Home Distiller

Deathwish wrote:

This is a very easy wash I use 10lbs of sugar 16oz of wheat germ 1 tsp of citric acid I put all of that in a 5 gallon pot fill it close to the top with water and let it boil for about 1 and 1/2 hours then pour it in my 6 and 1/2 gallon fermenter top it off to 6 gallons total with water let it cool then add my yeast. I like to use red star champagne yeast it is only 79 cents around here. it should ferment in about 3-4 days be careful I have had this recipe blow the bubbler out and put a dent in my ceiling. lol I like mine strong. with my pot still I always throw away about a cup of the heads then I stop it at about 100 proof that is what I call the drinkable stuff. The tails I will take down to about 20 proof and rerun it later with a bunch of other tails with my re fractioning still I run it fast to about 20 proof get about 12 gallons and run it slow at 170 degrees at the top of my stack. I stop pulling it as soon as it starts to drop the rest is tails to me.I feel that this has a very clean smooth scotch flavor this is the most drinkable recipe I have

I dont think there is any better when it comes to sugar washes...simply GREAT..

Tater,
Just into day 2 of the DWG wash.
Sounds too simple to be true.
Do you do any polishing at all or is it drinkable straight from the tap?
Can or do you use any backslop for continuing the fermentation or is it a once only recepie?

It still needs to be oaked, I use backset but if you use too much it slows the fermentation right down.

I used 500gms wheat germ boiled with 2kg sugar and juice of 1 lemon,
added another 2kg sugar in fermenter. Measured 1.060SG before adding bakers yeast.
Not exactly the same but should be close enough I hope.
Seems to be bubbling along OK
Any comment?

It will be fine....you only inverted half the sugar but I suspect very little (if any) will change.

I opened a bottle of year old DWWG last weekend,and its really good.
a year in the bottle has made it much better,although it was damn good when I bottled it.
wineo

CoopsOz wrote:It will be fine....you only inverted half the sugar but I suspect very little (if any) will change.

Yeah, my mistake there, filled my boiler too full and after I added the WG then 2kg sugar, I thought any more might be too full.
As it turned out, with the volcano action when the mix first started to boil, its a good thing I did not add it.
Just one point though, according to the home site calculators 4kg of sugar in 21lts should read SG1.073 without any extras in the wash.
I wonder why mine read lower.

Coops,
By the way, how much do you mean by too much?

Bit worried bout my DWWG's. Got a 40 litre batch that's 3 weeks in the fermenter, just tested it at 1010, was 1050 last week. got a 2 week old 20 litre batch that's just tested at 1045.

Both of them smell and taste like slight vinegar, like a beer wash a few days past best. Both still fermenting strongly though on Lavlin 'Danstil C' distillers yeast? The only thing different i did was boilt the mash for only half an hour.
Is it normal for the DWWG to smell vinegary?
I'm intending to run the big batch tommorrow as i need the drum and i'm worried its somehow been infected, will i lose much potential volume?

tracker0945 wrote:Coops,
By the way, how much do you mean by too much?

Sorry mate, I somehow missed the question , I don't really know the answer. I used 35% last time and it slowed the ferment incredibly, in fact I have to add something in order to start it up. It's a 50L wash that has been going about three weeks now and is still sweet. Maybe because I didn't add anymore wheatgerm I may have exhausted all the nutrients.

I know the ambient temp isn't a problem because I put on a 30L wash in the DWWG style except I used corn, barley and rye and that fermented dry in 5 days.

From the reading I've done, you're probably correct, it could be either of these.
I'm using this one as a single use wash 'cause I have some EC1118 on its way and I will start another batch with that which I will try and keep going for a few generations.
I would love to try a UJSM but am a bit worried about the aroma it may send out past the neighbours when I am boiling it up. I am hoping this one will not be quite as aromatic.

If you dont do the hour and a half boil,it wont work as fast.Thats the key to this recipe.It takes that long to pull the stuff out of the wheat germ.
wineo

I wouldnt think the aroma of the WG would be a problems. I dont think I would think anything about it if smelled boiling wheat germ from a neighbor. I worry more when I dump my unused backset. I just usually do it at night and dump it on the compost.

wineo wrote:If you dont do the hour and a half boil,it wont work as fast.Thats the key to this recipe.It takes that long to pull the stuff out of the wheat germ.
wineo

Thanks Wineo, that'd be why it's entering it's 4th week. The slight vinegar taste/smell, is that because of the lemons used to convert the sugar?

