Silverbeet Wash

[Lesgold]

Hi Folks

Well, this could be a marathon of a story but here goes. Being new to the game has caused so many little issues along the way that I have now lost count of the mistakes that have been made. Already learnt that I could have made better purchase choices or better still, made my own stuff. It has however, provided a quick fire learning process. I’ll keep going using the gear that I’ve purchased and see if I can get the best out of it. Only four washes distilled and I’m already looking for better alternatives. A few days ago I finished a spirit run on a couple of TPW’s that I’d stripped. And here’s where the story starts. Decided to use a Woolies brand of tomato paste for the wash. Ingredients were very similar to Leggo’s but the cheaper brand had a lower sodium content. I thought it would work well and at less than half the price of the other brand I thought I was on a winner. The two washes I made worked out well. It was only when I went back and checked later that I noticed that it was made in China. Now I know it’s only a yeast nutrient but...... Anyway, I started to think about chemicals, pesticides, natural products and all that sort of stuff. Read a bit on Kale washes and thought that might be an alternative. Now I don’t eat the stuff, don’t grow it and unless I went down the kale wash path, I probably never would. When I looked at my barren veggie garden, (it’s been too dry to plant anything) the only thing that was growing without any attention what so ever was my silverbeet. It’s a light green variety that I let go to seed every year and it pops up the following season in weed proportions. When I did a bit of research I found that it’s classified as one of those super foods. You know the ones- cures every disease under the sun and puts hairs on your chest etc. Anyway I thought if it’s good for us then maybe the little yeasties might munch on it. I had a look at googes kale recipe and the birdwatchers calculator and took a punt (the real scientific approach lol) Made up a 4l batch that I could run through my 5l boiler. Put a wash down and placed it in my warming fridge next to my TPW. Looked to be gurgling away quite well for a couple of days. Went to pull the TPW out of the fridge to check the SG and accidentally pulled the silverbeet wash out at the same time. Demi’s and concrete don’t mix well. Ended up with an sticky mess all over the shed floor. Not to be deterred, I went out and bought a new Demi and started again. The recipe and method I used For a 4l wash is as follows:
- 800g of sugar dissolved in hot water
- 23g of silverbeet leaves blended with about half a litre of cold water
The green “tea” was then boiled for a couple of minutes (I know there may be a loss of some nutrients but I wanted to ensure that the silverbeet was free of any foreign yeasts or bugs that may infect the wash. Also wanted some goodies released into the water for the yeast to grab onto as soon as they started working)
- A very small pinch of Epsom salts
- A couple of teaspoons of lemon juice
- 12 grams of bakers yeast (rehydrated)
Made the mix up to 4l with additional water and a starting temp of 28 degrees. At this point I decided to test the SG. Was surprised that the hydrometer didn’t bounce when it fell onto the tile floor....... bugger, that’s 2 breakages in two days. Must be on a roll. Anyway, I reckon the SG would have been somewhere in the 1.070’s. Would have liked to have tested the PH but I don’t have the gear for that.(Now on the “must get one of those” lists) Pitched the yeast and covered the Demi with some glad wrap and a rubber band. Punched a very small hole in the top to allow gas to escape.
Left the wash on the kitchen bench as I wanted to keep an eye on what was happening. Pic one shows what the wash looked like after a couple of hours.

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The wash was still working well after three days:

DBC6291D-7EF3-4BF3-A590-D5637816F37D.jpeg

After 5 days, I decided to finish the wash at 25 degrees in my warming fridge. The wash finished at .991 on day 9. Racked the wash into some jars (strained the wash as there were still some floaties) At this stage the wash had changed to a creamy white colour. Popped the jars in the fridge overnight to clear. Was pleased at the clarity of the wash. Did a stripping run this morning and aired some of the hearts. Very little smell at this stage and it tastes quite good. I think I’ll be doing a larger wash as there may be some potential with the silverbeet as a yeast nutrient. Perhaps some of you wizards out there who actually know what you are doing, could try this and see if there is any merit in taking it further.

Cheers

Les

[RC Al]

Well done :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Wayyy back silverbeet and spinach was tried and possibly was the inspiration for trying kale, Googe would be able to clear that up, somewhere i believe that the opinion was that kale was less flavorsome.

