Home Distiller

My two basic Gerber Rice washes, started on the 10th. and 16th., have both completed today, along with an All-Bran wash started on the 24th...

Rest assured, I won't be doing basic washes again any time soon due to what I consider to be excessive fermentation times... Based on previous experience with Gerber washes, and the All-Bran wash I mentioned, boiling the cereal and inverting the sugar appears to reduce ferment times substantially... Other tweaks, like boiled yeast and 20-20-20 don't hurt either...

My next round of Gerber washes will use invert sugar at ~14% and boiled cereal, with one batch using boiled yeast...

Not pushing to ~14%, perhaps only to 10% - 12%, would probably yield faster ferment times using the basic ghetto style recipe... It's the last bit of fermenting that drags the time to completion...

More to come...

first run with the 'gerber' this weekend. very nice flavor/smell right from the condenser. tried mixing up some more while the still was running, what a disaster, running from the shop to the kitchen a zillion times, and I still wasn't there when my stock pot boils over and empties itself on the hardwood floor (HA) Aside from really bad foaming while fermenting, i love this recipe. Ended up with a bit more than 4 and half quarts from each run, at 85% Two more loads fermenting now, trying to work up a way to keep them a bit warmer, house is sorta cold for ferments now...

Glad you had a "somewhat" successful run, JeepJunkie... You also got a good learning experience in that you now know why we don't leave stills unattended... You do need to leave some head space in the fermenter, but not a lot...

Yes, the flavor is smooth, if any carries any over at all... I just ran off 2 gallons today myself...

I used my combo still in pot still mode, with the column extension removed and 12 marbles in the bottom of the condenser head... This time I cheated by allowing the boiler to run in reflux mode, pulled of the foreshots and heads (about 3 ounces), switched to pot still mode by opening the needle valve almost all the way for the hearts, then switched back into reflux mode when I started getting into the tails in pot still mode and collected a small amount of higher ABV spirits rather than a larger amount of tails... It was essentially a tails-free run... I stopped collecting when I couldn't collect at more than one drip per second... I know I left good alcohol behind because it would still burn but was getting that cardboard smell... Almost 2 liters in total which was all dumped together, aside from the foreshots, heads, and small amount of tails, because I may run it again in reflux mode for a more neutral spirit... We shall see...

If I fermented 5 gallons of this and had a 10L boiler would you recommended running it all through quickly once and then doing secondary runs for the final product? I've heard it's easier to make cuts by re distilling it. Will you lose any of your product this way?

tykenfitz wrote:If I fermented 5 gallons of this and had a 10L boiler would you recommended running it all through quickly once and then doing secondary runs for the final product? I've heard it's easier to make cuts by re distilling it. Will you lose any of your product this way?

That depends on whether you are running a pot still or a reflux column... This recipe produces a very forgiving wash...

I've run both ways... I've also run in hybrid reflux mode where I've refluxed and pulled off the foreshots and heads, switched to pot still mode for the hearts, and then back into reflux mode for the tails... This was done using my combo still without the column extension...

I've done multiple strip runs and then refluxed the low wines with a packed reflux column and the results were very pure neutral spirits...

Experiment and see what works best for you...

Thanks rad forgot to mention it's a pot still lol. 5 gallons is 20L right? I'll run 10L through once and double distill the other 10L and see which is easier compared to which has better results

tykenfitz wrote:Thanks rad forgot to mention it's a pot still lol. 5 gallons is 20L right? I'll run 10L through once and double distill the other 10L and see which is easier compared to which has better results

Sounds like a plan... Always good to have comparisons...

Made up 1 gallon but used all bran cereal is that OK? The yeast arn't bubbling anything yet it's been about 20 minutes, should I be worried? I only made a gallon cuz I ran out of sugar lol

""The yeast arn't bubbling anything yet it's been about 20 minutes, should I be worried?""
no sometimes it takes a day or so for the yeast to"kick in" they go threw a reproductive/hydration time known as lag.

OK, thanks for the info. They have started bubbling now, just very slowly. I don't know who came up with the sharpie over a pen tube in a bottle for an air lock but props to them, It works like magic!

I do have an All Bran topic in Recipe Development...

The Sharpie airlock was another of my topics...

14 hrs. into fermentation and it's bubbling away quite vigorously! Thanks for the great recipe man, they have the ingredients everywhere! Now I just gotta find a cheaper source of sugar.

Around here sugar has recently dropped to $0.40 per pound, down from $0.54 per pound... I was shocked...

My primary source has remained unchanged @ .46

Last week, a pretty long news story on india's drought situation on Public Radio.

Felt like we'd see higher prices for sure by now.

Like with the changes in copper prices, it will take a while for it to flow through to the retail end of the market.

Checked the other day, and raw sugar is still $1.75 for 2 kg here on the supermarket shelves. Better stock up while it is still cheap.

Gerber wash (thanks to Rad)
With alterations for NZ

Ok WE cant find Gerber here in NZ, so I used Uncle Toby’s roll oats porridge.

Ingredients : 23 liters water – 3 KG sugar/white – ½ Kg uncle Toby’s rolled oats and ¼ cup old yeast (for food) 12 table spoons yeast (bakers fine) 1 liter of hydroponics solution @ 18 CF.
Hot mix:
Simmered 8 liters of water (rain tank ph 7)inverted sugar and the added rolled oats and ¼ cup of old bakers yeast (food for yeast, saw this on a post ,cant remember who said it but thanks for idea), for about 20 mins (gets nice and gooey ).
Added hot mix to 50 liter brew barrel and top up with 14 liters water and 1 liter of hydro mix (temp was 45 deg C )
Waited for temperature to drop to 37 Deg C, and scooped out ½ liter of mix, in to 1 liter jug.
Added 12 tablespoons of yeast to jug and mixed, (wait 2 mins and it starts to activate)
Stir again and wait 2 more mins (rises about another 2 inches and thickens more.
Then added it to the brew barrel and stir, wait 15 min stir again and seal barrel with air lock and into warming box.( bubbling within 1 min)
(I had done heaps of stirring trying to cool mix down earlier so solution was well aerated.)

