vodka

[furface]

has enyone a recipe for potato vodka?

[new_moonshiner]

do a search on the parent site ...there are lots of results

[geo38]

Don't waste the potatoes. If you want to make vodka, you have to make ethanol. The cheapest way to make ethanol is with sugar.

100 ml 95% ethanol plus 137 ml distilled water equals the same vodka you buy at the store. If you want vodka with a potatoe flavour; chuck a chopped potato into your vodka.

If you would like my recipe for a sugar wash, I'll be glad to send it to you.

Cheers,

G

[Husker]

100 ml 95% ethanol plus 137 ml distilled water equals the same vodka you buy at the store.

Actually, if you make clean 95%, mixing 100ml @95% and 137ml distilled water will get you a product that is much better than all (well, almost all) store bought vodkas (if you are looking for "absolute neutral".) However, some store bought vodkas do have a flavor signature, which you can tell that it was produced from grain, potato, grape, etc. However, I also personally like straight sugar neutrals, as then you can more easily make a drink that is flavored exactly as you want it to be.

H.

[wineo]

I agree with husker.I use a non turbo,12% sugar wash for my vodka,and potstill it 1 time.It has some flavors,and all of them are pleasing to taste.
This makes a better tasting vodka,much better than you can buy,and potstilling it doesnt strip all the flavor.Keep your sugar wash simple,and dont add a bunch of extra stuff to it.If you can get a good ferment that finishes in a week or two,you will have a cleaner wash.I use 8 pounds of sugar{inverted} in 5 gallons.If you use more sugar,it will stress the yeast,and it will get stuck,or take too long to finish.It will not be as clean.
I use 2 packs of 1118 lalvin,in a starter{1/2 gallon}and let it work for 48 hours before I use it.This helps,and builds up the cell count so it can handle the sugar better.I use some DAP,a crushed vitiman in the boil{low or no iron}a pinch of epsom salts,and 1 pack of yeast in the boil.
wineo

[Uncle Jesse]

Don't wimp out, do a potato mash and distill it multiple times. Just be careful because potato mashes ferment VIOLENTLY. Head space isn't enough, don't use a plastic bubbler like I did. It clogged and blew out of the carboy like a missile, then the wort made a huge mess on my garage floor.

Neutral spirits is the easy way, have some fun with the traditional method first.

[junkyard dawg]

I'm with jesse on this...

I have never tackled potato vodka, but hope to one day. I have made very traditional style recipes for rums, whiskeys and wines and have not been disappointed yet. (there is a big learning curve...) Good luck and tell us how it goes... sorry I have no good advice to give. Just go for it and dial it in...

[Bsnapshot]

geo

I would be interested in your recipe for sugar wash..

[rangaz]

It seems to be a very common misconception that all vodka is made from potatoes. It can be made from anything that ferments. People refuse to believe me until I make them read the label that says "neutral grain spirit".
I assume you were looking for how to make a neutral spirit rather than potato vodka specifically.

[Rudi]

vodka:Neutral spirit distilled from fermented whatever is cheapest then cut to between 38-50%abv.
It is my understanding vodka has little to do with the product fermented the distillation process should strip all flavour anyway

Having said that it would still be cool to do a potatoe mash and I plan to one day.

[stillsmokin]

I had read here earlier that in a taste test the potato vodka came out on top compared to a variety of other vodkas.

This got me thinking it would be an interesting goal to one day make a great potato vodka. I am currently building a reflux still and plan to build a pot still with the leftover copper, but I will be checking back on this subject as time goes on. Of course I will start out with a simple sugar wash myself, but I am already devising plans for a continuous UJSM, and perhaps potatoes after that.

I really appreciate this forum and all the people contributing. Let's keep this potato discussion going, it seems to be one of the least known about materials to ferment.


Uncle Jesse,

Any ideas how you might ferment differently if you were to try potatoes again?

Any volumes you might recall?

Any barley/malt needed in the process? (I'm still learning about that enzyme stuff)

Thanks everybody!

