Recipe #2 Modern Moonshiners Recipe

[spiritueuse]

Has anyone had any experience with this recipe from http://www.artisan-distiller.org? I've used the quantities 3.17 kg sugar, 750 g corn flakes, 12 oz jar of Grandma's molasses, a 200g tube of tomato paste and 10 g Allinson's active dried yeast. I started the wash on 30th August and a month later it is still gently fermenting. There is about 2 1/2" of sediment in the bottom of my fermentation tub. The starting gravity was 1.070 and is now almost 1.000 so according to the recipe should be ready to distill but obviously I can't distill whilst it is still working. Any ideas on how long it might keep working or whether I might have done something wrong? Having been used to turbo washes being ready in a couple of weeks I'm now having to spend too much money in the booze dept of Tesco! Any advice would be gratefully received.

[Capt-Cudellez]

at 1.0 with all the other stuff in there it probably is done. Give it a good stir to get the CO2 out, and it'll probably stop fizzing.

Using bakers yeast is slow slow slow with sugar washes - if you use a wine yeast like ec-1118 it'll be done in a week mate.

[goinbroke2]

Tomato paste has a lot of nutrients and vitamins in it.
Huge difference with/without. Water/sugar/yeast will ferment obviously but by giving it something to "eat" will help. That's why if you have nothing else for a sugar wash, throw in some raisins. They have a few natural vitamins but more importantly they have nutrients for the yeast.

[MrCat]

I've done the #2 recipe quite a bit (it's my favourite).

I use EC118 yeast, yeast nutrients, double up the mollases and up the sugar a bit so I get an OG of about 1090. It tends to ferment down to about 995 so I end up with about 11%. My g/f is a coeliac so I use gluten free cornflakes which co-incidentally avoids all the extras that cornflakes have. That said however as the recipe has been on that site for plenty of time I wouldn't worry about all the extra bits they add to the cornflakes.

I keep the fermenter wrapped up in a blanket to keep the temp stable. It normally takes a three or four weeks but it is well worth waiting for.

And it doubles up nicely too!!!

[MrCat]

Thanks goinbroke2! I get the nutrient part but Tomato Paste!!!!!! Come on, are we that miserable a bunch that we can't spend a few quid on yeast proper nutrient.

aidanmac

In the context of that recipe I think the idea is that you can get most of the ingredients from just about any shop - I could walk to my local supermarket and 10 mins later have bought all the ingredients.

[Capt-Cudellez]

I don't particularly care for tom paste in the wash either but you can provide nutes and vitamins without going to the HBS.
As I've said before I'm a big fan of the yeast bomb - all ingredients available from the supermarket too.

[MrCat]

As I've said before I'm a big fan of the yeast bomb - all ingredients available from the supermarket too.

Please can you do us all a big favour and start a thread in fermentation titled "Yeast Bomb"

Basically a FAQ, what it is, how you make it, how you pitch it and how you developed it ?

I've looked through artisan distiller and each time I get a little confused about how everyone makes theirs (and they are normally for 50 gallon and more washes)so a version 25 litres (or a little more) would be fantastic.

It would be ace if you could

Thanks.

[spiritueuse]

Thanks very much to all of you who responded to my question. As you might expect the fermentation stopped the day after I posted! However, it doesn't seem to be clearing much and I gave it a serious degas with a degassing tool that attaches to an electric drill. I've put some finings in but it still looks a bit murky. There also looks to be about 5 litres of sediment which is mainly the remains of the cornflakes presumably. I'll give it a couple more days and then think again if it has still not cleared.

[alan]

you need to syphon the wash off the sediment into a clean fermenter befor adding turboklar
alan

[Andy]

And remember, it will never look like water, in other words dont expect it to become crystal clear.