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pumpman wrote:I'll be pot stillin my rice batch this weekend rad if I don't have to work. It finaly fermented out to .980 and I racked it off the lees a couple of days ago and its clearing nicely. I'll let you know how it comes out. Hopefully beter then my first sugar wash.

What was your total ferment time to dry, pumpman...??? And also the potential ABV if you have the starting SG...

I'm hoping to get more Gerber started tomorrow if I get a chance to go to the grocery store... Thankfully, work has picked up a bit after waiting patiently for the phone to ring and making those dreaded cold calls... Man, I hate cold calling... Makes me feel like a snake oil salesman...

Well remember I had problems with my ferment as I probably should be posting in the novice section. Starting sg was 1.079 on 5 gals and finished at .980. Since I am a novice I didn't do everything correctly. I found out my ph was way out and still had way to much temp fluctuation into the 90s this time so after I got it figured out it took about 7 days.

Thanks for the recipe, research and posts. Been lurking around here for a few days, reading everything I can find -- think I will use this recipe (or similar) for my first wash.

I have a couple of Qs, if anybody could give some input, it would be appreciated greatly:

1. Pitching the yeast - I am going to use Lalvin ec-1118. I've read some instructions that says to simply sprinkle the yeast into the mix....and other instructions that say you need to activate/rehydrate the yeast first before adding it. Which way are you doing it in this recipe?

2. "Aerate for 1 hour"- Will stirring with a big spoon work? I've read some instructions saying simply stirring will produce enough oxygen for the yeast.... but other instructions recommend a fish tank bubbler (think I even read something about using a hand mixer)...

3. "Cap and insert air lock" - Would it be ok to siphon the aerated mix into carboy and then seal it with an air lock? I ask because I bought 2 containers a big plastic pail and a glass carboy. I figured it would be waay easier to mix/aerate the ingredients in the plastic container, then transfer to the carboy to finish fermentation.

Thanks in advance.
T

1. Pitching the yeast - I am going to use Lalvin ec-1118. I've read some instructions that says to simply sprinkle the yeast into the mix....and other instructions that say you need to activate/rehydrate the yeast first before adding it. Which way are you doing it in this recipe?

Lavlin ec-1118 would probably work just fine... I've been having good luck with plain bakers yeast myself... The activate/rehydrate instructions are more for "proofing" the yeast than for any other reason...

2. "Aerate for 1 hour"- Will stirring with a big spoon work? I've read some instructions saying simply stirring will produce enough oxygen for the yeast.... but other instructions recommend a fish tank bubbler (think I even read something about using a hand mixer)...

The aeration is just to help with the respiration or aerobic phase of the yeast... You need to get the wash agitated enough for additional oxygen to be introduced into the mix... Whisking, shaking, air-stone, or whatever method achieves that task is what you're shooting for... Yeast double in numbers every 1 - 3 hours during the aerobic phase... We just want to give them a bit of a head start but they will continue in the aerobic phase for a while even after either an air lock is put in place or a layer of CO2 covers the wash which keeps fresh air out...

3. "Cap and insert air lock" - Would it be ok to siphon the aerated mix into carboy and then seal it with an air lock? I ask because I bought 2 containers a big plastic pail and a glass carboy. I figured it would be waay easier to mix/aerate the ingredients in the plastic container, then transfer to the carboy to finish fermentation.

Air locks are totally optional for most washes... I use them mainly so I can check the fermentation progress by counting bubbles... You could just as easily cover the fermenters with a clean piece of cloth to keep bugs out... And, yes, you can do all of the prep work in another container and then pour it into your fermenter/carbouy... Just make sure that if you use more than one that you end up with fairly proportionate amounts of cereal/nutrient solids in each vessel...

Hope this information helps... Good luck...

Well I ran my Gerber rice/aple today my second run ever. So far I'm pleased with the outcome. I got 1300mls of product in total and the hearts seem to be very nuetral to me. Heads are a little strong but since I don't have an alcometer yet I turn it off when the temp hits 200 and I can taste the alcohol drop. So the tails don't have a bad smell or taste. I think I can mix them with the hearts and have a good drink after it ages. Definitely better than my first run a couple of weeks ago. It was a bit skuncky mabay I ran it to fast but after soaking on some mango it is drinkable. Just can't eat the fruit.

