• 1 gallon feed grade blackstrap molasses (43.0% sugars; 82% Brix, min), I get mine at Tractor Supply Company, Evolved Habitats brand.
• 8 pounds Goya Panela (dehydrated sugar cane juice)
• 1 teaspoon citric acid
• 2 tablespoons Fermax yeast nutrient
• 1 tablespoon Gypsum, food grade
• Pinch pure Vitamin C (ascorbic acid)
• 1 B-complex vitamin
• 1/2 teaspoon epsom salts
• 1 gallon Dunder
• Oyster shells sock (1/2 cup sanitized shells & cheese cloth)
• 15g FermPro-921 or bread yeast
1. Add 1-1/2 gallons water to a stainless pot.
2. Add citric acid, Fermax, gypsum, pure Vitamin C (ascorbic acid), B-complex vitamin tablet, and epsom salts.
3. Stir well and add panela.
4. Heat and stir until panela is dissolved.
5. Add blackstrap and dunder.
6. Heat to 176F.
7. Let cool uncovered for an hour.
8. Dump wash into a sanitized 10 gallon water cooler.
9. Tie off the oyster sock at the 4G mark
10. Add 2 gallons ice.
11. Top off with 90F water to almost 7G mark.
12. Aerate wash, I use an aquarium pump x 15 minutes.
13. Target wash pitch temperature is 84.0F +/- 1 degree
14. Target pH is 4.8 +/- 0.1
15. 7G total wash (26.5L) @ 85F pitch temperature and 9.5% potential abv.
16. Hydrate 15g FP921 or bread yeast in 32 oz of 93F water x 15 mins.
17. Add 2 oz wash.
18. Wait for a good krausen, then pitch the starter into the 84F wash.
19. Top off, if needed, with water to the 7G mark.
20. Cover with the lid and let the ferment take its course.
With FP-921, it takes about 4 hours to show an active ferment, but the temperature rise is immediate.
Normally, its a 4 day (96 hour) ferment outdoors in the hot summertime.
The FP-921 yeast settles down into a dense sediment layer that surprisingly does not get stirred up and cloud the wash when dipping out to charge the boiler.
For the strip run, add a tab of butter, some copper scrubbers and copper fittings to your boiler (helps reduce foaming, promotes even heating). I use a copper pot.
Slowly heat up. Take your time and very slowly take the foreshot.
Strip the 7 gallons of wash until you collect 2 gallons of low wines at 33% abv.
For the spirit run, I charge a 5 gallon copper pot with 2 gallons of low wines @ 33% and 1 gallon of fermented wash at 9.5%, this makes a 3 gallon spirit charge at 25% abv.
Using a parrot, I collect 77% - 54% as hearts. There are other ways to select your cuts.
Collect feints up to 208F vapor temperature, then shut down.
On subsequent runs, add your low feints as well to the spirit run, making sure the feints are 30% abv or lower. I don’t recycle the heads.
The hearts cut should be less than 65% for aging.
Temper to aging strength with distilled water, if needed.
Age in a used barrel, or in glass with used white oak sticks for at least a year, the longer the better.
This recipe, without low feints, will give you at least a half-gallon of hearts @ 65% abv, more, if you make your cuts wider.
