Another Canadian On Board

[WhiskyPete]

Thought I'd introduce myself before and give people a little background before I started posting. I recently finished building my first. It's a simple 12 litre pot still with a 30 degree upward slanting lyne arm and a 750 cm water cooled syphon fed condenser. I'm looking to make rums and whiskeys and perhaps that odd fruit mash if I can find it affordably. I currently have 25 Litres of Brads Allbran wash clearing and plan to do a spiced black strap mollases and sugar rum next. I've been a beer brewer for many years and was a little intimidated about the whole distilling process. But after reading the parent site through a few times, studying the forums and purchasing Leonard Monzert's Practical Distiller book (published in 1889 and read with a grain of salt). I decided to dive in. This site is an amazing resource and I don't know how people could have safely distilled before it. With the "hush hush" nature of home distilling in many areas of the world this site is a godsend for anyone wanting practical knowledge which has been read and reviewed by a great many professional and experienced still operators. I hope to post some pics soon of my still so that I can get peoples opinions on it.
Later

[kiwistiller]

Welcome!

[rad14701]

Welcome to the HD forums, WhiskyPete...

Sounds like you've been doing plenty of research... Keep us posted on the All Bran wash... Looking forward to your still porn...

Good luck...

[beelah]

Welcome Whiskypete, from another Canadian.

What end or middle of the country are you from? I am interested in doing some writing about Canadian moonshiners and I am heading out to the prairies this sumer to talk to a couple of old timers about how and why they did it in the old days.

Maybe in future, if you have any old stories or tales from friends and familiy you could share those here with me.

This is truley a great place to find out about how to do it right.

[blanikdog]

Welcome WP.

[WhiskyPete]

What end or middle of the country are you from? .

Thanks for the welcomes everyone. Beelah I'm from western Quebec. I'll have to do some research around to see if I can get any stories about old time distillers in these parts. I knows of one family nearby that has been producing a type of homemade fortified wine for four generations. I have yet to try it, but I hear it is quite the powerfull stuff. Not quite sure what kind of distillate they fortify with. I'll add you you as a friend on this board and see if I can can get back to you with some stories.
Later

[WhiskyPete]

... Looking forward to your still porn...
Good luck...

If you are into petite chicks with kind of a sad looking homemade look to them I've got just the porn you need.....coming soon.

[WhiskyPete]

Keep us posted on the All Bran wash...
Good luck...

The wash took a little over a week (10 days) to ferment kind of slower than I had hoped, I suspect mainly because I didn't aerate the wash nearly as much as I should have (simply splash filled my bucket and put on my airlock a little quicker than I should have). I was wondering rad, I used All Bran buds boiled them while inverting the sugar before I added to my fermenter. After a day or two they kind of formed a thick gelatinous (Very gelatinous making it impossible to check sg) yeast layer of goo on top of my wash. Perhaps formed from starches in the allbran. Is this to be expected? I used bakers yeast, does it generally ferment on top of a wash as opposed to say a lager yeast? All and all, very happy so far with the recipe, no sign of infection, gave off a pleasant smell. And due to it taking a little longer, it allowed me to test and clean my still more than I probably would have had it been done earlier.
Later

[rad14701]

WhiskyPete, if I had to guess I'd guess that you over-cooked the All Bran... I just bring mine to a mild simmer and stir it regularly so it doesn't try to turn into pudding... It stays at the consistency that butterscotch pudding has just before it thickens... I have the best luck with a 2:1 water:cereal ratio for simmering... I also toss my active dry yeast in once the mix reaches a simmer for my boiled yeast nutrient... I usually heat for about 15 minutes once the cereal reaches a simmer... I start to invert my sugar first, then the cereal, and simmer the two until the invert sugar starts to attain a straw color rather than clear... I haven't found that inverting longer has any added benefit...

Not sure if this will help or not but that's how I prep my wash ingredients...

[WhiskyPete]

Thanks for the tips Rad. I'm putting down another Allbran and will use your advice.

[beelah]

In response to some of the discussion on the all-bran wash, I have been having a bit of trouble with mine too.

One of the problems was that the fermentation took off real fast and went like hell for about 24 hours and then slowed right down.

I checked the Ph and it was around 3, so I addded three tums (Calcium Carbonate) and brought the wash back up to around 4.5, plus I added a teaspoon of DAP and it took off real well.

I then went back to the package of bran flacked and took a look at the list of vitamins and minerals that are found in it and why the yeast tends to like that stuff and work better, but I also noticed the amount of sodium in one serving.

It was around 28% of your daily limit. The all bran recipe calls for 1/4 cup of bran flakes per litre of water, so around 5 cups in a 20 liter wash, that adds up to a whole lot of sodium in the wash.

As I recall back in my bread making days, that you add salt to bread for two reasons, one is for flavour (unless you are Tuscan and like your bread with out salt) and the other is to control the yeast,so it doesn't work too fast.

Could this possibly be oen of the reasons for my slower fermentation????
I may have to look for a low sodium bran flakes or go back to the DWWG wash.