Hope this information helps... Good luck...

Yes. Thanks for the input -- made a 20L batch last night -- used a multi-gran version of the baby food. I also picked up a box of wheat baby cereal for my next batch.

I think my first batch is going to be weak -- think I didn't add enough sugar (guestamated the weight). The color is greenish -- like the picture posted. Today, Im going hunting for parts to build a still.

Thanks again,
T

Good luck with the wash, tallen...

I measure sugar by volume rather than weight... A rough estimate is that most sugars used for fermentation, whether white, raw, or brown, weigh 8 ounces per cup, or 2 cups to the pound... By US measurements, anyway... I've never gone by weight unless I was using an entire bag of sugar...

tallen wrote:

Hope this information helps... Good luck...

Yes. Thanks for the input -- made a 20L batch last night -- used a multi-gran version of the baby food. I also picked up a box of wheat baby cereal for my next batch.

I think my first batch is going to be weak -- think I didn't add enough sugar (guestamated the weight). The color is greenish -- like the picture posted. Today, Im going hunting for parts to build a still.

Thanks again,
T

I was using about 8lbs (sugar) for a 20 liter (cereal/crumb) wash. But I jacked it up to a complete 10lb bag to keep things (even more simple). And a full Jar and 2 additional table spoons of yeast. I have 2 more cereal wash ferments done with that amount of sugar. I am using Red Star or Fliechman's dry yeast with no issues that I am aware of. Put a Graham Cracker in the fermenter on Saturday morning. The air lock was going like hell till last night. Now its a burp every 3 to 5 seconds or so. I think this one will be done tomorrow. Pretty much like my last Gerber batch.

This Gerber is good stuff. I made two batches of wash each batch was 12 gallons. It stripped to 4 gallons of 55 ABV low wines. I added one TBS of Baking soda to each gallon and shook them up daily for a week. Refluxed them and yielded one liter of heads and Foreshots, 4 Liters of no smell 92% ABV and about 1.5 tails. I quit collecting at 90ABV and will recycle the remainder later.

The only thing I did different was converted the sugar in distilled water, finished wash had half a Lemon per Gallon.I used Rice Cereal as Barley was not available and distilled water made up the rest of the liquid. I added the Cereal during the sugar water cooldown. During cooldown I made a bakers yeast bomb in the one gallon water jug using sugar water out of the conversion. I also a aeriated the mix for about a hour until it was cool enough to add the yeast water.

I am sippin it now at 100 proof no smell and tastes good. It is well aged about 3 hours

That Gerber makes a good wash for a neutural. Its so handy and quick. Rad has got me looking at every darn thing in the store that may or may not add to a ferment.

I just racked a "propel water" wash. Same general idea as the cereal/crumb washes. I used one 16oz bottle per 5 liters (for a total of 20liters). Fermented at about the same rate of aggressiveness. Its clearing in the fridge for about 24 hrs now. I'll still in a few days I recon.

If you like flavor (as an adjunct), please do try the corn flake, graham cracker or all bran. They all ferment at about the same rate. If you don't want to run through the pot twice, then run slow on the first run. Comes out really nice.

Bulldog, glad you had success with the Gerber... I need to get another batch started here quick or I may need to wait till September... Better get my ingredients together considering how my ferments only take about 36 hours...

LWTCS wrote:That Gerber makes a good wash for a neutural. Its so handy and quick. Rad has got me looking at every darn thing in the store that may or may not add to a ferment.

I just racked a "propel water" wash. Same general idea as the cereal/crumb washes. I used one 16oz bottle per 5 liters (for a total of 20liters). Fermented at about the same rate of aggressiveness. Its clearing in the fridge for about 24 hrs now. I'll still in a few days I recon.

If you like flavor (as an adjunct), please do try the corn flake, graham cracker or all bran. They all ferment at about the same rate. If you don't want to run through the pot twice, then run slow on the first run. Comes out really nice.

