Home Distiller

Posted: **Tue Jan 05, 2010 5:17 am**

I wondered about doing a second generation on this receipe, but went ahead and cleaned out my carboys. Now I wish I hadn't.
I ended up with about 5 1/2 quarts of good spirits from my run. It did take a long time, running slow.
I know that it seems very high in the alcohol content. A sip from the still will almost take your breath away.

Posted: **Sun Jan 24, 2010 1:32 am**

I was in the store earlier today and Rad's Gerber wash was perking in the back of my brain. I saw the Gerber baby food and wondered if Cream of Wheat would give a similar result. Has anyone tried it?

Posted: **Sun Jan 24, 2010 7:11 am**

Carolina Coon wrote:I was in the store earlier today and Rad's Gerber wash was perking in the back of my brain. I saw the Gerber baby food and wondered if Cream of Wheat would give a similar result. Has anyone tried it?

Yes, Cream of Wheat has been tried and does work... The issue is that it isn't fortified with vitamins and minerals like Gerber and needs to be augmented with nutrients... We use Gerber as a source of nutrients so we don't need to buy DAP, Fermax, or other commercial nutrients...

Posted: **Mon Jan 25, 2010 5:31 am**

I have to admit that I like the flavor of this product. I've taken some and cut it with distilled water and it goes down good just out of the shot glass.
I also have almost a gallon now with some charred oak sticks sitting back. I'm really anxious to see how it's changed in a couple months.

Posted: **Mon Jan 25, 2010 3:11 pm**

This is the first time I have read the Gerber recipe. It sounds great and can’t wait to start it. I have a batch of rum going and trying it out on the Barney column. Most of my friends a big vodka drinkers and I would love to make the some to try. By the way it explains the back order on Gerber my wife has been trying to get to feed the baby.

Posted: **Fri Jan 29, 2010 7:59 am**

my gerber spirits seem a little 'bitey' but are drinkable, either diluted to 60-80 proof in water or in a cocktail at a little stronger. Not quite 'top shelf' in my opinion, but drinkable, and cheap as hell to make. All my runs so far have been a single run, somewhere between a strip and a spirit run, where my end ABV is around 83%. I've done one feints run so far, and the result of that was spectacular and tastes like a good whiskey to me. It's aging on oak now, maybe about 3 weeks old now. From what I've read, the fients runs are usually good stuff, so I'm not surprised that I like this stuff better than the other that I've made to date.

I have a couple gallons of hearts that I plan to do 2nd distillation runs on in the next couple of weeks, it should be interesting to see the difference between the flavor of a single run and multiple runs. I plan to keep some of the original stuff to do a side-by-side comparison later. The sad thing is I'm going to move soon, and don't plan to take all this booze with me across country, and as I don't drink too heavily, and have MANY gallons of homebrew beer to drink also before the move, I don't even know what to do with this stuff now . . . Sounds like a good excuse to throw a raging party if nothing else.

Posted: **Fri Jan 29, 2010 8:06 am**

All my runs so far have been a single run,

Try a double run.

Posted: **Fri Jan 29, 2010 11:23 am**

You'll notice a marked difference with a 2nd run... I usually reflux my Gerber for neutral spirits but have pot stilled it and noticed a bit more bite... I use Gerber for neutral and All Bran for both flavored and neutral...

Posted: **Sun Feb 07, 2010 3:25 pm**

Thanks for this recipe Rad.

I have a batch of a modified Gerber running right now.

It's on day 7 and nearing completion.

I'm tickled with that rate, since my wash is only at around 70 degrees F.

Plus this is only my second wash ever.

It's looking awesome so far!

The SG is dropping around 0.01 every day.
Bubbling vigorously.

Posted: **Tue Feb 09, 2010 4:24 pm**

question on some of the steps here, im a newbie
sugar and water does it need to boil or just get hot enough to desolve sugar?
when adding the gerber, does it need to boil? any cook temps & for how long?
after cooking & cooling, what temp to bring it down to before adding yeast?
im using a 5 gallon carboy for fermentation, can i pitch yeast into my cook pot then poor all into carboy or do i add wash to carboy then pitch yeast into carboy? reason i ask is the carboy neck is small to dump yeast?
thanks for the help

Posted: **Tue Feb 09, 2010 5:01 pm**

DCT wrote:question on some of the steps here, im a newbie
sugar and water does it need to boil or just get hot enough to desolve sugar?
when adding the gerber, does it need to boil? any cook temps & for how long?
after cooking & cooling, what temp to bring it down to before adding yeast?
im using a 5 gallon carboy for fermentation, can i pitch yeast into my cook pot then poor all into carboy or do i add wash to carboy then pitch yeast into carboy? reason i ask is the carboy neck is small to dump yeast?
thanks for the help

Have you actually read this entire topic...??? I'm pretty sure all of your questions have been covered in the currently 17 pages of posts...

