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myerfire wrote:I just finished distilling two 5 gallon washes, one Gerber wash and one other sugar wash. The Gerber wash came into hearts quicker and lasted longer.

That's interesting. Might have to find the Aussie equivalent of Gerber and give it a go.

What did you use for nutrients in the sugar wash?

the gerber recipe made me look into enfamil and simelac both full of oil and fat probably need to bury the waste at yucca mountain. i had to look. cob

HookLine wrote: Might have to find the Aussie equivalent of Gerber and give it a go.

Is Gerber a US only product? Isn't it just a milled rice pulp cereal? I would figure it is available worldwide, but it sounds like it is not.

H.

barley, oatmeal, rice, whole wheat, gerber.com has the msds. now don't i sound like a baby food commercial. cob
edit enfimil and simalac are spooky cob

Gerber has merged withe nestle if that helps.

Husker wrote:

HookLine wrote: Might have to find the Aussie equivalent of Gerber and give it a go.

Is Gerber a US only product? Isn't it just a milled rice pulp cereal? I would figure it is available worldwide, but it sounds like it is not.

H.

May well be available here, haven't looked.

Yeah I couldn't find it in NZ. there must be a substitute though.

The disclaimer at the bottom of the gerber site states 'the contents of this site are intended for U.S. only'. It may have a different name across the pond. It would be similar to Malt-O-Meal, without the flavoring. Just add warm/hot water and it makes a baby friendly poridge.

The Gerber baby cereal here in the US looks like instant mashed potato flakes which make a very creamy smooth cereal for infants... Much less texture than oatmeal, grits, and the like... The lack of fibrous material, as well as the balanced nutrient additives, is what makes Gerber cereal work so well... While the recipe will work with the four basic ingredients, a bit of citric and a pinch of epsom salt helps...

I believe the Australian equivalent is Uncle Tobys which is part of Nestle Australia... I'm not seeing the same cereal type listed there, however... Best bet would be to wander through the infant section of the local grocery store...

Hey Rad, it would be great if you could have a look at the uncle tobys offerings and let us aussies know which one you think is the closest to gerber. I had a look at the gerber website and had no idea what I was looking for. Im keen to try a version of your wash though....

Hookline asked what nutrients I used, well I used 1 multi vitamin, 1 vitamin C, juice of two lemons and a heaping tablespoon of gypsum (I have hard water), 6 tapblspoons of Liquor Quick and a 60 second shot of pure oxygen.
myerfire

I found this one that is supposed to be available in Aus.
http://www.nutracea.com/PrivateLabelFoods" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
The Nestle AU site didn't list anything other than milk substitutes, for baby foods.

the gerber site has age specific sections. for grains look for toddler or one age group previous to toddler. cob

I dug all around the Australian Nestle site and was unable to locate and alternative there... As I mentioned in an earlier post, the product line is vastly different from the Gerber/Nestle site here in the US... The products on the nutracea.com site sound a lot like Gerber...

If anyone in Australia can point me to some major food chain sites there I'll do my best to find an alternative...

looks like im gonna give this one a go...sometime very soon. trying to set up shop here in this new place

rad14701 wrote:If anyone in Australia can point me to some major food chain sites there I'll do my best to find an alternative...

Unfortunately, Oz is not big on Barley cereals. Our main grains are rice, wheat, oats and corn.

Most of our barley gets exported and about 5% goes to the breweries.

I have been searching for an alternative since reading the excellent results you were getting with the Gerber.

Our major breakfast cereal companies would include Sanitarium Health Food Company, Kellog's, Uncle Toby's (Nestle) and Lowan Whole Foods. Baby foods are usually Heinz.

The closest we can get is buying Gerber Products on Ebay.

scarecrow

No doubt there is something roughly equivalent to Gerber. If nothing else, wheat germ will do much the same trick.

myerfire wrote:Hookline asked what nutrients I used, well I used 1 multi vitamin, 1 vitamin C, juice of two lemons and a heaping tablespoon of gypsum (I have hard water), 6 tapblspoons of Liquor Quick and a 60 second shot of pure oxygen.
myerfire

The lemon juice will provide plenty of Vit C, as well as pulling the pH down.

Why are you adding gypsum to hard water? Hard water usually already has plenty of calcium in it, usually as carbonate.

What is Liquor Quick?

i just went and picked up 3 of the Barley boxes. something like 1.70 a piece US. im gonna try and make a run at this very soon


SO...a 20L batch would be:
17.5-18 cups sugar
20 liters water
5 cups cereal
10 tbsp. yeast

this sound right?

theroyal wrote:i just went and picked up 3 of the Barley boxes. something like 1.70 a piece US. im gonna try and make a run at this very soon


SO...a 20L batch would be:
17.5-18 cups sugar
20 liters water
5 cups cereal
10 tbsp. yeast

this sound right?

