Super sir. I'm so engaged with the chemistry lesson. Takes me back 35 years to college. This is my first video that I've watched that really gets down to the nuts and bolts of the hobby. I'm hooked. Great explanations.
George you are the man. I am always telling folks about raising temp slowly and holding at a cook temp for an extended period. I always knew it works, But I never did the research to find out why. But my family is from the south. weather its meat or desserts. You can't beat that down home slow cooking. Now I know why! Now I just gotta get my wife to watch this video! 😅 I have several friends that I've turned onto making wine. So I sent all of them this link. This year will be the first time I try distilling. But I've been hooked on your channel for about 3 years. I found you when I was putting together a PID for my maple syrup cooker. Thanks for all the great advise, tips and personality that goes into all you do! Happy Distilling!
Thank you George 😊 From where I come from, we grow a lot of sweet potatoes and as a Food Technology student, your videos are very informative and helpful to me.👍
Tell me about it! My wife thinks it always so weird when we’d go into the grocery store past the produce section, and she would hear me asking myself,”I wonder what those berries, apples, etc.. would be like in a brew”
I started a couple of sweet potatoes that had sprouted in the fridge. Well, they have gotten away from me and spread all over the yard. Now I know why. They wanted to be Vodka. Seriously though. Thanks George, I appreciate the education and I am having a blast.
So good to see you back, George just got my small distiller license. And around the pID I got from you. And had a pretty flawless first run may have run it a little fast. Came off the still at one eighty six plate Four inch column
George: "...because this thing is packed with all your B vitamins..." Me: "...holy shizzle..." George: "...Sweet potatoes have Alpha and Beta Amylase..." Me: "HALELUYAAHHHHH"
Wow wow Sir, thank you v much. I have learned a lot from watching your video. Great works sir. We pray you get strength to continue doing such great works.
Gorge you surprise me, you helped me with the building of my still with the electrical components to the understanding of the mash, thank you keep on brewing.
I thought we needed some special mystery enzyme to break down the sugars into alcohol... you saved my sanity. We make shine (totally organic shine) so we wanted to make totally organic shine/booze with sweet potatoes. I was under the impression we needed some mystery enzyme that goes beyond what we already do for our shine.
This is great information, thanks, George. The best explanation of sugars, starches, and enzymes! I did not fall asleep, I'm going to watch this again while taking notes.
Amazing video! I never heard the chemistry of the sugar bonds described like this. I just bought some sweet potatoes at the market and will compare the cost per pound to malted barley. Can’t wait for the follow-up videos. Thanks George!
1st I want to say Thank You for making these videos. I've learned a lot And my 1st ever run was a success thanks you your method with cracked corn. keep up the good work. my confidence went through the roof and now my favorite vegetable.
One of your best videos so far. Suggestion, bake them in the over with the skin on and bake it by steps, when done, pass them under cold water quickly and the skin comes right off
never commented but been watching this dude for a long time he makes me think of my old since teacher Mr Sipple and ya follow him in his directions ta get some sweet stuff
Good topic. I have a surplus of breadfruit, I Intend to mix sweet potato and breadfruit using what you have explained and attempt a mash, don't have a still so I will have to make one though Great info
George doesn't seem like much of a drinker which I totally get. I barely drink once a year and I LOVE fermenting and distilling. Just got started and made my first run yesterday. I scorched it by getting small particulates in my wash. My thump keg also failed and my make shift rod fell off mid run. Got one quart of 100 proof and half a cloudy quart of 50 proof 😂😂😂 it's definitely a learning experience.
Love your videos, George! I’ve been brewing for a couple years now. And it’s only recently I’ve decided to finally step into distilling. You definitely deserve more likes and subs! I may have to give this sweet potato vodka a try. You’re very informative.
If you want to speed up the cutting up process I generally use a garden mulcher that I keep for apples pears and sweet potatoes. but a food processor will work for small batches.
I wish my science teacher was as enthusiastic as you about his subject I would have passed O level chemistry if so brilliant content keep up the very good work best wishes
I know this adds a step in the beginning but removes one later down the line ,minus the barley. I am diabetic and trying things I can still eat without getting the bad (unhealthy for diabetics) out of it. Been experimenting with potatoes by juicing them in a juicer to remove the starch (which turns to sugar in the body) to make eating potatoes not so negative. You can fry the mash into potato pancakes which still taste like potato's but wanted to come up with something to do with the juice and making potato vodka sounds like a idea. I figure a juicer removes about 95-98% of the starch/juice from the potato's. Have you ever thought about trying this when making potato vodka and do you think it would change the taste a lot good or bad? I suppose if would work also with sweet potato's too.
