BeverageCommander
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What was your mash process?
What was your recipe?
Did you take a starting gravity reading of the mash?I like to try and get my FG around 1.000 or below if possible.
What are you sitting at currently?
Cold Crashing the mash will help speed up the drop out process-
you should not have too much stuff settle besides the yeast with the honey shine recipe-
Add water- enough that when you strain the grains you will end up with 5.5 gallons of liquid into your fermenter.- I doubt you will get any conversion from the grains- but you can save it with sugar. – you should get decent flavor from the grains in theory.
Did you boil everything?
for a mash the normal process is to—- “mash” the grains in about 150 degree for an hour or so. The mash process converts the starches into fermentable sugars. If you boiled everything I am going to guess that no conversion took place-which means there will be little to no sugar conversion. It is possible that some conversion took place if the grains did mash around 150 for a while before you boiled…Can you explain your process from start to finish?
This is the process that I follow: http://beveragecommander.com/blogs/beverage-commander-blog/14191647-corn-whiskey-moonshine-mash-recipe
great news! PBW works wonders
I suggest at least 1500 watts for 5 gallons.
What are you running your tails down to?
what is the starting ABV of the wash on each run?
Ryan,
The best way to start doing cuts is by using really small mason jars-
have you taken a look at the clawhammer site?
http://www.clawhammersupply.com/blogs/moonshine-still-blog/12206385-making-moonshine-the-dummies-guideDid you use the same yeast on everything? That is pretty crazy!
You will need to use a mash-tun with this recipe- or use the brew in a bag method which works well.
When I do a stripping run on my still- I collect everything down to 10% and my average is around 30 proof for the stripping run.
What proof do you run your still down to when doing a stripping run? 120 seems extremely high for a stripping run. What kind of still are you using? You want to strip without any packing and without a thumper and run the tails down to about 10-20%
That is for a 5 gallon batch- just follow it as it for 5 gallons.
I just add two packs of dry bread yeast- I have not had any issues with fermentation. You can add nutrients as well- just follow the directions on the label.
It is an expensive recipe- I have found that farmers markets are a great place to meet beekeepers- chat them up and see if you can buy the stuff that is not pretty enough to package. I usually buy it in a 5 gallon bucket.
I’ve made the recipe on the clawhammer site a few times- it has worked very well for me.
http://www.clawhammersupply.com/blogs/moonshine-still-blog/7169194-how-to-make-honey-moonshine-aka-honeyshineI have used bread-yeast with great results- I feel it really works well with this recipe. I always add two dry packets of active dry bread yeast with this recipe. I am sure other yeasts will work great as well- but I have been really happy with the bread-yeast so I have not tried anything else yet.
Fermentation on this normally takes between 10-14 days to finish – I ferment around 78. The only way to really know when fermentation is finished is by using a hydrometer.Rebel:
what kind of still do you have? Attach a picture if you can.Do you take hydrometer readings at the start of the mash and at the end?
If you don’t have a hydrometer I would recommend getting one- it really helps when trying to troubleshoot a mash. It sounds like you are not adding enough sugar and it is also possible that the fermentation is not finishing 100%.1st run: 7.5 pounds of sugar and 7.5 pounds of cracked corn for 10 gallons will give you about a 4.50% ABV mash…That is pretty low. You are not going to any sugar from the cracked corn. I would double the sugar amount to get your starting gravity up a bit. Distilling does not create alcohol is concentrates the alcohol that is available in the mash- the higher the starting ABV the higher the proof of the run.
Alcohol vapor escaping can be a very dangerous!! Make sure you have no vapor leaks- alcohol vapors are very flammable- a
3rd run: same thing as run number 1- you need to add more sugar
Do you know what the starting gravity of the wash was?
Do you know what the gravity was when it stalled?
