Home Distiller

Don't know why I put that in my post. I've added yeast a couple times when I thought the previous ferment was week - that is, the yeast colony was somehow compromised. But, usually it's just the yeast left in the lees.

S-Cackalacky wrote:Heating/cooking the grain could have a down side. It could release some starches that could cause foaming and a puke when distilled. So, if you go that route, you might add a couple pats of butter or a couple tbls of cooking oil to help prevent foaming.

Good info to know. As my runs have only been about 3 1/2 gallons in an 8 gallon boiler, it's not been a problem.

S-Cackalacky wrote:


Heating/cooking the grain could have a down side. It could release some starches that could cause foaming and a puke when distilled. So, if you go that route, you might add a couple pats of butter or a couple tbls of cooking oil to help prevent foaming.

Heres what I do for that and also for grains that have been cracked well or ground and produce powdery starch. I add a tsp of regular amylase enzyme, the same powder enzyme for clearing beer and it turns most of that small amount of starch into fermentable sugars.

So...

First impressions on SF. I started with 2 ferments in 6 Gal. buckets (using the Producers Pride All Grain). When the ferment was done, racked each off to carboys (about 3.5 Gal to each) for clearing. Boiler is 8 Gal., about 6 Gal. reasonable to allow headroom, so ran each 3.5 Gal. separately to avoid overcharging, etc. Rig: 8 Gal. boiler, 3 Gal. corny keg converted to a thumper, 28" Liebig using a recirculating water supply from reservoir...water can be drained/added as needed based on temps.

Run 1, somewhat less than 900 mls of hearts, added feints from run 1 to run 2. Run 2, somewhat over 1000 mls of hearts...mixed both together, separated into 2 quart jars evenly, aired for a few days, french oak cubes added to one, hungarian to the other...both have oaked for about 3 weeks now. ABV at oaking for both was 65%.

Two days ago, cut the french oaked to 90 proof with distilled water for drinking and bottled.

At first, I wasn't entirely happy with the taste, but it's growing on me. Generally, as whiskey's go, I'm very fond of Irish, Rye and Canadian....really not fond of American, Tennessee, Bourbon, Scotch. The SF was a bit too much in the Tennessee/Bourbon flavor profile to my taste...but after a couple days of tasting in whiskey sour, whiskey and coke, and on the rocks, I have to say it's growing on me. I think it helps that I made it myself.

Anyway, I'll definitely continue...gen 2 first batch has been run recently...still have the hungarian oaked batch to dilute to 90 proof and taste...not giving up on this taste yet.

Perhaps I will have found a 4th whiskey type I really appreciate (apart from Irish, Rye, Canadian)...

If not, I'll redistill to an Odin Genever.

Started a new SF batch with a twist! Completely rinsed all molasses from 6 lbs of SF and induced the Maillard reaction to the grain.
Then divided the grain between 4 five gal. buckets then added 3 lbs of regular SF to each bucket and 7 lbs sugar per bucket.
Walleye season is getting hot so I will be very busy for the next couple weeks, I will post up more on this soon
should be a very interesting product.

Walleye season gettin too hot to futz with makin likker Can I come go fishin with you ? I love them walleye and don't have many here . I'd even bring a drop or two to share since you are too busy catching walleye to make likker .
>Now , if you just fishin for them walleye and not catchin ; all bets are off .

Butch you is welcome for is long as you want to come and fish, caught 2 yesterday 3 today hooked and lost don't know how many.
Lost about 12 jigs in the last 2 days lost a 12+ pounder today %$%$&

Lead me not into temptation , Pappy .

The creek behind my house is full of saugers, white bass, small mouth, aligator gar, crappie, channel cat, and flat head, I love it! I have to drive about 30 minutes to catch perch and regular walleye. This sweetfeed likker makes a great addition to a fishing trip! Oh, 3 catfish pay lakes withing 3 miles all directions too. I enjoy fishing and likker company. Maybe one day we could all get together for a trip and some other activities as well.

I like fishin and drinking. When we meetin where?

Jimbo wrote:I like fishin and drinking. When we meetin where?

I think we unintentionally hijacked this thread . Let's start a new one on this topic ; whatchya say ?

Yes. Mods please delete babble

Eh...what's a bit of babble among friends.

Plus, who knows...one of 'em may figure out how to turn walleye into some super-smooth likker!



Fish Vodka...Fishka? Walla Walla Whiskey? The possibilities are endless...

At first I was a little skeptical of the taste but somewhere around the 8 wk mark (in a 2l barell) it took a nice turn. And this batch had the pellets and is still coming around. I plan to leave it another month. I just bought 100lbs of the Producers Pride All Grain (tough to find) and my expectations are high. Will update as I go.

Nattyboh, I have Producers Pride All Grain avaiable to me endlessly, it cost me $15 bag tax included but depending on how far you are from me the shipping may be 3 times the cost. I also have all the raw materials to make this mix for using enzymes or malt. My travels are somewhat limited fire the fishing but there's a ton of great fishing here! Just sayin...

NattyBoh wrote:I just bought 100lbs of the Producers Pride All Grain (tough to find) and my expectations are high. Will update as I go.

I had to travel 100 miles (one way) to find it myself. You'll be happy with the result over the pelleted variety. With proper cuts it's ready to drink white after a few days of airing, as few as 4 weeks on oak for an even better taste. One day I hope to build up enough to oak for 6 months or more.