If you intend to do this regularly, I would suggest investing in a commercial French Fry Cutter. Use the larger cutting grid and cut them into about 1-1/2” to 2” long pieces, since sweet potatoes are harder than white potatoes. But you will get consistent pieces for cooking with a lot less stress on the wrist!
I just wanted to ask almost the same thing. 1. Can I substitute malt with sweet potato ( which is a lot cheaper). 2. If I have less enzyme can I incubate the substrate ( starch in our case) longer with the enzymes? Maybe an overnight/12 hours or full day, incubation in 65 Celsius ( in an oven for instance) to get the same effect?
Most likely not... As he stated, the amylase will be used up during conversion and will go to the starches in the mash already. Adding more will probably not give you a net gain on fermentable sugars. It would be better at that point to convert the grain starches along with the potatoes if your mixing them up. Which is weird, but have fun.
@@jacobharnoy6396 replacing malt with an enzyme rich sub like sweet potatoes might be an option, but I've never seen or heard of it. Which screams for an experiment. I'm sure someone has done it. Buy I don't think it would be efficient. Malt is jam-packed.
Curse you George! You got me even curiouser! I looked up the diastatic power of these things and it is huge. Any thoughts on making a whiskey by using this do convert your grains? #happydistilling
Very informative, as usual. But makes my head hurt, as usual. Maybe if I keep watching, and rewatching some videos, one day it'll be like "click" it all makes sense now! I'll keep trying, you just keep posting these GREAT videos please! Thanks for sharing all of your knowledge so selflessly. Jayman...
great video George . I didn't have collander to put the sweet potatoes into , after the heating process I mashed the sweet potato wit a stick blender instead of just crushing them now slurry so thick can't even measure the specific gravity , on to the 2nd half of making the mash thought I would add the water from the mash in separately , SG of the water is only 1.015 though
Thank you George. Would it be more effective to grate all those sweet potatoes? I think they may come to the desired temperatures faster as well as facilitate the pureeing process.
Happy destilling George! thanks for your Advice WITH the 551 Solution. It worked great. " Question " ever destilled fruits with Cores, like Plums for example? in the stills around here They use copperkatalysators to filter out the Hydrogen Cyanide, wich Comes from the cores. is it a theme to discuss?
Easier for us to just cut the stones out in the beginning you will get a very bitter taste if you try to ferment on the stone with peaches plums cherries and nectarines and apricots
my great~great grand parents came from County Cork to the USA in 1852. we always joked they did that cause they ran out of potatoes to make shine...lol
George I'm definitely digging the sweet potato idea. Let's say someone did not want a virgin sweet potato vodka what would you recommend for sweet potato to sugar ratio? One more question, do you think your induction cooktop burn will hold a 10 gallon pot?
hahahah, I should have known you would include the science. Thank you George. Probably no need to even read the following drivel. This is really informative! Thank you, George for taking the time to explain this. For reading I have done about nutrition all foods with carbohydrates actually, usually, contain more than one “-ose” item. Glucose and fructose are the most common. Glucose has a much less “sweet” taste than fructose. In our bodies glucose is broken down in the mouth and stomach. Fructose, on the other hand, has to be processed by the liver. My question is, in the fermentation process is either glucose or fructose a better “fermenter”? In addition, what about some of the others? Such as maltose, galactose (I think honey has a fair amount of galactose), lactose (milk is its usual source). If you could point me to a source on this I will be happy to read whatever you suggest. Thank you for sharing your genius with us!
In Japan, sweet potato vodka is called shochu. It got a bad reputation after WWII, but the modern stuff is fairly neutral and makes a good mixer for various fruit flavored cocktails known as chuhai. The sweetness of chuhai can fool you, as it did to me when a bunch of my wife's friends had me teaching them English and kept my glass filled with various chuhai flavors. Next morning, I was begging God to take me now!
I have learned so much in the past 4 days from watching your videos. I'm creating a catalog of what all I need to get and learn to get into the hobby and your channel is a one stop shop. The only thing I'm still curious on is how to create "good" water from distilled as in how much of each vitamin, mineral, and nutrient I need to add.
