Experiment

[yetti]

Morning all, I took some advise that bt1 gave satchy about using polenta with sugar wash. I put 9kg of dextrose, 1kg polenta, 500g rye, 500g pale malt with 27L water to ferment. Would love some feed back an what this might turn out like or if anyone has done something similar and knows any little tricks. Polenta, rye and malt were not steeped.

[Dominator]

Wow, that is a lot of sugar. What yeast are you planing in using?

[yetti]

Hey Dominator, I have always used 9kg in my sugar wash, do you think if I can back I would get the same yield? Still learning and would take on all guidance. I used a whiskey yeast. Hoping to get some good flavour and a bit more kick by putting it through a pot still.

[MacStill]

You'll certainly get flavour pushing your yeast with so much sugar/alcohol, doubt it would be good flavour tho ;-)

[yetti]

any advise Macstill ????

[bt1]

Howdy,
9kg of dex even at .88% of sugar is wow...lots. I'd use about that in a 60lt fermenter. rest seems fine.

bt1

[yetti]

Thanks bt1, appreciate all the advice I can get. Lots to learn.

[Dominator]

:angry-banghead: :angry-banghead: I wrote a big long reply on my tablet, which was no easy task, and the bloody thing deleted it. Anyway, the long and short of it was: after reading through your posts on the forum so far, it seems you are set in the HBS (home brew store) way of fermenting and distilling ie. dex, high ABV washes, turbo yeasts, keep everything besides the foreshots and carbon filter. The majority of members of this forum have moved away from this in search of a better product. If you have not done so, read through the Newbies Section here: viewforum.php?f=57

In regards to this thread,
-dextrose is sugar, while it may be better for brewing beer and wine there is no need to pay $2/kg for dex when the supermarket sells white sugar for $1/kg which is fine for distilling
-9kg of sugar in a 27L wash is going to be around 18%ABV. This will stress your yeast and cause off flavours. 5kg of sugar will get you 10-12%ABV is a better target, yes less sugar = lower yeild. But I would rather drink 3L of quality than 10L of crap.

[1 2many]

:text-+1: Well put Dom :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[r.c.barstud]

Try this, it will give you an idea on yeast tolerances. Also as a rule of thumb, the higher the ABV in a wash/mash, the lower the flavour.

[yetti]

thanks rc, love all the help and knowledge.

[bt1]

Hello yetti,

Just a few follow up bits...
If your going to repeat the wash you only really need to replace around 10% of the grain bed for each new wash. After about 6 -8 washes i find it gets a bit flat/dull even though replacing 10% and generally but a complete new grain load in.

If your going to sour mash, 10 -15% of backset from boiler is plnety for a corn focused drop. May pay to think about a pH buffer as well.

Given the grain bill it should turn fairly quickly... look forward to hearing how it pans ouyt.

cheers
bt1

[Kimbo]

Try this, it will give you an idea on yeast tolerances. Also as a rule of thumb, the higher the ABV in a wash/mash, the lower the flavour.

Having said that r.c, what to you feel the optimal wash ABV % ratio is for a good flavour?

[r.c.barstud]

Try this, it will give you an idea on yeast tolerances. Also as a rule of thumb, the higher the ABV in a wash/mash, the lower the flavour.

Having said that r.c, what to you feel the optimal wash ABV % ratio is for a good flavour?

mate, it will vary. i am a noob when it comes to sugarheads so that i cant answer with any accuracy, but A.G bills 9% is a standard average :handgestures-thumbupleft: i saw some very average ABV at JD`S but the run picked up the difference and all was good.

[Kimbo]

I suppose, an average wash with say 10kg of grain, mashed in 40 L of water will will be somewhere around 5%,
Do you think its worth adding a few kilos of sugar to bring it up to 9-10% or is it better to leave it or can i mash with a higher grain ratio to bump up the ABV?
I'm thinking that if I were to use 30 L of water it would get me around 7%, but will it be harder to convert?