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Hi mcshiner. Nothing wrong with what your doing in my opinion. My sg usually is 1.060-1.070 so you could bump the surgar a bit. You didn't say what ratio you were using.

I think thus is what you are asking...total wash was roughly 20 gals. I had the wet SF, added 5 gal backset and about 13 gals bottled water. If 5 lbs sugar for 5 gals water the. I was right on. I have seen 7 lbs for 5 gal. Is thus how I bump the potential % higher?

Am I just wasting sugar for no reason? Is 5:5 is just fine or would you go 7:5?

McShiner wrote:I think thus is what you are asking...total wash was roughly 20 gals. I had the wet SF, added 5 gal backset and about 13 gals bottled water. If 5 lbs sugar for 5 gals water the. I was right on. I have seen 7 lbs for 5 gal. Is thus how I bump the potential % higher?

Am I just wasting sugar for no reason? Is 5:5 is just fine or would you go 7:5?

Any sugar you put in your mash won't go to waste. The yeasties will make quick work of it and turn it into the good stuff and you'll get more likker per run with higher proof beer in the pot.

McShiner wrote:I think thus is what you are asking...total wash was roughly 20 gals. I had the wet SF, added 5 gal backset and about 13 gals bottled water. If 5 lbs sugar for 5 gals water the. I was right on. I have seen 7 lbs for 5 gal. Is thus how I bump the potential % higher?

Am I just wasting sugar for no reason? Is 5:5 is just fine or would you go 7:5?

No you would not be wasting the sugar . But don't go too high. 1.060 to 1.070 is a range that I like. I think that you could bump your sugar a bit. If you go too high you will strain your yeast. Cheers

Found it... wasnt looking in the right place. Looks like I should put 30 lbs in to get better than 10%. Read, read, read, where the heck did I read that?

McShiner wrote:Found it... wasnt looking in the right place. Looks like I should put 30 lbs in to get better than 10%. Read, read, read, where the heck did I read that?

Musta been on another site . Nobody here ever mentions that

I get your point, but I was looking for how much more or less / higher or lower per gal of wash.
I'm following the recipe too close I think.
Thanks for the info and pat on the back, anyway.

I just finished my first ferment of sweetfeed. It's been racked off & if all goes as planned, I'll be running it tomorrow night.

F6Hawk wrote:And to me, a feedlot smells like a small touch of heaven. And there's nothing quite like the smell of the skin of a young calf in the summer sunshine.

I don't mind the smell of a feedlot. I just don't want to eat the shit. LOL I didn't screw it up either. I followed the directions to a T and I personally didn't like the taste. Every body has a taste preference. I don't like the taste of Southern comfort, but some people love it. I like Jack Daniel's, but some people don't like it.

shinyhead wrote:

F6Hawk wrote:And to me, a feedlot smells like a small touch of heaven. And there's nothing quite like the smell of the skin of a young.

I don't mind the smell of a feedlot. I just don't want to eat the shit. LOL I didn't screw it up either. I followed the directions to a T and I personally didn't like the taste. Every body has a taste preference. I don't like the taste of Southern comfort, but some people love it. I like Jack Daniel's, but some people don't like it.

Hmm I dunno then. It doesn't really have a distinct taste to me that stands out. If it's off you can run it through a carbon filter if you want. It makes a hell of a difference. I made one for 10 bucks. Plus the carbon. If you don't want to do that, you can just through it in an all spirit run. Btw, I have a pot still. What do you have?

buddahj wrote:I just finished my first ferment of sweetfeed. It's been racked off & if all goes as planned, I'll be running it tomorrow night.

Did my 1st run last night. Everything went pretty good. I collected 11 jars (220ml/jar) ranging from 64% down to 38%. Used two gallons of my backset and started gen-2.

redcorn53 wrote:

shinyhead wrote:

F6Hawk wrote:And to me, a feedlot smells like a small touch of heaven. And there's nothing quite like the smell of the skin of a young.

I don't mind the smell of a feedlot. I just don't want to eat the shit. LOL I didn't screw it up either. I followed the directions to a T and I personally didn't like the taste. Every body has a taste preference. I don't like the taste of Southern comfort, but some people love it. I like Jack Daniel's, but some people don't like it.

Hmm I dunno then. It doesn't really have a distinct taste to me that stands out. If it's off you can run it through a carbon filter if you want. It makes a hell of a difference. I made one for 10 bucks. Plus the carbon. If you don't want to do that, you can just through it in an all spirit run. Btw, I have a pot still. What do you have?

I have a pot still as well. Maybe I got some bad feed from the co-op. I doubt it though, just won't be making it again. I don't use turbo yeast or any other things that would cause it to produce the horse shit taste. Not to be insulting to anyone, I just don't like it.

