Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

maddogpearse wrote:

Toddles wrote:It's not ignoring mate it's just having a discussion.

A lot of people, myself included have to learn things in a hands on fashion. Call me slow i don't give a rats, it's the best way for me to learn!

I shouldn't have chewed on so many lead sinkers when i was a kid. :-p

my old pappy taught me an old proverb...
Listen to advice and accept discipline and at the end you will be counted among the wise.
Distilling spirits is a bloody old art form. Especially while your starting out, I'd say it's pretty good practice to stick to what's tried and proven rather than trying to re-invent an already well refined wheel!
And if i were going to start my own distillery, and i was doing something a little different and outside the square, i wouldn't be publishing it on an internet forum. I'd be keeping it secrete squirrels ;-) But again, that's just me :handgestures-thumbupleft:

:text-+1: master your apprenticeship before you become a master

Doubleuj wrote:

maddogpearse wrote:

Toddles wrote:It's not ignoring mate it's just having a discussion.

A lot of people, myself included have to learn things in a hands on fashion. Call me slow i don't give a rats, it's the best way for me to learn!

I shouldn't have chewed on so many lead sinkers when i was a kid. :-p

my old pappy taught me an old proverb...
Listen to advice and accept discipline and at the end you will be counted among the wise.
Distilling spirits is a bloody old art form. Especially while your starting out, I'd say it's pretty good practice to stick to what's tried and proven rather than trying to re-invent an already well refined wheel!
And if i were going to start my own distillery, and i was doing something a little different and outside the square, i wouldn't be publishing it on an internet forum. I'd be keeping it secrete squirrels ;-) But again, that's just me :handgestures-thumbupleft:

:text-+1: master your apprenticeship before you become a master

Yea i would keep all of it to myself. But i dont have plans to go legit. not in the next 5 years anyway.

I'm a mod, but by no means a master distiller, maddog... But yeah, it just seemed counterproductive to me.

As you were!

shortybronx88 wrote:I suppose my favourite is

1 part Potato : 1 Brown sugar : 1 Malted Barley : 1 Corn : 4 Water

All parts per Kg.

Not the highest alcohol % after fermenting, but I like the taste.

The trick is making sure you get the potato cooked properly (dont drain the water, thats part of the 4 Parts water) and mashed into a watery consistency and holding at temp for the enzymes in the barley to do there trick. I get best results letting the mash sit overnight, wrapped in a blanket and adding the rest of the water, yeast and sugar the next day.

I have had various levels of success adding the corn at various times (at the start, during potato mash, the next day).

Rehashing this, i used to use raw sugar for a while back in the turbo days and one of my wifes friends liked it for vodka, they said it gave it a nice caramal taste or something. only mild, very mild but nice when he drank it with pepsi. Didnt notice myself.

This was in the T500, single pass and no cuts :scared-eek: yess thats right :)) . maybe brown sugar gives it something like this, but now when i do vodka i like to run it all twice, stripping everything although sometimes i leave a hint of whisky in it for character.

I think if nuetral is what you want then it may not matter much but if your after vodka, like to drink straight or something then base ingredients do matter. They can leave a character behind sometimes unless you really try to remove all flavour. But mouth feel remains. thick and thin. Ive done TPW vodka, CFW Vodka, WB vodka and CFWB vodka. and i only prefered the ones with weetbix and/or corn flakes. Ill step it up to using actual grains when i get going again.

I would say im a noob still with vodka but i do know that i dont like TPW for sippin vodka, only as a mixer

I realise you're only using a small percentage of potato, but here's my 0.02c...

I tried doing a potato mash once.
Only potato's and enzymes.

It was unbelievably messy, wasteful, time consuming hot work. The minuscule product was pretty horrible.

The Russians and Pol's only made their spirit from potato because that's all they could grow in their cold climate (so legend would suggest) - but they are actually relatively low in starches so you need an absolute metric f**ktonne of them.

Absolutely not for me in my apartment kitchen :))

From http://www.ciaprochef.com/uploadedFiles/Smartform_Content/Feature/Potatoes/Potato-Types-Presentation.pdf

• Carbohydrates are sugars, starches and fibers—the primary source of our
energy
 A potato is about 20% carbohydrate, 75% water and 5% protein, vitamins and
minerals
• The starch content of a potato differentiates the types and varieties
 Potatoes with 22% up to starch content are described as “floury”
• Granular, mealy texture; ideal for “fluffy” potato dishes, such as baked or mashed
 Potatoes with starch content as low as 13% are known as “waxy” or “boiling”
potatoes
• Better for applications that call for a creamy texture; remain firm in salads, soups and stews
• Potatoes are naturally low in sugar, but sugar levels vary by type
• Request potatoes that are low in sugar for frying (excess sugars can turn potatoes black)
• Follow proper handling instructions: store in cool (45-55ºF environment away from light)

So, you get 2.2kg of fermentable sugar out of 10kg of potato slop best case scenario...

That is probably why there are other grains in the original recipe.