Don't get too hung up on water. As long as it is clean and not hardened by minerals it will work just fine. For vodkas I use distilled water since I want to eliminate as much as possible those minerals which might flavor the vodka. Remember, vodka is a neutral spirit. You can also use bottled spring water or tap water if it is fairly low on mineral content. I'd suggest tap water be aged a day or so to remove any chlorine since that is not healthy for yeast.
@@skyhookspirits Thanks. My main concern really is being able to test different theories and keep things as close to the same - also the water in our city isn't exactly excellent and has a lot of chloramine so I was going to go distilled or spring water.
@@onstr you can buy 5 gallon jugs of water at most US grocery stores, but i recently learned a brewing tip where you use campden tablets to condition water. It neutralizes chlorine and chloramines, and sanitizes your water. It cut my brew time on my last batch of beer in half using tap water. My best guess is that it neutralized the chlorine and chloramine, making my tap water more conducive to the yeast.
Nice job... over in Japan, they call this Shochu and it's actually more consumed than Sake. It's supposed to be drank while eating and tastes just as good at room temperature, cold or hot. George, try steaming them. That supposedly makes them break down faster than roasting or boiling.
@Luiz Cunha actually they do a 2-stage fermentation. First they do a Koji and steamed rice, then slowly add in mashed, steamed sweet potatoes, over a 2 week period because they need the amylase from the Koji rice to break down the sweet potatoes so they usually add each portion every 2-3 days so that they don't overload the amylase with the sweet potatoes.
respects sir i am writing these comments from Laos and i think like ths is every interesting things to do at Laos because here we can get alot of sweet potato even sugarcan also so sir please help me that any change that i can learn more about making spirits atleast i can help the local farmer to have more income
Guys, I followed George's process regarding the processing of the tatties and the water heating steps, and I could not hit 1.060-70 as he did, I got 1.030 on my hydrometer, I was dissapointed with the result. I have not added any additional sugar, I just left it be. As the mash was pretty hot in the brew bucket I left it over night to cool, lol, next morning to my astonishment it was fermenting, I added no yeast, or any nutrient, it,s now 3 days gone by and the gravity is now 1.015 and the ferment is slowing close to stopped now, I have added some wine yeast to assist. And some nutrient, ph is good so I am hoping I get a restart otherwise I will only have a brew of 3% which frankly isn't worth distilling, have any of you folks had a similar experience, ?.? If I can ferment it out it should give me 5% ABV worth firing my still for otherwise it's a massive fail.
How come you try to get around 13 percent abv or less is it for flavor my first run of corn meal mash turned out super smooth at 77 % my sugar wash turned out strong at 85%
Thank you... I had the purpose of Alpha and Beta backwards... I would heat to 160 for an hour or 2 and then rest at 130 overnight.. needless to say, I never had a full conversion
I've never cared much for Vodka, especially after 1 particular night back in 1982, lol. But made with sweet taters??? Interesting 😉 #HAPPYDISTILLING George 👍👍
@@Kihidokid I've never tasted that ? Actually, I've never heard of it, lol. I have 2 or 3 experimental runs in line already, but may have to give the sweet potatoes a try ! If it goes bad I can always do multiple runs and just make a high % neutral to use in the Apple Pie Shine I make for my wife.
Made this two weeks ago! I baked em and it worked really great without amalyse. I just over baked and alot of the sugary juiced burnt on the over base! Still have to distill em
Yeah the heat would have killed them, did you add amalyse back to it? If not you had very little sugers and a lot of starch which would not be very good, that would make for a very low ABV.
@@coreyblackburn9289 Nah, the heat initially was very very low but over a long time. it worked initially cos they were seeping and the juice was so so sweet! But - i then put em for another 30 min at 200 and that liteally caused the suagry juice to boil out. I did a crap load of research, but was over zealous!
@@coreyblackburn9289 That's exactly what I was going for! a more caramelized flavour - and that's why I also added treacle sugar, just to give it that nice finish. Also - according to the one article I read, baking actually releases the most sugar from the sweet potatoes out of the other cooking methods like boiling, steaming or microwaving.
