Home Distiller

So I sent that puke-looking wash through a pot still on a stripping run. When I sampled the middle jar after collection, it tasted okay. No hotness from the alfalfa at all. We'll have to see how the next run turns out, but I think I may have escaped the fate of others.

just started my sf wash last night 4in sf in bottom of 18 gal femeter 15lbs sugar 16 gals water 2 hours after start knocked down a 2 in head under that she was just a bubbleing away

30 gal sweetfeed finished out at an sg of .996, good and dry tastin, no sweet taste. Racked into carboys and gonna do stripping runs tomorrow and hopefully a spirit run on Monday. Gotta work this weekend. Pretty excited to see how it comes out, I'll post results!

Molasses taste getting a little weak. Anybody adding molasses back into the wash? How much?
Thanks,

Ran 8 gals SF last night. Come a runnin off at 66%, chunked 350ml fores. Smellin real good at 62%, so I took a pint of 62% and 58% and made a quart to put back for sippin. Thinkin bout makin some apple pie and lettin it age a couple months. Collected everything else down to 30%, gonna dilute and save for a spirit run. Got 1 1/4 gals. low wines at 50%, plus a quart for sippin. Thought I might get a little more than that(Start SG 1.070 End SG .998)the above SG of .996 was a typo but overall being a novice I'm happy with the run. I still got close to 20 gals left to strip and then a spirit run. Thanks for the recipe. KS

WN2W wrote:Molasses taste getting a little weak. Anybody adding molasses back into the wash? How much?
Thanks,

Hey WN2W
I read a few tried and true rum recipes. Check em out,it might give you an idea how much to add. Scoopin out spent grain and replacin with equal amounts does it for most from what I've read, but it's also gonna depend on what taste you want. Everybody's got there own ideas of what's good. Me, I'd just add what I thought was good and run it. If'n it don't come out right you can always throw in the faints jar and rerun. Let us know what happens I might try addin some if it's good!

stillin wrote: Hey WN2W
I read a few tried and true rum recipes. Check em out,it might give you an idea how much to add. Scoopin out spent grain and replacin with equal amounts does it for most from what I've read, but it's also gonna depend on what taste you want. Everybody's got there own ideas of what's good. Me, I'd just add what I thought was good and run it. If'n it don't come out right you can always throw in the faints jar and rerun. Let us know what happens I might try addin some if it's good!

Thanks Stillin,
I guess in reality, this IS rum right?
I might not be doing the spent grain thing right? When I recharge the mash, I scoop out anything floating but it aint been much ( I might have replaced 10% in 10 runs?).
I'm using Producer's Pride All Grain, it was a little dry to begin with but I could taste the hint of molasses in the finished product. Today, I dropped a little in my drink (it was good) so I added 1/2 oz per gallon of wash. I let you know how it works out.
By the way. What room temperature is too warm? I'm a little over 100F in the summer.

The higher the temps. the more stress on the yeast, to high will kill the yeast, obviously this is why you pitch your yeast when mash temp. gets below 90F. Your mash will ferment quicker at higher temps. but with more off flavors. Course the lower the temps. the longer the ferment so you have to find a happy medium. I have a laundry room/storage area on the side of my house with a window unit. It's in the 90's here this time of year with humidity in the 90's. Sometimes the wife don't like the smell but she tolerates it. I run the window unit during the day and shut it off at night cause its cooler. It's probably 80F room temp. in there. Honestly I've never checked the temp. of my mash after I pitch my yeast. I'm a pretty simple man and prefer to do it by sight, smell and taste. If it's bubblin it's makin alkihol, when it stops taste it. If'n its dry and not sweet run it. If I had to guess I'd say maybe middle to upper 70'sF for mash temps. I've only used KS's sweetfeed whiskey and WPOSW recipes, followed them to the "T" and never had a problem. Anybody with more exp. can chime in I don't want to be givin false info. here. Check the parent sight, click on "The Wash", select "temperature control" from the menu on the left. Some good readin on there.

Oh, I just started my second gen. of SF and I scooped off probably 5-6 cups of grain and added back equal amounts plus 20% backset from last night's run. I ferment 30 gal batches. From what you said compared to what I read might try replacing more grain.

after the striping run and a recharged with a gal of 50 abv and 3.5 gals fresh wash i ended up with 8 pints first two pint 145 proof. sec two pint 140 proof. third two pints 130. and the fourth two pints of 120 been airing for 2 days smooth very nice little of a pepper taste on the end ran more but add to gal to rerun later

stillin wrote:The higher the temps. the more stress on the yeast, to high will kill the yeast, obviously this is why you pitch your yeast when mash temp. gets below 90F. Your mash will ferment quicker at higher temps. but with more off flavors. Course the lower the temps. the longer the ferment so you have to find a happy medium. I have a laundry room/storage area on the side of my house with a window unit. It's in the 90's here this time of year with humidity in the 90's. Sometimes the wife don't like the smell but she tolerates it. I run the window unit during the day and shut it off at night cause its cooler. It's probably 80F room temp. in there. Honestly I've never checked the temp. of my mash after I pitch my yeast. I'm a pretty simple man and prefer to do it by sight, smell and taste. If it's bubblin it's makin alkihol, when it stops taste it. If'n its dry and not sweet run it. If I had to guess I'd say maybe middle to upper 70'sF for mash temps. I've only used KS's sweetfeed whiskey and WPOSW recipes, followed them to the "T" and never had a problem. Anybody with more exp. can chime in I don't want to be givin false info. here. Check the parent sight, click on "The Wash", select "temperature control" from the menu on the left. Some good readin on there.

