Home Distiller

I've only been doing this for a short period of time.....but I have tried quite a few different recipes so far. I've tried cornmeal, sweet feed, apple, and all bran. As far as finished quality and quantity, sweet feed has treated me the best. 1st run normally spits out at 130 on the first pot still. Then we water it down and double distill it and it comes out a real good likker around 165 proof. Tried one feed mash with some honey in it and it didn't seem different from the regular sweet feed. My next mashes I'm mixing up, I'm going to try something new. The all bran is loaded with nutrients which helps the fermentation but I'm not crazy about the taste and smell of the finished product. So I'm going to do 3 inches of sweetfeed(instead of 4) and add 1 cup of all bran flakes for added nutrients. Then of course 5lbs of sugar and 1 or 2 packs of dry active yeast. I typically make apple pie or peach and I'm looking for the smoothest yet potent looked possible. This is just a weekend deal for me so I'm not looking to pour a lot of time into the mashes. Just something simple such as the oeignal sweet feed recipe posted. I'm hoping the nutrients from the all bran make for a better, possibly more violent and faster ferment.

Finally, I spent all day and read the entire 126 pages of posts. Now I think I am ready to do my first batch of Sweet Feed. Can I say one think. There is so much conflicting information in these pages. I sat and clipped the good information to Evernote and left out all the crazy stuff. I ended up with 50 clips of good information, without the duplicates and crazy stuff.

Anyway, thank you all for sharing your experiences. I was a long read, but worth every minute of time spent reading it. At this point I feel like I know a few of your personally.

SanDiegoShiner wrote: Finally, I spent all day and read the entire 126 pages of posts. Now I think I am ready to do my first batch of Sweet Feed. Can I say one think. There is so much conflicting information in these pages. I sat and clipped the good information to Evernote and left out all the crazy stuff. I ended up with 50 clips of good information, without the duplicates and crazy stuff.

Anyway, thank you all for sharing your experiences. I was a long read, but worth every minute of time spent reading it. At this point I feel like I know a few of your personally.

nice work, that reading will certainly pay off for you, not literally of course!

Double K wrote:I've only been doing this for a short period of time.....but I have tried quite a few different recipes so far. I've tried cornmeal, sweet feed, apple, and all bran. As far as finished quality and quantity, sweet feed has treated me the best. 1st run normally spits out at 130 on the first pot still. Then we water it down and double distill it and it comes out a real good likker around 165 proof. Tried one feed mash with some honey in it and it didn't seem different from the regular sweet feed. My next mashes I'm mixing up, I'm going to try something new. The all bran is loaded with nutrients which helps the fermentation but I'm not crazy about the taste and smell of the finished product. So I'm going to do 3 inches of sweetfeed(instead of 4) and add 1 cup of all bran flakes for added nutrients. Then of course 5lbs of sugar and 1 or 2 packs of dry active yeast. I typically make apple pie or peach and I'm looking for the smoothest yet potent looked possible. This is just a weekend deal for me so I'm not looking to pour a lot of time into the mashes. Just something simple such as the oeignal sweet feed recipe posted. I'm hoping the nutrients from the all bran make for a better, possibly more violent and faster ferment.

Hey Double K, when you say your 1st run comes out at 130 and you water it down and do a second distillation how much do you water it down? and are you just doing that so you dont have to wait and save up a few runs before making your spirit run?this sounds like quite a time saving method. does anybody else have any input on this method?

I luv this recipe.
I only run the SF about 3 generations.
Also I like to give it more of a Rum flavor, so each batch I add a small container of molasses.
When I begin the run it starts at about 140. The first 2 quarts go into storage for second run.
I collect down to about 115 and keep this for my own drinking. (one run only)
After 115 down to about 40 is saved for second run along with the first 2 quarts.
The second run stuff is good also, but this I let others drink. haha.

Also, when I get enough first run stuff saved up (5 Gallon), This goes into an oak barrel.
Now we are talking good stuff.


Monty

Rumskey?

Odin wrote:Rumskey?

Thats what I like to call it, but I do not think I am following the true recipe.

