If that yeast is anything like Kveik yeast, used by brewers, you should really use about double the nutrients you normally would. Whether that is kale or fermaid, the fast growth and fermentation tends to require more nutrients than a typical fermentation to keep the yeast happy.
This is my go-to. I use it all the time. Absolutely NO additives. Kale has enough inbuilt go ability to make them superfluous. I boil it, just use the water from the boil, add sugar and supermarket Edmonds or Tasti yeast - whatever's in stock. Gives me a clean and neutral spirit. Oh, and the kale is the bagged kale leaf, think it comes in about 120g bags, sufficient for two 20litre buckets. Ferments out to just under 11%, pot strip, reflux spirit run, breaks down to almost 7litres 40% spirit. What's not to like? And something labelled Googs Goo was the starting point.
As a bit of a keen gardener I suspect there is a lot of difference in the content of nitrogen and phosphorus in the kale, based on the fertiliser it had access to when growing. Any brassica is a heavy feeder so I think if you used a lot of chicken poop as fertiliser that should help to make sure the kale had lots of yeast nutrients.
I use those 5kg bags of Pam's sugar as well. The bag has a strip of white paper tape running along under the stitching on one side. Pull that tape from one side and the whole top and stitching comes off cleanly. Great video as always - so reassuring to see other people have issues with things not quite going according to plan. AND then you sorted it anyway! Brilliant! 🥰
From my limited experience I think that the Kale doesn’t quite have a high enough quantity of the correct nutrients. So in order for the wash to ferment happily you need to over pitch the yeast. That’s why when people come out with ‘I use 90g bakers yeast and it works fine’. Then that’s the reason….over pitching, but it works. And when it does, it really does work and it’s really worth it! Thanks yet again for the shout out Jesse 😎😎 Although I wish I could make great vids like you do. And, as usual, I really enjoyed this one.
New subscriber here, just bought my first still and now binge watching all your vids as required study before I start my first spirit run. I don't think I will start with the kale vodka, but as an added thought ... the final sugar content of kale develops when the kale is exposed to a couple of night frosts. A little freeze over guarantees the best tasting kale (highest sugar content). I'm not sure if that was a factor in this particular run. I intent, after doing a couple of idiot proof beginner runs, trying this recipe with kale grown from my own garden that has been exposed to night frost. Thank you for your well researched and entertaining video's. Sharing your knowledge from experience is priceless.
My first thought re it stalling was that the ph had crashed… which in my experience, sugar washes are prone to do. Perhaps having some shells in there from the start would have buffered the ph, and therefore helped prevent it stalling? Just a thought. Thanks for the video. Your channel is the reason I got into the craft. Cheers from Christchurch, NZ.
Yeah I agree , there are a fair few variables that will effect the fermentation , coming from a beer background I can say that pitching the same yeast in the same wort won't always have the same fermentation .
It’s been awhile since I’ve done a Kale wash, I currently have one running now and its slowed down a lot and basically done the same as Jesse’s wash. I’ve found that the PH has dropped to 3 which is too low, going back through my notes I realised that ‘I forgot to add shell grit like I had done in the past
*So your sugar and those sewn closures... turn the front label towards you then find the short sewn side... not the long string excess side... pull it front and back at the same time then the sewn seam will separate and easy open every time... They are the same on bags of charcoal... ask me how I know... Nope the channel name is not a hint.*
I'm only suggesting try a 50/50 ratio of kale and spinach as they are both superfoods but they both have different properties and also try blending some alfalfa sprouts into it as they have alot of enzymes the yeast just might be looking for in the fermentation process 😁👍 thanks for reading
The Kale wash is pretty simple and (for me) reliable. My "recipe" is a little different, but it has worked every time. 90g kale, pureed, 4.5 kilo sugar, two SuperB complex vitamins, and water to make 23 liters. Then, 50g bakers yeast, pitched into about a pint of wash, dispersed with a stick blender, and then added to the wash. I aerate for about three hours, and by the end of that time you can see the ferment taking off. Although the initial ferment is vigerous, I've never had it ferment out dry in less than 10 days (in a room that holds an ambient temperature of about 30C). The product is amazingly clean, enough so that it is a decent sipping vodka on the rocks, and it does make great gin.
Mine is very simple and cheap and works every time. For 25L: 4KG of sugar inverted with 30g of bread yeast to kill them. 250ml of lemon juice. Over kill but never had an issue and the juice is sold as that size. 500g of Passata. 70g of bread yeast to pitch.
@@AntoniNorman Nice man. I was just gonna ask Jesse about invert sugar for this wash. I think he likes sugar wash.🤭 The" bite back", I call it. I personally don't mind a little of it. It reminds me that I'm not drinking beer or wine🍻
I just found this channel maybe a month ago... been binging so much lately that today my girlfriend surprised me with a still for my birthday!!! I'm so excited to get started
Thanks for the upload. I thought this was another meme spirit video... I love content like this and even better for having fermentation issues along the way. Much appreciated! PS I like your meme spirit content too
Tried this and LOVE it! I'm new to distilling, so have multiple demijohns going on with all kinds of experiments. My kale experiment was vodka yeast vs. bread yeast. The vodka yeast fermented to 998 4 days before the brewer's yeast. To start the bread yeast was much more aggressive, and puked into the airlock. I didn't have any problem with stalling (not true for other washes). I really like the "clean" taste of the distillate. My favourite thus far.
I moved to kale washes about a year ago and I have never been disappointed with the taste. I did have issues with the pulp though and I strain it and it made a difference for me. Usually takes me around 12 days to ferment but is worth it. I also add spinach just because and I am always happy with result. I prefer it to TP wash any day.
I think the kale would need to be broken down finer than it was. Also there could have been herbicide/pesticide/fertilizer/preservative on the kale leaves that affected the initial fermentation. Also possible that it needed some time in the mash to break down.
