Things are getting too complicated for some folks. For a while now, been splitting my recipes in 2: make a full dry ingredients recipe (nutrient, yeast, etc) but hold the sugar to 1/2 the usual quanitity, water about 3/4. Get that started to ferment. Yeast will have lots of elbow room to flourish. Separately heat up the remaining 1/2 of sugar in the 1/4 of water and add in a few days later when the SG has dropped to 1.03 or so.
@@bobtheelectrician6692 That sounds like a winning idea! I will certainly give it a try. Keeping it simple sure does make the process more fun. No need for rocket science, huh.
Hey George happy distillin. I use a container of agave nectar 176 oz. 5 lb .sugar. 6gal h2o. And a turbo yeast . Usually double distilled as I only have a pot looking forward to using Karol soon .thank you Sir.
Your the best Master Distiller George! I couldn't get below 5% on mash, kept stopping, you fixed my problem. Kept getting greedy with extra sugar. Glad to see you back!!!
Yeap George, when I added that gallon of water to a 5 gallon wash. I put the gallon of water in the sun until it was close to 80 degree fahrenheit.(77'). The wash started up again in about an hour. The wash finish in 3 more days which gave me a total of 10 days on a 6 gallon wash. My gravity wasn't what I thought it would be. The wash was sour and had no sugar to taste, so I new it was done. 6 gallons left me with plenty of head space in my cooking pot. I no longer chase the high gravity points by loading up on sugar.
I’m at the point now that listening to George is no longer a requirement for me to be successful in my endeavors I can now enjoy just listening to a man of pure passion explain this ( sometimes) difficult craft. Teaching is a difficult task, I know all this stuff and would not have the patience to teach. George is something special! Pay attention,,class! 👨🏫.
It's like you were talking directly to me! I had this problem a couple washes back and followed your advice from prior video (added some water) and it took off and finished in 36 hours. You are the best!
Well, I think you just answered another question that I forgot to ask you on the phone the other night. I always wondered why various mash recipes include "acid blend" (which I've never used) and gypsum but that would probably drop my well water pH from 7.5+ down to 5'ish. Still learning.
George this is an excellent tutorial, Iv learned so much about the chemistry and how my brewing works. The sugar water balance finally makes perfect sense. Thankyou for such an interesting and informative video, told with such enthusiasm and made clear and simple. Thanks mate
Great session! Evidently ran into this exact problem and through dumb luck I split my batch into 2 separate and added some water. Now I know why it worked. Though it is counterintuitive if you start with 1.130 gravity, 17% abv which leaves you 83% water and ya gotta add more water. Saudi made you live on the edge. Happy Distilling!
Welcome back George. I keep coming back to your videos each time I make a batch of Brandy. A question i've been struggling with is to punch down, stir or leave it alone during the fermentation process. Also it might be an idea to inform your viewers to be carefull when fermentation in a confined space like a bathroom as co2 can be dangerous. Thanks again for coming back.
You knocked it outta the park again George. What a video to come back with! I’d pay a monthly subscription fee to see your videos unedited, or at least the blooper out takes. And I’m willing to bet I ain’t alone. Happy Distilling.
My Missouri Single Malt #8 is clearing now. Dropped all the way down to .990 😉 Between my 3 different ferment processes, wine, beer and mash, I've only had 1 stick in 5 years. Was an ambient temp problem. It gets cold in Missouri, lol. Thanks George ! #HAPPYDISTILLING 🇺🇸
I just don't have any more words to describe this class. Just love to be here. When I'm watching your videos I just want to pack and fly to USA to meet you personally and have the pleasure to take a drink with you George. Thanks a lot for your lessons, but mostly for your way of being on this platform.. (my English grammar is not so good, hope you can understand what I trying to say). A very big abraço meu amigo e professor.
Glad to see you back my friend was starting to get worried about you until you answered my text on my column a couple of days ago as always another great video to help us be better and safer at our thing thank you for all your help and #HappyDistilling
George, the amount of alcohol distilled from the wash will be different depending on whether one is using a pot or a reflux still because the proof output of each method will be different. I might get 3 quarts from a pot still, but it will be about 120 to 140 proof. With a reflux still I'll get around 2 quarts, but it will be 170 to 180 proof. Once proofed the final quantity will be about the same.