[TN.Frank]

IIRC don't you freeze the patatos to convert the starch to sugar. Seems like it'd be easy enough to freeze a 10 lb bag of 'taters and then cook em' a bit to make up some mash. I might give it a try at a later date. Talk to ya'll later.

[stillsmokin]

thanks TN,

Searching the site I've found a lot of tid-bits, but the only substantial info I seem to find is what Tater provided:

Samuel M Harry the practical distiller 1809 wash them clean and grind them in a apple mill and if no mill scald them and pound them . put 2 or 3 bushels into hogs head nearly full of boiling water stir them for well 1/2 hr cover with cloth untill taters are scalded soft then stir till cold. add 2 qts yeast per hogshead and let fermint 8 to 10 days. draw off beer or distill all same as apples. says do turnips same way

I would like to get some 20 - 25 liter recipe ideas going. Perhaps in combination with sugar/beets/molasses if necessary (I figure potatoes might be too bulky on their own).

I'll be checking back soon........

[TN.Frank]

If you want to talk molasses (and Rum) then we can talk. I've made some pretty tasty rum with molasses and dark brown sugar. It's a fairly simple recipie(kind of like a sugar wash but with dark brown sugar and molasses instead of white sugar) and after it's done you can throw in a cinimmon stick and a couple cloves into the jar and let it set for a month and it's awesome.

[dunderhead]

It whold take a long time to work off
witheout enzymes

[Uncle Jesse]

the time I did them I took 20 lbs of potatoes and cut them into 4 or 6 pieces. I put them into the BOP and boiled them until they were dispersed. Then I let them cool off to mash-in temperature (~150F) and I mixed in 2lbs of malted 2-row and mashed it for an hour then let it cool off on it's own overnight.

My BOP has a screen at the bottom which caught the skins and so on when I drained the mash and put it into 6.5 gallon carboys. This was a 10 gallon mash, incidentally. At any rate, the fermentation was violent and 1.5 gallons of headspace room wasn't nearly enough for what happened.

[TN.Frank]

It whold take a long time to work off
witheout enzymes

If the startch wasn't convereted to sugar it wouldn't work off at all. Yeast feed on sugar, not startch. I'm pretty sure I read that if you freeze a 'tater it'll turn the startch to sugar. Kind of the same deal as malting corn only different.
Probably the cheapest alcohol you could make would be from a simple sugar wash, of course it'd not have any real flavor but it'd be great as a mixer for Tonic Water or other stuff.

[bronzdragon]

I agree. If the starch is not converted to sugar, the yeast will not use it. I believe that, that's true for the most part. There may be a very small amount of starch that the yeast use, but for the most part, I've seen it fall out with the yeast trub.

~r~

[dunderhead]

I'v seen sweet potatoes frozen but not white

[dunderhead]

Ya I'm back
I shold toled you if you put some acid in potatoe
they whont turn black {lemon- lime]

[Uncle Jesse]

There's no enzymes to convert the starches. That's why I mash in about 10% malted 2-row and do a normal mash-in. Any malted grain should work. This gives you the enzymes you need and converts those starches to sugars for your fermentation.

[stillsmokin]

Thanks Uncle Jesse,

This is the kind of info I can start with.

Maybe a 3-gallon mash in a 6.5 carboy could be tried. (Obviously this isn't being done for efficiency or I'd stick to sugar).

I figure I'll be facilitating 4 bucket fermenters anyways. Maybe I'll figure out a 12 gallon recipe and put 3gal in each.

10% malted 2 row to about 20lbs (or a few more lbs) of potatoes and make it up to 12 gal. Simple enough.

Any thoughts on how long to wait for starch conversion? (overnight enough?)

[Uncle Jesse]

I mashed it at about 150F for an hour and then turned off the heat and let it cool overnight, then I put it into the carboys and pitched my yeast.

[cannon.co.tn]

unless you pull the potatoes out of the mash during fermentation the enzymes will continue (slowly) converting the starches to sugars.