George. Your there best. Thanks for all the info. Going to pick up some sweet potatoes Friday got to try this out thanks. By the way did you ever see my email I sent you I'm looking for a PID 120 instead of 240. The 240 PID you built me is working perfectly I was just wondering if you do one in 120
they arn't high sugar. Make a tomato sauce out of good tomatoes. Sucrose is 50p a kilo and is 100% sucrose. Good tomatoes are £6 a kilo and are 3% sugar (reading my tin of tomatoes nutritional info). So you'd need 33kg of tomatoes, for a kilo of sugar, or for a 25 litre wash 198 kilos. If im out by and order of magnitude, call it 20 kilos. 20*6 is £120. So just go out and buy 2 litres of a really really good whiskey and save yourself the time.
Fun fact even though both the potato and sweet potato originated from Central and South America, they are actually not related. They come from different families, with the potato coming from the nightshade and the sweet potato from the morning glory family.
Thanks as always George. If the sweet potato amylase can handle higher temps, would it make sense to cook it in the opposite manner, start at 170 and then go to 155 and finish at 149?
So does this need pectic enzyme before pitching yeast? Do all wines, even those intended for brandy need pectic enzyme treatment? Is pectic enzyme actually breaking down sugar molecules?
just to clarify you would use an amilo-pectin to break down carbohydrates in fruit IE glucose and fructose ,to turn in to ferment-able sugars ...assuming i followed that correctly ?
In short, a pectinase is used to break down a polysaccaride which is a series of glucose, fructose chains with multiple connections. The intent is to create monosaccarides.
If I'm trying to avoid a boil and hold a constant tempurature i could bake in a steam injection or sous vide (given a large enough sous vide bath) Is the water necessary for cooking/converting or can water be added afterwards
I think this man just taught me how to make a better Sweet Potato Pie and I can't wait to try it.
Super sir. I'm so engaged with the chemistry lesson. Takes me back 35 years to college. This is my first video that I've watched that really gets down to the nuts and bolts of the hobby. I'm hooked. Great explanations.
George you are the man. I am always telling folks about raising temp slowly and holding at a cook temp for an extended period. I always knew it works, But I never did the research to find out why. But my family is from the south. weather its meat or desserts. You can't beat that down home slow cooking. Now I know why! Now I just gotta get my wife to watch this video! 😅 I have several friends that I've turned onto making wine. So I sent all of them this link. This year will be the first time I try distilling. But I've been hooked on your channel for about 3 years. I found you when I was putting together a PID for my maple syrup cooker. Thanks for all the great advise, tips and personality that goes into all you do! Happy Distilling!
Thank you George 😊 From where I come from, we grow a lot of sweet potatoes and as a Food Technology student, your videos are very informative and helpful to me.👍
George, I have the same "disease." The way I think while shopping has forever changed: "I wonder what that tastes like distilled..."
Tell me about it! My wife thinks it always so weird when we’d go into the grocery store past the produce section, and she would hear me asking myself,”I wonder what those berries, apples, etc.. would be like in a brew”
Cool, thanks for the help...I'm making my sweet potato mash tomorrow. Wish me luck!!
I started a couple of sweet potatoes that had sprouted in the fridge.
Well, they have gotten away from me and spread all over the yard.
Now I know why.
They wanted to be Vodka.
Seriously though.
Thanks George, I appreciate the education and I am having a blast.
So good to see you back, George just got my small distiller license. And around the pID I got from you. And had a pretty flawless first run may have run it a little fast. Came off the still at one eighty six plate Four inch column
My mum keeps giving me sweet potato from her garden that I never really knew what to do with. Thank you so much, God bless you.
George: "...because this thing is packed with all your B vitamins..."
Me: "...holy shizzle..."
George: "...Sweet potatoes have Alpha and Beta Amylase..."
Me: "HALELUYAAHHHHH"
Wow wow Sir, thank you v much. I have learned a lot from watching your video. Great works sir. We pray you get strength to continue doing such great works.
Gorge you surprise me, you helped me with the building of my still with the electrical components to the understanding of the mash, thank you keep on brewing.
Awesome video, been deep into brewing for a little while now, never had amylase explained so well! Thank you!!
Glad it was helpful!
I thought we needed some special mystery enzyme to break down the sugars into alcohol... you saved my sanity. We make shine (totally organic shine) so we wanted to make totally organic shine/booze with sweet potatoes. I was under the impression we needed some mystery enzyme that goes beyond what we already do for our shine.