Amazing Jesse still watching your videos all over here in the UK . I love what you do . I'll have to dig my still outy garage and give this one a go .love your simple washes and meme stuff m I have a t500 would like to see more of that . 👍
I have a dehydrator and recently made a jar of "green powder" that's dried and powdered kale, spinach, collard greens and mustard greens. I bet a spoonful of that added to a wash would help out those yeastie boys
Hello, love the channel bud, could you make punga in to anything, the nice green fresh shoots, peel the skin and the inside is like cucumber, would be a unique New Zealand brew, think of me when it takes off 😄
Im not a destiller but I grow plants If you want to add the most nutrient dence stuff for the yeast that is organic and natural you could maybe also use *stinging nettles* (the plant is an "accumulator" of nutrients or so Ive heard, and it checks out, if you put a bagfull of shreded nettles together if will imediatly start heating up due to composting process) *rhubarb* (same as nettles but perhaps better tasting, idk tho bc leaves are toxic, only the stalks are eddible) *seaweed* (idk about the specific species but food safe algae def could be an option, the taste well speaks for itself but anything growing in the ocean will have high amount of micronutrients) well also any classic stuff like grains etc are seeds so they have pretty much all the nutrients lol
also perhaps you could use beans, sounds a bit cursed but beans have very high nitrogen and protein amount as the plant is a legume (it has bacteria in the roots that fix atmospheric nitrogen) honestly, Ive never seen alcohol from fermented beans but it sounds like a cool idea, perhaps some asian cultures have done that, I dont know tho
These days I don't mess around. For a 25l 14% sugar wash if you just use half a pack of turbo yeast, as it slows the initial ferment reducing the exothermic effect as apposed to a full pack (and halves the price). Just manage the temp and keep it below 27c, the result is so clean there's no reason to do it another way.
Im in NZ and ive done a few kale washes and they have worked out fine, ive never boiled the kale though, just blended it up and ive only used bread yeast. Very clean spirit i thought.
I boil it, sieve it and then sieve it. Rehydrate 1/2 cup Bakels bread yeast for an 18l wash. Couple of oyster shells. Ferment at 35c and it finishes at .990 within a week, more like 3/4 days but I leave it to drop clear
Stalled fermentation.... Did you wash/ rinse your kale thoroughly? Could there been chemicals on the kale from the grower? Finally a use for kale, rather than a garnish.
Great video mate. Kale is in the brassica family, like collards, so it's related to cabbage, broccoli, and brussels sprouts. It's not related to spinach, which is in the beet family.
I only do Kale Washes these days. The stall on Day 2 or 3 (for me) is always PH driven, it normally crashes to 2.9/3.1 PH, bring back up to 5.2PH and boom no issues from then on. Have been to the beach to collect a load of clean sea shells to place in a sock for my next kale wash (will buffer the PH crash and only dissolve if the acidity drives it). I find a kale wash takes longer to ferment out and I do leave it for a long while before running and it's 100% clear (like water) when I run it (8 weeks+ normally). Best wash there is. I have a 18% abv 200l wash sitting there for when I am ready to run it currently, been there for 9 weeks so far. I strip then spirit run with 6 plates and packed column. Cleanest spirit you'll get and then I make Georges Gin (I miss George)!
Kale washes are usually done in conjuction with bread yeast to make a cheap neutral. Your stalled wash most likely from a Ph crash which is common in sugar washes. Bump up the Ph when it stalls or buffer your wash with seashells from the start.
@@TimFoord Yes. Seashells will do or even eggshells. Any form of Calcium Carbonate will do. If using sea or eggshells, just ensure they are clean and sterile. Some boil in water for a while. Personally I put them in a hot oven (180c) for 15-20mins.
First, use home grown or organic kale as hydroponically has not a lot of goodness which looks like jessie used.. .. second, dont piss about with it, either blend it with a little water or boil it for no more than ten mins and use the juice wringing out the kale and plain bakers yeast which I think is better, 100g per 25L wash.. Never had an issue and yes it can take 10 days to ferment but just let it go, the cleanest wash ive tried apart from a DAP sugar wash
Know it isn't Summer for you but for one half of us it is and we are having heatwaves. Brewing in these temps are a nightmare. Tried everything including the wet t-shirt trick to wrap the fermenter. Might have to start looking at hi-temp tolerant yeast.
You should try using sucanat sugar its got alot of trace minerals in it. Or try using coconut sugar which tastes amazing and has lots of trace minerals.
I have made this exact wash twice with same type of kale but at 25l and had good fermentation. Took off quickly and didn't require additional nutrients. Just as clean as you eventually got. Thanks for giving it a go. I suppose some variation in kale quality is to be expected.
Unprocessed veggies are far more likely to have agricultural production residues. Maybe blanch first, cool then chop and use. The one time I tried kale, that turned out alright using inverted sugar.
I have been doing kale washes only the last few years. I’m no expert by all means but something I do is not put the pulp in I just use the boiled green water. I only had one stop after a couple of days and it was suggested that my barrel was not cleaned properly. I tipped it out cleaned everything properly and away it went
Freeze the Kale first, or in Jesse's case warm it up. AU to NZ dig (lol) . That Pom "Highly Spirited" experimental video has made my T500 spirit so much cleaner that my modified George's gin method is a hell of a lot "brighter" to taste. No more DAP for me. Thankfully the people of the world have finally found a bonafide use for this tasteless green fodder that IMHO opinion an honest vegetarian would knock back. Great Vid. Happy Days for all.
