral a week, give your gin a month, give your rum a year, give whisky as long as possible...

Good luck with your journey, please don't rush it too much.

Thank you. While I have the time I’m trying to get as much down as much as possible. So that when I’m too busy I’m not thinking about it so much, and when I get the time, I don’t struggling as much with the newbie mistakes and can slow down and enjoy the process.


FYI I didn’t want to start the potatoes so much but found them for .20/lb and couldn’t pass them up. Once I strip to stable low wines I’ll probably not start again for quite some time.

Wish I Had a small plater capable of running only 6 gal of low wines

[Dathhu]

Yeah, if I found potatoes that cheap I'd probably have a crack at them myself.

A steam stripper would probably be the best bet for that, that's a lot of chunky sediment.

You'd probably be able to run it on exposed elements after racking and cold crashing a few times, but there is probably a good chunk of alcohol locked up in the sludge. Probably some good potato flavour too, but without a steamer or thumper it's going to be hard to get.

[fiery creations]

I may just wait to run any of it until I get steam set up. The amount after clearing is sad and going to be too wasteful.

Picked up a couple bottles of potato vodka. One is pretty damn good. Don’t get much flavor but the mouthfeel is intense.

The other…. Eh. Watched a video of grand Teton making it and they use potato flakes and enzymes. That one tastes kinda bad. Lots of banana and fruit flavors make me think they included a lot more than they should have.

[fiery creations]

For anyone reading this in the future. Although the end result is pretty unique and cool, I wouldn’t recommend doing this without a steam set up. This is what I lost to trub/sediment.

After 200 pounds of potatoes and 52 pounds of malted barley the final proofed down product was 1.5 gallons. I got a great price on potatoes so all said and done the cost was still less than $10 a bottle. But holy hell the labor….

I ran it through 6 plates from straight wash rather than low wines because I didn’t have it in me to do this 3-4 more times. Collected all at azeo. End results is a potato less buttery vodka. If I did it again I’d probably use a plate or two less hoping for a bit more flavor.


I didn’t have the balls to try and run the sediment on exposed elements. But a fair amount ended up in the boiler with no scorch, so I’m wondering what I could have got away with. Also annoying that all that crap didn’t scorch but my cleared grain whiskey still does no matter what

[Tim Julius]

It sounds like you’re getting into the thick of potato vodka making! As for the heat distribution, one potential fix could be using a pump to recirculate the liquid, which can help even out the temperature. Also, using an immersion heater instead of relying solely on the pot could help get more consistent heat.

[hwyspirit_2016]

rather than steaming potatoes, Could you grate potato, then squeeze( using cheesecloth to separate pulp from juice) then use juice in wash/ferment . there is a site in Canada named (d’Eons Rappie Pie: Demystifying Rappie Pie) shows what im talking about. When i grate 50 lbs of potatoe i usually get about 25 liters of squeezed fluid .

[Salt Must Flow]

You said you were mixing continuously while heating, but the bag caused an issue with even heat distribution.

Perhaps omit the bag, mix continuously and that should solve that heat issue. Once fermented try transferring into the bag to separate as much as possible. Some people take a 5 gal bucket with a drain valve and drop the bag inside it. Here's a link. Some drill a bunch of holes in the bottom of the bucket and let it drain. You can squish the bag too. Lots of options.