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Sugar + Yeast = Alcohol .. Anyone else doing this?

Ringodoggie

Well-known member
Premium user
Sugar is not preferably the main fermentable in a wash. Even rum distillers use molasses.

Try a good sour mash of half corn twenty percent malted barley (pale 2 row) and thirty percent rye.

Yeah, I have some cracked corn, some rye, a couple different malts and a giant bag of corn sugar (glucose?). It is supposed to be better than processed white table sugar (sucrose). In fact, when using plain white processed sugar, I was advised to use yeast nutrients to help boost the yeast.

I have just been using sugar wash to get used to the fermenters and stills. It's cheap and easy. And, if I fuck up, it's a few pounds of sugar wasted. No big deal.

I am reading up on the corn mash. And, I have a 5 gallon kit with corn, some grains and some other stuff. Should be fun experimenting.

I don't plan to actually drink the sugar wash/alcohol. It not great tasting. I will learn from it and use the result to clean and whatever.






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mean mr.mustard

I Pass Satellites
Veteran
There are various yeast energizers mostly DAP but many have urea and added vitamins.

Adding a bit is as crucial to nongrain fermentation as pH is to mashing grains insofar as hitting yield.
 

Littleleaf

Well-known member
Veteran
The hydrometer must be in a 1" x 8" test tube or cylinder for it to read correctly. Just can't drop it in a glass and expect it to work. It works by compressing the liquid in the tube.

A wine or beer hydrometer will not work for pure spirits.

I ordered another hydrometer. Same style (basic floating glass). This one claims that every unit is calibrated to ATF regulations. blah blah, before shipping and cost 20 bux more.. Plus, I have the refractometer coming Wednesday. Between the 3 (and, like you said, using the Sky as a reference), I should be able to get an accurate reading.


I'll update when everything arrives.


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Littleleaf

Well-known member
Veteran
Pure water is the most important ingredient when making the wash. If it has iron in it. It effects the flavor of the end product. Distill the water you use to make the wash. You will get a better product.

The best shine comes from fresh springs that have no iron in the water.
 

Bud Green

I dig dirt
Veteran
I built this column still with scrap copper and other scavenged parts 15 years ago.
The boiler (at bottom, mostly out of picture) is an old fashioned, 10 gallon stainless steel milk can..

When it's running, the digital thermometer (at the left side of pic) the probe is in a stopper which goes at the top of the column.

I have at least 30 gallons left of sorghum molasses that was given to me..

I've been making some fine rum for a long time..

The run finishes at about 150 proof, which I usually water down to a drinkable 80 or 90 proof rum...

Oh, I don't have old charred whiskey barrels to age it in, so it goes in 1 gallon glass jars and I put charred sticks of white oak in the rum and set it aside to age..

Before i dilute it, I could use it for hand sanitizer, but I don't.... this is too good to waste on that.. I kill the virus germs from my lips. inward....

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Ringodoggie

Well-known member
Premium user
Yep, I'm using the hydrometer in the proper sized graduated cylinder. New one should be here tomorrow.

Right, I have a SG hydrometer for beer and wine that I use properly before and after fermenting as instructed. That one works fine. This one is a proof hydrometer just for distilled spirits.

Been doing as much homework as I can. Temperature seems to be a huge factor. Fermenting temps. Wort temps. Mash temps. Yeast temps.

I bought this. It's a yeast nute and energizer all in one (supposedly). Using DADY for yeast.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0064H0LUW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Definitely still going through the learning curve. Appreciate all your guy's input.


:)




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Ringodoggie

Well-known member
Premium user
Well, the new hydrometer arrived today and it is spot on. I guess the other one just had QC issues. I did contact the seller and they are sending me a new one. However, fuck those hydrometers.... LOL

I also received my refractometer today and.... totally love this thing. First off, it only takes a couple drops of sample, vs the 6 ounces I needed to fill the graduated cylinder for the hydrometer. And, I compared results and they are both right on.

The hydrometer is not great for measuring lower %. Under about 10%, it's fuzzy. The refractometer was awesome at the 0-10 % scale. Albeit, it's best around 40%.

The refractometer peaks at 80% and probably looses a lot of accuracy after 70%. So, if your goal is 100% alcohol, you still need a hydrometer. However, for drinking scale, usually around 40 to 50%, the refractometer is, hands down the winner for convenience with equal accuracy.