George is back, back again, I'm so glad, he's teaching us again, you told me to wake up up, Cuz I was in the back row, are always awesome to all us.. see you soon buddy.
Great to have you back George it's funny you put out this video when you did I just got finished having a problem with a wash I made. Sat late last night and watched your new video on the problem I had you must be in tune with us in the universe and feeling our problems lol Happy Distilling
George steps up to the plate it's a fast ball low and outside he steps into it and with a mighty swing slaps it out of the park for another homerun. Thanks for the very informative video my friend it came just in time as l was starting to jones for one glad to hear all is well on your end please keep up the great work and as always #HappyDistilling
Holy $%#@, You truly are a great teacher! Im welding stainless and listening your lectures. Very easy to listen and informative. Thank You for the work You do!
All great and knowledgeable George I have a question about the wash after distilling. You said in an earlier video it kills grass. I was thinking of giving my chickens the leftover wash after distilling. (I feed them beer and wine already) But does distilling a wash make it toxic? Does it boost the acid levels or make some other effect that makes it toxic/undrinkable? Not a huge deal but on my homestead I shoot for ZERO waste when I can. Your amazing knowledge and insight I trust. Thank you for what you do!!!!
......we use it as a hair product . The bottom and yeast is great ! Some old hippy I knew .....lol ! My wife even used it and her hair was shinny and silky smooth . Mostly we used beer bottoms back in my college days . Peace !
I am confused George. The yeast breaks down the sucrose - C5H12O6 into 2 each of the following ethanol - C2H6O and carbon dioxide - CO2. As you can see the number of molecules adds up on both sides, non of the molecules from water - H2O is needed. The total amount of water does change just the amount of sucrose. The water is just a medium for the yeast and sucrose to react in. Adding more water later would reduce the SP of course. Maybe I am missing something in your video. I really enjoy your channel and Happy Distilling !!!!
Think about it as X amount of water is need to sustain yeast life. As the water is depleted and replaced with ethanol that amount of water is reduced to a point where yeast can no longer flourish and metabolize the sugar. Increase the water volume (replace depleted water) and the yeast will again start to metabolize the remaining sugar.
@ Bob Mason,I bet you are a chem.Enggr & like you even I was confused about how water depletion takes place when water does not participate in the reaction. That is where George steps in & what he means to say is as sucrose gets converted into ethanol,the original water molecules fall inadequate to handle the alcohol probably leading to the fermentation getting stalled.You need to make the water a bit more dominant here & thus adding water restarts the process. Correct???
@@prabuddhanandy5104 I think what you state is closer to the truth. The bond of H2O is quite a bit stronger than the sucrose, add the fact that the yeast do not need any additional molecules than what is in the sucrose and that will leave the water untouched (Mostly). George does make a HUGE headline in the video that this applies to washes that are over 1.09 SG. The other fact is most people don't use pure sucrose and that is why you get fusils and as George puts it 'ass smells 1 or 2' ..lol. Keeping your gravity close or below 1.09 really does help to make a clean wash. The bottom line is that the advice George is giving is sound. If your wash has stalled and you have a high sugar content then water is probably the solution and the answer (science pun intended when i said solution..lol). While I may disagree with George on some minor points he is still the number 1 Guru when it comes to the science of distilling and fermenting. There is no way to make this stuff right doing it the wrong way. Happy Distilling
