Made an adapter to use a glass cup to keep the fruit flys out of the parrot, but it fogs up even though the offtake is cold...
Does anyone know how to prevent the condensation?
Also so far it works like a charm in keeping the fruit flys away from the offtake.
About 3 months ago I started an experiment where I tried to replicate the traditional baiju fermentation and production process, and one ended up working, the other got very infected and ultimately pitched instead of trying to run it.
Took an airstill, 5 cups of water, a crudely made stainless steel mesh basket (to separate the grain from the heating element) 1,000g of the fermented grain.
I ended up collecting 350 ml of ~23% , it started coming off at about 50% and I stopped once it was coming off at 10%.
I tasted a few drops (and spit it out due to how I steamed the grains) and it didn't taste as bad as the actual baiju iv tried in the past...
Ultimately id count this as a success but so far only on a small scale and if anyone wanted to scale it up they would have to figure out how to steam strip a large amount of grain efficiently, not sure how to do it with my equipment at any rate...
What I learned was that AYLY works just fine for a solid state fermentation yeast/enzyme additive. The other one I tried was the rice wine yeast balls you can get at any Asian market, those initial didn't seem to be doing anything (by smell, where the AYLY was smelling very boozie at the same time) uncovering the fermenter and covering with cheese cloth seemed to help l... Untill it got infected...
It took me 3 months to run the project not because it took that long to ferment but because I didn't have time/ forgot about it for a while.
If anyone wants to try this out in I would highly recommend as it's very interesting and produces a very interesting flavor profile. Also I'd be very interested in anyone else's process and/ or results.
An auto feeding steam generator from a sixtel keg and some 3" ss tubing and sight glass.
It uses a 3 prong level sensor and a controller that has a dry switch to control a solenoid operated valve to re-fill the system.
5500w element in the keg from the bottom facing up heats the system (controlled by a home made power controller).
Pressure is equalized between the fill chamber (on the right) and the boiler (on the left). The feed tube is a 1/2" copper tube with 2" triclamp fittings attaching it to the boiler and fill chamber.
The ball valves were there just for the drop test, heald steady at 10psi for 30 minutes so it's good to go.
The system has pressure and temperature dial, as well as a pressure relief and a vacuum relief.
To get the steam into the system there is a 1/4" ss educator (thanks whoever recommended them). So far with just water it promotes some good circulation. It is however loud as all hell when it heats up, however once it gets warm (and the steam bubbles are not collapsing in the venturie nozzle but collapsing outside of the nozzle) it's way way way quieter.
Future plan is to insulate the boiler and tubing that delivers the steam to the boiler.
Unrelated: people ask why I put sight glasses in the boiler, and to be able to see the educator is one example of why I did it, cus it's cool.
This is all in preparation for a project/ experiment on doing a wester style Baijiu (with the real focus on solid state fermentation).
Took a keg (dented and battered) sliced it into 2-3" thick bands. Used bandit-straps and a spot welder to attach stainless steel mesh to the bands. Used wood blocks as spacers and a trashcan (new) as a vessel to contain the steam
The idea was to re-created/ upscale a normal stove top steaming basket. I tried to steam the grain I was going to use for solid state fermentation however I had to much grain and could not quickly cook it all so I created a much larger version...
Planned recipe:
4 cups of rice
4 cups cracked corn
2 cups barley
2 cups wheat
All steamed, then cooled.
One batch inoculated with AYLY, and the second with Chinese 'rice wine balls'.
Next step is to figure out how to distill the solid ferment...
Based on u/aralseapiracys recent posts about Chinese village distilling and related practice of solid state fermentation in baijiu production.
Has anyone done this themselves? Specifically the solid state fermentation and follow on distillation?
I'd love to try this and looking for any tips on ensuring success from a westerner trying this process for the first time.
Probably going to shoot for a corn/ rice/ barley/ oats recipe for a western twist.
Picture related: is this the right yeast/ bacteria starter to use for solid state fermentation
Doing an all rice batch but found some black spots that I don't know what they are. I've done an all rice before and don't remember seeing this before...
It's 50lb of calirosa rice, AYLY, some old DADY, and I used enzymes, (yes redundant, I know).
Last time it tasted great, this time so far it smells great and kinda like vanilla.
The black spots showed up on the second day... Not sure where they came from... Anyone else see these before or know what they are?