Home Distiller

anyone heard of doing this with their sugar? just curious..............what would be the pros & cons??? Well, nevermind the cons, I know what they are.

1-1/2 pounds cracked corn
1-1/2 pounds raisins
1 orange, sliced
1 lemon, sliced
1 cake yeast
3 gallons water
25 cups sugar

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Directions: Add 1 cup sugar when mixing it, then 1 cup sugar each day for 24 days. Strain. Let stand 1 more week. Bottle, but don't seal tight.

Recon the theory is to not stress the yeast by not allowing too much sugar at once.

Sposed to make a cleaner product I've read.

Think them beer makers are very familiar with this trick, or so I've read.

That recipe won't work because there isn't enough water... The yeast will die of osmotic stress right from the start, without daily sugar additions... Think about it... 25 cups of sugar in 3 gallons of water... That's 29.4% potential ABV (or 22% if a full 3 gallons of water is used) without any of the fruit, raisins, or corn...

rad14701 wrote:Think about it... ..

I can't think about it. I have to go look up osmotic stress (sounds like what my aunt Lulu died of?)

Maybe halve the sugar?

blanik

The idea is to get a high abv without stressing the yeast as Old Dog said.

To do this trick you will need a super high gravity yeast and if your using white sugar you should invert it first, the additional water will bring the abv down to a acceptable level. If you use this method, a cleaner high gravity wash will result.

I haven't used this to distill but I have done beer this way, just not to this extreme.

olddog?? I'll take that as a compliment.

Question: what does a cup of sugar weigh?

Sorry, the old lady is the cook 'round here, and she's taking a nap and must not be disturbed....

EDIT: answered my own question. Here's a good converter.

http://www.traditionaloven.com/conversi ... ounts.html

Anyway, 25 cups of icing sugar is only 6.8 lbs, so that one wouldn't be too far off, especially if the gallons are UK gallons, for which 3 would be close to 4 gallons US. Of course, change the type of sugar, or the type of gallon, and it all goes to hell in a handbasket. Which brings me to my point; recipes are like hand drawn road maps; just guides. Use some common sense, and if the gravity will be too high, it'll be too high. Aint nobody developed a yeast that will survive in 30% alky yet, I don't think.

Lwtcs I'm just going to leave that one up there for all time. Your well respected and that's all I'm going to say. RD

rubber duck wrote:The idea is to get a high abv without stressing the yeast as Old Dog said.

To do this trick you will need a super high gravity yeast and if your using white sugar you should invert it first, the additional water will bring the abv down to a acceptable level. If you use this method, a cleaner high gravity wash will result.

I haven't used this to distill but I have done beer this way, just not to this extreme.

Geez.that is very interesting. Thanks RD

I am merly an apendage praying for a better solution than amputation.

And I will still be happy to have been mentioned in the same company, same room, same planet as the legendary legend.

OK...I'm back......... and I was wrong. Ozmatic Stress is what they call Australian robots that have a nervous breakdown. Aunt Lulu was killed in an apple press. (They are easily confused terms).

Corn bread, where do you come up with this stuff?

But seriously why don't you do a experiment for every one here. Try a high gravity yeast in a say 16 to 20% wash. Then try a wash with the above method and same yeast. I for one would be interested in the results, I'm just to lazy to do it.

RD

Most everybody who read the first message in this thread rolled their eyes and clicked away. Some of us tried to say it nicely, but I guess it needs to be said outright:

There's a lot of bullshit on the internet.

Just because you found a recipe that someone said worked, doesn't mean it does. That's what makes this place unique, because nothing makes it to the tried and true section until others have tried it. In the science world, this is called "peer review". Nothing in science is taken seriously until it has gone under, and survived, peer review.