Done! Thanks rad, it’s so easy and the first one I did, worked out and cleared, so well when racked. (I haven’t stripped it yet).

Gary & Angie

Don't know how strong your hydro ferts are, but a litre in 25 litres seems like serious overkill to me, especially if you already have nutrients in there from the yeast and oats.

Also deleted your new thread in the 'Firsts' section. Better not to double post.

Congratulations on the success, so far, gary.angie... I did some hunting around a while back to see if I could find information on Uncle Toby's but came up short... Glad to know it works... I have mentioned that I use boiled yeast in my washes several times... It really makes a difference, whether fresh or used...

I'm with HookLine regarding the hydro nutrients... It does sound excessive but perhaps its already diluted... I've been shooting for about 1/4 tsp per gallon and that's probably close to what hydro fertilizer would be at a diluted strength...

How long did the wash take to ferment...???

The ferment only took about 48 hours ,( fast activity,bubble every 1/2 second ) but after the 48 hours i left it in there for about 5 days just to make sure ( slow bubble every 10 seconds.

sorry for double post still getting used to site.

Hydro nutrient is about tablespoon of A and B mix into 18 liters of water , so quite dilute , its the same ratio that a plant like lettuce requires,
so CF 18 = 1260 PPM of minerals.

but it clears so well when racked with no additives, not like the first turbo yeast i did when i started , i had to rack that and put all those clearing agents in and it was still cloudy
cheers

Gary & Angie

Now you see why I call Gerber "Turbo Killer", gary.angie... You no longer need to bother with turbo yeast...

Hi everyone,
In the few washes i have done including my current allbran wash i have used 6 kg of sugar in a 25 litre wash with 12 tablespoons of yeast , i noticed that Gary.angie used 3 kg in a 20 litre wash with 12 tablespoons of yeast, will there be a big difference in the amount of product or the quality of product with the difference in the amount of sugar.
Regards
Braemar

braemar wrote:Hi everyone,
In the few washes i have done including my current allbran wash i have used 6 kg of sugar in a 25 litre wash with 12 tablespoons of yeast , i noticed that Gary.angie used 3 kg in a 20 litre wash with 12 tablespoons of yeast, will there be a big difference in the amount of product or the quality of product with the difference in the amount of sugar.
Regards
Braemar

breamer, your proportions calculate to a potential ABV of 14.1% which is what I generally shoot for, unless I back down to 12.3%... The proportions gary.angie used calculate to a potential ABV of 7.7% which helps explain the shorter fermentation time... The ABV could be increased up to 14.1% without adverse effects but I've never pushed higher with bakers yeast...

Hi Rad,
Thanks mate.
Will be distilling my first allbran wash tomorrow let you know how it goes.
Regards
Braemar

Hydro nutrient is about tablespoon of A and B mix into 18 liters of water , so quite dilute , its the same ratio that a plant like lettuce requires,
so CF 18 = 1260 PPM of minerals.

Ah. When you said a litre, I just assumed a litre of concentrate. Thinking about it, if you used that much the high salt levels probably would have killed the yeast before it even got started

Hey Y'all!! Have been too busy to go online the last couple of weeks. Been working 72 hours a week. I did a 4 gallon gerber wash with 8 pounds of white sugar. I pitched the bakers yeast 3 times to ensure a complete ferment. It probably wasn't neccesary! It fermented fast and clean in 4 days!!

Short bus

The Gerber Recipe (as tested - see notes below):
Per 4 liters (1 gallon) of water:

Ingredients
* 3.5 cups sugar
* 4 liters water
* 1 cup Gerber Barley flavored baby 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 is almost clear by the time the ferment is complete so it can be racked directly into the boiler, leaving the solids behind.
* With this wash I collected approximately 1 liter of neutral spirit from 7 liters of wash.
* More alcohol was present than collected.
* Resulting "white dog" was clean and smooth, and should age well on oak if desired.
* 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...
Is this the final recipe? no changes? Thanks in advance Cornbread

Is this the final recipe??????????????????????? no changes? Thanks in advance...Cornbread

Good Luck... Feedback welcome...[/quote]

Thats (more or less) what I stick to.

But depending on my pantry supplies,,, I have made variations. I have used the gerber system for my panella rum. And I have split gerber with all bran (and so forth and so on).

I am pretty sure that rad has pulled and twisted this concept to find out where the point of diminishing returns (or the like) start and stop.

I most recently added some vinella extract to a graham cracker wash. And after some airing I am gettin a nice vinella under tone.

Not trying to make this sugarhead something it will never be ( a good rum). But I believe it is adding another dimension to the graham cracker carry over flavor from the pot still.

In fact I'm into the silver with some apple cidder tonight. I hope I can stay away from the stuff thats sleeping on chared sticks.

I most recently added some vinella extract to a graham cracker wash. And after some airing I am gettin a nice vinella under tone.

WOW.....would love to hear more baout that............yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Not much to tell.
And it's getting harder to type as I'm well into drink #2. And I like my likker kinda proofy.

Sorry for the drift.
Lets keep Gerber on topic and any further questions about vinella extract should prolly be posted on pumpman's rootbeer thread.

Cornbread, the only changes to that recipe that I make, at times, are to add 1/4 tsp boiled yeast and 1/4 tsp 20-20-20 per gallon... Sometimes I also push to 14.1% ABV by using 4 cups of sugar per gallon...