Well, just did checked back through these 17 pages, quickly, and found these particular posts... I'd still recommend reading the entire topic because there may be other valuable information buried within the posts...

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 3#p6784693
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 0#p6790100
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 3#p6794983
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 5#p6800975
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 1#p6801661
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 8#p6806218

Posted: **Thu Feb 11, 2010 7:41 pm**

Soooo, haven't finished the still so I drank some of the mash and honestly it didn't taste all that bad

Posted: **Mon Feb 15, 2010 2:09 pm**

My Gerber wash for 5 gal......

3 1/2 cups Gerber rice with B vitamins
1 tsp dead yeast
18 cups sugar
10 tbs bakers yeast
water to make 5 gal

invert sugar (boil) for 45 min in 1 1/2 gal water then add Gerber and dead yeast last 5 min. Add water to make 5 gal. Cool to 95deg and pitch yeast. Airiate 1/2 hr with an airstone. cover and airlock.

Mine started at 1.081sg and finished at .994sg temp stayed about 78deg and was done in four days.

Plan on running this off tonight so will let you know how it turns out. V

Posted: **Mon Mar 01, 2010 10:44 am**

Well all, I'm posting in to report the 'retirement' of my sugar washes. I'm headed out of state soon and won't be brewing again until I'm set up in my new digs. I'm not sure how many generations my 2 carboys of sugar wash have gone now, but they're probably approaching 10 generations. Things have definitely slowed down these last couple of generations, though. Ferments take 2+ weeks, and I've had to tamper with the last batch, as both carboys stalled at different points and I had to pour some of the active yeast from one carboy to the other to unstick them. Could be PH of the wash (I was also using backset for several generations), or if that's not the problem then maybe it's best to start over after 6 or so generations. Either way, I definitely got my money's worth out of that 2/3 cup of baker's yeast.

All I can say is that sugar washes are a cakewalk. You can't hardly go wrong if you can read and follow instructions. When I started this hobby I told myself I'd ferment 100 gallons of sugar wash before trying my hand at more expensive and involved recipes. I think I've hit that now and have many gallons of double distilled whiskey to prove it. I don't plan on taking this with me (driving across country) so I reckon there will one hell of a going away party for me.

Looking forward to experimenting with grain next (both for brewing beer and making washes to distill), we already have about a dozen hops varieties growing at my new home and I'm taking a dozen more rhizomes with me to plant. Barley and corn both grow well there, and it it 'traditional' US moonshine country, so I'm stoked. We gonna farm.

Posted: **Tue Mar 02, 2010 5:56 pm**

OK, ran my Gerber off the other night, stripping run, and I must say, it turned out very well. Hardly any flavor as is, should be a great neutral. Thanks Rad!

Posted: **Fri Mar 05, 2010 11:02 am**

I made up 6 gallon of the gerber wash today. I used half rice and Half mixed grain gerber.

21 cups sugar (10.5 lb ) 1 cup of sugar = .5 pound
6 Gallon water
6 cups Gerber cereal
12 tablespoon active baking yeast

followed instruction to a T. I will repost on the outcome. Im pretty excited about trying it out. I plan on running in sometime next weekend if it finishes out that soon.

Posted: **Fri Mar 05, 2010 11:18 am**

Kentucky shinner, that basic recipe should ferment just fine... We've toyed with extra ingredients like boiled yeast, 20-20-20 fertilizer, epsom salt, multivitamins, and B Complex, to speed things up but they aren't required... If you keep the wash warm enough it will finish fast enough and won't impart any off tastes or flavors...

Good luck...

Posted: **Sun Mar 14, 2010 11:04 pm**

Hi,

Would using dextrose instead of sugar be of any benefit ?

Cheers

Posted: **Sun Mar 14, 2010 11:24 pm**

Dextrose will ferment out a little cleaner, but it takes more of it (about 1.2 times regular sugar, IIRC), and it is waaaaay more expensive than regular sugar (sucrose).

Posted: **Mon Mar 15, 2010 9:57 pm**

Hi HookLine,

Thanks for the info. Just another quick question: Do I need to invert the dextrose as I would the sugar? I just got a 25Kg bag of the stuff and want to use it up.

On advice from these forums, I decided to steer away from the turbo yeasts and turbo clears and filtering.