Think for a minute! Some kid posts a recipe for vodka that sounds too good to be true! It'll give you 29% ABV without a still! So, you jump on it, and test it out, only to waste 25 weeks and $10 of sugar. Then you post back to the internet that something went wrong.... In the meantime, the kid that first had the idea for the recipe never tried it, never invested a penny, and now knows damn well it doesn't work, because YOU tested it for him. Same kid posts another "sure fire' recipe under a different "name", sits back, and waits for the results of someone else testing his latest idea. See how this works? The kid has found a way to test all sorts of ideas while he sits back wanking all day.... Might be a 50 year old "kid", but you get the point, I hope?

Happens all the time, and in everything from car forums(hey! I run 75 PSI in my firestone tires and my Explorer now gets 29 MPG! to cooking forums(my grandma would use this instead of that all the time...., anyone else use this instead of that?).

Stop being a Ghinnea pig for someone else's fantasies....

Common sense (there I go using that mythological term again) should kick in at some point and make someone say "Hmm...??? That's a lot of sugar based ingredients for such a small amount of water..."... We have Tried and True recipes as well as a Recipe Development section... A quick review of the recipes in those forums should be enough to convince folks that just throwing in everything except the kitchen sink just doesn't work...

Recipes like this just waste our time by having to point out the obvious, but we can't just ignore them an let novices get themselves into trouble trying them...

Bless you Rad (of course, common sense would tell me not to take advice from a naked man on the commode on the front porch .) LOL & thanks for watching after us "super-dummies".

There you go talking about that mythological, or defunct, "common sense" again, Cornbread... It went the way of the dinosaur and dodo bird long ago, at least in my geographic surroundings... If you have some left in your area it should be declared endangered before it's gone forever...

I know that if trapist yeast is used and clean boiled sugar is used 24% is attainable because I've done it. I started with a 8% beer and slowly brought it up to 24%, so yes the concept works though 24% is a long way from 29%.

What does it taste like? is it anything like turbo driving it that high.

Based on the time frame mentioned in the first post of 31 days from start to finish you could just as easily do at least 4 washes of the same volume in the 12% - 14% range... You'd be essentially doubling the amount of spirits in the same amount of time with little additional effort and with less chance of fermentation problems or off tastes and smells... You might even be able to get 5 or 6 washes fermented and distilled... I had a stretch this last spring where I was running at about that pace...

olddog wrote:What does it taste like? is it anything like turbo driving it that high.

It took a bronze in a competition. Needless to say it was a little hot, ok a lot hot but no not like turbo. I did bottle age it for 18 months.

Yes rad you are right it is impractical to do this as a distiller, but the concept works.

Gee, and Sam Adams' is only getting $150/bottle for their( 27% ABV??)Utopia beer which only took 12 years to mature(and gain the ABV). Much of the alky bga8in they say was due to aging(barrel).

Well I guess you know more about beer then I do Barny. Guess the judges liked it but then it's norcal, wtf do we know about beer.

<drift>
From what I've heard and read, Sam Adams Utopias gains high alcohol content through long fermentation periods and super yeast which has been in development for many years... While it might work for a specialty beer I highly doubt we can wait that long for our mash/wash to ferment... At any rate, it's far to expensive for my cheap beer taste...
</drift>

Sorry Rubber Duck, I was a bit rude there, and that was uncalled for on my part. I'm not a fan of high alky beers in general as it just doesn't taste like a beer should taste, in my opinion, but you're right, it's going to be to someone's liking.

Genuine question: how long did it take to achieve 24% with the beer? And how did -you- think it tasted? How was it hopped?

Hey Barny, I kinda fired back with both barrels there. I've been on edge lately but that's my problem, and I shouldn't make it yours. So I apologize for being a shit. Lol what a week.

I would have to check my notes but it was 90 days or better to get it that high. It could have been done faster but I only get home once a week. It was fermented cool and I hopped the hell out of it to prevent infections from opening the air lock so many times.

It was heavily dry hopped so that helped to cover any imperfection. The carbonation was light but I like that in a stout. I also distress aged a sixer and it smoothed it out a bit, I was kinnda surprised. It really was pretty good, hot nose on it and a little estery and a bit of raisins you defiantly new it was only going to take one.

I mostly did it to see if I could and it worked. It wasn't a beer I would do again but it was fun.