■ 🕑 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. │ └─■ 🕑 51. │ 18 liters of 35% ABV in the boiler tonight. │ └─■ 🕑 52. │ when I get 6 liters out I'm going to shut off the machine │ starting to taste a lot of tails coming through now │ │ I estimate maybe 2.5L are hearts but I'll need to wait and let the jars │ air out before diluting, tasting, and blending. Really excited to be │ making gin again. │ └─■ 🕑 53. Spirit run results │ Pretty happy with the yields I got from $14 worth of sugar and trivial │ amounts of bran, tomato, and yeast. Water and electric are cheap so I'm │ not factoring them in to the total price. │ │ > Phase 1 │ 60 L of sugar wine (12kg sugar) │ │ Distilling these in 20L batches gave me.. │ │ > Phase 2 │ 20 L of 35% low wines │ │ Distilled slow, collected in small jars gave me... │ │ > Phase 3 │ ~7 liters boiled out │ ~4 liters of heads and tails to save for a rainy day │ │ ~3 liters "hearts" (all with consistent ABV, 70%) │ ~6 liters 40% spirit, dilute with water │ ~8x 750ml bottles of 40% spirit, will be turned into gin │ └─■ 🕑 54. I wanted to make a ton of gin but I forgot to do inventory on my juniper berry stash.
Using this recipe, per liter : - 15g crushed juniper - 5g crushed coriander - 1/4 lemon peel - 1/4 lime peel - pinch various spices
I steeped 2.5L of "gin" overnight, then took out the citrus peels and threw it all in the boiler. Heating up now but I'm looking forward to this.