My foreshot was off the scale on the refractometer and I don't have enough to use the hydrometer. The heads were 80% and 68%. The hearts were 40% and 50%. And the tails were 4% and 2%. I took seven samples. Not too bad for my very first attempt. Tons of fun so far.

Can't wait to distill the next load. It's in the fermenter right now and needs a few more days.

This is almost as much fun as growing pot. LMAO




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Ringodoggie

Well-known member
Premium user
I did another distillation today. Couple observations.

This was plain sugar wash. The last batch I did was Apple Juice with sugar added.

This batch produced less of a lower ABV product. However, the hearts still taste very good. I am quite surprised. I have some corn/rye mash fermenting. I can't wait to taste that.

Another confirm on the Refractometer... I know why they make the hydrometer shaped like a suppository. Because that's where you can put that thing. LOL

I took samples along the way as it was distilling. I took enough in each sample (4 ounces) to use the hygrometer. However, that was just to confirm the accuracy of the reflectometer. The really nice thing about the refractometer is that you only need a couple drops to measure your ABV. So, what I did (and, will do in the future) is to take a drop or 2 right off the still as it is dripping into the jar, and measure the ABV. In this case I took it until it hit 50%. Then, I took that jar and put a fresh jar under the drip. When the drip started to measure 40%, I took the jar, and again replaced it with a fresh. This way, I can control what %ABV goes into each jar. Then, I can combine or mix or whatever I'm going to do. The 40% seems to taste about the best.

Now, in the hydrometer's defense, the refractometer only measures clear, distilled product. A 3 scale beer and wine hydrometer is still needed for checking wort specific gravity and so on. But, for straight distilling measurements, I can't say enough about this refractometer.

I only got about 16 ounces out of the gallon of sugar mash this time. Not as much as I got from the apple juice mash. And, not as strong. I did not take ABV measurements before distilling and I probably should have. I guess, shit in, shit out. LOL This is where the sugar to yeast calculators come in, I guess. I assume you want the highest ABV going in to get the best coming out.

Bottled another 12 pack of Pale Ale tonight, also. A couple weeks in the closet and then and that goes into the fridge.




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armedoldhippy

Well-known member
Veteran
if you want to speed the process up a mite, there is a product called "turbo yeast" that is available in most "do-it-yourself" wine making shops. regular yeast dies at about 5% alcohol, and takes 10 to 15 days to work. the turbo runs until about 17 to 20 % alcohol, and is finished in under 72 hours, for me anyway.
 

Bud Green

I dig dirt
Veteran
Turbo yeast is fine if you're just gonna just collect the highest proof alcohol. (the stuff that collects between 170 and 173 degrees...)

But if you're gonna continue the run to collect some of the "tails" (which boil off from 172 to 185 degrees)
the turbo yeast will affect the final flavor..

Not what you wanna do if you're trying to make some fine rum or whiskey...

At least not in my experience....

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Ringodoggie

Well-known member
Premium user
For basic 'moonshine', I use DADY (Distillers Active Dry Yeast). It's cheap and can get up to 18-20% alcohol (so it says).

For beer, I use more specific yeasts. Ale, dry, lager and wine yeast are all pretty different with it comes to making a 'non-distilled' product. Been experimenting with hard cider recently and really really love the results. Cranberry-cherry. LOL

Also, I have been meaning to make a thread with details but I just finished an awesome experiment using cannabis caramels that I made to sugar some hard apple cider. The cider fermented every single bit of the caramel. The taste was quite good, considering I gag at the taste of most cannabis edibles. The ABV was about 9% and there was a very very slight taste of cannabis on the first bottle I tried but, absolutely none in the second bottle (2 weeks later).


Very nice.... Cannabis Hard Cider.




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flylowgethigh

Non-growing Lurker
ICMag Donor
I'd like to hear about the caramels. How'd you make them, Mr. Ringodoggie?

I am also curious about how you arrived at the 9% figure on your ABV. I would love to get mine tested, now that I have a pretty stable process of vaping.

