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I made an impulse buy this week while purchasing my sugar and yeast at the supermarket; 5 kg of wild bird seed mix for $8. The contents contain wheat, barley, oats, corn, sorghum, white French millet, panorama millet, black sunflower seeds and shell grit. I figure it's worth a try. I'll keep the forum posted

Sounds interesting .

Sounds similar to some hot cereal mix I found awhile back. All kinds of goodies in it. But as expensive as t was, I wasn't forking out that much money on a mash.

Peter_Muir wrote:I made an impulse buy this week

Sounds so funny, I think I do that every time I'm in a store. I've been looking at Chicken Scratch (my next impulse buy) and it seems like it would be good. Need to take a picture of the grain bill and do a little research.

If this turns out well I'll call it the PPP whiskey. This is an experiment I wanted to try for a while now and I'm having a crack at it now. I've purchased a 5kg bag of coles smartbuy wild birdseed mix for $8.00 containing wheat, oats, barley, corn, sorghum, panorama millet, white french millet, black sunflower seeds and shellgrit. I'm making this ujsm style so I've 10 kg's of white sugar


I then ground it into a meal with my blender. I have a 30L fermenter and a 25L fermenter so I put 3 litres of ground meal in the the 30 and 2.5L in the 25.

5.5kg of sugar in the 30l fermenter and 4.5kg in the 25l. Boiled 15 l of water with a couple of tablespoons of yeast for nutrient and a tbsp of citric acid to invert the sugar and to neutralise the shell grit and poorest over the sugar and grains and stirred the hell out of it with a whisk to ensure there were no clumps and and left it a couple of hours to soften the grains.

I toped off the fermenters with cold water and took about a cup of wash from each to make a starter which I pitched after about 30 minutes once they started to foam like crazy. I'm using loans baking yeast which I've had plenty of success with. I threw in a 1/2 hand full of Epsom Salts, sealed these baby's up and air locked and after about an hour they were bubbling away like crazy. I popped off the top of both fermenters to check and there's a nice cap on top of both and they're frying away nicely.

I'm optimistic about this wash and can't wait to sample the end product. The cracked grain had quite a strong smell so I thing this will be a full flavoured whiskey.

Might teach you to fly. Sounds interesting.

The citric acid is not going to invert the sugar in the prepared wash... If you want invert sugar you need to follow the procedures documented here in these forums or elsewhere on the internet... The citric acid will primarily just lower the pH...

I had to break out the heater mats for my fermenters last night as the temp dropped considerably last night to 10c and wrapped them in blankets. Both still chugging away nicely this morning.

Photos Pete we need photos...



Promise I won't hijack this thread like another forum...

Cheers
TAF
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It's all in my Photobucket
http://s1185.photobucket.com/user/Peter ... t=3&page=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Thanks mate.... looking good


TAF

Both batches have fermented dry and are now clearing in the cool of the shed. Running this Friday after I build a new condenser. I'll be knocking up my first liebeg on Wednesday after using a worm for so long.

what other forum snagged it?

the sunflower seeds contain alot of heavy oil, but since it contains a relitivly a small amount you may be able to strain it thru a coffee filter to remove the oils when finished. the millet and other grains do make a good drop. you may want to clean out your gear afterwords to flush any oils for the next run.

dakotasnake wrote:the sunflower seeds contain alot of heavy oil, but since it contains a relitivly a small amount you may be able to strain it thru a coffee filter to remove the oils when finished. the millet and other grains do make a good drop. you may want to clean out your gear afterwords to flush any oils for the next run.

I'm fermenting Gen 3 now and haven't had any oil issues so far so no filtering has been needed. I've used raw sugar in gen 3 and 4 and about 1/3 volume of backset. I kept a pint of the second gen hearts too and the grain flavours are starting to come through nicely. I've dropped the sugar volume down to 3 kg in the 25L fermenter and 4kg in the 30L. The 3rd gen is fermenting bubbling faster than the last 2 and I think will be done by the weekend. I'll do my spirit run after the 4 th gen and mature on oak.

If you want to remove the sunflower seeds, submerge the feed in some water and scoop off the sunflower seeds that float to the top. Give it a little stir and wait for it to settle again. Repeat. Sunflower seeds like to swim.

I used to use bird seed as a mushroom growing substrate and this was the method used to remove the seeds.

firerat wrote:If you want to remove the sunflower seeds, submerge the feed in some water and scoop off the sunflower seeds that float to the top. Give it a little stir and wait for it to settle again. Repeat. Sunflower seeds like to swim.

I used to use bird seed as a mushroom growing substrate and this was the method used to remove the seeds.

I used the PF TECH with Brown Rice flower and vermiculite as my substrate.

As for the sunflower seeds, I think they'll add to the flavour. I've finished my spirit run and I'm ageing 2ltrs on some bourbon oak chips that have been unused for over a year and a half but still moist from the allbran I had oaked. Smells amazing. I have another 6 litres ageing on dark, shaved European oak with a strong aroma of sherry. Should make a nice blend I think.