Love your videos mate! :) It was a real pleasure seeing that people all around the other side of the world is having the same problems with those stupid stringy bag opening thingys :D
I am from Georgia USA... But I've literally watched so much Aussie, New Zealander, and British you tube that i catch myself saying mate in general conversation.... Crazy world
I would rather do blueberries than a kale wash. In kale you might have a lot of enzymes you are not aware of that you are going to have to deal with. Things like that is why I am glad that there is a university county extension office that you can contact for all kinds of information about agriculture and gardening at home where i live in the United States.
Kale, when grown in warm climate, has a tendency to get mildew infection. I think your kale has been sprayed with a fungicide that just happened to be particularly temperature resistent.
Probably just didn't use enough, started on the light side then subtracted stems from that.100g fresh trimmed kale is about 2g of fermaid-k Maybe didn't get a good grind due to the amount of water used to cook it. Consider the fresh kale as 90% water so 100g is only 10g of solids(less than a tablespoon as most powders would measure), and then not all of that 10g is useful nutrient, as it is about 90% carbs(cellulose, starches, pectin, dash of sugar). So 1g pure nutrient (some of which is still not bio-availible or balanced), but fermaid is not pure elemental nutrient either due to chemistry limits and adjuncts like yeast hulls.
As a Portuguese man I have eaten quite a lot of kale in my lifetime (mostly broad leaf, not the curly stuff), and I can tell you that most of the sugars of the kale are in the stalks and not in the leafs. As a child, I used to strip the skin off the stalks and just eat them. Filled with natural sugars, fiber and water, they were, and still are delicious. Maybe something to take into consideration next time
Wild question, not related to this vid. But I've just peeled the kids paddling pool of the lawn and the grass definitely smelled like it was fermenting. CAN YOU FERMENT AND STILL GRASS CUTTINGS?
I think it was your blending method. There were lots of chunks leftover and the yeast cannot get to the nutrients held in cells because they cannot break the cell wall.Blending the kale in a blender with a smaller amount of water for a few minutes would release the nutrients better. I don't know if 5 minutes simmering is really enough to burst open all of the cell walls enough for yeast to access the nutrients.
In all the time I’ve been watching you. How have I missed you’d not done kale???? I know you’ve done the TPW and FFV and had just assumed you’d done kale and I’d missed it. Kale works for me, and is best neutral. But I don’t blitz it or anything. Simmer, then wring out the leaves, and put the juice only in wash, along with bakers yeast. Not a fast ferment. But does go dry snot 10 days ensuring constant temp. 25 L wash 100 g kale 4 kg white sugar 50 g bakers yeast 26c temp around 10 - 12 days
Love the videos, have you considered using koji to break down complex organics like kale in to simple sugars so you could, theoretically, use less to no added sugar? (not that sugar is evil or anything, just might be fun to have a PURE kale vodka hahaha)
When you do the spirit run with this wash, you need to be careful about where you make your cuts. The heads are a little harsh, but the tails... they get really wonky, very quickly, and if you make the tails cut wrong, you may need to re-run that product.
Just an idea and im by no means a scientist, but is it possible the heat of the boiling water degraded the nutrient value of the kale? What if the kale was finally ground and then pitched to heated water like making a tea. This is the first ive heard of a kale wash vodka so thanks for expanding my knowledge.
Perhaps the yeasts recommended in the kale wash recipe would have been better suited for the recipe? I'm sure ec1118 or even the larger amount of baker's yeast would have less demand for nutrients than the sponsor of the video red label angel yeast
You may find that the kale naturally produces a fungicide for self defence, from memory kale does have a slight astringency to it which suggests something like that is present. Essentially as the yeast does its thing and breaks down the cell innards of the kale it releases more and more of the fungicide into the wash, hence the stalled wash. Perhaps next time try organic kale (no added fungicides) or a different leafy vegetable (no natural fungicides) that could give you the same result with less pain.
This definitely seems like one of those times that Jesse was so busy trying to figure out whether one *could* distill alcohol from something that he forgot to ask whether or not one *should*, lol :P In all seriousness though, even though I'd never want to actually drink something distilled from kale, it's definitely still an interesting experiment!
Nah, he's just clickbaiting us with stupid crap for a long time now. Most of his drinks would be much better by simply adding the raw item into a cocktail recipe. And far less effort. For example, add breakfast cereal into a cocktail with creme and booze, instead of pretending that you're distilling cereal into booze.
Don't knock it 'til you've tried it. As long as you use the hearts with just the tiniest portions of heads and tails, you end up with a very, very neutral spirit (especially if you use a reflux still). It is a very easy way to make a decent vodka, and is an excellent base for making gin.
@@hxhdfjifzirstc894 have you actually made any of the stuff Jesse has in his video.he is all here for the crack and making the hobby fun by messing about with different stuff if u don't like it u can always unsubscribe.but I like what he does and keeps it real . At the end of the day it's about having fun in what Ur hobby is
In all fairness I would drink alcohol from anything. Whenever I travel from place to place I like to get drunk and my doctor says I'm boarder line alcoholic 😂😂
I tend to agree with your ideas of not straining the yeast. However it seems a bit extreme sometime, in an amusing way. So I have a suggestion based on that idea. I think you should get some cartoon character yeasts drawn up and a caricature of you coddling them. Tucking 15 of them in a bed as you are feeding the last one getting into bed her vitamin,DR Seuss style or something like that. That would be a great shirt.
This has sparked an idea to make a vodka using cattle winter feed crops. fodderbeet/sugarbeet for sugars and kale for nutrients. I wonder whether the kale used for animal foods would be better for this than kale purposely grown for human consumption.
Hey I dont know if it would be possible to get the good ones where you are, but try and get some good high sugar honeylocust tree pods and distill something from them!