Hey all you neutral guys ill bang the drum again for Teddys FFV in tried and proven a bloody good all rounder cheap as chips :music-deathmetal:

Even tho there has been some great analysis and input, mattc... has it nailed... SFA sugar, too much volume needs handling, bugger all output...WHY BOTHER.
On the other hand Mad and WT are there also... mouthfeel....why are there 'many' commercial distributors who claim their ingredient is the best "flavoured' vodka. There is a difference, as we know, that what goes in affects the overall taste... to me TPW is sharp, Kale...much smoother etc. Our man will learn that effort v end result will eventually alter current thinking... for me...why would u bother.

I think he bothers because potato is cheap where he is. Molasses is cheap where i am, so i mostly rum. I think thinking outside thd square is how things are improved and advanced, which is why we are not all using pot stills and things are moving towards plated stills.. i reakon as long as its safe go for it :handgestures-thumbupleft:

bluc wrote:I think he bothers because potato is cheap where he is. Molasses is cheap where i am, so i mostly rum. I think thinking outside thd square is how things are improved and advanced, which is why we are not all using pot stills and things are moving towards plated stills.. i reakon as long as its safe go for it :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Sugar is cheap everywhere......

I really dont want to argue but if everyone just fermented sugar than i think the majority wouldnt bother. Just my 2 cents, for me i want to be able to mash grain, any grain, along with malt and 99% of the time be succsesful. Also being able to malt reliably..i reakon it cool he goes to the trouble of mashing raw ingrediants, but if people are happy with sugar washs than thats cool to. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

All good bluc, I get what your saying.

When we are talking back in the ages then yes, the cheapest thing at the time was to use what was on hand to make alcohol. Hundreds of years ago there was not too many sugar refineries. All this is just talking about vodka mind you.

When we are talking flavoured washes its usually stemmed from the same thought of what is available. ie. scotch whisky is barley, US whiskey is corn and plenty of European countries with different fruits.

These days we have access to everything and can create what we want. And knowing that, the question really is, why the fuck potatoes?

scythe wrote:That is probably why there are other grains in the original recipe.

Yeah, there's other grains. Have you mashed grains before?
1kg of barley and corn is really not a lot of sugars...

If you're going to go to the effort to mash grains, why not try a wheat based vodka? Same process with so much less waste/mess and much more efficiency...
If you google it there's a pdf floating around the net with an ingredient bill and full mashing process for wheat vodka.
Let me know if you can't find it, I have it on my laptop :happy-partydance:

These days we have access to everything and can create what we want. And knowing that, the question really is, why the fuck potatoes?
:text-+1:

Hmmmm wouldn't you want to discuss the "Whole" spectrum of potential mashes?!?!?

If we shut down one or the other, because we know better or think know better, how much innovation are we limiting?

I feel we are playing the player here (I could be wrong, it's how I feel just now, having read the above posts) and just don't feel the love that I've become accustom to from members here...

Just saying...


... or is it coz I haven't had coffee yet ... :think: ?

Spuds are fine if you've got spuds... it's fairly common knowledge that they don't make good vodka though!

EziTasting wrote:Hmmmm wouldn't you want to discuss the "Whole" spectrum of potential mashes?!?!?

If we shut down one or the other, because we know better or think know better, how much innovation are we limiting?

I feel we are playing the player here (I could be wrong, it's how I feel just now, having read the above posts) and just don't feel the love that I've become accustom to from members here...

Just saying...


... or is it coz I haven't had coffee yet ... :think: ?

:text-+1: I find it funny that as far as I can tell the majority of people here haven't made the original recipe...
I have no opinion as I haven't tried the recipe but I will once my whiskey stocks are up and I'll weigh in then!

EziTasting wrote:I feel we are playing the player here (I could be wrong, it's how I feel just now, having read the above posts) and just don't feel the love that I've become accustom to from members here...

Personally I think people are just sharing their experiences Mate.
Maybe trying to help others in a more efficient path than the one they're on?

I had some pretty whack idea's when I first started in this hobby about three years ago, and got the same kind of answers.
I stopped asking questions on the forum and went and did my own thing...
Low and behold though, I ended up coming to the same conclusion as I was advised anyways. Experimentation is good, but mentors are far better (at least in my opinion).

There's a reason why good vodka is rarely made from potato commercially these days...

coffe addict wrote: :text-+1: I find it funny that as far as I can tell the majority of people here haven't made the original recipe...
I have no opinion as I haven't tried the recipe but I will once my whiskey stocks are up and I'll weigh in then!

Well in response, to me the work involved with cleaning equipment, setting up, distilling and all assosciated running costs really doesn't seem economical for that little fermentable sugars. I could be wrong on that, and I'll happily eat my words on it if i'm wrong...

To the OP. Do you have a gravity reading at 20ºC for this wash before pitching yeast?

Op's figures don't add up.. And would give a og capable of getting 19%
What I think he meant was 1kg potato 1kg barley 1kg corn and 1kg brown sugar and 4L for each kg. Which without the potato give 1.052 and potential abv of 5.06 on brewers friend and if the potato gives the equivalent of .2kg of sugar its 5.5% totally acceptable for those with larger boilers...
There seems to be fair amount of information about low abv neutral producing better product so 5.5% mightn't be such a bad thing.

Have a look at Chase Vodka, award winning and potato based. Could make for interesting experiment. :handgestures-thumbupleft: