Home Distiller

I've done several sugar/corn mashes and had done 1 prior all grain corn mash without issue. On my most recent all grain adventure, I've found a few flies in the wash. I did not see them flying around in the glass carboy it was fermenting in. My process has me pouring the wash from the carboy to a stainless conical fermenter and letting it sit and from there extracting the yeast through the bottom valve and pouring the remaining wash from the side valve into the boiler. This morning I poured the wash into the conical and noticed nothing. I thoroughly cleaned and sanitized the conical just prior to doing this. I opened the conical from the top several hours later and noticed a dead fly floating on top and quickly scooped him out. If he were the only one, I would not have bothered writing this. I started extracting some of the yeast off the bottom into a cup. I slowly poured the contents of the cup into the sink and noticed 2 more dead flies. I have no idea when they got in and if it was during fermentation with perhaps a faulty airlock or when I poured the wash from carboy to conical. One fly may have gotten past me, but several I think I would have noticed while I was pouring so I'm thinking it must have been a faulty airlock even though it seemed fine when I disengaged it to move the wash into the conical. These are not regular house flies, these are very small fruit flies. I'm not sure if any more are floating around in there or not. As soon as I saw the other two I stopped pulling the yeast out and began writing this. I'm thinking they got in and died immediately during fermentation and weren't actually starting a family in there which is why I didn't see them flying around in the carboy and if that's the case I'm leaning toward running it but I thought I'd get a second opinion.

So my question is: Is the wash worth running?

Just discovered the bag of cracked corn I was using is infested with the same bugs. I guess they weren't actually flies. They must've been present from the start. I'll be tossing the entire batch and the remaining bag of corn.

Bugs are a good source of nutrients. If the thought of fermenting bugs puts you off, remember we drinks yeast piss. Bugs should also float. If so skim them off the top.

Run that stuff, it there's alcohol there they've not hurt it any.

Well the good news is there were only the 3 bugs so I will run this wash. There must not have been many bugs in the cracked corn I used at the time that I used it but the bag is now fully infested. I'm assuming you guys aren't recommending I keep it and continue making batches with it are you? Because I don't think I'll be doing that.

Throw the bag in the freezer, should kill any bugs that might be in there. Or give it to a buddy with chickens, maybe trade for some fresh eggs.

Bugs in wash are not an issue... Stop worrying about them and move on already... People all over the planet eat bugs for their protein...

Ship it to me I'll run it gladly!

Don't whine they won't drink much.

Just stain it we'll into the boiler and you'll be fine.

Coyote

Fruit flies love to come around when I'm running the still. They must be social drinkers too. And they will sometimes land in the take off jar and "sample" the liquor, only to fall into the jar. Stupid, drunk flies.

Just goes to show you....you can't drink and fly either.
ss

Yea I would run your current mash through, for only 3 little flies it will be fine. However, I do think you should throw away the invested corn or give it to someone who can use it. If you start with poor materials no amount of distilling is going to get the off flavors out.

Lville distiller82 wrote:Yea I would run your current mash through, for only 3 little flies it will be fine. However, I do think you should throw away the invested corn or give it to someone who can use it. If you start with poor materials no amount of distilling is going to get the off flavors out.

I'm going to disagree here... The next bag of grain could very easily have more bugs than this one... Let's not be getting all squeamish about a few bugs here... Heck, you have no idea how many bugs end up in the flour and other grain based foods we consume every day... Bugs don't usually carry enough germs on them to be problematic during fermentation and virtually everything gets killed during the distillation process if it survives fermentation... Folks have purposely used far worse ingredients than bugs in their washes over the years... For example, how about a group of people chewing up grains, to make use of the enzymes in their saliva, and spitting them into the mix...

Rad you are absolutely correct in regard to the bugs not hurting you from a health standpoint, and the materials could easily be used to make more distillate. However, what my last sentence meant though was, if you wish to create absolute premium product no bugs should be present in the grain, there could be other underlying factors as well that the naked eye cannot see in an infested bag of corn. If you are just looking to make product though and can deal with some off flavors than go for it. I have had some poor fermentations in my brewing and distilling and the beer came out with some off flavors, was it drinkable? Yes. Did I want to figure out what was wrong and fix it to make quality product? Yes.

Bugs will not contribute to off flavors...!!! Other facets of the fermentation process, perhaps, but not a few bugs... You could have hundreds in your wash and never notice a difference in the resulting spirits... Get over the bugs already... Seriously...

Eating a few bugs isn't going to hurt you, especially if they pickled in high proof alcohol. I had a weevil problem a while back. The real problem is choosing.

I have found that it is best to choose the lesser of 2 weevils.

Eating a few bugs isn't going to hurt you, especially if they pickled in high proof alcohol. I had a weevil problem a while back. The real problem is choosing.

I have found that it is best to choose the lesser of 2 weevils.

I've seen little black bugs that survived on top of a sweetfeed wash.
The pH was 3.0 the alcohol was 11% and there was a lid on the fermenter.
Don't know what the little buggers were breathing, there couldn't have been much oxygen.

i'm fascinated that fruit flys always congregate on the first jar of heads, and ignore the following jars i'm airing out.
little pisstanks.

All BS aside. Fruit flies are better at heads cuts than I am.
15 jars and they buzz around 1.5 of them.

House flys prefer heads too, kinda odd there's a reason I imagine.

So do them 'dog pecker' gnats . Don't really care about what they like as long as they continue to tell me what I'm not going to like .

If you are worried about bugs, too would hate my snack today.

Edit: forgot pic. And they have a popcorn consistency

shadylane wrote:All BS aside. Fruit flies are better at heads cuts than I am.
15 jars and they buzz around 1.5 of them.

LMAO I hear ya, Ive seen it too. Its gotta be that fruity sweet smell that comes over early in any kind of mash.

Put some sweetfeed outside last year in a big covered recycling bin that was not airtight Also some cracked corn/oats. ( unopened)

Sweetfeed has all kinds of bugs in top
Give it a shot or throw it out?

Its wet outside so I didn't investigate much, I'll see how bad it is tommrow

Squirrel_Ess_Gen wrote: ↑Sat Nov 06, 2021 1:43 pm Put some sweetfeed outside last year in a big covered recycling bin that was not airtight Also some cracked corn/oats. ( unopened)

Sweetfeed has all kinds of bugs in top
Give it a shot or throw it out?

Its wet outside so I didn't investigate much, I'll see how bad it is tommrow

Protein for yeast nutrient . Ferment and run it if no mold is present .

It's dead Jim.

I checked and i saw more dead bugs than actual sweetfeed. Looks like they ate themselves to death.

The Corn and oats were molded, no bugs thou.

I learned a lesson. If your gonna be stupid gotta be tough. Wont leave grains outside again ever. Next time a close to airtight container

Bugs add flavor.

Get a used deep freezer from the used appliance store and keep your grains in it (frozen, of course) until you need it to brew.

Freezing will hold moisture in the grains and kill insect larvae (which almost all grain contains, even commercially malted grains). A cheap $100USD freezer will help a lot and it won’t use much electricity over time. Definitely worth the investment.

Oh, I have two 15 cu.ft. chest freezers FULL of grains currently, enough for me to last for a couple of years.
ss

edit to add: weevils will eat all the “good stuff” in your grains and leave you the husks. And they reproduce like crazy, so kill ‘em as soon as you can.

still_stirrin wrote: ↑Tue Nov 09, 2021 10:10 am Get a used deep freezer from the used appliance store and keep your grains in it (frozen, of course) until you need it to brew.

Freezing will hold moisture in the grains and kill insect larvae (which almost all grain contains, even commercially malted grains). A cheap $100USD freezer will help a lot and it won’t use much electricity over time. Definitely worth the investment.

Oh, I have two 15 cu.ft. chest freezers FULL of grains currently, enough for me to last for a couple of years.
ss

edit to add: weevils will eat all the “good stuff” in your grains and leave you the husks. And they reproduce like crazy, so kill ‘em as soon as you can.

If you don't want to store grain that way, I have had excellent results freezing grain (-15F) for 2 weeks and then storing in an air tight container. 2 row barley has been great years later. No bugs. I do wrap the sack of grain to keep condensation away as it comes up to room temperature before storing. You don't want to add any moisture if you plan to store the grain.