SWEET POTATO VODKA PART 4

sweet potato vodka day five um now that we've got all of that out of the way of course this is george and barley and hops the channel that dares to unlock the mysteries of home distilling and of course to share and be as transparent as possible with as much information as we can harness that's the beauty of this community and that's the purpose of the channel in itself so please if you do get an opportunity to subscribe share us with your friends like the video comment below do all those great things so thank you now um we're on day five now day five is the period that i chose because there are some remarkable differences from the very beginning you know we always have that challenge of airlocks you know and people misunderstanding and confusing that the airlock is the measuring device it's not it's not it's oh you heard that yeah it's an indicator it's only an indicator now i've again i like i said i've got three buckets here i've got i know one that's sealed really well because it's still fermenting slowly it is really slowed down dramatically the one in the center is still having some challenges and this one on the end rarely it doesn't bubble sorry it just doesn't bubble and i know that i'm but and i know that i have a leak around my lid i've got one of those old lids that i've used for years and i'm gonna have to replace it but i'm comfortable i'm comfortable with that because keep this in mind okay co2 is produced by your yeast it's one of the byproducts okay so right now i have a layer of co2 on top of that mash and that co2 is heavier than air yes co2 is heavier than air and it sinks so i have a blanket of co2 that's still protecting my mash so then i guess the question is well george then well why do you use an airlock in the first place they're locked for that indicator and also keeps other stuff out from going in now having that layer of co2 unless i remove the lid and allow air to blow across it and displace all that co2 that mash will always be protected by that layer it kind of makes sense now i mean can you follow that that it's really believe it or not it is elementary it on some levels but sometimes it's hard to understand that being heavier than air just sits there unless you displace it by a giraffe blowing it away that's why we put lids on our buckets that's why we use air locks other than that our airlock is really a good distant indicator it's kind of neat and uh you know of course you always the more but you figure the more bubbles the more it's fermenting well there's a little bit of correlation there but it sure does look kind of neat doesn't it now uh we're going to open this up and i'm going to show you what it looks like now because i did ask a question on one of those videos and we're going to start to answer that question but before we get there i was watching some videos today and i looked on one of my friends now you know there's myself there's still it and then there's beard and board i like to call us the three amigos now bearded board has published a video that i think you really need to see because it the guy does a great job and of course after you subscribe here subscribe to his channel if you want some updates too because he's really putting out some good information now this one is on an apple brandy but what's really really neat about it is he also includes an apple pie moonshine recipe that is really simple and straightforward and i think you'll enjoy that so i'm gonna add this is oh there he is he's over there yeah i'm gonna put his uh logo here and i'm gonna put a link to that video in the description of this video so that uh you can just go to that uh i think you really enjoy that so next is uh we're gonna look at this and i'm gonna bring the camera close and give you a close-up view of the mash and we're going to open up this bucket and then what am i going to do i'm going to also use the hydrometer the hydrometer is the only way to tell officially if you're fermenting or not remember it hasn't bubbled so you know you're clueless george it's not fermenting i'll always say use your hydrometer that will tell you what am i looking for if it's floats here at first anywhere makes no difference and after a few days if it floats here it's been fermenting i don't care whether it's produced a bubble or not it's been fermenting so we're going to prove that to you all right let's get a look in here and this buck is pretty easy to take off this lid is pretty easy to take off because it doesn't seal that well and now you'll notice you can see you see these bubbles this is some co2 that is still escaping so i know that it's fermenting but now look at specifically the difference in the crust on the top of this as opposed to the crust that we had several days ago you see how thin it is so now we're starting to answer that remember what the question was well the question all revolved around the thickness and the fullness of that crust and i asked what do you think is going to happen as we get closer to the end of fermentation that is going to start to settle to the bottom of my fermenter now if i want to verify in val i already know it has but i want to validate whether it's been fermenting or not i just drop my hydrometer in there and see where it floats and right now i'm floating at 1.0 probably about 1.010 somewhere in that neighborhood now is that a total is that an accurate reading