I am running spirit run on the non-hearts right now (12 Gallons).
Been on for 6 hours,output at 170 for the last 4 hours.
Probably have another 5 hours to go....

Great taste! Been taking samples and mixing with water. For quality control


Monty

Just ran my remaining single-run corn ferments (not doing a sour mash on these) and started my first sweet feed. I'm using Kruse's 4-way livestock mix

http://www.ohkruse.com/PDFs/Products/Li ... K84025.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

When I say we water it down....we drop it from 130 proof to 80. Main reason being.....its not real safe to have extremely flammable 130 proof looked in a pot all sealed up and heated. So we normally run 3 regular mashes and get about 1 1/2 gallons of 130 proof. Then water it down to 80 proof which comes out to aaround 2 1/2 gallons to be double distilled. Then it cones down to around 1 1/2 gallon of 160 proof

Double K

I like your blend better than what I buy.

I get mine from Tractor supply.
It is:
Producer's Pride® All Grain Feed, 50 lb.
mixture of corn, oats and barley with just a touch of molasses for that sweet "granola" flavor.

Unfortunately, the sweet feeds that they carry here are the pressed crap.
Got the same problem at the local feed store.
This is the only stuff I can get that is just grains and not other weird stuff.
But it does work pretty good as long as I as a little molasses.

Just finished my second 50 pound sack.

Right now I am fermenting in a 16 gallon container I got from the local restaurant supply store. Can make a good 12 gallon batch. However, I will be finding a better container. This one is more flat than tall. Have come to understand this does better in a taller fermenter. Maybe will get a 30 Gallon (food grade) barrel.


Monty

Well....a lot of people will hate me and may hassle me for this......but I actually use Producers Pride Sweet Feed. Yes my friends, I use pellets. I asked the main manager at my tractor supply to get me some information on it(because the bag itself has no info). He came back a few days later with information that it is 100% all natural. He had the list of grains and other ingredients. To this day I still use them. I haven't had bad experience or product with it yet and I have done quite a few sweet feed runs. I do reuse my feed. After I strain it out to cook up, I just pitch it back into the bucket, add 1 new cup of feed, new sugar and new yeast and some water. Typically around the 3rd or 4th run I get the smoothest best product.

After reading all I could get my hands on, I recently joined the forum (great place for direction and advice!), read some more, and started my first batch of sweetfeed this weekend. I followed the originally recipe exactly as listed. All went well to start, the SG read 1.06, the yeast took off fast and furious after about 4 hours and had a pretty consistent stream of bubbling. Then suddenly yesterday, all action stopped. I have a fish tank heater in the fermentation bucket and the temp started out around 90 and settled in around 86 for the first two days, then started dropping to around 75 (this is where the heater was set.) It stayed here all day yesterday and all bubbling has stopped. I have seen reports of 5-7 days of activity in this thread for this recipe. Does it sound normal that things have stopped? Should I just move on from here assuming all is normal (wait for it to clear and siphon off the low wines?) Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Anxious to move on, but don't want to rush things.

get hydrometer and take a reading. If its 1.000 or less its done. Best $5 you will ever spend

Hi guys, newbie here with a few questions.I wanted to make this SF recipie so I went to 3 differant feed store trying to find grain feed. I found an AGway that sells TEXTURED SF mix.I followed the directions for the 5 gal ferment. Now, the SF I have looks like pellets,but the bag says textured as well as the salesperson said it was,so I used it.I did not boil the sugar into the water, I mixed in with the SF added warm water and stirred for about 5 minutes,then added the package of yeast, {bakers}, left it sit for 1/2 hour then put on the lid and airlock.It sat all nite with nothing happening. I opened the lid and there was about a 1 inch crust on top of it,looked dry , I stirred it up and closed it up. Today,2 days after I mixed it, there is still no bubbles thru the airlock. when I lifted the lid today,it was all liquid,with a small amout of bubbles on the top. looked sorta fizzy but not much really going on. Should I just throw this away and start over,add more sugar or yeast or what?

Lots of things could be going on. First thing I would trouble shoot is if you had a air tight seal on your fermentor. It doesnt take much of a leak to cause the airlock to not bubble.