Yes, those measurements should work just fine... Make sure you leave some headroom at the top of your fermentation vessel or you may be cleaning up a mess... If you have some epsom salt kicking around you could add a pinch (1/4 teaspoon) as well...

Comparing sugar wash to gerber wash I have a coup[le of questions. one is using a "grain" in the wash. Does that make more methanol then your basic turbo yeast sugar wash so you have to be sure to take more heads out? I am new to this so forgive my ignorance, I love the idea of not using carbon in the wash and not using clearing agent. please inforn thanks

The short answer is no, not really, probably less if anything.

The long answer is if you are wanting to avoid carbon filters and so on, you're going to have to start making cuts by taste and smell as opposed to a set rule of 'throw away 50mls of heads then keep everything else'. the easiest way is to collect everything in numbered small jars, and blend a day or two later to taste.

Kiwi

I contacted a lady friend from Sydney. She suggested a brand name of Falex as a possible candidate to replace gerber.

Thanks for the answer. I have a buddy that keeps saying it has a grain so I have to be real careful about the methonal. He is a turbo guy. I have a experiment i am gona do. I have a yeast called CL23 by vintners harvest that is suppose to take a 18% abv and have a high clearing rate. I am gona ferment it next to the regular receipe accept add a little more sugar. this yeast is a 3rd of the price as turbo here locally. Also it will be fun to try

Anymore feed back?

Thanks for that, Hawke.

Hawke wrote:I contacted a lady friend from Sydney. She suggested a brand name of Falex as a possible candidate to replace gerber.

Could she have meant FAREX. It's a baby food rice cereal. I think it's just very finely ground rice, like rice flour. Bland and tasteless so the ruggies will eat it.


scarecrow

Montana wrote:Thanks for the answer. I have a buddy that keeps saying it has a grain so I have to be real careful about the methonal. He is a turbo guy. I have a experiment i am gona do. I have a yeast called CL23 by vintners harvest that is suppose to take a 18% abv and have a high clearing rate. I am gona ferment it next to the regular receipe accept add a little more sugar. this yeast is a 3rd of the price as turbo here locally. Also it will be fun to try

Anymore feed back?

As a general rule, a wash over about 12-14% will start to stress out the yeast, and they produce more off flavours. But hey, yours might be different? we love side by side experiments here, it is great info. Anyway I only mention this because you said you were interested in getting away from carbon filtering etc, which means you have to have the cleanest ferment you can. Any other advice and someone will slap me up for being offtopic

Kiwi

Yes, Farex.
Sorry, can't read my own writing.

Just had a look at my local aussie supermarket. Not much in the way of baby food cereals, but maybe breakfast cereals may be better

Baby food,
FAREX ORIGINAL MIX CEREAL 125G
Ingredients
Contains: ground rice, maize flour, soy flour, vitamins (Vitamin C, Niacin, Thiamin), mineral (Iron).

this breakfast cereal may be closer.

SANITARIUM WEET-BIX KIDS
Ingredients: Whole Grain Wheat (96%), Sugar, Minerals (Calcium Carbonate, Zinc Gluconate, Iron), Barley Malt Extract, Salt, Vitamins (Niacin, Thiamin, Riboflavin).

or possibly
Sanitarium Weet Bix Multigrain
Wholegrain wheat (36%), rice oats (12%), sorghum (10%), rye (10%), puffed wheat), sugar, coconut (8%), wheat bran, barley malt extract, coconut oil, salt, honey (1.5%), glucose, vitamins (niacin, thiamin, riboflavin), mineral (iron), acidity regulators (260, 262).

There doesn't seem to be much in the way of barley cereals...

How important do you guys think the barley flour is??

Don't get hung up so much on the barley guys. I've been using the rice/apple, rice, and multigrain all work well. It's more for nutrients not flavor so try different things and you might find the big thing.

I agree with pumpman, it's not about the barley... The real concern is the balanced combination of vitamins and minerals... I just look for the highest percentages of minerals and vitamins and make sure there isn't anything in there that could cause problems, like excessive fats or sodium... I'm surprised that there isn't a brand of baby cereal in Australia that is similar to Gerber, but I suppose it's possible... Powdered flakes, like instant potatoes, not like Corn Flakes...

But, if regular flaked cereal is the only good alternative, then something like Total or All-Bran are the two best cereals here in the US... See my All-Bran recipe... It actually has more nutrients because the percentages are based on adults rather than infants/toddlers... The All-Bran recipe will yield more of a faux wheat whiskey flavor, especially if pot stilled... I still need to finalize experiments for ingredient proportions for All-Bran/Total...