no i've got co2 in there i've got some other solid particulates but it's an indicator it does give me a reading as opposed to the one point zero six five six three and six zero respectively in these buckets that i started with so i know that my gravity has gone down dramatically so i know and i can also smell it yes sweet potato vodka mash and i'll give this a stir and then here most shortly i will clean that bucket lid and stick it back on there well that kind of gives you the update on on our sweet potato mash for our sweet potato vodka now what is the next step well i'm just going to allow that to finish out fermenting and how long will that take god who knows probably i'm going to guess and say probably another day or two and see that's why we always say it's it's like a seven to ten day window for fermentation um there are yes yes there are mashes that will ferment in three days keep this in mind okay a lot has to do with the availability or the level of fermentable sugar that you have in your mash i'll give you an example in this particular case on average i've got about 1.06 between six zero and six five okay that's my specific gravity and that will take anywhere from seven to ten days uh if i had a higher gravity like 1.090 you know it's like sitting down at the dinner table and someone puts in puts down three sliders you know them small hamburgers doesn't take you long to eat those but if they put down 12 of those it's going to take you a little longer you're not it's going to take you longer to eat those than it is that first plate of just three of them you follow me so if you have a really low gravity yes your yeasts are gonna develop that colony they're gonna migrate and populate and then they are going to eat away and they're gonna eat all that sugar most pretty rapidly if you've got a lot of leftover fermentable sugars and of course there's enough water and your environment is correct then it's going to take them a little bit longer because they just can't they just got that much more to eat so you follow that train of thought it's you know time for fermentation to start and finish is re is most directly connected to the amount of fermentable sugars the environment itself to include temperature and i've maintained 77 degrees out here in the shop for the past five days for that purpose for that reason i find that about 77 degrees in this particular case worked out extremely well so that's my tip for today and make sure you use the hydrometer because the hydrometer is your tool to this hobby this is just a regular beer and wine hydrometer and it measures the specific gravity you can either use the specific gravity the brick scale you can use the balling scale you can use the percentage it doesn't matter they're all the same thing they're just different names and different scales but at least stick find one and stick with it but this is your tool to set you free until of course you get to the distilling process and then of course you trade this in for the proof and trail hydrometer which measures the proof of a distilled spirit see that's how easy that gets now last but not least i had someone write in and had a challenge and you may have had this similar challenge um and that is the odor inside your fermenters if you're using plastic buckets or using the a conical fermenter you know if you're using one by mini brew or you're using a fast fermenter or whatever the case may be you may find that over a period of time and depending on what your the constituents of whatever you're making is that it may leave a residual odor inside that and no matter how hard you clean it it just doesn't want to come clean meaning it cleans out and it's nice and squeaky clean but it's still got that a pungent odor that you just can't seem to get rid of well a surefire method to get rid of it use that 551 cleaning solution yeah 500 milliliters of water 50 milliliters of hydrogen peroxide and 1 ounce by weight of citric acid mix that up pour that in your bucket and then put the lid on and of course roll it around every couple of minutes so that it soaks around the inside of the bucket let it set up and let it soak for a few minutes and then rinse it out use some dawn dish soap wash it out real quick and you'd be surprised how clean and odor free that that fermenter becomes that will work in your fast ferment it'll work in your mini brew it'll work in just about any fermenter you have and of course what it will do is it will prevent you from trying to go i guess i need to use a scrub pad because remember we don't want to use scrub pads inside these when you do you scratch the plastic and that's just a great hiding place for microorganisms so please stay away from the scrub pads use 5-5-1 it's a simple mixture cost you pennies until next time yep as always uh please subscribe share this with your friends like the video comment below happy distilling

Channel: Barley and Hops Brewing

Views: 23,413

Keywords: neutral spirit, sugar wash, barlerandhops, hops, home, Sugar (Ingredient), sugar mash, distilling, barley, corn sugar vs cane sugar, corn sugar mash recipe, making a wash for distilling, running a still for the first time, first distillation, using yeast, mooshine, whiskey, making rum, making vodka, bourbon, baby step bourbon, making bourbon at home

Id: AtinqlQPOGg

Length: 12min 5sec (725 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 24 2020