■ 🕑 40. 2025-04 ferments
│  I started a 20L ferment tonight of a new recipe
│  
│  In the boiler:
│   * 100g of homemade tomato paste
│   * 100g of old bran
│   * 8g of old yeast
│   * 30ml end of old bottle of wine  (mostly sludge)
│   * 4kg sugar
│  
│  After cooling:
│   * 50g baker's yeast
│   * pinch DAP
│   * pinch epsom salts 
│  
│  just finished cooking this up. Never tried using bran as a nutrient 
│  before so I'm curious how it turns out. It should finish around 12% ABV 
│  or so, fingers crossed! I wonder how bran flavor will compare with 
│  tomato flavor... 
│   
├─■ 🕑 42. 
│ │  Tonight's ferment of 20L: 
│ │  
│ │  * 4kg sugar
│ │  * 700g "honey stars" breakfast cereal, crushed up
│ │  * 30g baker's yeast
│ │  * pinch DAP, epsom salts
│ │  
│ │  Breakfast cereals have tons of yeast nutrients and this one tastes like 
│ │  whole grain and honey. So this is more whisky-esque than the Trix cereal
│ │  experiment -- I've tried it before and it turns out well
│ │   
│ └─■ 🕑 47. 
│     6 days later and the SG is at 1.010. So maybe it's at 12% but can reach
│     the full 13% with a bit more time. A pretty fast ferment. 
│     
│     Smells corny and sour, cloudy yellow color. The cereal on top still
│     looks and smells pretty good. This was a fun brew and I'm looking
│     forward to see how it distills -- I'll give it a bit more time to 
│     finish fermenting and clear up.
│      
├─■ 🕑 43. 
│ │  New ferment tonight:
│ │  
│ │   * 4kg sugar
│ │   * 250g bran
│ │   * 50g yeast
│ │   * pinch DAP, epsom salt
│ │   * fill up 20L bucket to top
│ │  
│ │  I cooked the bran for about 30 minutes before adding the sugar, 
│ │  never did an all bran but curious how it'll turn out. I want to compare
│ │  tomato paste washes and bran washes once I get my new reflux still up
│ │  and running.
│ │   
│ └─■ 🕑 48. 
│     This bran recipe fermented really well. 5 days later and it's below
│     0 standard gravity -- still pretty cloudy and lots of carbon dioxide
│     going on, but it smells fine. 
│     
│     So, according to ... science it looks like yeast like bran more than 
│     honey corn cereal (see >>47) 
│     
│     while the bran doesn't smell bad, it doesn't smell good either -- even
│     if the cereal takes 2 or 3 days longer to ferment out (which is
│     nothing in the big scheme of things) I have a feeling it's going to
│     have the superior end result 
│     
│     After my reflux still comes, I plan to run a tomato paste wash and 
│     bran wash and do some blind tastings for the vodka they produce. I 
│     suspect they will be identical but we will have to wait and see.
│      
├─■ 🕑 44. 
│   It's been ~4 days but the tomato/bran wash (4kg) is essentially done 
│   fermenting, with a SG of 0, so it's roughly 18L of 13% ABV. That is
│   pretty magnificent from < $5 EUR worth of sugar! I'm going to give it 
│   another few days to finish fermenting and clearing before I run it, 
│   but that bran is no joke.
│    
├─■ 🕑 45. 
│ │  Started 3 ferments today: 
│ │  
│ │   - 1500ml apple cider
│ │   - 250g honey, fill bottle with water
│ │   - 210g honey, 500ml cider, fill bottle with water
│ │  
│ │  I didn't add any kind of yeast nutrients so I wonder if the honey-alone
│ │  drink will be able to ferment. All the drinks will end up in the 6-8%
│ │  range so I feel they should be able to ferment fine without extra help...
│ │   
│ └─■ 🕑 46. 
│     Started 4 more ferments:
│     
│     - 1500ml apple cider with sugar added (estimated ABV 8%)
│     - 1500ml honey/water (estimated ABV 8%) 
│     
│     3 hours in, balloons are beginning to inflate .
│     I didn't add any yeast nutrient but I think it should be fine.
│      
└─■ 🕑 49. 
  │  Started another cider today, mixed with blueberry juice (2:1 ratio).
  │  With added sugar, should ferment to 8% 
  │  
  │  Also mixed some banana-flavored syrup with water until it should
  │  reach about 6.5% fermented. It smells terrific -- exactly like those
  │  marshmallow peanuts -- but I'm worried the yeast will struggle due to
  │  lack of nutrients. I added some blueberry juice with the thought it
  │  could provide some nutrition.
  │  
  │  This week I've distilled ~36L of 12% hooch to ~8L of 40% hooch --
  │  the bran stuff. Sampled a bit of the bran liquor low wines. Very strong
  │  smell but subtle flavor. I'll do a spirit run tonight with the still
  │  filled up with 30% ABV low wines; I intend to make some gin. 
  │  
  │  I feel a bit bittersweet about this week's distills. Probably by next
  │  week, my new, much more efficient still will be complete. I learned a
  │  lot from this little guy. Now he will sit in a box somewhere
  │  collecting dust because there is no market for tools like this. 
  │   
  └─■ 🕑 50. 
      That sounds delicious. No home brewing
      culture in your country? I'd like to 
      try the banana drink.