Second question is did you take a SG reading? If so you can take another reading and this sound tell you if its done. Providing you had a leak and it did work off.

Third - taste it. Is it sweet or is it dry tasting?

Ghost wrote:Lots of things could be going on. First thing I would trouble shoot is if you had a air tight seal on your fermentor. It doesnt take much of a leak to cause the airlock to not bubble.

Second question is did you take a SG reading? If so you can take another reading and this sound tell you if its done. Providing you had a leak and it did work off.

Third - taste it. Is it sweet or is it dry tasting?

Great Advice. On one of my first ferments, I had a fermenter that didn't want to bubble. Drove me nuts for 2 days, until I realized that the lid had some extra plastic from the mold that logged itself in the lid's inside lip, preventing a full seal. Cleared the block and the air lock shot right up after a few minutes.

Hello Guys, I am not sure witch post you where answering, but I double checked the lid on my bucket , and sho nuff it was loose. Instantly as I closed it the air lock started bubbling. I will let it go and cook it when it is done. I really like this recipe as it is cheap and simple. Thanks for the advice. I hope it tastes as good as many say.

Kentucky shinner wrote:oh hell ya.. I did not know you had a 5 pound bag shit I would use 2 tablespoons. It should crank up in 4 hours or less... Wow 5 pounds.. that will last a long time..

I have the same thing. A 1 pound bag of distillers yeast. It say "1 - 2 pounds for 1000 gallons of mash" I was thinking of using 1/4 tsp for 5 gallons, but after reading this 'm thinking 1 tablespoon might enough or should I use 2?

Btw this will be my very first run.

Ran a batch of Sweetfeed low wines in honor of George yesterday. No Rye on hand. I usually just run 10 gallons of 8% wash, and then rerun about 2 gallons of low wines from that. This time around I had saved up about double that, and I added 2 quarts of Sweetfeed feints I have been saving for a while, and diluted it all down to 37.3% or so.

I had been running at 40-42% low wines on my spirit runs, but I decided that I wanted to try and get the hearts ABV down lower due to my seemingly overpurifying still. I use a totally detuned boka, but it routinely gets me 5% higher ABV average on my spirit runs than I would expect.

I ended up with a lot of product this time.....holy cow. Feints really bumped up my output I guess. I started the early hearts at 82% after a 1500ml of fores (500) and heavy heads( 1.0L). Collecting in 200ml increments, I was on jar 13 and I was thinking I would be running into tails soon, but managed to still be getting good hearts at jar 15. Started running out of jars. Damn poor planning on my part. I had to consolidate my earlier jars to have enough. I gotta say jar 14-15 were some of the tastiest stuff right off of the still. Just barely starting the tails after that, and then it goes south fast. Jar 18, only 500ml later was really stinky tails (wet cardboard, for sure). Can't wait to let this air out and blend. I think my latest wood flavoring treatment will really make this stuff shine, no pun intended. I had some early runs that were not doing so well on the wood, but my last batch, after 3 months oncharred oak, is really coming around nicely. So glad I stuck with it. I think a few more months will really start to round things out.

Saw a few posts recently asking about sweetfeed brands. I have only used one kind, and it it great stuff. I know it is listed on this thread about 20 times, but I will repeat it for the guys who don't like to read all the old posts. Supposedly no nutrient pellets, but I do see the occasional clump of stuff that sure looks like a random pellet. They are easy to pick out though. It could be pelletized grain meal of some kind also, as it is SUPPOSED to be all grain.

Use this: http://www.tractorsupply.com/producer-s ... b--5021132

SmokinDave

Ghost wrote:Lots of things could be going on. First thing I would trouble shoot is if you had a air tight seal on your fermentor. It doesnt take much of a leak to cause the airlock to not bubble.

Second question is did you take a SG reading? If so you can take another reading and this sound tell you if its done. Providing you had a leak and it did work off.

Third - taste it. Is it sweet or is it dry tasting?