Did kale wash few times already. All went good. But I'm always adding a tablespoon of DAP (for 25ish l wash), just to be safe than sorry. Especially because my water is rather quite neutral (nutrients) and at pH 8. Also my yeast wasn't Angel but good 'ol bakers stuff :D
@@nicktanner2198 Pretty much standard stuff as with sugarhead/birdwatcher's wash/mash except that kale addition and no tomato paste. 4,5 kg sugar(inverted), 100g kale(boiled 10min then blended & juiced - then strained and that green fluid added to fermentor), 1 vit B complex, 1tbs DAP(both those additions are probably an overkill but yeah, it works), 1 tbs lemon juice for pH drop(my water is at 7-8), topped up with water to 25l mark (all in 30°C ish), 60g baker's yeast. OG about 1.070 ish. Which with that yeast should go down to 0.998 = 10% 'ish abv wash! Ran through reflux. And as effect ~2,4l of 93% neutral product 😉. Hope this helps! 😉
My thought is a lot of people on homedistiller are using either bakers yeast(and often at very high pitch levels) or some low nitrogen requirement wine yeast. I have no idea what the angel red label yeast requires(maybe angel has data) but I'm assuming it's a mid to high nitrogen requirement yeast, so I would try some smaller batches with different levels of kale or retry this with a low N requirement yeast
A lot of people get nutrients and pure calories confused. A lot of survival channels constantly talk about how you can eat this mushroom or that berry in the wild... which is true.. but even though they might be nutritious, you can't survive on them alone. We need roughly 2000 kcal per day and berries don't do that, nor do mushrooms. And on the other hand you can't survive on pure rice and noodles either. One provides the energy, the other provides the chemical building blocks for every bit of body chemistry going on. And of course we need water since all that chemistry is going on inside of it. No water, no solution = just a bunch of rock hard chemicals getting stuck everywhere. I'm not surprised an organism like yeast works the same. Probably all life does. Energy alone isn't enough if you don't have the molecules needed to keep your system running.
How is the "red label" yeast compared to Kveik from the brewing world? By the basic description in the video it's sounds pretty similar. I personally love Kveik and use it for anything that's calls for a fast ferment and clean yeast profile.
Hear me out… what if you did one of these but with mushrooms. Maybe adding it to the whiskey and seeing if the earthy notes mesh or making a weird vodka like this. I’d love to see you make a recipe if you can’t find one!
What I got from this is, I wouldn't eat kale, why would I bother to ferment it. I get it was supposed to be a nutrient but I'd rather go in any other direction, IMO. So was that a subtle intro to the new office or am I behind the curve on it?
Cool idea man, too bad it didn't work out. Honestly for neutral, I stopped doing all that make your own nutrients, use bread yeast stuff. Dextrose, fermax, kvik lutra, ph control. More $ yes but super super clean fast 100% reliable ferments. BTW, studio upgrades? Looking good around there...
The nutrients in all vegetables vary depending on the way they are grown. High yielding commercial farms produce vegetables with lower levels of nutrients. Some scientists claim that our vegetables today generally have reduced levels of nutrients due to soil being less heathly than just a couple of generations ago because of modern agricultural practices, even if organically grown. Try some organic kale and see if there's a difference.
I am in NZ and did a Kale wash a little while ago. Had similar problems but did ferment out dry eventually. Was extremely slow but man it was clean 👌. Potentially need more Kale 🤔
Did you treat the kale to remove any pesticides from the surface of the kale? Yeast HATES pesticides and herbicides and is VERY susceptible to fungicides.
the entire video, i just kept wondering if they are actually just distilling Kale or using "kale" as a substitute for something that i wasnt quite aware of, and my mind kept drifting off to wonder what kind of "kale Wash" are we talking about
You did it... you made me watch a video about Kale
Well done giving it a go mate. I developed this wash in 2013 and first shared it on home distiller.
Any ideas about the stuck ferment?
If that yeast is anything like Kveik yeast, used by brewers, you should really use about double the nutrients you normally would. Whether that is kale or fermaid, the fast growth and fermentation tends to require more nutrients than a typical fermentation to keep the yeast happy.
Doctor: you need to incorporate more green vegetables into your diet
Me: no prob, I had a couple shots of kale this morning
🤣👌💯 made my day
This is my go-to. I use it all the time. Absolutely NO additives. Kale has enough inbuilt go ability to make them superfluous. I boil it, just use the water from the boil, add sugar and supermarket Edmonds or Tasti yeast - whatever's in stock. Gives me a clean and neutral spirit. Oh, and the kale is the bagged kale leaf, think it comes in about 120g bags, sufficient for two 20litre buckets. Ferments out to just under 11%, pot strip, reflux spirit run, breaks down to almost 7litres 40% spirit. What's not to like? And something labelled Googs Goo was the starting point.
As a bit of a keen gardener I suspect there is a lot of difference in the content of nitrogen and phosphorus in the kale, based on the fertiliser it had access to when growing. Any brassica is a heavy feeder so I think if you used a lot of chicken poop as fertiliser that should help to make sure the kale had lots of yeast nutrients.
Also most of the minerals is in the stems, so cutting them out might lower the nutritional levels more on a underfertilized crop.
it could be pesticides ..... if your not buying bio. but something from a super market
I use those 5kg bags of Pam's sugar as well. The bag has a strip of white paper tape running along under the stitching on one side. Pull that tape from one side and the whole top and stitching comes off cleanly.
Great video as always - so reassuring to see other people have issues with things not quite going according to plan. AND then you sorted it anyway! Brilliant! 🥰
From my limited experience I think that the Kale doesn’t quite have a high enough quantity of the correct nutrients. So in order for the wash to ferment happily you need to over pitch the yeast. That’s why when people come out with ‘I use 90g bakers yeast and it works fine’. Then that’s the reason….over pitching, but it works. And when it does, it really does work and it’s really worth it!