Amen Bother, I pulled my hearts at about 2 drops a second, took about 8 hours. Low fire and low water in the column cooling pipes.

What crytiria does a recipe need to meet to make it to the tried and true section? I would like to nominate Rads Gerber Wash. It is quick, easy and cheap. Great for the new guys like me to practice on. I like it when people think outside the box or in the box in this case on R&D. I think it does a lot to inspire people who are just geting started in this hobby. Thats good work rad.

@pumpman

Thanks for your support of this dead simple recipe... Seems to be pretty tough to mess up... I think of it as my "Turbo Killer" because I get fast ferments using bakers yeast and very clean neutral spirits...


@Bulldog

Could you please post the ingredient proportions you used for those 12 gallon batches...??? Did you go off the original basic recipe or did you tweak things around a bit...??? My largest batch to date has was 2.5 gallons...

12 Gallons

1. 12 gallons distilled water

2. 48 cups of sugar

3. 9 cups of cereal

4. 24 tablespoons yeast

5. six lemons

6. big pinch Epsoms salt

I dont go through the trouble to measure SG it is finished when its finished. I do check SG when bubbling stops. I strip it and set to age 2 weeks with one heaping TBS of Bicarb per gallon in glass containers. (Big Time Edit) I dont know where my head was.I made two twelve gallon batches It stripped to about three gallons of 55ABV. I ran it throught the reflux and This is what I got. 1.5l of foreshots/heads, 3.75 liters of 93ABV and about 2 liters of tails. I could have got more hearts but when the ABV dropped below 90 I ran it off into the tail jug.

I've just finishing preparing a Gerber Rice batch now because the store was out of Barley cereal... Here is the recipe I'm using to see if I get the same 36 hour ferment I've been getting with the barley...

Recipe

• 4.5 gallons water
• 15 cups (7.5 lbs) white sugar
• 3 cups cereal
• 2 tsp 20-20-20
• 1 tsp boiled yeast
• 1/2 tsp epsom salt

Preparation

• Inverted the 15 cups (7.5 lbs) white sugar with 16 cups water for 45 minutes.
• Brought 8 cups water, cereal, 20-20-20, epsom salt, and yeast to a simmer for 15 minutes.
• Let heated components cool for 30 minutes then mixed with cool water to 4.5 gallons.
• Pitched 6 tbsp dry active yeast @ 90F.
• Aerated every 15 minutes for one hour.
• Inserted air lock.

The air lock was bubbling away like a machine gun as soon as it was installed @2:30pm... Potential ABV is 11.7%...

Hey rad what is the purpose of boiling some yeast?

pumpman wrote:Hey rad what is the purpose of boiling some yeast?

Dead yeast make great yeast nutrients... Not sure if this recipe needs it but it doesn't hurt...

Just to update on the Gerber Rice ferment, it appears to have stopped fermenting after (gulp) 4.5 days... Not nearly as rapid a ferment as I had expected... I'd rather think that the reasoning was due to less aeration and less yeast than attributing the length of time to the rice cereal... But, then again, after recalculating the amount of sugar added I'm thinking the ABV is gonna come out more like 13 - 14 percent which would account for a bit of that extra time... I won't get a chance to check it until later...

Well, I ran 2 gallons of the Gerber Rice yesterday and 2 gallons today... Total combined yield was just over 1.5 quarts of 92% hearts, conservative foreshots which were tossed, and 8oz of heads that will be tossed into a future run... The hearts are VERY smooth and has zero smell... After it airs a bit I'll see what it's like when diluted to drinking strength...

Now, if I can just get a batch of Gerber Rice to ferment in less that 4.5 days I'll be a happy camper, but I'm not complaining...

