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Just have to give my praise of this recipe. I have been a turbo yeast boy through and through using a reflux and honestly quite content with the results.

Finally felt like experimenting. Done this brew twice, the first took about 10 days for only about 1 litre of spirits from a 6kg wash but the resulting spirit was amazing and it had that described hint of banana to it which I find really pleasent. It's like a mix of banana with slight hints of boiled yeast but in a pleasant way.

My first wash was pretty haphazard I didn't have a pH meter which I highly recommend and I was busy so I was sloppy
Modified the brrew based on available resources

Second brew went much better.
calcium carbonate for PH
fermaid A
bakers yeast 180 grams
6kg sugar
this brew took four days and ended up about 13%
I kept it beside the fireplace, I added a few tablespoons of fermaid at the beginning of the brew and a few heaped tablespoons of carbonate
starting pH 7.8

Next morning pH had crashed down to 4.8
I left it as is
day three pH dropped to 3.6
Added 1/4 cup of chalk and this successfully raised the pH to 4.8 and held steady until brew was finished
added a couple more tablespoons fermaid halfway through the brew.

No clearing agents or leaving to clear, no carbon crap, simply siphoned into another tub then siphoned into still. Leaving sediment behind in both tubs.

Boom the best spirit I have ever made in four days for a fraction of the price. So thank you very much.

Dumb question: are y’all converting the sugar?

I do not. Otis

I've done it a bunch, and I never invert the sugar. The yeast doesn't seem to care. Not that I can tell anyway.

Thank you Otis and MtRainier. I haven’t seen any mention of it, but wanted to be sure.

shadylane wrote: ↑Sat Dec 01, 2018 4:54 pm If you want a really nice neutral.
Do 2 stripping runs, dilute to around 20% abv
Then run it in a reflux column

I am going to try this recipe as soon as I have enough empty containers , I do want to try to make the best neutral possible and I have a modular still that can be either a pot or reflux still

this may be a dumb question but in the quoted part are you stripping the product twice, diluting and then using reflux column (triple distilled)

or are you doing 2 separate stripping runs , combining both runs together , diluting and using the reflux column? (double distilled)

I'd say 2 stripping runs is a minimum. I do at least three, then combine them for the spirit run.

If you are having to dilute to get your Low Wines below 40%, you have wasted good alcohol by shutting down too early.

Boozewaves wrote: ↑Thu Oct 31, 2019 1:27 am or are you doing 2 separate stripping runs , combining both runs together , diluting and using the reflux column? (double distilled)

Pretty sure this is what he's saying. Make two batches, strip em, combine the runs, dilute, and then run them through reflux.

It makes the wash sizes match to let you use the same still for the strips as for the spirit runs.

I enjoy the stripping runs on this recipe. No cuts and I just turn up the heat and push it through.

NZChris wrote: ↑Thu Oct 31, 2019 2:06 am I'd say 2 stripping runs is a minimum. I do at least three, then combine them for the spirit run.

If you are having to dilute to get your Low Wines below 40%, you have wasted good alcohol by shutting down too early.

MtRainier wrote: ↑Thu Oct 31, 2019 4:50 am Pretty sure this is what he's saying. Make two batches, strip em, combine the runs, dilute, and then run them through reflux.

It makes the wash sizes match to let you use the same still for the strips as for the spirit runs.

I enjoy the stripping runs on this recipe. No cuts and I just turn up the heat and push it through.

thank you for the responses guy's , will help me plan ahead , i've only just done my first and second ever stripping runs this week , practice makes perfect . this is definitely the next one I try

I started 120 litres (31.7 gallons) on the 5th of november in 6 containers , used sugar ,yeast bomb , crushed oyster shells and allinsons dried active yeast which is the easiest to buy in the U.K from a supermarket ,

4 containers went in the bathtub with water halfway up the and a big fish tank heater heating the water so the temp of fermenters was 25 celsius (77f) , I know 30c (86f) would be better but that was the hottest I could get it with the heater on full . was bubbling through the airlocks pretty well but the gravity was going down very very slowly .

I did some research on the yeast I used here on HD and others were saying they used way more in sugar washes . so I added 40 grams yeast in each one on the 12th and it really made a difference , the gravity started dropping a lot faster even on the containers that were at room temperature . the bubbling stayed about the same. Starting gravity was 1.07 on some and 1.06 on others . now its 1.03 on ones that were in the bath and 1.04 on ones that were not . Will report back when I have distilled it all .

EDIT : I originally posted 1.007 , 1.006 , etc , thank you for the correction NZChris

Check your gravity numbers, they don't make sense unless you have made a big mistake.

NZChris wrote: ↑Sat Nov 16, 2019 12:43 am Check your gravity numbers, they don't make sense unless you have made a big mistake.

Yes you are right , I should have wrote 1.060 not 1.006 , 1.070 instead of 1.007 etc . As its my first time doing this recipe I was worried then for a minute , I'm terrible with numbers , I also nearly put 362 grams of sugar in each container when I should have put 3.62 kilograms but I realised when I saw how much sugar I had left . I will edit original post

Boozewaves wrote: ↑Thu Oct 31, 2019 1:27 am are you doing 2 separate stripping runs , combining both runs together , diluting and using the reflux column? (double distilled)

That's the idea, strip the alcohol from 2 or many more washes
Then dilute with plenty of water before redistilling with a column
On this recipe, even though it's wasteful, I like to end the stripping runs early.
Just guessing, I'd say only 50% of the alcohol the yeast made, get's to the bottle.

HomerD wrote: ↑Sun Oct 27, 2019 7:48 am Dumb question: are y’all converting the sugar?