Thanks George. Very interesting and informative. Especially the chemistry. You broke that down really simply.
Thank you for the awesome video and details of your Process.
This is great information, thanks, George. The best explanation of sugars, starches, and enzymes! I did not fall asleep, I'm going to watch this again while taking notes.
Sharing with all my friends!! Thank you!!! 🙌🏼
This is a hard choice but I'm going to say this is your best video series yet. Thank you
I certainly miss this chap, glad he hasn't taken his posts down
Amazing video! I never heard the chemistry of the sugar bonds described like this. I just bought some sweet potatoes at the market and will compare the cost per pound to malted barley. Can’t wait for the follow-up videos. Thanks George!
1st I want to say Thank You for making these videos. I've learned a lot And my 1st ever run was a success thanks you your method with cracked corn. keep up the good work. my confidence went through the roof and now my favorite vegetable.
I've been watching your vids since yesterday. You are a very intelligent man and I appreciate that you're sharing your knowledge with us. You da man.
Thankyou George. Cant wait for the other videos. Then I am definitely going to give this recipe a whirl. Cheers.
I missed this episode, George. But I sure am glad to watch it now!
One of your best videos so far.
Suggestion, bake them in the over with the skin on and bake it by steps, when done, pass them under cold water quickly and the skin comes right off
20:55 I like that :) and sweet patato vodka idea is superb. Thank you!
never commented but been watching this dude for a long time he makes me think of my old since teacher Mr Sipple and ya follow him in his directions ta get some sweet stuff
Thanks George, looking forward to the following episodes. Great topic. #happydistilling
Just watched this entire series. Great videos. If the mash was run once on a pot still would it hold more sweet potato taste?
I feel like my grade 8 science teacher taught me to make vodka. Beautiful!
Good topic.
I have a surplus of breadfruit, I Intend to mix sweet potato and breadfruit using what you have explained and attempt a mash, don't have a still so I will have to make one though
Great info
I thoroughly enjoy the science that you communicate behind the process. Thank you!
Dude you are great....sometimes is over my head.
you are a wealth of information. i am sticking around.
“A smorgasbord of fermentable products” love it🤣🤣🤣
Recently found this fellow and his is addictive. So knowledgeable!
George doesn't seem like much of a drinker which I totally get. I barely drink once a year and I LOVE fermenting and distilling. Just got started and made my first run yesterday. I scorched it by getting small particulates in my wash. My thump keg also failed and my make shift rod fell off mid run. Got one quart of 100 proof and half a cloudy quart of 50 proof 😂😂😂 it's definitely a learning experience.
Love your videos, George! I’ve been brewing for a couple years now. And it’s only recently I’ve decided to finally step into distilling. You definitely deserve more likes and subs! I may have to give this sweet potato vodka a try. You’re very informative.
Dang it, George! If anybody was going to beat me to a good idea, I'm glad it was you:-)
Hey Bearded, try peas or legumes.
How about maple or birch sap ferment.
@@chuckdontknowdoya6100 Hmmmmmmm, How about YES! Great idea chuck:-)
@@heinventer7519 I'll have to see if there is a type that has more carbs than protein. Thanks:-)
@@BeardedBored Thanks B.B. BTW even you should be able to grow sweet potatoes the hardest part is keeping them from taking over.
If you want to speed up the cutting up process I generally use a garden mulcher that I keep for apples pears and sweet potatoes. but a food processor will work for small batches.
I wish my science teacher was as enthusiastic as you about his subject I would have passed O level chemistry if so brilliant content keep up the very good work best wishes
I know this adds a step in the beginning but removes one later down the line ,minus the barley. I am diabetic and trying things I can still eat without getting the bad (unhealthy for diabetics) out of it. Been experimenting with potatoes by juicing them in a juicer to remove the starch (which turns to sugar in the body) to make eating potatoes not so negative. You can fry the mash into potato pancakes which still taste like potato's but wanted to come up with something to do with the juice and making potato vodka sounds like a idea. I figure a juicer removes about 95-98% of the starch/juice from the potato's. Have you ever thought about trying this when making potato vodka and do you think it would change the taste a lot good or bad? I suppose if would work also with sweet potato's too.
Great idea😮
If you intend to do this regularly, I would suggest investing in a commercial French Fry Cutter. Use the larger cutting grid and cut them into about 1-1/2” to 2” long pieces, since sweet potatoes are harder than white potatoes. But you will get consistent pieces for cooking with a lot less stress on the wrist!
