eVenom wrote:So you are not going to even re run the low wines?
I'm definitely going to run it twice more. I only tossed foreshots on this run; no heads cut and ran it down to about 25% ABV. I'm just sharing tasting notes, not trying to do anything too exotic. I was planning a simple all-grain rice vodka, distilled three times with good cuts on the last run, and I'm going to stick to that plan.
Two more runs through the pot still today... head and tail cuts on the last run... dilute to 80 proof... done.
The finished liquor is dangerously smooth; it would be very easy to drink a lot of this. I don't know if I can quite call it a vodka; it has the presence of vodka, but with added floral overtones that make it not-quite-neutral. Whatever I choose to call it, it is damn tasty.
My yield estimate from the low-wines post was pretty close; it's a little over half-way full in a 6-gallon carboy.
The all-grain rice vodka is definitely worth making again.
I just started fermenting a batch of this using flaked rice from the brew store, using the UR recipe as originally posted.. Its currently fermenting away. Used alpah amylase and 6 crushed beano tablets to get a full conversion.
Used fermentis champagne yeast instead of the ec1118 it started bubling within about an hour really impressive conversion lets see how it turns out hoping its every bit as good as everyone has been saying it is.
Am trying this recipe without sugar.I cooked 20 lbs rice in 14 gallons water till gelled .Let sit 90 minutes and stirred in six more gallons water cooling to 145 f added enzymes and let sit 90 more minutes took a sample and cooled it to 60 f and check sg. It was 1.030 will let set till morning to convert and cool on down before adding prestarted ec-1118 yeast.
Hit between 1.030- 1.040 just before adding yeast. Its still fermenting almost done though. I've been surprised how easy this was.looking forward to running it to see what it tastes like.
Ran this today after letting it clear. Used thumper but just put 4 gallons wash in it as that was what wouldnt fit in still.had 12 ozs or so of heads .Kept hearts and tad of tales keeping till run dropped to 80 proof. Started at 120 didn't keep till it dropped to 110.proof.Ended up with just under a gallon of 105 proof .Rice likker has a mild taste but pleasant. .
firewater69 wrote:That seems thin @ 1 lb per gallon, no critisism just curious was it a thick mess? Iv'e never messed with rice. Been thinkin bout it though.
Was with 14 gallons .The six added thinned it .Probably could of went with less water .Being first time I tried it I went with more water to be safe .Converted so well next time I will use less.
So did an all rice Uncle Remus using 15# medium grain and 5# long grain boiled it down in two batches and Alpha @ 158 turned to a soupy mix add enough water to fill 3 5 gal fermenters went for 10 days and then pot stilled out some really really nice liquer. Like another poster said even the heads had no strong smell good bite though distilled down to 30ABV and put it out to air for awhile kept back two bottles for dry saki about 20% great stuff I cant wait to see and taste it after some air.So queston I know I got good conversion because it turned almost too sweet and it ran well. But I tried the iodine test and could not get color change I have tincture of iodine ammonium and potassium in 45% denatured alcohol by ammonia even with pure suger dissolved in water I only got a very faint purple color what do I need to change or what when wrong. I need to know for future hard grain washes
36" CM reflux with 30 "leiburg 24"pot with 40" leiburg and doubler
So did a batch of this rice stuff used 10# medium and 5 # long grain pitched bakers yeast bubbled to dry in 5 days stripping run then 2 spirit runs OMG great stuff fine sippin flavor 50 abv nice totally recommend great base for almost any flavor or right out of the freezer on a fine Carolina night I thninkin tried and true yea
36" CM reflux with 30 "leiburg 24"pot with 40" leiburg and doubler
through some rye flour or rye malt in for a better flavor , wheat works too, and oats..... mix it in the mash after heat up though, it will scorch mash vessel dependent .
make a great liquor bit sure what you would call it but a shochu....
"I like to make really big messes, do hopeless stuff so I can sing the blues with heart"
This is my first attempt at Rice Vodka. Things went really nice as I made a 25 gal wash. I'd like to keep some saki but am not sure the best way to store. Mash fermented out to .990sg and is a pure white color. Do I strain and store white or does it clear up? Not real confident with my saki knowledge.
PS I plan on running what's left through my flute soon... Can't wait
I'm still working on perfecting this one, but so far I can't get it completely clear. There always seems to be a level where the cloudy starts. The yeast seems to settle out but I am still left with a cloudy section.
The best I have cleared is about 70% and the clear is damn near crystal. I got there by cold crashing (it got down into the 30's) in the primary, straining through a colander into a 5 gallon paint bag, into carboys and letting sit for two more days in the cold. I will try another two rounds of racking off on this next batch I have working and see if I can totally remove it.
For the most part, I'm getting a nice, clean spirit. But I'm not where I want it to be just yet. There is still a tiny wank to it that I need to lose.
Can anyone chime in on the cloudiness? I've seen through this thread that many are running it cloudy, but my intuition says to try and not run any of that stuff if I'm trying for an ultra neutral.
Straining is virtually worthless IMHO... The problem is that no strainer medium is going to filter out yeast and other fine trub because it is too small... A better method would be to rack from the initial fermenter into a secondary container... Allow that to clear and rack again, either into your boiler or into whatever container you plan on storing in until distillation... I almost always double clear and rack... I've never poured wash through anything, thinking I could end up with anything even remotely cleared...
This time I strained off the grain and let sit in carboys until settled. As usual, tons of cloudy at the bottom. Racked and settled, but still quite a bit of cloud. Racked off the clear and let settle and racked to boiler, dumping the cloudy stuff.
