Sugar Wash Problem (Needing Help)

[bcboyz86]

Welp, I'm hoping the flavor mellows out....A LOT. either that, or my first batch just tastes terrible. Out of the 9 jars, the first 4 seemed a little rough in the mouth and burned a little going down...the next three weren't too bad, and the last 2 were starting to taste gross too....so I ended up with about a quart or 120proof from my 5 gal. Wash, and a little over a quart into the feints jug. I Split the alki-harvest into three jars(one quart jar with oak chips, the rest split into two pint jars(one straight, one with some butter Carmel I cooked up in it)) the straight up jar we will probably have shots out of for the guys from work coming over, and maybe some from the Carmel jar...Should I try filtering the jar that's straight booze with something to maybe take the edge off? Like a Brita filter or something to that extent? Or just leave it be and hopefully it will just get better as time goes on(or untill its gone). Or option three, take it with lemon and salt to take your mind off the bad taste?(seems to work with Tequila )

[bellybuster]

If it tastes bad, run it again with your next batch

[bcboyz86]

Well, I think I might be in a bit of a dilemma...I don't KNOW if its bad. I don't usually have drinks just straight out of the bottle/glass, so I'm not used to just a pure alcohol flavor. So it might not be a "bad" flavor; might just be a taste I haven't grown to like yet. It tastes like everclear with a hint of something else :/ I will mix it tonight with some cone and see how that pans out... I don't wanna just scrap it entirely, but maybe just buck up and drink this quickly?

[steve2md]

With a sugar wash, you're looking for "neutral", or basically, everclear or uncut Vodka. It will taste like......alcohol. un cut, it should burn nicely. everclear is still a bit harsh compared to a properly done sugar wash IMO. I use sugar washes for mixing as vodka, or make liquers with it and fruit/sugar.

[bcboyz86]

Oh....whoops. I might have made my cuts a little narrow then. I tossed 2 jars into the feints jug that were probably good. They burned, but didn't have too much of a flavor to them. Oh well, I'll just get that back in ky feints run later down the road...

[steve2md]

figure on a 5 gallon batch of sugar wash @ 22%.......= 1.1 gal @ 100% so 3/4 to a gal at around 94-95%

[Prairiepiss]

You have been turboed.

One of the reasons we don't recommend it is the off flavors. About the best thing to do is dilute it down to around 30% with water and run it again. And maybe again? Hopefully it will clean it up.

Now I would get a better recipe from the tried and true recipe section. And use this run as a learning experience.

[bcboyz86]

I was wondering if anyone has used K1-111V and had the wash smell a little sulphifur-ish? I did a mix of some browns and evapped cane sugar and used EC-1118 on 3 washes and K1-111V on the other three. All of them smell like apples and wine right now, but the one batch smelled like super eggs for a while. Is there a reason why, or just happens sometimes?

[rad14701]

I was wondering if anyone has used K1-111V and had the wash smell a little sulphifur-ish? I did a mix of some browns and evapped cane sugar and used EC-1118 on 3 washes and K1-111V on the other three. All of them smell like apples and wine right now, but the one batch smelled like super eggs for a while. Is there a reason why, or just happens sometimes?

Just keep bouncing from one exotic yeast strain to another until you get tire of it and then suck it up and admit that bakers yeast works best for most all sugar washes... Or just take our word for it and stop putzing around...

[bcboyz86]

Well, I'm not trying to get anything except neutral from it. Just figuring out which blend of sugar wash I like the best. All tue serious rum washes I've done have been pure bakers yeast. I just threw in some brown sugar for kicks. It's pretty cheap for sugar around here, so a few lbs of brown or somethin besides plain white might be about $3 more for every 6gallon of wash. So I figured I would try a few higher ABV sugar washes. Somethin above 8% so I'm getting a little more outa the time waiting. I save all the feints and am going to run them pretty soon so even if I don't get a bunch of better alcohol up front I will get it later in my feints run. I probably have a couple gallons of feints I need to run pretty soon anyway.

[blakesduc]

Well this is my second sugar batch first was good so up my ferment amount went from five gallons to 28 gallon wash with 75 pounds sugar totaling 35 gallons with 1pound of nutriants and 2 oz of daddy yeast was going strong for 5 days and came to a crawl started 1.20 way to high but a 22% yeast when it got to 1.03 came to a halt added 16 oz of tomato paste and we are going again seems to being going good but going to take a while to clean up sure will drop to a lower abv level next time think this going to take at least 15 to complete if keep going this way rather drop the level and get it done in half the time live an learn I guess

[bcboyz86]

I also noticed that the yeast bomb that I threw into the Ec-1118 batch of sugar wash didn't take off like a pugi rum wash usually did... Is it because its not bakers yeast, so the yeast bomb doesn't work well without the matching baker yeast for fermenting yeast?

[mrgt]

Everytime I do a sugar wash I run the final product through carbon filters. I bought mine at local wine and beer store . It was called the carbon snake, works great , really smooths out the final product. I use my vodka for martinis now and people like it alot.

[bcboyz86]

Yea, my wifes grandpa was ganna toss out a 5 pack of Brita filters and a cup container to hold the filters. I snatched those up and ran some 180 proof through it and it seems to have cleaned up the taste a bit....still tastes like 180 proof though. Don't really know how much you can help that. But I did think it was a good steal for my booze operation.

[WV Shine]

Running ethanol through those plastic filter casings at that high a proof isn't recommended. At least dilute it down to 80proof, though that's still frowned upon here as well. Who knows what its leaching? I know you can find a thousand posts around the internet about running cheap vodka through a britta to improve the taste, but is it worth it? Possible solution would be to break those filters open and dump the charcoal in the bottom of your bottle, then strain it out. Just letting the activated carbon sit there for a while will have the same effect. But you've probably seen the light concerning turbos, and ya won't have to filter at all in the future once you've got your technique down

[bcboyz86]

Yea, this was my first run of 180 proof from sugar washes and some feints from my rum washes I tossed all together for a neutral run....but I gadda say I didn't get very much "nuetral" flavor from it. At first right off the still I couldn't taste/smell anything, but now I can smell a littl bit, and there's a distinct hint of what my rum tasted like. That deep caramelized molasses flavor came through. It's not strong, but is deffinatly there.... Especially when I tossed the pint of the stuff in with my Apple pie I have brewing in a half gallon mason jar. It's not a bad flavor in with the apples and sugar that's in there, but I was hoping to have just some straight up neutral. Haven't tried anything except for those Brita filters, but tossin some carbon in the bottom of a gallon jug of neutral wouldn't hurt I guess. About how much would you say to use on a gallon? Like 1/4 cup, or just dump a bunch in and re-use the carbon untill it stops working as much? Then would I just let it sit for a day or so shaking occasionally then strain through a coffee filter?

[WV Shine]

just dump a bunch in and re-use the carbon untill it stops working as much

That'll work, shouldn't take much, a 1/4c should be fine. You can get it outa those filters if ya want, no need to buy some. After it stops working (should be good for a few times) you can 'bake' it in the oven for a while and it will be re-activated, so to speak.

Not sure how long you should leave it for, a day or so should probably do it.

[bcboyz86]

When you bake it back to life sorta, doesn't it release all the captured impurities and flammable fumes? I've herd it safe to.do in the oven, but it will leave a nasty smell for a while... I would sorta like to avoid that if I could :/