Thanks yet again for the shout out Jesse 😎😎 Although I wish I could make great vids like you do. And, as usual, I really enjoyed this one.
Haha and in your words, it’s exceptional..
But yeah at least 50g yeast I use for 25ltr and 100g 🥬
Mate your Vids are on their own for both content and style. Jessies got a few years on you, but yours are all class mate, I love the humour!
New subscriber here, just bought my first still and now binge watching all your vids as required study before I start my first spirit run. I don't think I will start with the kale vodka, but as an added thought ... the final sugar content of kale develops when the kale is exposed to a couple of night frosts. A little freeze over guarantees the best tasting kale (highest sugar content). I'm not sure if that was a factor in this particular run.
I intent, after doing a couple of idiot proof beginner runs, trying this recipe with kale grown from my own garden that has been exposed to night frost. Thank you for your well researched and entertaining video's. Sharing your knowledge from experience is priceless.
My first thought re it stalling was that the ph had crashed… which in my experience, sugar washes are prone to do. Perhaps having some shells in there from the start would have buffered the ph, and therefore helped prevent it stalling? Just a thought. Thanks for the video. Your channel is the reason I got into the craft. Cheers from Christchurch, NZ.
Yeah I agree , there are a fair few variables that will effect the fermentation , coming from a beer background I can say that pitching the same yeast in the same wort won't always have the same fermentation .
It’s been awhile since I’ve done a Kale wash, I currently have one running now and its slowed down a lot and basically done the same as Jesse’s wash.
I’ve found that the PH has dropped to 3 which is too low, going back through my notes I realised that ‘I forgot to add shell grit like I had done in the past
*So your sugar and those sewn closures... turn the front label towards you then find the short sewn side... not the long string excess side... pull it front and back at the same time then the sewn seam will separate and easy open every time... They are the same on bags of charcoal... ask me how I know... Nope the channel name is not a hint.*
I'm only suggesting try a 50/50 ratio of kale and spinach as they are both superfoods but they both have different properties and also try blending some alfalfa sprouts into it as they have alot of enzymes the yeast just might be looking for in the fermentation process 😁👍 thanks for reading
The Kale wash is pretty simple and (for me) reliable. My "recipe" is a little different, but it has worked every time. 90g kale, pureed, 4.5 kilo sugar, two SuperB complex vitamins, and water to make 23 liters. Then, 50g bakers yeast, pitched into about a pint of wash, dispersed with a stick blender, and then added to the wash. I aerate for about three hours, and by the end of that time you can see the ferment taking off.
Although the initial ferment is vigerous, I've never had it ferment out dry in less than 10 days (in a room that holds an ambient temperature of about 30C).
The product is amazingly clean, enough so that it is a decent sipping vodka on the rocks, and it does make great gin.
Mine is very simple and cheap and works every time.
For 25L:
4KG of sugar inverted with 30g of bread yeast to kill them.
250ml of lemon juice. Over kill but never had an issue and the juice is sold as that size.
500g of Passata.
70g of bread yeast to pitch.
@@AntoniNorman Nice man. I was just gonna ask Jesse about invert sugar for this wash. I think he likes sugar wash.🤭 The" bite back", I call it. I personally don't mind a little of it. It reminds me that I'm not drinking beer or wine🍻
Do you remove the tougher stems or blitz them in too
@@Silverstreamhomecrafts I've always removed the stems.
I just found this channel maybe a month ago... been binging so much lately that today my girlfriend surprised me with a still for my birthday!!! I'm so excited to get started
Thanks for the upload. I thought this was another meme spirit video... I love content like this and even better for having fermentation issues along the way. Much appreciated!
PS I like your meme spirit content too
Tried this and LOVE it! I'm new to distilling, so have multiple demijohns going on with all kinds of experiments. My kale experiment was vodka yeast vs. bread yeast. The vodka yeast fermented to 998 4 days before the brewer's yeast. To start the bread yeast was much more aggressive, and puked into the airlock. I didn't have any problem with stalling (not true for other washes). I really like the "clean" taste of the distillate. My favourite thus far.
I moved to kale washes about a year ago and I have never been disappointed with the taste. I did have issues with the pulp though and I strain it and it made a difference for me. Usually takes me around 12 days to ferment but is worth it. I also add spinach just because and I am always happy with result. I prefer it to TP wash any day.
Excellent way of getting veggies!
Thought that green was something else for a sec! Lol great video bro love the content! 👊
I think the kale would need to be broken down finer than it was. Also there could have been herbicide/pesticide/fertilizer/preservative on the kale leaves that affected the initial fermentation. Also possible that it needed some time in the mash to break down.
If it were something on the kale, like a preservative, then Fermaid K wouldn't fix it.
Also, freeze, defrost, blend & boil the kale - much more efficient.
I've been running a kale wash for my gin neutral for years. It's my go to.
Amazing Jesse still watching your videos all over here in the UK . I love what you do . I'll have to dig my still outy garage and give this one a go .love your simple washes and meme stuff m I have a t500 would like to see more of that . 👍
I have a dehydrator and recently made a jar of "green powder" that's dried and powdered kale, spinach, collard greens and mustard greens. I bet a spoonful of that added to a wash would help out those yeastie boys
Hello, love the channel bud, could you make punga in to anything, the nice green fresh shoots, peel the skin and the inside is like cucumber, would be a unique New Zealand brew, think of me when it takes off 😄
Im not a destiller but I grow plants
If you want to add the most nutrient dence stuff for the yeast that is organic and natural you could maybe also use
*stinging nettles*
(the plant is an "accumulator" of nutrients or so Ive heard, and it checks out, if you put a bagfull of shreded nettles together if will imediatly start heating up due to composting process)
*rhubarb*
(same as nettles but perhaps better tasting, idk tho bc leaves are toxic, only the stalks are eddible)
*seaweed*
(idk about the specific species but food safe algae def could be an option, the taste well speaks for itself but anything growing in the ocean will have high amount of micronutrients)
well also any classic stuff like grains etc are seeds so they have pretty much all the nutrients lol
the nettles are a great idea!
also perhaps you could use beans, sounds a bit cursed but beans have very high nitrogen and protein amount as the plant is a legume (it has bacteria in the roots that fix atmospheric nitrogen)
honestly, Ive never seen alcohol from fermented beans but it sounds like a cool idea, perhaps some asian cultures have done that, I dont know tho
These days I don't mess around. For a 25l 14% sugar wash if you just use half a pack of turbo yeast, as it slows the initial ferment reducing the exothermic effect as apposed to a full pack (and halves the price). Just manage the temp and keep it below 27c, the result is so clean there's no reason to do it another way.