George, do you know if the sweet potato has enough additional amylase to convert other starches such as corn?
I just wanted to ask almost the same thing.
1. Can I substitute malt with sweet potato ( which is a lot cheaper).
2. If I have less enzyme can I incubate the substrate ( starch in our case) longer with the enzymes? Maybe an overnight/12 hours or full day, incubation in 65 Celsius ( in an oven for instance) to get the same effect?
i want to know the answer to this as well...
Good question, help anyone know the answer
Most likely not... As he stated, the amylase will be used up during conversion and will go to the starches in the mash already.
Adding more will probably not give you a net gain on fermentable sugars.
It would be better at that point to convert the grain starches along with the potatoes if your mixing them up. Which is weird, but have fun.
@@jacobharnoy6396 replacing malt with an enzyme rich sub like sweet potatoes might be an option, but I've never seen or heard of it.
Which screams for an experiment.
I'm sure someone has done it.
Buy I don't think it would be efficient.
Malt is jam-packed.
Curse you George! You got me even curiouser! I looked up the diastatic power of these things and it is huge. Any thoughts on making a whiskey by using this do convert your grains? #happydistilling
I'm late, but I'm all ears! Great channel!
Very informative, as usual. But makes my head hurt, as usual. Maybe if I keep watching, and rewatching some videos, one day it'll be like "click" it all makes sense now! I'll keep trying, you just keep posting these GREAT videos please! Thanks for sharing all of your knowledge so selflessly. Jayman...
This man loves his sweet potatoes... And I absolutely love it!
Fantastic video as always George this is something I will definitely try just hope it works out as good as yours
Happy Distilling
Organic Chemistry 101 by George Duncan. I love it!
great video George . I didn't have collander to put the sweet potatoes into , after the heating process I mashed the sweet potato wit a stick blender instead of just crushing them now slurry so thick can't even measure the specific gravity , on to the 2nd half of making the mash thought I would add the water from the mash in separately , SG of the water is only 1.015 though
Thank you George. Would it be more effective to grate all those sweet potatoes? I think they may come to the desired temperatures faster as well as facilitate the pureeing process.
Happy destilling George! thanks for your Advice WITH the 551 Solution. It worked great. " Question " ever destilled fruits with Cores, like Plums for example? in the stills around here They use copperkatalysators to filter out the Hydrogen Cyanide, wich Comes from the cores. is it a theme to discuss?
Easier for us to just cut the stones out in the beginning you will get a very bitter taste if you try to ferment on the stone with peaches plums cherries and nectarines and apricots
my great~great grand parents came from County Cork to the USA in 1852. we always joked they did that cause they ran out of potatoes to make shine...lol
my family came from county Cork in the early 1700s. hey cousin!!
looking forward to this little series!
Thank you again. I have learned so much. And definitely saved $$$$ building a PID.
I love my PID built thanks to George...
George I'm definitely digging the sweet potato idea. Let's say someone did not want a virgin sweet potato vodka what would you recommend for sweet potato to sugar ratio? One more question, do you think your induction cooktop burn will hold a 10 gallon pot?
Yessss we talked about this about 3yrs ago and I now have a successful vodka brand from it #katspraddle sweet potato vodka. Thanks so much George!!!
That is awesome!
Ive been waiting for this video! Thanks George. You are awesome!
hahahah, I should have known you would include the science. Thank you George. Probably no need to even read the following drivel. This is really informative! Thank you, George for taking the time to explain this. For reading I have done about nutrition all foods with carbohydrates actually, usually, contain more than one “-ose” item. Glucose and fructose are the most common. Glucose has a much less “sweet” taste than fructose. In our bodies glucose is broken down in the mouth and stomach. Fructose, on the other hand, has to be processed by the liver. My question is, in the fermentation process is either glucose or fructose a better “fermenter”? In addition, what about some of the others? Such as maltose, galactose (I think honey has a fair amount of galactose), lactose (milk is its usual source). If you could point me to a source on this I will be happy to read whatever you suggest. Thank you for sharing your genius with us!
I like how you use the White Board and show molecules, like Science Teacher
amazing george! THANKS FOR EVERYTHING! i sent you an email about a PID a couple days ago. have you received it ?
