Deathwish's Wheatgerm Recipe from homedistiller.org

[SporeCrazy]

Just thought I'd share this recipe because a FOAF is trying it out and within 4 hours it built up enough pressure in the fermenter that it damn near blew the lid right off... I'll let you know when FOAF is done with it.

SC
Deathwish Wheat germ recipe

by tater » Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:56 pm
Deathwish from artisan-distiller.org wrote:

This is a very easy wash I use 10lbs of sugar 16oz of wheat germ 1 tsp of citric acid I put all of that in a 5 gallon pot fill it close to the top with water and let it boil for about 1 and 1/2 hours then pour it in my 6 and 1/2 gallon fermenter top it off to 6 gallons total with water let it cool then add my yeast. I like to use red star champagne yeast it is only 79 cents around here. it should ferment in about 3-4 days be careful I have had this recipe blow the bubbler out and put a dent in my ceiling. lol I like mine strong. with my pot still I always throw away about a cup of the heads then I stop it at about 100 proof that is what I call the drinkable stuff. The tails I will take down to about 20 proof and rerun it later with a bunch of other tails with my re fractioning still I run it fast to about 20 proof get about 12 gallons and run it slow at 170 degrees at the top of my stack. I stop pulling it as soon as it starts to drop the rest is tails to me.I feel that this has a very clean smooth scotch flavor this is the most drinkable recipe I have."


P.S. Hip I haven't forgot about you...

[Hippie3]

scotch eh ?
i like it.
plz don't forget me.

[SilvrHairDevil]

That is an interesting recipe, Spore. Do you think the wheat germ imparts any flavor to the distillate?

If anybody is interested in the science:

The boiling of the sugar solution breaks down the disaccharide sugar into monosaccarides, freeing up the yeast from this job and is likely the cause of the vigorous fermentation.

The Potential Alcohol of the 10 lb sugar to 6 gal water (1.6 lb/gal) is around the 8% level. Perhaps the still runs better at this level, or perhaps the recipe works with the fact that 10 lb bags of sugar are readily available.

You probably already know this, Spore. I'll just carry on with the science: Boosting the sugar to 15 lb (2.5 lb/gal) would give a Potential Alcohol of about 12%, but there's a bit of a trade-off.

At 12% PA, the Specific Gravity (ignoring the wheat germ) would be about 1.09, which may be a tad high for dry yeast.
As you know, dry yeast has to rehydrate before it gets to work and this can be difficult in a high sugar solution, due to the way osmosis works.

Get around this by making a yeast starter or switching to more tolerant yeast, like Lalvin 1118 and hydrating before pitching.

Champagne yeast is designed to be both high-alcohol and high pressure tolerant for the secondary bottle fermentation to create the bubbles.

The wheat germ (apart from flavor) adds nutrients for the yeast. These allow the fermentation pathway to proceed smoothly from one phase to the next without producing unwanted flavors and aromas. Lacking wheat germ, one could substitute Yeast Nutrient (DAP - diammonium phosphate) and Yeast Energizer.

If you are into experimenting SporeCrazy, try fermenting out a double beer kit and distilling that. You could find one with little to no hops (not sure if hops flavor would carry through the distillation process) or just use liquid malt extract (DME).

After all, Scotch is made of malt - what can go wrong?

[SporeCrazy]

From what I've read, the wheatgerm imparts the "flavor" of scotch. FOAF has another couple of days left on his fermentation. He'll let you know what it's like. I'm told oak aging for a year GREATLY improves smoothness.

[jwmyspace2000]

whats this taste like undistilled?

[SporeCrazy]

Haven't tasted it undistilled, FOAF says distilled tastes mighty fine.