Finally, a good use for kale.
Im in NZ and ive done a few kale washes and they have worked out fine, ive never boiled the kale though, just blended it up and ive only used bread yeast. Very clean spirit i thought.
I boil it, sieve it and then sieve it. Rehydrate 1/2 cup Bakels bread yeast for an 18l wash. Couple of oyster shells. Ferment at 35c and it finishes at .990 within a week, more like 3/4 days but I leave it to drop clear
Maybe next time use a substance that will convert starches into fermentable sugars so you can use less externally sourced sugar options.
Yes something really cheeky like avocado toast
Stalled fermentation.... Did you wash/ rinse your kale thoroughly? Could there been chemicals on the kale from the grower? Finally a use for kale, rather than a garnish.
Finally a use for kale!
Yeast nutrient is sort of expensive. Makes sense to just cut a few greens and save a few bucks.
Great video mate. Kale is in the brassica family, like collards, so it's related to cabbage, broccoli, and brussels sprouts. It's not related to spinach, which is in the beet family.
That was me just 100% saying the wrong thing haha cheers
I'm only a home brewer but aren't Brassica's antifungal and would kill the yeast?
I only do Kale Washes these days. The stall on Day 2 or 3 (for me) is always PH driven, it normally crashes to 2.9/3.1 PH, bring back up to 5.2PH and boom no issues from then on. Have been to the beach to collect a load of clean sea shells to place in a sock for my next kale wash (will buffer the PH crash and only dissolve if the acidity drives it). I find a kale wash takes longer to ferment out and I do leave it for a long while before running and it's 100% clear (like water) when I run it (8 weeks+ normally). Best wash there is. I have a 18% abv 200l wash sitting there for when I am ready to run it currently, been there for 9 weeks so far. I strip then spirit run with 6 plates and packed column. Cleanest spirit you'll get and then I make Georges Gin (I miss George)!
Kale washes are usually done in conjuction with bread yeast to make a cheap neutral. Your stalled wash most likely from a Ph crash which is common in sugar washes. Bump up the Ph when it stalls or buffer your wash with seashells from the start.
I keep reading "add Oyster shells" I live about 200 metres from the beach do you think I could just use and sea shells?
@@TimFoord Yes. Seashells will do or even eggshells. Any form of Calcium Carbonate will do. If using sea or eggshells, just ensure they are clean and sterile. Some boil in water for a while. Personally I put them in a hot oven (180c) for 15-20mins.
@@tonysmith5192 Thanks Tony. I will use egg shells and follow your lead with boiling and then oven...
First, use home grown or organic kale as hydroponically has not a lot of goodness which looks like jessie used.. .. second, dont piss about with it, either blend it with a little water or boil it for no more than ten mins and use the juice wringing out the kale and plain bakers yeast which I think is better, 100g per 25L wash.. Never had an issue and yes it can take 10 days to ferment but just let it go, the cleanest wash ive tried apart from a DAP sugar wash
Know it isn't Summer for you but for one half of us it is and we are having heatwaves. Brewing in these temps are a nightmare. Tried everything including the wet t-shirt trick to wrap the fermenter. Might have to start looking at hi-temp tolerant yeast.
Kale wash was very a popular topic on HD back about the time you started your channel.
You should try using sucanat sugar its got alot of trace minerals in it. Or try using coconut sugar which tastes amazing and has lots of trace minerals.
I have made this exact wash twice with same type of kale but at 25l and had good fermentation. Took off quickly and didn't require additional nutrients. Just as clean as you eventually got. Thanks for giving it a go. I suppose some variation in kale quality is to be expected.
I want to see Jesse take on the Discovery show master distillers. I think you would take the cake
Unprocessed veggies are far more likely to have agricultural production residues. Maybe blanch first, cool then chop and use. The one time I tried kale, that turned out alright using inverted sugar.
I have been doing kale washes only the last few years. I’m no expert by all means but something I do is not put the pulp in I just use the boiled green water. I only had one stop after a couple of days and it was suggested that my barrel was not cleaned properly. I tipped it out cleaned everything properly and away it went
Freeze the Kale first, or in Jesse's case warm it up. AU to NZ dig (lol) . That Pom "Highly Spirited" experimental video has made my T500 spirit so much cleaner that my modified George's gin method is a hell of a lot "brighter" to taste. No more DAP for me. Thankfully the people of the world have finally found a bonafide use for this tasteless green fodder that IMHO opinion an honest vegetarian would knock back. Great Vid. Happy Days for all.
Love your videos mate! :) It was a real pleasure seeing that people all around the other side of the world is having the same problems with those stupid stringy bag opening thingys :D
I am from Georgia USA... But I've literally watched so much Aussie, New Zealander, and British you tube that i catch myself saying mate in general conversation.... Crazy world
@@justinwebb8831 Haha yeah I´m from Sweden and I do the same :)
was there possibly pesticides on the kale? enough to kill the yeast?