Thanks in advance.
Cheers

Posted: **Tue Mar 16, 2010 1:38 am**

alcodemon wrote:Thanks for the info. Just another quick question: Do I need to invert the dextrose as I would the sugar?

No. The point of inverting is to split the sucrose into its two base sugars, fructose and glucose (dextrose), which has to be done before the yeast can use the sugars. Yeast have the ability to do that, but inverting the sugar first saves them the work, which makes for a faster and cleaner ferment. You already have plain dextrose, so no need to invert. Also, yeast can use fructose, but prefer dextrose.

I just got a 25Kg bag of the stuff and want to use it up.

Use away. If I had a 25 kg bag I would make ultra clean vodka. But that is just me.

Posted: **Wed Mar 17, 2010 8:30 am**

sound good..thanks for sharing...i was wondering about any smells vs. a simple sugar/ turbo yeast wash?

Posted: **Wed Mar 17, 2010 12:30 pm**

m1ke50 wrote:sound good..thanks for sharing...i was wondering about any smells vs. a simple sugar/ turbo yeast wash?

No discernible smell that I have noticed... Probably less smell than a turbo yeast wash...

Posted: **Thu Mar 18, 2010 8:02 pm**

G'day HookLine,

What would be your method of making 'ultra clean vodka' ?

Am keen to learn.

Cheers

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2010 7:40 am**

I have 6 gallons of (rice)gerber that should be about 11%, ready to run through the column. I should be able to run it this weekend. I inverted the sugar before hand and let it sit for a while. Last sp. gr. check was 0.992 and I hope it's down to 0.990 now. It has a nice clean smell of alcohol with a hint of yeast (EC-1118). I'm hopefully this will produce the purest vodka to date.

Posted: **Fri Mar 19, 2010 8:16 pm**

alcodemon wrote:G'day HookLine,

What would be your method of making 'ultra clean vodka' ?

I would use dextrose (or invert sucrose), DAP, MgSO4, B vitamins, citric acid, and a generous serve of bakers yeast. Only shoot for 8% abv in the ferment. Clear the ferments very well.

Strip it. Add a teaspoon of sodium carbonate per litre of 40% to the low wines. Then run it slow through a good reflux column. Maybe even run it twice through the column, once fairly quick, and the second time slow. Air slowly for a week. Drink.

Posted: **Sat Mar 20, 2010 4:40 am**

HookLine wrote:
alcodemon wrote:G'day HookLine,

What would be your method of making 'ultra clean vodka' ?/quote]

I would use dextrose (or invert sucrose), DAP, MgSO4, B vitamins, citric acid, and a generous serve of bakers yeast. Only shoot for 8% abv in the ferment. Clear the ferments very well.

Strip it. Add a teaspoon of sodium carbonate per litre of 40% to the low wines. Then run it slow through a good reflux column. Maybe even run it twice through the column, once fairly quick, and the second time slow. Air slowly for a week. Drink.

Whoa... Now my clear suddenly becomes cloudy

But so true. I do like a little flavour and not an ultra-pure.

Posted: **Sun Mar 21, 2010 7:04 pm**

I got a chance to run the gerber wash today. I have to say. Cuts, cuts, cuts.....it's all about the cuts (mostly anyway). I took 200ml off as foreshots, then collected a 500ml jar, then a 900ml jar, then 2 more 500ml jars before I got solid nasty tails, about 200ml. Backing total collection out, my wash was about 11% and still turned out pretty darn good. Even before airing, the 900ml and subsequent 500ml jar is spot on great. No smell of heads or tails, just a slightly sweet odor when diluted 50/50 and has a fantastic flavor. I took a nice shot full and rolled it around in my mouth, just like water, no burn, then swallowed and only felt a nice slight warming, zero sting. It was good enough that I'd consider throwing out all the stuff I've run for 190 to date.

Jar 4 might be good enough to keep after airing out to combine with jars 2 and 3 for a total of just under 2L.

Now to run the DWWG and see how that tastes to lock down THE wash I use for neutral. It's amazing what a little patience does for this hobby.

Posted: **Mon Mar 22, 2010 11:31 pm**

As I am still new to 'stilling, could you please explain what you mean by 'Air slowly for a week'?

Cheers

Posted: **Mon Mar 22, 2010 11:42 pm**

alcodemon wrote:As I am still new to 'stilling, could you please explain what you mean by 'Air slowly for a week'?

Once you have finished distilling and making your cuts, put the keeper alcohol into a jar with some headspace, cover the top with a coffee filter and an elastic band to hold the filter in place, and let the alcohol air for about a week. Some of the harsh odour will dissapear during this time. I usually oak and air at the same time for a lot longer.

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