I made wine for a while, and used "energizer" to wake up the yeast after they had slowed down bubbling. Still, never could cook it down more than a pretty-sweet 12%. I used 4 gallons "Juicy Juice" from WMT as the base, 4 pounds sugar, and Lavin EC-1118. The best was "white grape and peach". Got a lot of compliments on that one.
 
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Ringodoggie

Well-known member
Premium user
Oops, ABV, in this case, meaning 'alcohol by volume', not 'already been vaped'. LOL Alcohol is measure by taking specific gravity readings before and after fermenting. I'm not sure how strong the caramels were. They were some I made a while back for some friends but since COVID, I have not seen them so I used them in this experiment just to get rid of them.

As for the caramels, I use a standard recipe with brown sugar, light corn syrup, condensed milk and cannabis butter or oil. They are everywhere. Here's one.

Ingredients:


  • 1 cup cannabis butter
  • 2 ¼ cup brown sugar
  • dash of salt
  • 1 cup light corn syrup
  • 1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
Directions:

Melt butter; add brown sugar and salt. Stir until combined. Stir in light corn syrup. Gradually add milk; stir constantly. Cook and stir over med heat, until candy reaches firm ball stage (245F), about 12 to 15 min. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla, pour into 9? by 13? pan. Cool, cut and wrap.










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flylowgethigh

Non-growing Lurker
ICMag Donor
OK, I misread. It's cool that all the caramel was converted. Did you have lechithin in the caramels?
 

Ringodoggie

Well-known member
Premium user
I don 't really remember making this caramel batch but I'm sure I did use lecithin. I always do. :)

On that topic, I fucked up recently making butter. My standard MO.... I put ABV, butter and water in a crock pot. Then, after all day on medium, I strain it and put it in the fridge to separate. The next day, the hard butter is all on top. Lecithin is used in the next step to help the butter homogenize with whatever food I'm making.

However, this time, I fucked up and added the lecithin in the crock pot. The next day, when the butter had not separated and hardened on the top, like normal, I realized the lecithin really did it's job.

A great experiment for people who don't know the benefit of lecithin is to mix a little oil and water together and then add the lecithin and watch them all blend together. Pretty neat.




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However, this time,
 

flylowgethigh

Non-growing Lurker
ICMag Donor
Wow. I wonder if some terps found only in the psychedelic strains have a way of doing that with a certain part of the brain? I can't think of any other reason.

I found that instead of trying to pour the liquid and mash through a strainer, into the collection bowl, an easier way. Push the strainer down into the crockpot, so that the liquid comes up through. Use a baster to selectively remove the top butter layer and squirt into the bowl. You want some water for the separation in the fridge. I then add more hot water, cook the mix a little longer to get it all stirred up again, and repeat. You will get most of the butter on two draws. I will pour off the remaining liquid into a separate bowl, and the next day the amount of butter is pretty small.

One more question while we are sidetracked on butter, how much weight do you lose in the cooking process? I lose about half.

OK one more. I think you grow indoors. Is the water that separates from the butter after being in the fridge - nasty brown? Mine is, and I am probably gonna rig a filter on my whip to see if the brown is dirt, and if my vape is blowing dirt at me.

Edit: So I added a see-thru auto gas filter to my whip, at the far end where the oils will not reach (already condensed), so we'll see. I also re-watered and melted a slab of butter, and the water was clear enough it wasn't really worth doing again. Maybe some waxes of something in the water. I will incorporate a double watering on my next batch while the butter is liquid.
 
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flylowgethigh

Non-growing Lurker
ICMag Donor
I am going to put some water in with gasoline in a glass jar, add some lechithin, and shake to see if the water emulsifies in with the gas. Also with diesel. Good way to clean out the water from a gas tank if it does. People using generators should have a way to drain / burn water in the fuel, not just filter it coming from the tank.

They could call fuel that had an additive which would cause that emulsification of water so it could be burned a little at a time, self-drying fuel. Fuel / water interface is where algae starts to grow in diesel and kerosene.

I tried it. Water in non-ethanol gas doesn't get emulsified with a little lechithin ( some old liquid soy). In offroad diesel, it seems to improve emulsification a little.
 
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St. Phatty

Active member
I have 2 baby birds occupying part of the indoor veg. room.

That was the closest I had to a heat lamp, 250 watt metal halide.

Now I want to add some CO2. I think they'll be OK. Unless they're allergic to the smell of Yeast.

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