In Japan, sweet potato vodka is called shochu. It got a bad reputation after WWII, but the modern stuff is fairly neutral and makes a good mixer for various fruit flavored cocktails known as chuhai. The sweetness of chuhai can fool you, as it did to me when a bunch of my wife's friends had me teaching them English and kept my glass filled with various chuhai flavors. Next morning, I was begging God to take me now!
I have learned so much in the past 4 days from watching your videos. I'm creating a catalog of what all I need to get and learn to get into the hobby and your channel is a one stop shop. The only thing I'm still curious on is how to create "good" water from distilled as in how much of each vitamin, mineral, and nutrient I need to add.
Don't get too hung up on water. As long as it is clean and not hardened by minerals it will work just fine. For vodkas I use distilled water since I want to eliminate as much as possible those minerals which might flavor the vodka. Remember, vodka is a neutral spirit. You can also use bottled spring water or tap water if it is fairly low on mineral content. I'd suggest tap water be aged a day or so to remove any chlorine since that is not healthy for yeast.
@@skyhookspirits Thanks. My main concern really is being able to test different theories and keep things as close to the same - also the water in our city isn't exactly excellent and has a lot of chloramine so I was going to go distilled or spring water.
@@onstr you can buy 5 gallon jugs of water at most US grocery stores, but i recently learned a brewing tip where you use campden tablets to condition water. It neutralizes chlorine and chloramines, and sanitizes your water. It cut my brew time on my last batch of beer in half using tap water. My best guess is that it neutralized the chlorine and chloramine, making my tap water more conducive to the yeast.
@@trumanjgriffin That's good to hear, I'll give that a whirl. Thanks!
George u are the man!!!@ been researching this for thr past 2 weeks!
Thanks for everything
Much more to come
Nice job... over in Japan, they call this Shochu and it's actually more consumed than Sake. It's supposed to be drank while eating and tastes just as good at room temperature, cold or hot.
George, try steaming them. That supposedly makes them break down faster than roasting or boiling.
Not sure if that would activate the alpha and beta amylase the same way though would it? And wouldn't wash the starch/sugars out. Just my ponderings.
@Luiz Cunha actually they do a 2-stage fermentation. First they do a Koji and steamed rice, then slowly add in mashed, steamed sweet potatoes, over a 2 week period because they need the amylase from the Koji rice to break down the sweet potatoes so they usually add each portion every 2-3 days so that they don't overload the amylase with the sweet potatoes.
respects sir i am writing these comments from Laos and i think like ths is every interesting things to do at Laos because here we can get alot of sweet potato even sugarcan also so sir please help me that any change that i can learn more about making spirits atleast i can help the local farmer to have more income
Nice work sir.
Darn it George, what a coincidence, I just did sweet potato vodka and I used an Amylase, I didn't know sweet potatoes had them in there already.
What about Sugar Beets can you use. Them to make spirits ?
Love the vid!
Yes. You could have cut it up differently by saving some time using a french fry cutter. Harbor Freight sells French Fry cutters.
Guys, I followed George's process regarding the processing of the tatties and the water heating steps, and I could not hit 1.060-70 as he did, I got 1.030 on my hydrometer, I was dissapointed with the result.
I have not added any additional sugar, I just left it be.
As the mash was pretty hot in the brew bucket I left it over night to cool, lol, next morning to my astonishment it was fermenting, I added no yeast, or any nutrient, it,s now 3 days gone by and the gravity is now 1.015 and the ferment is slowing close to stopped now, I have added some wine yeast to assist.
And some nutrient, ph is good so I am hoping I get a restart otherwise I will only have a brew of 3% which frankly isn't worth distilling, have any of you folks had a similar experience, ?.?
If I can ferment it out it should give me 5% ABV worth firing my still for otherwise it's a massive fail.
does amylase get "used up"? or is it just a matter of time? -how long it takes,i mean.
im so impressed what george knows!
How come you try to get around 13 percent abv or less is it for flavor my first run of corn meal mash turned out super smooth at 77 % my sugar wash turned out strong at 85%
Thank you... I had the purpose of Alpha and Beta backwards... I would heat to 160 for an hour or 2 and then rest at 130 overnight.. needless to say, I never had a full conversion
I use a commercial juicer to prepare my mash. then I empty the juice and pulp into my masher. works great.