I would rather do blueberries than a kale wash. In kale you might have a lot of enzymes you are not aware of that you are going to have to deal with.
Things like that is why I am glad that there is a university county extension office that you can contact for all kinds of information about agriculture and gardening at home where i live in the United States.
As said, use organic or home-grown kale. Intensively farmed or hydroponically grown kale often had little nutrients in it..
Kale, when grown in warm climate, has a tendency to get mildew infection. I think your kale has been sprayed with a fungicide that just happened to be particularly temperature resistent.
Probably just didn't use enough, started on the light side then subtracted stems from that.100g fresh trimmed kale is about 2g of fermaid-k
Maybe didn't get a good grind due to the amount of water used to cook it.
Consider the fresh kale as 90% water so 100g is only 10g of solids(less than a tablespoon as most powders would measure), and then not all of that 10g is useful nutrient, as it is about 90% carbs(cellulose, starches, pectin, dash of sugar). So 1g pure nutrient (some of which is still not bio-availible or balanced), but fermaid is not pure elemental nutrient either due to chemistry limits and adjuncts like yeast hulls.
I will bro. Chase that crafty
Jessy, I see your is looking better ps when I get time I am doing this one cheers mate
As a Portuguese man I have eaten quite a lot of kale in my lifetime (mostly broad leaf, not the curly stuff), and I can tell you that most of the sugars of the kale are in the stalks and not in the leafs. As a child, I used to strip the skin off the stalks and just eat them. Filled with natural sugars, fiber and water, they were, and still are delicious. Maybe something to take into consideration next time
Well he was mainly interested in the nutrients of the kale, not the sugar.
Wild question, not related to this vid. But I've just peeled the kids paddling pool of the lawn and the grass definitely smelled like it was fermenting. CAN YOU FERMENT AND STILL GRASS CUTTINGS?
There are also people that swear that a handful of raisins are "nutrients" for mead. Fermaid O / K is the way to go (if it's available to you).
In my experience maple syrup ferments out super clean as well.
I think it was your blending method. There were lots of chunks leftover and the yeast cannot get to the nutrients held in cells because they cannot break the cell wall.Blending the kale in a blender with a smaller amount of water for a few minutes would release the nutrients better. I don't know if 5 minutes simmering is really enough to burst open all of the cell walls enough for yeast to access the nutrients.
In all the time I’ve been watching you. How have I missed you’d not done kale????
I know you’ve done the TPW and FFV and had just assumed you’d done kale and I’d missed it.
Kale works for me, and is best neutral.
But I don’t blitz it or anything. Simmer, then wring out the leaves, and put the juice only in wash, along with bakers yeast. Not a fast ferment. But does go dry snot 10 days ensuring constant temp.
25 L wash 100 g kale
4 kg white sugar 50 g bakers yeast
26c temp around 10 - 12 days
Love the videos, have you considered using koji to break down complex organics like kale in to simple sugars so you could, theoretically, use less to no added sugar? (not that sugar is evil or anything, just might be fun to have a PURE kale vodka hahaha)
I’ve been wanting to do similar with Carrots, but to add just a tiny bit of flavour
Thank you
I did it with kale out of my garden and it worked fine, Using t500 it took me 3 times through for total neutral, was inedible after 2 times through.
When you do the spirit run with this wash, you need to be careful about where you make your cuts. The heads are a little harsh, but the tails... they get really wonky, very quickly, and if you make the tails cut wrong, you may need to re-run that product.
Cheers Braj!
Kale is a durable plant. It does not breakdown as easily as other plants. You will need to treat the Kale before mashing.
Just an idea and im by no means a scientist, but is it possible the heat of the boiling water degraded the nutrient value of the kale? What if the kale was finally ground and then pitched to heated water like making a tea. This is the first ive heard of a kale wash vodka so thanks for expanding my knowledge.
Perhaps the yeasts recommended in the kale wash recipe would have been better suited for the recipe? I'm sure ec1118 or even the larger amount of baker's yeast would have less demand for nutrients than the sponsor of the video red label angel yeast
Kale harvested after a frosty night (or two) has more sugars and enzymes.
You may find that the kale naturally produces a fungicide for self defence, from memory kale does have a slight astringency to it which suggests something like that is present. Essentially as the yeast does its thing and breaks down the cell innards of the kale it releases more and more of the fungicide into the wash, hence the stalled wash. Perhaps next time try organic kale (no added fungicides) or a different leafy vegetable (no natural fungicides) that could give you the same result with less pain.
This was fun 😀
This definitely seems like one of those times that Jesse was so busy trying to figure out whether one *could* distill alcohol from something that he forgot to ask whether or not one *should*, lol :P In all seriousness though, even though I'd never want to actually drink something distilled from kale, it's definitely still an interesting experiment!
Nah, he's just clickbaiting us with stupid crap for a long time now. Most of his drinks would be much better by simply adding the raw item into a cocktail recipe. And far less effort. For example, add breakfast cereal into a cocktail with creme and booze, instead of pretending that you're distilling cereal into booze.
Don't knock it 'til you've tried it. As long as you use the hearts with just the tiniest portions of heads and tails, you end up with a very, very neutral spirit (especially if you use a reflux still). It is a very easy way to make a decent vodka, and is an excellent base for making gin.
@@hxhdfjifzirstc894 have you actually made any of the stuff Jesse has in his video.he is all here for the crack and making the hobby fun by messing about with different stuff if u don't like it u can always unsubscribe.but I like what he does and keeps it real . At the end of the day it's about having fun in what Ur hobby is
In all fairness I would drink alcohol from anything. Whenever I travel from place to place I like to get drunk and my doctor says I'm boarder line alcoholic 😂😂
I tend to agree with your ideas of not straining the yeast. However it seems a bit extreme sometime, in an amusing way. So I have a suggestion based on that idea. I think you should get some cartoon character yeasts drawn up and a caricature of you coddling them. Tucking 15 of them in a bed as you are feeding the last one getting into bed her vitamin,DR Seuss style or something like that. That would be a great shirt.