I started a batch of Gerber this afternoon. I ended up going with the rice version since the barley version was out of stock. I boiled 16 cups of water with 15 cups of sugar for about 45 minutes. I then boiled 3 cups of cereal, a few teaspoons of active dry yeast and some water for about 15 minutes. I added this all together and filled with warm water to about 4 inches from the top of a 5 gallon fermenting bucket. After letting this cool down for a few hours until the solution was just warm, I sprinkled some active dry yeast in and mixed everything up. I went back and stirred again once every 30 minutes or so for about 2 hours before capping the lid and putting a tube from the lid into a mason jar with water. Immediately since I've capped the vessel, I'm getting a bubble about every 5 seconds from a 7/16th inch tube which I deem to be pretty good. I'll try and remember to post back to let you guys know how this went but so far, it seems to be going great.

I just started my first Gerber wash. In addition to the listed ingredients, I added 500 mg of Vitamin C to neutralize any chlorine, one multivitamin and one B-complex vitamin, since the Gerber cereal doesn't have any B vitamins. I prepared the yeast by putting it in a pot with a cup of water at 100*F. I also added the juice of 3/4 of a lemon (that's all I had) to bring the PH down below 5. I only boiled two gallons of water and added two gallons of cold water. In a day or so, I will add another 1/2 gallon of water and 7/8 pound of sugar. Once I added the yeast, I got a steady stream of air/co2 coming off, it was almost like air from an air compressor. Original SG came out at 1.072. I figure I will end up with a wash of just under 10%, and that is OK. I just want a good clean neutral spirit.
Rad, thanks for the recipe.
myerfire

Keep us posted guys...

myerfire, all of the Gerber cereals I've checked contain B vitamins (Thiamin B1, Riboflavin B2, Niacin B3, Vitamin B6, Folate B9, Vitamin B12)... More shouldn't hurt and I look forward to hearing how the ferment goes... I stood in the store with a bottle of B Complex vitamins in my hand more than once recently...

The store I buy my Gerber from has discontinued carrying Gerber Barley cereal...

Rad, you are correct. I stand corrected, I don't know how I missed it, but the Gerber cereals do contain B vitamins. It will be interesting to see how long fermentation takes. The way the air lock is bubbling, a steady flow of air, it shouldn't take long.
myerfire

The store I buy my Gerber from has discontinued carrying Gerber Barley cereal...

They're onto rad bd.

blind drunk wrote:

The store I buy my Gerber from has discontinued carrying Gerber Barley cereal...

They're onto rad bd.

Nah... The entire chain has discontinued the barley flavor so now I'm gonna check the Gerber site... My random purchases of a box, along with a 10 pound bag of sugar, sure wouldn't throw a red flag... "It's for the grandkids."

> "It's for the grandkids."

Yup the grandkids love the stuff, but only if there is piles of sugar on it. Works for my thinking

H.

rad
this is my first post ,I have a question. What is the 20-20-20 that you mentioned in your ingredient list? i have serched ,but have not had any sucess in finding the awnser . By the way this sound simple enough to try on the first run in my new still. Would the alcohol content of a 2gal gerber wash be enough to clean the inside of my still, before making the real first run? Yes I plan on throwing it away.
thanks in advance!

Just stripped another 24 gallons of Gerber Rice. Got about 5 gallons of 50ABV Low Wine it will sit with baking soda for 2 weeks before further processing.

smudge wrote:rad
this is my first post ,I have a question. What is the 20-20-20 that you mentioned in your ingredient list? i have serched ,but have not had any sucess in finding the awnser . By the way this sound simple enough to try on the first run in my new still. Would the alcohol content of a 2gal gerber wash be enough to clean the inside of my still, before making the real first run? Yes I plan on throwing it away.
thanks in advance!

The 20-20-20 is garden fertilizer... I use Peters 20-20-20 (with blue dye) but any will do... Some of the other recipes call for 20-0-0 but the additional nutrients in 20-20-20 don't hurt... Before you ask, this is the same fertilizer that is used for the vegetables you eat and they don't carry over into the final product... Just don't drink the finished wash as some folks do or the high level of Magnesium Sulphate (epsom salt) might give you the shits... The use of 20-20-20 is optional and I only use it to speed up fermentation... If you aren't in a rush it'll ferment just fine without... The original basic recipe works fine but I keep tweaking in an effort to find a Turbo-Killer recipe...

Yes, 2 gallons should be enough for a cleaning run, depending on boiler size of course...