Hi George great video. have you ever made Popcorn Suttons recipe
I've never cared much for Vodka, especially after 1 particular night back in 1982, lol. But made with sweet taters??? Interesting 😉
#HAPPYDISTILLING George 👍👍
Extremely similar to shochu
@@Kihidokid I've never tasted that ? Actually, I've never heard of it, lol. I have 2 or 3 experimental runs in line already, but may have to give the sweet potatoes a try ! If it goes bad I can always do multiple runs and just make a high % neutral to use in the Apple Pie Shine I make for my wife.
Would shredding create a more fuller fermentation or is that a moot point?
Very interesting for certain. Another great, information filled video. What's the best yeast for this?
EC 1118 or distillers active dry yeast. Either one
Made this two weeks ago! I baked em and it worked really great without amalyse. I just over baked and alot of the sugary juiced burnt on the over base! Still have to distill em
Yeah the heat would have killed them, did you add amalyse back to it? If not you had very little sugers and a lot of starch which would not be very good, that would make for a very low ABV.
But barking them is an interesting idea that seems like it would have a more caramelized flavor!!..⚗🍻
@@coreyblackburn9289 Nah, the heat initially was very very low but over a long time. it worked initially cos they were seeping and the juice was so so sweet! But - i then put em for another 30 min at 200 and that liteally caused the suagry juice to boil out. I did a crap load of research, but was over zealous!
@@coreyblackburn9289 That's exactly what I was going for! a more caramelized flavour - and that's why I also added treacle sugar, just to give it that nice finish. Also - according to the one article I read, baking actually releases the most sugar from the sweet potatoes out of the other cooking methods like boiling, steaming or microwaving.
How long does it take potato pulp to fermente
George. Your there best. Thanks for all the info. Going to pick up some sweet potatoes Friday got to try this out thanks. By the way did you ever see my email I sent you I'm looking for a PID 120 instead of 240. The 240 PID you built me is working perfectly I was just wondering if you do one in 120
Did not see that email.
Wondering what high-sugar veggies like carrots, tomatoes, and snap peas would be like.
I can see the argument now.
Wife: "I said you could make V8..."
Me: distilling alcohol from vegetables "Technically..."
I've definitely seen vodka made from tomatoes
they arn't high sugar. Make a tomato sauce out of good tomatoes.
Sucrose is 50p a kilo and is 100% sucrose.
Good tomatoes are £6 a kilo and are 3% sugar (reading my tin of tomatoes nutritional info).
So you'd need 33kg of tomatoes, for a kilo of sugar, or for a 25 litre wash 198 kilos.
If im out by and order of magnitude, call it 20 kilos.
20*6 is £120. So just go out and buy 2 litres of a really really good whiskey and save yourself the time.
Fun fact even though both the potato and sweet potato originated from Central and South America, they are actually not related. They come from different families, with the potato coming from the nightshade and the sweet potato from the morning glory family.
I'm looking to do a pumpkin pie run
I haven't come up with a recipe to fermt pumpkin pie filling or just caned pumpkin. Any advice??
So after you use the amolise and it becomes sugars. Could you invert the sugars after to make the yeast happier?
Thanks as always George. If the sweet potato amylase can handle higher temps, would it make sense to cook it in the opposite manner, start at 170 and then go to 155 and finish at 149?
No!.
ummm.....?🙄
can i make a carrot whisky? i have a lot of leftover dry carrots after juicing.
I'm wondering if the sweet potatoes have enough amylase to break down the starches in quick oats? could you mash them in together?
The preferred spirit in Korea is soju ... sweet potato vodka
So does this need pectic enzyme before pitching yeast? Do all wines, even those intended for brandy need pectic enzyme treatment? Is pectic enzyme actually breaking down sugar molecules?
just to clarify you would use an amilo-pectin to break down carbohydrates in fruit IE glucose and fructose ,to turn in to ferment-able sugars ...assuming i followed that correctly ?
In short, a pectinase is used to break down a polysaccaride which is a series of glucose, fructose chains with multiple connections. The intent is to create monosaccarides.
If I'm trying to avoid a boil and hold a constant tempurature i could bake in a steam injection or sous vide (given a large enough sous vide bath)
Is the water necessary for cooking/converting or can water be added afterwards
your the best.
you are the man
A french fry press would be great for cutting them up .
Salad shooter!
Can’t wait for Part 2
I took organic chemistry in college. Hated it there too...