@@bobmason6898 I hate calling people out, but both you and George are wrong. Water is absolutely not a limiting reactant here. There will always be more than enough water to continue the fermentation process. And water is absolutely used in the fermentation process, it's also produced during fermentation. Using Sucrose (table sugar) as an example. Yeast will turn sucrose into glucose and fructose, with a hydrolysis reaction catalysed by the enzyme invertase, where water is required. It will go through the fermentation process, starting with glycolysis which uses water in 3 or 4 steps of the 10 step process, where water is required as a reactant. That process leaves us with pyruvate (or pyruvic acid + H+). It will then be converted into acetaldehyde in a process that uses a water molecule. The turning acetaldehyde into ethanol doesn't use water, afaik though. All that said, there are more steps in this entire process that produce water, than consume water. In the end, for every 1 mole of glucose you get 2 moles of ethanol, and 2 moles of water (H2O). Fermentation has a net gain of water. Here is the full biological equation for converting glucose to ethanol: C6H12O6 + 2 ADP + 2 Pi → 2 C2H5OH + 2 CO2 + 2 H2O + 2 ATP The initial reactants of 1 mol of Glucose, 2 mol of ADP, 2 mol of Inorganic Phosphate are turned into 2 mol of Ethanol, 2 mol of Carbon dioxide, 2 mol of water, and 2 mol of ATP. ADP and ATP are ways that cells move/use/store energy. Remember, biological equations aren't chemical reaction equations, they are just giving you an idea of what initially goes in, and what finally comes out, it doesn't speak to all the reactions that happen in between. Water will only be a limiting factor in a fermentation stalling when dealing with high gravities in which case it is an osmotic stress situation and the water is merely acting as a solvent in this case. And in cases where ethanol concentration is too high, it can denature enzymes, and disrupt the cellular membrane. Which is why you can breed yeast to handle higher ethanol concentrations, but you can only go so far before physics and chemistry kicks in and biology fails. If you mixed sugar, water, and yeast into a bucket, and it suddenly stalled. If the gravity isn't too high causing osmotic stress, guaranteed it's probably a nutrient issue. If simply dumping water into the bucket fixed the issue, than the issue was either one of osmotic stress, specifically hypertonicity, and you relieved that stress by diluting the wash or it's also possible that if you used tap water, that calcium and/or magnesium was a limiting reactant, and you just added more. Georges science is quite wrong here when it comes to the water use. He needs to bone up on his chemistry and biochemistry.
Sooooo..... The 1st lesson here is, if the gravity of your wort is greater than 1.090, add (sterilized) water to your wort until its gravity is 1.090. THEN pitch you yeast and watch the fermentation train leave the station, and not have to worry about it stalling before it gets to Beer Station. And second the 2nd lesson is, if your fermentation train has already stalled enroute, stoke the fire a little and add some water to get you little friends happy again. Right? Good perspectives and good info!! Thanks for your teaching.
Damn this trick saved my mash! Had a SG of 1.110 and it stopped with 5% left to go. Added water and boom it was back and ended right at 1.000. Thanks George!
yellow jackets, George just to let you know we also get yellow jackets here is Australia and i think you get them in the USA too, but they only seem come around maybe 3,4, or 5 days into fermenting a mash. That's the only time that you see them. Scary things.
Great to see you back, was getting a bit concerned given your travels etc. Most of what I've learned about distilling is from you , so thank you! But, I am a bit confused by this one and when/why water and how it relates to starting gravity and current gravity. If the current SG is less than 1.090 (and the mash ws never higher than that) isn't there, by definition, enough water? or did I miss something?
I'm a beginner,i cut up a bunch of apples, mashed them all up,put in 5 gal still,poured gal of apple cider gal of apple juice,1an half gal of water,added 3lbs suger,mixed yeast in warm water, poured in still, covered was checking berbing for two weeks,then stopped,I knew it was ready,i was preparing to put on heater,phone rang,it was emergency,i sealed up still,had to go out of town, was gone for a week, opened still up,it was foaming,i tasted.it tasted sour,tart,it didn't smell or taste rotten,my question is can i refermentate it, maybe adding suger an yeast
I liked the way you simplified the process of fermentation. You answered some questions I had. But I have one more question I'm puzzled about, how do some of these guys get 15 to 20 percent alcohol out of their washes if 1.090 (12%) is max? Are they just adding more water as needed to keep things going? Also, I have a rum wash going now and it started with a SG 1.080 (your recipe) it pretty much stopped at 1.020, how can I get it to 1.00? Thanks George...