It could be.Wait till it finishes fermenting,and taste it.If its vinegar,you should be able to tell by the taste.
wineo

grainhopper wrote:I wouldnt think the aroma of the WG would be a problems. I dont think I would think anything about it if smelled boiling wheat germ from a neighbor. I worry more when I dump my unused backset. I just usually do it at night and dump it on the compost.

It was the UJSM aroma I was concerned about, thats why I went for the WG as I thought it would be milder.

Ta, Wineo

tater wrote:Deathwish wrote:

it should ferment in about 3-4 days be careful I have had this recipe blow the bubbler out and put a dent in my ceiling.

Don't let the wife look up at the dent or get it fixed before she notices it LOL

I made an almost same recipe from another site and the instructions said to put into a carboy under airlock.

The next day the airlock was filled with a foam and the carboy was rushed to a kitchen sink with the airlock removed.

The carboy continued to foam over for about another 7 days.

I was lucky not have the bubbler blow out and caught the foaming early enough.

I got another 20oz wheat germ waiting to be made but it will wait till I have my 8 gallon primary available

Johnny Reb

In the original post it doesn't say how much yeast to use. Does anyone have a recommendation for this recipe?
Thanks
ER70s-2

ER70S-2 wrote:In the original post it doesn't say how much yeast to use. Does anyone have a recommendation for this recipe?
Thanks
ER70s-2

taters original recipe says "I like to use red star champagne yeast it is only 79 cents around here."

I used 1 packet Lavlin EC-1118...

Johnny Reb

I used 4 paks of Lavlin EC-1118... for 15 gal .wash i gave it a good head start also ..

I usually use a couple of desertspoons of bread yeast. Tried turbo, not impressed by the cost/product ratio. Next I tried ec1118 and found it OK. One day I had no yeast but there was some bakers yeast in the fridge.

Haven't used anything else since.


blanik

blanikdog wrote:I usually use a couple of desertspoons of bread yeast. Tried turbo, not impressed by the cost/product ratio. Next I tried ec1118 and found it OK. One day I had no yeast but there was some bakers yeast in the fridge.

Haven't used anything else since.

blanik

I also swapped to bakers yeast, largely for cost reasons. It costs me less than $2 per 40 litre ferment for yeast and nutrients, compared to $7 for a pack of Turbo. Plus I don't have to keep going to the local brew shop and get seen buying Turbos.

Another thing to think about is that a yeast culture can be used several times. I'm not advocating Turbos here ... but you can use the same yeast over several fermentations, as long as new nutrients are added. This brings the cost of the yeast down considerably.

Of course, I don't think you're going to get any brewing yeast cost down below baker's yeast per use cost. I guess, if it works ... use it. No sense in fixing that something that's not broken.

~r~

Great, so one packet of ec1118 should be fine for a 5 gallon wash then right?
Hey Blankidog, you mention that the ec1118 was ok, but now you use the bakers yeast. Do you find that the bakers yeast is actually better or do you just use it because it's cheaper? I would like to know if you found that the ec1118 left undesirable flavours in the final product before I use it.
For this recipe is it alright to use lemon juice in place of the citric acid? I couldn't find any citric acid in the stores and would like to get this wash going. If it is alright, what would you reccomend to put in (how much).
Thanks
ER70S-2

Citric acid - lemon juice. As far far I know one is the same as the other.

The main difference is that lemon juice will also have a few nutrients in it. But if you are already using other nutirents (such as tomato paste) then it won't matter. I only use citric acid and it works fine.

You can get it in the supermarket, usually in the same section as sodium bicarbonate and the flavour essences.

I almost have this wash ready to distill but had a question, I've only run one sugar wash and an old batch of wine.
Do I need to strain this to take out the wheat germ before stilling? I see alot of guys want it "clear" before stilling, but I take it that that is just for straight sugar washes?
Thanks
er70s-2

ER70S-2 wrote:I almost have this wash ready to distill but had a question, I've only run one sugar wash and an old batch of wine.
Do I need to strain this to take out the wheat germ before stilling? I see alot of guys want it "clear" before stilling, but I take it that that is just for straight sugar washes?
Thanks
er70s-2

The clearing should apply for all washes, and especially ones that have grains. Any solids left behind may burn to the bottom of the boiler and give a taste that is very hard to remove.

Some who have had winemaking tools left over like to siphon the cleared wash off of the bottom instead of straining, since it is a bit faster and, if done carefully, can get rid of more solids than straining.