Home Distiller

brand new to distilling, have been making wine for 20years and wanted to move on, bought a pot still and tried the good rye whisky for the first time, last night i heated the grains and water but the [6] gallons of water has seemed to be soaked up and know i have a oatmeal like paste in my fermenter, can anyone help me?

Welcome aboard.

You need to stop right now and do about 40 hours of reading before you hurt yourself. I'm not being a jerk and I want to help but you have really jumped the gun.

So how much rye did you use? was it malted? If not did you use 2row or six row barley, or did you use enzymes, or none of the above? Did you do a beta rest? What temp did you do the starch conversion at? If it was unmalted rye was it whole or flaked? See there is a whole lot of things that go into doing a all grain rye mash and even more with running a still.

You know wine so how about starting with brandy?

RD

thanks for the reply, i did buy two books and tried to research but i think they made it look easier than it is and none addressed the questions that you raised, i wish i had fou8nd this site first.
i bought everything at the beer/wine hobby store, looks like it was all re-bagged and laballed from larger packing so not to mutch discription on the label.
this is the one i used
INGREDIENTS
7 Lbs. Rye, 2 Lbs. Barley,1 Lbs. Malt (powder)
6 gallons of water, 3 grams Yeast

1 gram Ammonium-fluoride.(did not get to this point becouse it hasnt Femented)

DIRECTIONS
Heat water to 70 degrees and then mix in malt and grain. While stirring the mixture slowly heat to 160 degrees (raise temperature 5 degrees every 2 minutes).

Keep mixture at 160 degrees stirring constantly for 2-3 hours to convert starch into fermentable sugar and dextrin.
(their was no liquid to filter off at this point only hot mash)

Filter off liquid and place into fermentation device and allow to cool to 70- 80 degrees. Immediately pitch with 3 grams of yeast.
To avoid secondary fermentation and contamination add 1 gram of ammonium-fluoride. Stir liquid for 1 minute then cover and seal with a airlock.
Mash will take 5-7 days to ferment.
After fermentation is complete pour into the still, filtering it through a pillow case to remove all solids.

seems to be doing something this morning so is their any way to save it, can liquid be added?

thank you

Wow those are the directions that came with the kit? I guess it will kinda sorta work. Your brew shop guy doesn't know what he's doing, or doesn't care. 6 gallons of water 10 lb of grain that would be about perfect except the directions called for you to heat it on the stove for 3 hours at 160f, I wonder how much water you lost from evaporation. This could be why your looking at a bucket of sludge.

At this point don't do anything to the mash, just let it ferment and strain/ squeeze it through a pillow case into your still. I have no idea if ammonium fluoride is safe to use in distilling or not but so far the directions have been a train wreck so I would check before using it.

Did you do a cleaning run on your still yet? Even if the still is a store bought unit you should always do one.

Read this topic it's a good method to make a simple sugar head whiskey http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 25&start=0

This is some good information on rye as it seems that's what your really interested in. http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 26&start=0

thank you so much this is the best infomation i have received, i never added the ammonium-fluoride because i could tell something was wrong, i have some weekend reading to do
thanks again

ammonium-fluoride is an antiseptic for cleaning. Wow..Not really certain I would trust that guy. WHEN were you supposed to add it?

after the yeast to stop a second fermentation

By what Win whiskey posted it's to be used at the end of the ferment but I can't imagine why. I don't think it would work as a clearing agent and if the directions call for using a pillow case to strain I don't think that's what it's for. Maybe it's for killing bacteria?

Like SB said I would be hesitant to put floor cleaner in anything I am going to drink. Maybe you should use it and take the bottle over to the brew shop and see if the owner gets sick. On second thought don't do that.

Anyway welcome to the forum Winwhiskey, if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.