This time no cloudy stuff made it in the boiler and the flavor was a bit cleaner. The cloudy stuff seems to be tiny solids from the rice and may be fine to run, but I have a feeling that those solids are probably holding the spent yeast in suspension so I'm keeping it out of my boiler.
I really starting to like the flavor of this spirit, though the other half isn't impressed. She's a fan of Tito's which is made from corn and very clean. The rice flavor is distinct and I like how it mixes. I just put it up against the local rice vodka down here (Oryza at $26 a fifth) and my once-through-the-reflux run was at least as good once aired out. The Oryza had more rice flavor, which is fine by me, but there was something else off there.
Has anyone else here tried Oryza? I'm curious as to what the most experienced palates here think of it. This is the only rice vodka I have found to compare my results to.
Ok I am pretty much a novice, but I've held that status for a couple of year now. I tried this using a 26 gallon pot with false bottom and I followed the method to bring the water to a boil and added 30 lbs of rice to the boiling water ( no soaking of the rice ) then cooled to 60 and added Alpha and held there for 90 minutes. I read where 1 recipes called for 4 tablespoons and someone else said 2 was good, but I added 4. Stirred it cooled to 30 before attempting to move to fermenter and adding Gluco and yeast. I ended up having to use a measuring cup and moving the wash to the fermenter by hand and I ended up throwing out at least 10 lbs of rice so I didn't fill the fermenter with solids. I had made a starter for my yeast ( EC 1118 ) about 6 hours before pitching. It has been fermenting for 4 weeks now ( only about 65 f in my room ).
Today I went to fill my still and holy smoke it was a rodeo. I siphoned off only about 10 gallons of wash and had to basically "milk" a BIB bag ( I tried a pillow case and it just plugged up ). I've been 4 hours trying to get a still full of wash.
So is that normal to have to fight the wash that hard or how does everybody else get this stick mess into the fermenter and still or.......did I do something wrong? It was so thick I haven't been able to get a FG and the iodine test didn't seem to work ( or I still had tons of sugar left ). Does the rice normally liquify when you add the Alpha?
After reading all of your posts I am excited to see how this is going to taste, but this has been a pain in the rear!!
It's all fun and games till somebody starts shooting!
@razerhawg- try a paint straining bag. A pillowcase is too fine for a first strain. I do a colander into the straining bag in a five gallon bucket. I plan to try a pillowcase after that stage to get the smaller solids out. Rice mash is a bit of a PITA. I strain out and do a double rack-off to get all the solids out. It isn't easy, but damn it is smooth once you get there. Iodine doesn't work on rice starch, just give the conversion plenty of time. I'm back in the middle of the rice mash because it makes such a good product if you are after a vodka style drink. Once you get the hang of it, straining is not too bad at all.
Thanks, I am running it right now and wow is it smooth, even at 186 proof.
Let me ask a silly question, do you still have whole rice left? I can see a lot of it is converted, but I still have a lot of whole rice and sludge? Thanks
It's all fun and games till somebody starts shooting!
Yeah, there is plenty of sludge. I find that the more I beat the rice up and try to get the the best conversion, the less sludge I end up with. The first time I strained it took forever. It gets much easier once you get your system down. Some guys use a mop bucket which sound like a great idea. I may go for that one day, but my system now has gotten plenty easy. I'll try a final pillowcase strain and see if I get less of the cloudy portion of wash.
Shaner/Razerhawg, are ya'll doing the AG version of this recipe, or the original sugarhead version? I'm planning to do this recipe for the first time, but am undecided at this point if I want to add the sugar. Was wondering if you or anyone else have any input about one method over another.
Every new member should read this before doing anything else:
I've done both and had great results. I'm doing a little less sugar than the original Remus version- I'm still working on my recipe. It's nice to boost the output with a little sugar. It's enough work that I appreciate a little more booze for all that work.
Thanks DAD and Shaner for your responses. I was thinking about the clearing issue and will be trying something a little different as an experiment. I'll try to clear it as best I can and rack off as much of the clear liquid as possible. I will be running it in a pot still with a thumper attached. The plan is to run the cleared wash in the boiler and charge the thumper with the best of what's left of the cloudy wash. Maybe just leaving out the heavier solids. I'll do probably 3 stripping runs this way if the first one is successful and then combine the three for a spirit run.
I'll be a while getting to this. I'm in the process of doing some mods to my thumper. I'll post the results when I finish the runs.
Every new member should read this before doing anything else:
Thanks for all the advice and assistance. I think somebody mentioned using boil bags and that is certainly on my radar for the next attempt. I did add sugar to my recipe.
I have a new problem though, I collected all of my output in seperate jars and took the very center of the hearts and cut that to 40 % ABV with distilled water and aired it out fro 1 day. I went and mixed a drink and it had that dirty sock smell? This was truly the hearts and was crystal clear. Does anybody have any idea of what went wrong? FYI I have a 6 plate reflux still and I had just torn it down and ran it through the dishwasher and scrubbed the boiler down as well.
It's all fun and games till somebody starts shooting!
Hmmm. Dirty socks. It's funny how we all try and explain smells and tastes when we rarely stand next to each other tasting the same product.
Dirty socks sounds like tails to me, but my dirty socks may smell different from yours.
There was a flavor I noticed when I first started doing this one and I thought I had screwed something up. I saved two more batches and re-distilled. It was still there, but not as prevalent.
I went and bought a local rice vodka for a taste comparison. Their vodka had the exact same flavor but it was stronger. I believe it is just a flavor that comes with the rice.
Once I let it sit for a couple weeks and started drinking it, I decided I loved the flavor. That's why I'm still going through the pain of dealing with rice right now.
I don't know if that is the flavor you are getting, but it is a somewhat (sharp?) smell.
I thninkin tried and true yea