The kale processing step left me wondering: I have a macerating juicer. Is there any benefit to the fiber? I tend to think not.
Can you do the same with any greens? For example, collard and turnip greens.
Cheapest easiest neutral spirit IMO, kale, sugar, water, bakers yeast and oyster shell = perfection
How well did you wash the kale prior to cooking it. Could be Pesticides
With the price of kale versus that of Fermaid-K, which do you think is the more economical approach?
This has sparked an idea to make a vodka using cattle winter feed crops. fodderbeet/sugarbeet for sugars and kale for nutrients. I wonder whether the kale used for animal foods would be better for this than kale purposely grown for human consumption.
Hey I dont know if it would be possible to get the good ones where you are, but try and get some good high sugar honeylocust tree pods and distill something from them!
Did kale wash few times already. All went good. But I'm always adding a tablespoon of DAP (for 25ish l wash), just to be safe than sorry. Especially because my water is rather quite neutral (nutrients) and at pH 8. Also my yeast wasn't Angel but good 'ol bakers stuff :D
Would you mind sharing your recipe with a beginner. I have a t500 and have been doing 25liter washes. Just curious to try new things. Cheers
@@nicktanner2198 Pretty much standard stuff as with sugarhead/birdwatcher's wash/mash except that kale addition and no tomato paste.
4,5 kg sugar(inverted), 100g kale(boiled 10min then blended & juiced - then strained and that green fluid added to fermentor), 1 vit B complex, 1tbs DAP(both those additions are probably an overkill but yeah, it works), 1 tbs lemon juice for pH drop(my water is at 7-8), topped up with water to 25l mark (all in 30°C ish), 60g baker's yeast. OG about 1.070 ish. Which with that yeast should go down to 0.998 = 10% 'ish abv wash! Ran through reflux. And as effect ~2,4l of 93% neutral product 😉. Hope this helps! 😉
My thought is a lot of people on homedistiller are using either bakers yeast(and often at very high pitch levels) or some low nitrogen requirement wine yeast. I have no idea what the angel red label yeast requires(maybe angel has data) but I'm assuming it's a mid to high nitrogen requirement yeast, so I would try some smaller batches with different levels of kale or retry this with a low N requirement yeast
When my son was a baby peas didn’t agree with him that ferment brought it back
Me before watching video: ooh, someone finally found a real use for kale
Me after watching video: so, kale is still useless, huh?
Lol 😆🤣
A lot of people get nutrients and pure calories confused. A lot of survival channels constantly talk about how you can eat this mushroom or that berry in the wild... which is true.. but even though they might be nutritious, you can't survive on them alone. We need roughly 2000 kcal per day and berries don't do that, nor do mushrooms. And on the other hand you can't survive on pure rice and noodles either. One provides the energy, the other provides the chemical building blocks for every bit of body chemistry going on. And of course we need water since all that chemistry is going on inside of it. No water, no solution = just a bunch of rock hard chemicals getting stuck everywhere.
I'm not surprised an organism like yeast works the same. Probably all life does. Energy alone isn't enough if you don't have the molecules needed to keep your system running.
How is the "red label" yeast compared to Kveik from the brewing world? By the basic description in the video it's sounds pretty similar. I personally love Kveik and use it for anything that's calls for a fast ferment and clean yeast profile.
i'd like know as well, i use a lot of kveik
Hear me out… what if you did one of these but with mushrooms. Maybe adding it to the whiskey and seeing if the earthy notes mesh or making a weird vodka like this. I’d love to see you make a recipe if you can’t find one!
Yeah, Psilocybin. There must be enough Mexican mushrooms floating about his way to see if that would work.
Not the psilocybin mushrooms🫣 like cooking mushrooms
What I got from this is, I wouldn't eat kale, why would I bother to ferment it. I get it was supposed to be a nutrient but I'd rather go in any other direction, IMO.
So was that a subtle intro to the new office or am I behind the curve on it?
Cool idea man, too bad it didn't work out. Honestly for neutral, I stopped doing all that make your own nutrients, use bread yeast stuff. Dextrose, fermax, kvik lutra, ph control. More $ yes but super super clean fast 100% reliable ferments.
BTW, studio upgrades? Looking good around there...
i made a weed leaf beer and its tasted and smelt like collard greens
Dang, the production quality skyrocketed this week. Loving it!
The nutrients in all vegetables vary depending on the way they are grown. High yielding commercial farms produce vegetables with lower levels of nutrients. Some scientists claim that our vegetables today generally have reduced levels of nutrients due to soil being less heathly than just a couple of generations ago because of modern agricultural practices, even if organically grown.
Try some organic kale and see if there's a difference.
There's a video from NileRed where he turns toilet paper into ethanol. Enzymes eat the cellulose and turn it into sugar basically.
I am in NZ and did a Kale wash a little while ago. Had similar problems but did ferment out dry eventually. Was extremely slow but man it was clean 👌. Potentially need more Kale 🤔
I did not realize today was April first.
How does that angel yeast compare to kveik?
Did you treat the kale to remove any pesticides from the surface of the kale? Yeast HATES pesticides and herbicides and is VERY susceptible to fungicides.
the entire video, i just kept wondering if they are actually just distilling Kale or using "kale" as a substitute for something that i wasnt quite aware of, and my mind kept drifting off to wonder what kind of "kale Wash" are we talking about
Maybe the kale had a fungicide applied and was still active enough to kill yeast
Short answer - yes
A friend of mine from Florida makes a whiskey using molasses horse feed…it wasn’t horrible