Cornflake Wash

[packapoo]

Put down a 20litre Odins on 9 May, as close to his instructions as I was able.
It all seemed to ferment as per his advice.
17 May travelled to UK, returned on 22 June. Should have been finished on my return and certainly appeared to have.
Only problem was sediment was taking up a large volume of the fermenter.
Top of the wash depth is 337mm.
Of that, sediment depth makes up 155mm.

While in Britain saw first hand Turbo Clear used - never gone near this product before. Pretty impressed, plus nothing in the ingredient list to worry about so decided to put to test to see if I could consolidate the sediment.
Degassed wash then proceeded as per. In 24 hours wash had settled, back to the same levels.
I thought it may have consolidated somewhat further?
+/- 180mm sediment seems too much to ignore.

Does anyone have any advice, please?

Cheers, Peter

[Opus 27]

I've used the same recipe. Emptied the entire wash through a straining bag and progressively sqeezed the was out of the flake. Didn't bother fining after that just ran it though a stripping run.
Unfortunately cocked up the blending on the spirit run so didn't get the best flavours. This was a first attempt so will hopefully do better next time. Another 44 litres fermenting at the moment.

Opus

[packapoo]

Feel for you Opus with that blending cock-up, have done the same myself and lost what I'd been trying to achieve. Lesson learned :-)

Thanks for your response.
Idea then at this stage may be to siphon off the clear wash and try a progressive strain on the rest. Then if volume and cloudiness dictate, another round of fining, probably gelatine this time.

Cheers, Peter

[Almanac]

If you siphon off what liquid you can then line a fermenter with a BIAB or other straining bag then pour the sediment into the bag. Once it's all in, suspend the bag and let gravity do what it does.

Alternatively, if you can get your hands on a salad spinner, you could centrifuge a small amount of the solids at a time

I think the real, future, solution, if you must use Cornflakes, is to put them in a muslin bag and place this in your fermenting wash. This will make removal much easier as you'll just have to suspend the bag and let it drain by itself.

AM

[Opus 27]

I go along with aidanmac Other than perhaps a cider press.

Opus

[Almanac]

+1 never thought of that

AM

[packapoo]

Thanks for your thoughts aidanmac and Opus....

I do actually have a cider press out in the shed I haven't used in an age, have to give that some thought.....

Think at this stage I'll follow aidan's suggestion; plus his further on future cornflake washes. (Have an idea to smoke the cornflakes - either peat or manuka, both of which are in an abundance around me).

Cheers, Peter

[Easydrinker]

I do love the free thinking of some of the people on this site.
Where else could I find someone considering smoked cornflakes?
LLaP packapoo.
Robert.

[packapoo]

Ha ha, Robert - been looking at some internet vids of real whisky makers (Lark and Laphroaig)going about how they achieve their smokiness and thought why not?
Should work I reckon. Not whisky I know. Smokey vodka perhaps :-)

[Almanac]

Real outside the box thinking - I love it

AM

[packapoo]

I racked off the clear = 10 litres worth.
Layered up 3 straining bags and short tied them in a fermentation bucket, then poured the rest in and left gravity to work overnight.
Very clear result with a good tight cake left in the bags. Product = 8 litres, so input 20, output 18
Ran it today.

[Almanac]

10% loss of volume to the trub is quite acceptable?

It's a pity there's not much you can do with the remains of a Cornflake wash.

When I do a lentil wash the spent lentils go on my compost and with my all grain washes I rinse all the yeast, etc., out and give the spent grains to a friend who uses them for feeding his chickens so I have no waste and get some free eggs now and then

That's a perfectly good result.

AM

[packapoo]

Actually, after running it am scratching my head and thinking there's not too much that you can do with the guts of the wash, as well, AM.

Rather an underwhelming experience in learning I feel. On the doubtful repeat list presently.

FWIW was 18 litres @9.9%
Took off fores/heads of 75ml each - probably going a bit heavy there but would always rather be safe.
11 cuts of 250ml went from 62% down to 27%, both at the head.
Those percentages came down to 60% and 23% today.
Took a further 190ml @22% before temp shot over 99 degrees.
Cuts 1 - 5 were 'acceptable' tasting only and have watered them to 40% now (better) and set them aside for only possible oaking
The rest, all tails, is set aside for refluxing in the future, but the whole may go the same way.

As far as taste off the still goes, and even after dilution, the weetbix and allbran wins hands down, although I know taste is an individual thing.

I was attracted to this as the designer refers to it as whisky. Okay we all know it's not - I just didn't expect it to be quite so underwhelming.

What's next? Well I still have 35 odd litres of googes to run. Still hopeful

Cheers, Peter

[Opus 27]

Like yourslf I found my first batch of cornflake whisky a bit thin on flavour although seems to be improving on the oak.

However my copy of Odins recipe and method does point out that this recipe improves on subsequent runs as you stsrt adding backset.

My second mash has 10 litres of backset in it so we'll see how that works.

Opus

[Almanac]

When it comes to making Whisky I'm not a fan of the White Dog and even from All Grain I find the spirit taste is lacking in depth or interest. It's only after some time on Oak that the spirit starts to take on any Whisky characteristics and the longer it spends there the better it gets - sorry, I know that's a bit obvious

My point is that once you've made your cuts, decided on the blend of Heads, Hearts and Tails to make up your spirit, you shouldn't really expect too much in the flavour department but rather, character or hint of the background compared to clean ethanol.

Once you've done your best you have to let the magic happen in the wood

I also found that letting my low wines sit for a couple of weeks before the final spirit run seems to improve the final output but I am fortunate to have had the storage space to do this in the past.

While making Whisky I did find that bringing the White Dog up to 55oC before adding it to the Oak did speed things up quite a bit. It's an adaptation of the Nuking practice and I know some purists will scoff but it actually does work to shorten maturation times. (I expect I'll get a dig over that admission and will accept my punishment like a man )

AM

p.s. Just realised I've inadvertently strayed off topic and into the subject of Ageing & Flavouring, sorry about that