What if you wanted quantity over quality?

[1GUNRUNNER]

What if you wanted the highest yield ABV out of a sugar wash? I want to play with some ideas I have cleaning it up post run. I know it goes against almost everything you guys believe in, but I wanna try. What recipe would you recommend to produce such an animal?

[Drunk-N-Smurf]

Had a nice long winded reply written up for ya, but posting reported the topic no longer existed.....
Any way, the short version:
If that's the route you wanna go, might as well go cheap too.
Shit load of sugar, shit load of water, shit load of turbo yeast. Get your SG up as high as the yeast can handle. Feed nutrients as necessary.

But I can say from experience, the flavours you are gonna end up with will not fully come out of the final product no matter what you do to it.

I ran my first wash, without clearing it first. The yeast flavour came over with the end product, and even after passing through carbon filters three times, and airing it out for days, I can still sate the yeast. Barely, but it's there. And I wasn't even using turbo yeast.

Quite frankly, I don't see the point, if you like shitty tasting booze, giver. But if your expecting to magically make the crap into gold, it isn't going to happen. Just my opinion.

DS

[DAD300]

In a single batch fermentation...Sugar wash with the ph and temp kept as perfect as possible. High yield yeast. Nutrients. Progressively feed it! Start with a reasonable sg (1.8ish) and add more converted sugar on a schedule.

The dreamers always seem to look at continuous distillation...

I've started to look at continuous fermentation...kind of a twist on multiple generation mashing.

What if I had a wash fermenting all the time and every time the sg gets close to finish I take half out and replace with fresh wash minus the yeast?

[Boda Getta]

Quantity over quality? No problem. Do everything this forum tells you not to do.

BG

[jape]

Please don't do that! I am not a pro in any sense, but I have done a dozen or so sugar washes to date. I have noticed when you start getting close to the yeasts alcohol tolerance, it will make the whole batch taste bad. I had mostly used Ec- 1118 bacause it had a high tolerance, but when I got to 14-15 abv range, it really produce some bad taste. I think it is best to stay a few points lower than the yeasts threshold, it will taste a whole lot better. Getting too close to the yeast limits also seems to add a bunch of hangover material to the distillate. If you are intent on doing it, go for it, but, don't be suprized if you end up with the same result. But it was a good learning experience for me also.

[Bayou-Ruler]

What if you wanted the highest yield ABV out of a sugar wash? I want to play with some ideas I have cleaning it up post run. I know it goes against almost everything you guys believe in, but I wanna try. What recipe would you recommend to produce such an animal?

Follow the Instructions on the Turbo Yeast.

[rad14701]

You honestly can't have it both ways... When you push for quantity you sacrifice quality... And you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear... What you end up with is proportionately more foreshots, heads, and tails, and proportionately less decent hearts... And there is no guarantee that any amount of redistilling and filtering effort is going to clean up those lesser appealing proportions...

And this raises the question of why you feel compelled to shoot for greed...??? Just being a bit naive or pondering selling, neither of which is an admirable trait around here...??? Or do you just need to prove something to yourself...??? We'd really like to know more about the fascination with quantity over quality and, obviously, I'm not afraid to ask...

[Rivver]

Not sure what you are looking to do 1gun, but I have nothing wrong with someone wanting to do a bit of pioneering. Most people on here including myself would tell you that that's not how it's done, but at the same time they probably haven't tried whatever it is you are wanting to try, because no one knows what you are wanting to try. I myself came up with an idea to pressure cook corn to gelentenize instead of the "standard" method of standing over a pot and stirring the shit out of it, but it hasn't gained all that much popularity.

My advice is to use a bunch of sugar and a turbo, or some very high tolerant yeast to make your wash. Getting high alc content is not very hard to do nowadays. Then try whatever you want, if it works, post it here, if not, chalk it up as a lesson learned and try something else. Whatever it is you do may not be all that popular with some, but hey, it's your money, and your time in the end.

One last thing I will add. The purpose of this site is to provide knowledge and integrity to what we do. Don't be one of those idiots that goes out and posts up some crap on youtube that "you can clean up distilled spirits like this" until you have some guys like the mentors on here look things over first to make sure what it is you are doing is safe. People can get hurt by bad information, including yourself.

[crossedrifles08]

My advice on this subject is to follow recommendations and go with a larger still.

I started with a Mr. Distiller (aka airstill) and was limited because it would only do 1gal at a time of wash. Which if REALLY high in ABV, would net a pint of "drinkable" booze. Although after a few months on oak turned into something quite pleasant.

Which a larger still, you're able to run more at once, and take more cuts. Thus increasing the amount you keep, and the amount you throw back into your next batch. I just finished a new still, having posted the details in the "My Still" forum. And with a 10% wash should have no problems getting a good amount of drinkable spirit. First up after the sugar wash cleaning run (vinegar is already done) will be a sugar wash to make a good neutral. Then directly after that a Scotch using 7lbs of 2-row, 7lbs of Peated Malt, and 4lbs of sugar. Estimated gravity (using beer smith) is right at 1.108 and should yield a wort at about 10.5%. But I already have a gallon of 140 proof All bran in the white I'm thinking about adding to the mix. That could yield a bunch of scotch!

[1GUNRUNNER]

Thanks for the replies guys. I am just trying to make more out of less and playing around with it at the moment. In the end I will try both ends of the spectrum.

[Devonhomebrew]

get a huge fv and make say 100L wash then run it if you want qauntity and you also keep the quality because it is just a corn whiskey but you end up with more whisky because youve had 100L of it rather than 20L like you might get 3 gallon of hearts from 100l of wash that it still alot of whisky...