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I've browsed the forum for so long, I've already made a TFFV and looking for people's easiest, best Top Shelf premium vodka recipe. I usually drink russian standard vodka.
I was thinking of trying the birdwatchers? But it's old, and surely there's other more superior recipes now.
Reading a lot about rice, corn, oatmeal, wheat recipes. I do not have a mill or any special enzyme laced yeast strains. Only bakers Yeasts.
You can mash with some malted barley. Many just buy the enzymes instead to mash with. The link above uses a special yeast that contains everything and you don't even have to mash.
My two cents, and it's all in theory since I haven't made all-grain vodka (yet...)
How did you like TFFV? If the flavor seemed like it was going in the right direction then an all-wheat vodka would be a good move.
Get malted wheat, otherwise you'd need enzymes or fancy yeast. Get it pre-milled or have your local shop mill it for you.
Mash it in at the right temps and it will literally convert itself. Let it cool to safe yeast temps (like 80 or 85F) and toss in your yeast. In a few days or a week you'll have a friendly, tasty wheat beer that should distill into a nice vodka.
Send me a fifth and I'll let you know how you did.
wheat is a good choice. it's pretty bland and its cheap. if you don't have a tall reflux, your gonna have to wash it down by redistilling with fresh water until it's clean. maybe 2 or 3 spirit runs.
then carbon filter it with activated charcoal
then dilute with good RO water.
HDNB wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2024 9:48 pm
wheat is a good choice. it's pretty bland and its cheap. if you don't have a tall reflux, your gonna have to wash it down by redistilling with fresh water until it's clean. maybe 2 or 3 spirit runs.
then carbon filter it with activated charcoal
then dilute with good RO water.
That seems like a lot of trouble to go to to get rid of the wheat flavor. My trick for a sugar wash wheat bran is to use about a fifth of the bran that TFFV uses, be patient waiting for the ferment to finish, then double distill with a pot still or whatever else you have available. How much of the wheat flavor ends up in your final product is due to your skills when choosing your cut.
HDNB wrote: ↑Fri Mar 08, 2024 9:48 pm
wheat is a good choice. it's pretty bland and its cheap. if you don't have a tall reflux, your gonna have to wash it down by redistilling with fresh water until it's clean. maybe 2 or 3 spirit runs.
then carbon filter it with activated charcoal
then dilute with good RO water.
That seems like a lot of trouble to go to to get rid of the wheat flavor. My trick for a sugar wash wheat bran is to use about a fifth of the bran that TFFV uses, be patient waiting for the ferment to finish, then double distill with a pot still or whatever else you have available. How much of the wheat flavor ends up in your final product is due to your skills when choosing your cut.
if you have a tall reflux, it'll go in one pass....the washing down is if you are trying to pot still it. carbon filter is easy, i just stir some in and filter it out with cheese cloth.
wheat and RO is for mouthfeel.
no matter what i do to sugar it always has that fire in it, the only thing i've seen put the fire out in sugar is about 5 years in a barrel....then it's rum, not voddy !
I suspect that 'sugar burn' isn't caused be the sugar itself, but by a lack of whatever congeners mask the burn. I have no idea which ones they are, and I'd love to find out.
I make a very smooth sipper at 45% using a burney sugar wash that I make from my pressings, backset and feints from making brandy, which is then re-run in a pot loaded with fruit, herbs, nuts and a chicken breast.
I figured it was the other way around, and that the yeast so disliked the pure sugar solutions that they couldn't help but piss out something unpleasant. Even with access to a mass spec this would be hard to resolve though!
"I have a potstill that smears like a fresh plowed coon on the highway" - Jimbo
NormandieStill wrote: ↑Sat Mar 09, 2024 1:23 pm
I figured it was the other way around, and that the yeast so disliked the pure sugar solutions that they couldn't help but piss out something unpleasant. Even with access to a mass spec this would be hard to resolve though!
That could well be the reason, but I've seen nothing to confirm it.
One experiment that makes me think that congeners may be masking burn is that my runs with chicken in the gin basket are done with two times the botanicals needed and are then cut with the same burney sugar wash spirit used for the steep and distillation, and they are smooth at 45%.
NormandieStill wrote: ↑Sat Mar 09, 2024 1:23 pm
I figured it was the other way around, and that the yeast so disliked the pure sugar solutions that they couldn't help but piss out something unpleasant. Even with access to a mass spec this would be hard to resolve though!
That could well be the reason, but I've seen nothing to confirm it.
One experiment that makes me think that congeners may be masking burn is that my runs with chicken in the gin basket are done with two times the botanicals needed and are then cut with the same burney sugar wash spirit used for the steep and distillation, and they are smooth at 45%.
what is burney sugar? lol
I think you mean a "burn- y" sugar wash, but i never know with you.
A lot of folk here talk about sugar burn, hence their preference for AG vodkas.
I don't drink vodka, so it doesn't bother me, most of my sugar washes are used for making gins, Absinthe and the likes.
Young white UJSSM, I tame the burn by enjoying it at a lower proof, which does have an advantage.
muse wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2024 8:42 am
Thanks everyone I think I'll move to AG
Congrats! Once you're rockin' you won't look back. And if you happen to pot still an AG ferment and turn it into whiskey, no one will hold it against you.
“Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite, and furthermore, always carry a small snake.”
Twisted Brick wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2024 9:32 am
And if you happen to pot still an AG ferment and turn it into whiskey, no one will hold it against you.
That's what happened to me. My first AG whisky was a enzyme-converted wheat + oat combo that was intended to be neutral. In the end it was too tasty and after a few years on some toasted oak it's still one of my favourite sipping drinks.
"I have a potstill that smears like a fresh plowed coon on the highway" - Jimbo
NormandieStill wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2024 11:32 am
That's what happened to me. My first AG whisky was a enzyme-converted wheat + oat combo that was intended to be neutral. In the end it was too tasty and after a few years on some toasted oak it's still one of my favourite sipping drinks.
Gotta watch out for those rabbit holes!
“Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite, and furthermore, always carry a small snake.”
Best Top Shelf Vodka Recipe ?