[High_Wine_Guy]

I had this posted on another forum - thought that I'd share it here.

Okay, I did some thinking and kind of come up with what I hope is a half way good recipe.

I've started with about 25 pounds of peeled and roughly chopped potatoes (I know that a lot of people say that there's no need to peel them - I just don't want a big bunch of peels in my still - also the way this is fermenting you wouldn't want peels blocking your bubbler).

Slowly, and I do repeat slowly, bring these up to a slow boil in a big kettle (it took me almost two and half hours to cook mine - this slow cooking should help break down the starch).

Now when the potatoes are tender (not total mush) split them between two 5 gallon buckets (and nope I didn't drain them first - water and all). Once you have your potatoes split add about 5 pounds of sugar to each bucket, the hot water will make adding the sugar easy.

I then added six crushed Beano tablets and some yeast nutrient to each bucket and mixed them up really well with paddle mixer on my drill (they'll end up looking like soupy oatmeal). I topped off with water to five gallons, added my distillers yeast and then let her rip.

Update: after sitting over night I've never seen fermentation quite this active. One bucket is blowing foam up through the bubbler every few minutes like Old Faithful - it's quite funny really. The other bucket had the bubbler blocked with a piece of potato and it looked like the whole bucket was going to blow up (kind of started to look like a beach ball - wouldn't have been good if I didn't catch it) - I pulled the bubbler out and it blew potato water everywhere...lol

All that I know at this point is that whatever I'm making has some awesome fermentation happening. Will it make good vodka? We'll find out but in all of my years making wine I've never had a batch ferment quite this strong.

I'll keep everyone updated on the progress....

Update:
Well two days now and everything is fermenting away perfectly.

I forgot to mention that I also used DIATASE ENZYME (AMYLASE) to convert the potato starch into sugar.

Well I'm at the week and half point (don't have to wait that long I've just been out of town) and everything is pretty much done. I did come back after five days and added another couple of pounds of sugar (couldn't hurt) which kicked fermentation back up for another couple of days.

I'm going to run all 12 gallons maybe this weekend - I'll keep everyone posted on the outcome. AND - it does have one awesome potatoeee smell to it, which is really not bad. I'll bet this comes out a lot better then just a straight sugar wash....

Later...

[showrguy]

thanks for making me laugh..
as i was reading your post, when i got to the part where you said "topped of with water to 5 gal." that's when i started smiling (cause i knew what was coming next)..
then once i got to the part about the "potatoe foam"and the "swelled up blocked fermenter", i was laughing my a$$ off...
very funny

[blanikdog]

Many years back I was making some pear wine in the kitchen. It was fermenting quite well - violently to be truthful - and the bubbler thingy fell out. I was at night school so SHMBOOD - she was quite a violent person - put it back in. Shortly thereafter it fell out again. This happened several times and each time she pushed it in harder. It was obviously blocked with a piece of pear.

When I got home she was even shittier than usual - which I thought was impossible - and there was pear juice and mush all over the ceiling and walls.

She evidently got the bubbler to stay in!!!

I did eventually divorce her, hence I live to tell the tale.

The moral is; don't make wine in the house, and don't ever believe that domestic violence is committed by men only.

blanik

[wineo]

[High_Wine_Guy]

Still waiting to run the potato wash through the still - short on time and long on washes needing to be run. I've stripped over 36 gallons of rum wash over the last week and a half and I have 6 gallons more to go and then we start on the potato wash or maybe the UJSM - still have 18 gallons of it waiting.

Guess what everyone is getting for Christmas this year!

Yes my basement is full of bubbling buckets - I need a couple of more! lol

Sam - High_Wine_Guy

[stillsmokin]

It occurred to me that the potatoes I usually let get old (1/4 inch sprouts coming out of them) might have the necessary enzyme to convert the starches. Perhaps chopped/boiled would convert w/o any malt product to buy?

Could they be considered "malted potatoes"? - Seems logical-ish.