I'm happy to say that the guys @ work seemed to like the sweetfeed whiskey. All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with my results. I do know that I have to run my rig slower next time. I think I had some smearing.

My SF has stopped fermenting except for a few bubbles coming off of the bottom every now and then, they are the size of dimes. I also have a thin white layer just bellow the surface of the mash. The mash has a bitter dry taste to it.

Im kind of concerned that there is a infection going on, because I read somewhere that large bubbles off the bottom are a sign of infection

I need to wait to next weekend to have the time to run the wash, if it is infected will it be ruined by then?

It's finished, and by the sound of it, it has a lactic infection.
A week should not hurt it and may even add to the flavour profile.
Don't throw it out.
Run it when you have the chance.

Be aware that if you don't want repeat lactic infections (some infect a whiskey wash with lactosbascillus deliberately) you will need to sterilize the hell out of the ferment before you use it again.
I water blast and scrub until clean then use unscented bleach swished around every couple of days for a week.
I then wash it out exceedingly well to remove all traces of bleach (yeast HATE chlorine and bleach is sodium hyperchlorate solution) and then let it stand a day or two in the sun to vaporize off any residual chlorine.

Others will tell you I'm mad to use bleach. they may be right starsan or something similar may work just as well

Thought I would give this one a try. I have 15 gallons bubbling away since 5/16/13 . Starting SG is kinda pointless since it has so much floating grain and junk I just followed KS's original with the appropriate ratios. Be a BW and AB guy till now so this aughta be fun.

F6Hawk wrote:And to me, a feedlot smells like a small touch of heaven. And there's nothing quite like the smell of the skin of a young calf in the summer sunshine.

Well shoot F6. Why don't you try fermentin what comes out da back end. You mighta come up with your own prize winnin recipe

Racked my 15gals to 3 carboys today, going to let them clear until saturday, then going to run it through my new concentric running a stripping run.

Mash has been sitting for just under 2 weeks. Gen 3, saturated in its own remaining wash and covered with fresh bottled water. Lid placed back over the tub, loosely/ not air tight.

As you can see, I have a growth of ??? Something on the top of the liquid. Any ideas? Has anyone seen this? Do I need to start over? HELP!

Looks like a lactic infection to me. Not a trainsmash.

Trainsmash??

McShiner wrote:Trainsmash??

Train-smash ie; not the end of the world.

You can use it to make sour mash whiskey, or else tip it out, sterilize and you will be fine to go again

A trains mash would be interesting indeed!

Train wreck here in the states , McS . He says you are still good to go or you can do it all over . Your choice .

If I am using distillers yeast how much would I use if mixing 5 gal of water to wash? this is my first attempt at a mash ever so please forgive dumb questions!

a couple of table spoons ought to get ya going..

Thought I'd pass this along,,re weevils in grain mixes. They're always around grain,,especialy feed mills and storage facilities. Old indian trick,taught to me by an old indian.

To keep weevils outta stored grains, n beans,,PUT A HANDFUL OF BAY LEAVES IN THE STORAGE CONTAINER n Bob's ur uncle

Howdy everyone,
After several weeks of stripping runs I wound up with & gallons of low wines and readied myself for my first spirit run of sf whiskey. I used some leftover beer from the last fermentation to dilute low wined to 40% and charged the still. (I am running a 15.5 keg with a short necked pot still head, hoping for maximum flavor).
I ran nice and slow, tossed 200 ml as fores and then collected in 250ml jars. The whiskey started @ 88% off the still and came down to 83.5% then hung there for a long while. Then i broke my spirit hydrometer . Oh well, kept collecting and relied on my nose and taste.
Tails came on strong after about 3 gallons collected. I wound up with about 2 gallons of what I'm calling hearts but I gotta say, even after airing out a day I'm not as Impressed as some on this thred have been. It's not aweful, just a little on the hot side and not near as much flavor as I was hoping for. Pretty much tastes like spicy vodka. Anyone else felt this way or am I expecting too much? I have some 20l barrels that I'm going to age some in starting today regardless. I was just hoping for more flavor.....

That's exactly what I keep getting off of mine. I'm getting the volume that you speak of, but "hot". I'm only saving about 3-5 jelly jars. The rest I plan on re-charging and running again. I have a couple quart jars sitting on a shelf aging. Still to be seen how it will end up.

Jury is in in my holler . First gen sweet feed batch , 30 gallon wash . Ran 3 runs in 15.5 keg pot . 2 strips and final spirit run . 5 out of 5 people that have tried it fresh off the still think it is fantastic . Second gen should be ready to run next week . Life is good .

I am new to this project and I have asked about using yeast. An older gentleman told me he did not like to use yeast because it causes a bad headache the next day. What is causing the headache the next day? Is it really the use of yeast or is the fermentation process not fully passed. Like I said I am new so bear with me if this is a stupid question.