I'm on my 3rd ferment of sweet feed and I'm getting better each run. Four previous runs were cracked corn which was good.....however I think the sweet feed is quick and easy. Now to quantify, I like to mix my alcohol with cola....I'm not a neat or over ice drinker. The stuff I'm making now I really love...and it saves a bunch of money. My small batch is:

4 gallons of water boiled
Add 4 lbs of Producers Pride All Grain to pot and cook for 1 hour at above 150 degrees F
Filter out the grain to my 5 gallon bucket
Add 4 lbs of sugar
Add ice to cool down below 90 degrees F to bring the volume to about 4.5 gallons
Add 40 grams of bakers yeast that was pitched with a little sugar @85 degrees F
I split the wash between two car boys and add @ 10 grams of yeast on top of each car boy and shake the car boys.
Install the air lock's.
In about three days the wash is ready to distill.

The wash is about 12 to 13 % ABV

I do collect down to 40% and 40 to 30 % tails added to next distillation.

Distilling makes about 2 bottles of 750 ML using the modified 1 gallon water distiller which is a lot more work than a 5 gallon pot still.....which will be my next build.

Joeyfla, that's not the recipe being discussed in this thread. Would have probably been better to post it in a new thread. That said, it's difficult to understand how your SF recipe could produce a 12% to 13% ABV wash. Four lbs of sugar in near 5 gallons of water isn't near enough to produce that ABV. Also, boiling the grain at 150 dF for an hour serves no good purpose unless you are also adding malt or enzymes.

S-Cackalacky wrote:Also, boiling the grain at 150 dF for an hour serves no good purpose unless you are also adding malt or enzymes.

Kinda wondered about that myself S. I was inferring that he'd omitted a step, but would also have thought whether using malt or enzymes, you'd want to grind that grain a bit prior to trying to mash it?

That recipe is basically derived from this Youtube video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-nGbAf81Zs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow . The author does a lot of work that, for the most part, accomplishes nothing - like taking incomplete mashing steps out of context and leading the viewer to believe that conversion is actually taking place.

There is also other misleading and downright wrong information in the video. Much of what is in this video is the same stuff that new members bring here in their early posts. To the uninitiated the author sounds like he knows what he's talking about. Read the links in my signature and you'll know that he doesn't.

I would suggest that anyone coming here to make a SF whiskey, at least read the first post of this thread and follow the recipe as it is written. If you think you can succeed by getting it from Youtube, you are mistaken.

Curse that video!

Heh...only videos about this hobby I've watched on youtube were the documentary about Popcorn Sutton, and Pintoshine's video about using enzymes in a corn mash.

Everything else I've gleaned by extensive reading here.

Someone needs to straighten that guy in that video out, he is highly misinformed and needs to remove his video until he knows what hes doing. An hour at 150f isnt doing anything but wasting time and energy. It takes enzymes to convert starch to sugar and cooking grain at 150f isnt producing a lick of enzymes. Only germination or purchasing enzymes will do that. All that guy knows is an hour at 150f does something but the conditions in which it does something he knows nothing about! Is that the guy at the end of the video that says to like his video and if not to keep your comments to yourself? What a joke!

Wow. I have never seen someone spew so much BS and bad information with such confidence. Looks like he did a little reading and no comprehending. This is so totally embarrassing its hard to watch.

S-Cackalacky wrote:That recipe is basically derived from this Youtube video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-nGbAf81Zs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow . The author does a lot of work that, for the most part, accomplishes nothing - like taking incomplete mashing steps out of context and leading the viewer to believe that conversion is actually taking place.

There is also other misleading and downright wrong information in the video. Much of what is in this video is the same stuff that new members bring here in their early posts. To the uninitiated the author sounds like he knows what he's talking about. Read the links in my signature and you'll know that he doesn't.

I would suggest that anyone coming here to make a SF whiskey, at least read the first post of this thread and follow the recipe as it is written. If you think you can succeed by getting it from Youtube, you are mistaken.

My brain hurts and is on over load...I think I made it through the first 25 or so pages and then the last 10 pages of this thread.....great info. I don't think I read any where that some had used brown sugar in the mash on their first generation mash....Could you and what type of change do you think you would see if you split half and half on white sugar to brown sugar?

Gotq4u I would think that you will get more rummy flavours. I have not ran sf but brown suger is just plain white sugar with molassas added. I'm sure someone will be along that is more experianced than I in sf.

thx Jed this will be my first run so I was just curious. My feed has some molasses in it already but I was just curious.

was also gonna see if anyone has used whiskey yeast in theirs....any benefits to using it?

I use 50# white sugar , 7# light brown sugar , and my own gain mix for COB or straight corn for SF or UJ for multiple generations . Matter of taste or lack of it . Nobody has turned down a second drink of my drop . Oh , that's 25# grain bill in 44 gallon fermenter .
>Damnit ! I got to replace this keyboard . I've posted Read , ead , Read so many times that the R key is wore out .

thanks truck I guess I'll just experiment a bit and see what I like. I'll stick with the OP recipe and go from there

To save yourself some time, you can search the recipe thread for certain keywords that you want information on. I use the "subsilver2" board style and the search field is found down near the bottom of the thread page. The other board style is "prosilver" which is also the default. For "prosilver", the search field may be found somewhere else on the page (don't know). Anyway, if you type "brown sugar" into that search field, TB's posts about his roll-your-own SF mix will come up.