Stillin, same here, I did check after your informative post though I got peak room temp at 105 and peak mash temp at 98, so not to bad. I will make a stripping run in a min. I have two small bottles of frozen water I plan to drop one in the mash when I recharge it, then exchange it for the other tomorrow at 11am (I'll continue that till it's done unless someone talks me out of it).
Good day men!

I have 2 5-gallon buckets going.

4" of Producer's Price All Green Sweet Feed, 5 lbs of organic white sugar, distiller's yeast.

OG was 1.071.

Question: I just have the plastic bucket lids loosely resting on top. Moisture is dripping off the top and back into the wash. I assume this is OK.

I had originally drilled a hole and stuck in a blow-off tube with the opposite end in a jug of water, but the lid never sealed tightly enough to keep pressure in and off-gas into the jug. I assume the CO2 off-gassing will create a protective layer and keep the wash from oxidizing and spoiling?

Thanks!

Q

You are fine.

CO2 is heavier than O2, so the gasses coming out of your wash stay on top of the wash, preventing O2 to get in.

Odin.

I'm new to these forums, and have question. Has anyone used any of the turbo yeasts with this sweetfeed recipe? I have four bags of the 48 hour turbo and am hesitant to go ahead and use. If anyone could give me some follow up on this I sure would appreiate. Thanks.

Dont do it. This is a tasty recipy. Turbo's are for quick ferments without taste. Or maybe with some off tastes.

Alcotec 48 is okay. Use the 6 kilo recipe, you can turn it into a vodka.

Or use it to clean your still. And start a Birdwatchers instead.

Or maybe start a SF, but use normal baker's yeast only.

Gen 2 or 3 and you will be having a great product. Few months of rest, some oak chips ...

Odin.

I have been reading till I can hardly hold my head up. The 1 thing that I need a little help with is, as rule of thumb how many times can you rerun you SF before you loose your taste. Or do you do as in UJSM, scarpe off floaters and replace with fresh SF. I want to do it correctly the first time. I have everything else down pat. Just about ready to do my first run. Thanks for all the other great posts.

Unom, yes scrape off used replace and add sugar back ferment and repeat can go many generations...gets better as u go just like UJSSM!

Thanks fullhouse. That was what I was reading between the lines. I am looking forward to making it.

Is four inches of feed too much in a 5 gallon bucket? My first 2 batches of wash are almost done, but it looks like I'll only be able to siphon of maybe 2.75-3 gallons in settled wash per bucket.

Or is that about right?

Qball
Sounds about right,grains soak up alot of liquid!
What size boiler you using? If you can fill your boiler with a ferment or two it works good, if you need more than a couple ferments to fill it,you need bigger fermenting gear!

I have a 13 gallon boiler, so it will be half full for the first run.

I will do this as a stripping run and begin generation 2 of the wash and gather some more for another stripping run. Perhaps start a 3rd bucket... This will give me 9 gallons of wash next time around.

Per the advice of Odin on another thread... gather 3 batches of stipped runs, and then do a final spirit run and practice my cuts. I have about 2 dozen mason jars, 6 1/2 gallon jugs and 6 gallon jugs for the various parts of the process and storage.

For this first wash, I used 5 pounds organic sugar (slight tan color it), 4 inches of sweet feed, and distillers yeast. I peeked today and it looked mostly settled and an occasional bubble breaking surface. I may rack it tomorrow night, let it settle, and run it Sunday.

Saturday I will run my water/vinegar run for cleaning and then put a couple boxes of wine through it for the first practice run.

After I get a couple of runs going, I'll do some single malt wash. I brew beer and have an electric brewery setup, so I can mash and produce 8 gallons of wort/beer at a time with very precise control. I average about 90% efficiency...

Damn qball, I like the setup its sweet lookingg
Been trying to work out my room but hell it wont compare to that, it rocks!

Damn Qball are u kidding me that lab is sik brother...how u get those kegs so shiny ?nice set up man!

and what ur doing with the SF sounds about right ...not gonna get the total like u can with a gerber or such....but man its some good stuff when u get on up a few generations . shineyshiney

OMG you even have a rubber mat!!

I'll stop hijacking this thread and post elsewhere... but check out http://www.theelectricbrewery.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow for information on my setup. I followed his plans except for the polished kegs.

DId my first run today (stripping) with my pot still.

Last night I did a cleaning wash with diluted vinegar and distilled water. Then I ran 9 liters of boxed wine and a gallon of distilled water. The sacrificial run went well and I had fun burning off the alcohol,

Today, I ran about 5 gallons of my wash... the wash had settled and was pretty settled (dark amber liquid that was clear).

I produced just 5-6 quarts of low wines

I pulled off the first 150ml and saved it cleaning.

I measured the percent alcohol about every 500ml and it went from 65%, 60%, 55%, 45%, 40%... etc.

The last 250ml or so started to get a little hazy (just a little)and I was down to 22%-25% and I stopped it.

Used the backset to make 2nd generation wash, but I added a 3rd 5 gallon bucket, so I'll have 15 gallons of wash going for round #2.

im new so please dont stone me if this is retarded but do you put the sweet feed in and all in the pot or just the clear wash?

sweet feed is the wash...feed ,,water,and sugar to bring up the SG..

just the clearish wash leave the grains out of the pot!

thank you i did not think that it did but just checking