Might be wrong but I don't think it makes any difference.
Even experimented with using glucoamylase to turn sucrose into glucose sugar.
It appears yeast can get the job done with or in spite of my assistance

Thanks for the information!

I want to scale this down to a 5-6-gallon batch can you please check my numbers? Thanks
8.8 lbs sugar (2 Kilos)
2 tbsp bakers yeast
2 Multivitamins
pinch Epson salt
1 tbs DAP
1/4 cup shell

and 2 tbsp bakers for fermentation.

Is there anything I don't need or am missing? can I use 1118 for fermentation?
thank you all

Canuckwoods wrote:I want to scale this down to a 5-6-gallon batch can you please check my numbers? Thanks
8.8 lbs sugar (2 Kilos)
2 tbsp bakers yeast
2 Multivitamins
pinch Epson salt
1 tbs DAP
1/4 cup shell

and 2 tbsp bakers for fermentation.

Is there anything I don't need or am missing? can I use 1118 for fermentation?
thank you all

I'm a noob so I won't comment on the ratios, but 2 kilos is 4.4 pounds, 4 kilos is 8.8 pounds.

dough! sorry 2 2kilo bags its how it comes up here.

is there a substitute for bakers yeast in the mash for yeast food all I can find is the little packets.

Canuckwoods wrote: ↑Fri Nov 22, 2019 11:32 am is there a substitute for bakers yeast in the mash for yeast food all I can find is the little packets.

Plenty of places sell bulk bakers yeast, usually in vacuum packed blocks. Check out bulk Barn or Costco, or most baking supply aisles in the supermarket. Amazon showing a couple pounds of Red Star for $13, prime shipping.

Canuckwoods wrote: ↑Fri Nov 22, 2019 11:32 am is there a substitute for bakers yeast in the mash for yeast food all I can find is the little packets.

Boil some wheat germ with the little packets of yeast

Finally got some time to mix this up. A very strange yellow colour like Koolaid we'll see how it goes.

Ran this today a great recipe the yield was great with little taste or odour.

Just finished putting down 40 gal of this, first wash of the year. Its destined to turn into Gin and Apple Pie.

I’ll fill the fermenters with this for a change once I get the still back out.

Cheers!
-jonny

Excellent recipe
Put down a 150 litre wash about 6 days ago, looked finished and tasted done yesterday. Popped one of those fandangled hydrometers in and it read 990.
Stripped it today , low wines taste and smell very very clean . Can't wait to clean it up further with the 3 boka.
If the low wines are anything to go by the spirt should be exellent

I finally got round to running this recipe hoping to get a good neutral . Shady said "if you want a really good neutral do stripping runs on a potstill , dilute to 20% abv and run it through a reflux still"

so I did exactly what he said after I finished a CCVM I wanted to test after a cleaning run and it turned out really good , I had 20 litres of 40 abv that I put bicarb in (had more but I smashed a demijohn full by mistake) added another 20 litres of water into the still and ran it slowly through about 50 inches of black lava rock , it came out really strong , my hydrometer only goes up to 70 abv and it sunk completely , I will have to order another one that goes up to 100 because i'd like to know how close to azeotrope I can get , diluted to 40 abv it is the best neutral I have made .

I have 2 fermenters of shady's bubbling away at the moment , I decided to try it with water I collected from a local spring this time , I boiled it first . got some more airlocks and bruclens steriliser yesterday so I think I will start some more ferments tomorrow , also I was using allinsons dried active yeast the first time I did this recipe but I bought some dady yeast to use now , I use allinsons yeast for the yeast bomb part though seeing as I have lots left

Boozewaves wrote: ↑Wed Feb 05, 2020 1:38 pm
I have 2 fermenters of shady's bubbling away at the moment , I decided to try it with water I collected from a local spring this time , I boiled it first . got some more airlocks and bruclens steriliser yesterday so I think I will start some more ferments tomorrow

I'd make a couple ferments using the local spring water as is.
Beer and wine sanitation rules don't necessarily apply when fermenting a wash.
Also, boiling water will remove oxygen that the yeast needs at the beginning

shadylane wrote: ↑Tue Feb 11, 2020 4:31 pm

Boozewaves wrote: ↑Wed Feb 05, 2020 1:38 pm
I have 2 fermenters of shady's bubbling away at the moment , I decided to try it with water I collected from a local spring this time , I boiled it first . got some more airlocks and bruclens steriliser yesterday so I think I will start some more ferments tomorrow

I'd make a couple ferments using the local spring water as is.
Beer and wine sanitation rules don't necessarily apply when fermenting a wash.
Also, boiling water will remove oxygen that the yeast needs at the beginning

Hi Shady ,Thanks for the recipe even the fussy people I drink with like this one . I pot stilled some on monday starting to save up for the next ccvm run , I know lots of people here won't bother with this step but I used bentonite to clear it this time and that makes the low wines very smooth so I feel like the next lot of finished neutral will be even better . all my washes get cold crashed but I feel like i'm still picking up suspended yeast when I syphon

I guess I thought better safe than sorry in regards to boiling the water after reading up on crypto-whatsitsname the wated disease . I chugged plenty of it after carrying my container filled with water along the path twice though and didnt die so its probably safe i'm taking a container with wheels next time

I didnt know boiling removed oxygen , but I did aerate the mixture after boiling by tipping it from fermenter to fermenter a few times , I don't know if that makes up for it , come to think of it these 2 are fermenting slower than the last 2 I did , they are getting there but slightly slower , everything else is the same (temp , smell )
,boiling took ages anyway and cost more in gas so i'd be happy to skip that step , it can be boiled when it goes in the still

I'm definitely gona try this recipe out when i get time this week.