Thanks much Ghost and others, I really appreciate the thoughts on possible problems. I double checked the seal and it did seem to be a little loose. I aslo checked the SG in the process and it is sitting at 1.01 right now vs. the original 1.06. The taste is not as sweet as the start, but not really dry yet either. While the cover was off, there were a couple bubbles coming up, so it seems to just have slowed down from the original "boil." I loaded up on yeast in the beginning per the recipe, but anyone sees any reason to add more yeast, please let me know, otherwise I will let it run its course, it is probably on track to wind down in a couple more days.

Thanks again,
technofaux

Your not far off with this one. seal it up and let it sit till done. Then let it sit for a few more days to clear before racking into boiler. The cooler it gets the quicker it settles.

smokindave wrote:Ran a batch of Sweetfeed low wines in honor of George yesterday. No Rye on hand. I usually just run 10 gallons of 8% wash, and then rerun about 2 gallons of low wines from that. This time around I had saved up about double that, and I added 2 quarts of Sweetfeed feints I have been saving for a while, and diluted it all down to 37.3% or so.

I had been running at 40-42% low wines on my spirit runs, but I decided that I wanted to try and get the hearts ABV down lower due to my seemingly overpurifying still. I use a totally detuned boka, but it routinely gets me 5% higher ABV average on my spirit runs than I would expect.

I ended up with a lot of product this time.....holy cow. Feints really bumped up my output I guess. I started the early hearts at 82% after a 1500ml of fores (500) and heavy heads( 1.0L). Collecting in 200ml increments, I was on jar 13 and I was thinking I would be running into tails soon, but managed to still be getting good hearts at jar 15. Started running out of jars. Damn poor planning on my part. I had to consolidate my earlier jars to have enough. I gotta say jar 14-15 were some of the tastiest stuff right off of the still. Just barely starting the tails after that, and then it goes south fast. Jar 18, only 500ml later was really stinky tails (wet cardboard, for sure). Can't wait to let this air out and blend. I think my latest wood flavoring treatment will really make this stuff shine, no pun intended. I had some early runs that were not doing so well on the wood, but my last batch, after 3 months oncharred oak, is really coming around nicely. So glad I stuck with it. I think a few more months will really start to round things out.

Saw a few posts recently asking about sweetfeed brands. I have only used one kind, and it it great stuff. I know it is listed on this thread about 20 times, but I will repeat it for the guys who don't like to read all the old posts. Supposedly no nutrient pellets, but I do see the occasional clump of stuff that sure looks like a random pellet. They are easy to pick out though. It could be pelletized grain meal of some kind also, as it is SUPPOSED to be all grain.

Use this: http://www.tractorsupply.com/producer-s ... b--5021132

SmokinDave

Sounds like you had a great run. I've been saving all of my feints but maybe I should start feeding them into
My regular runs.
So the question is. Is it better to do a feint only run or feed the feints back in??
SD

Started my ferment.. 8 table spoons of yeast sure seems like a ton of yeast for a 6 gallon ferment. Using active dry bakers yeast

It'll be fine , I usually use 1/4 cup on a first generation. Let her bubble away and run it

Thanks... ujssm calls for only one tablespoon of yeast so worried 8 tablespoons with sweetfeed recipe was a typo..

UJSSM calls for DADY yeast not bakers. Different yeast different amounts

Demonic wrote:Thanks... ujssm calls for only one tablespoon of yeast so worried 8 tablespoons with sweetfeed recipe was a typo..

Supposed to be teaspoons......always thought that was a typo on the original post.
5 packets would be about 8 teaspoons. 1 & 3/4 tsp per typical bread yeast packet.

Actually a little closer to 9 tsp if you do the math......

I never did that initially anyway, as I made a starter with 2 cups of warm wort, and about 5 tsp of bakers yeast. Much cheaper that way.

If I'm using some LALVIN EC1118 wine yeast would I use 5 packets or could I get the same result with less?

distillin_n_chillin wrote:If I'm using some LALVIN EC1118 wine yeast would I use 5 packets or could I get the same result with less?

I have one going right now with my standard 2 packets for a 5-6 Gallon wash. I see no reason for 5 packets.

I'm brand new and I'm trying a sweet feed run. My ? is can any sweet feed be used for example I got nutrrena brand and the ingredients have different vitamins ,cooper sulfate amongst others its not just pure grains.thanks orf...