That said your using what ya got and thats the best thing, keep at it and enjoy the bounty of your garden :D

[Lesgold]

Thanks for your feedback RC

Before starting this I did some searching of the forum but couldn’t find anything on silverbeet. The only thing I could find was on spinach. (Which is a different plant) Wish I had known as it could have saved me a bit of stuffing around. Still, it was good fun to experiment and try something different. The little hearts sample i’m airing has very little smell. Maybe slightly floral. I will leave it overnight and compare it to a TPW neutral (not a fare comparison as the TPW has been distilled twice but it will give me some idea as to how this wash stacks up)

Cheers

Les

[wynnum1]

Have read on internet where they tested Asian Greens by putting in 80 C hot water before putting in the test equipment that may be worth trying .

[Lesgold]

Interesting thought Wynnum. I suppose 80 degrees would pasteurise the greens and give the yeast a chance. Might be able to use this info to help me put together a larger wash tomorrow. Perhaps the silverbeet could be thrown straight in to the hot water that is dissolving the sugar. Would at least cut out one step in the process. Might try that. Will sample some of the hearts tonight that have been airing after the stripping run. Will post findings later.

Cheers

Les

[Lesgold]

Hi Folks,

Just did a taste test between the silverbeet neutral and a TPW neutral. Wish I had a bit of experience in this area but I suppose everyone has to start somewhere. The TPW was taken from the hearts of a spirit run (5 days ago) and was watered down to about 46%. The silverbeet neutral was taken from the hearts of the stripping run that I did yesterday and was sitting at 45%. Probably not the right thing to do as the TPW has an obvious advantage but I just wanted some indication as to whether this type of wash is worth developing. The TPW neutral was quite mild on the nose and when tasted had a slight sweetness to it. The silverbeet neutral was subtle on the nose but there was still evidence of a cooked spinach/ sourness in the background. It would be interesting to see if that disappeared on a spirit run. The TPW has a slight sweetness to it whereas the silverbeet was quite a bit drier. To my nose and taste there was not a lot between them. I’ll be putting down a larger silverbeet wash tomorrow to take this a bit further. Will let you guys know how it turns out.

Cheers

Les

[Lesgold]

Finally got round to producing a 27l batch of silverbeet wash. Used Birdwatchers calc. as a basis for the recipe but dropped the sugar to 5.4 kg. Used 180 grams of silverbeet but that was just a little light on. The brew had almost finished with the hydrometer at about 1.004 and there was still a slight sweetness to the wash. Decided to throw in 40 grams of tomato paste just to get it across the line. Ended up at .994 and was happy with that. I reckon future batches will need about 250 grams of silverbeet to get the job done. Got a bit impatient so I threw the fermenter into a fridge for 24 hours. It settled and cleared quite well. Left it over night to get some temperature back and then did a stripping run today. Ended up with around 6 litres or so of low wines. One final batch is gurgling away and should be ready in a week or so. Will end up doing a spirit run in a couple of weeks. Hopefully there will be a pleasant neutral to follow. Unfortunately the silverbeet has gone to seed. Won’t be able to do any more runs until autumn.

[Lesgold]

Used some hearts from a spirit run of the silverbeet wash to produce a small run of gin. Had to try some tonight. Awesome flavour. Used Odin’s recipe and then added some Angelica root, black pepper corns, lavender flowers and cardamon to the vapour path. Hopefully it will improve with age.

[wynnum1]

With the silver beet and other vegetable wash is there a difference with the green leaves and the stalks is one better or need both .

[Lesgold]

Hi Wynnum,
I have only tried the leaves (purely because that’s the way I eat it) I just made the assumption that the stalks would not contain the same concentration of nutrients. Happy with the neutral that it produced, only need to play with quantities. The last batch was from what I’d blitzed in water, boiled for a few minutes and then froze in a takeaway container. (180 grams of leaf material) From the previous wash, I knew that was not quite enough nutrient so 40g of tomato paste was added. I reckon about 250g for a 25l wash will be about right. Can’t do any more until the cooler weather arrives and a new crop pops up in the garden from the plant I let go to seed.

Cheers

Les

[wynnum1]

The problem with trying to grow in the hot weather is if trying to grow from seed or plant seedlings is the soil gets so hot from the sun that it cooks the seeds or plants.
Need to use some shade cloth.