This is what I did for my 5 gal wash of SF likker. I used an all grain Corn Oats and Barley with molasses feed.. the cheap stuff.

First add 4 inches of feed to your 5 gal bucket. After you get that transfer it to a pot on the stove ready to cook. Add water to the feed.. depending on the pot size I just filled mine up to where it covered all the feed and a few inches over. I only had a 12qt pot so I couldn't add as much water as I really wanted but it still works. Now after you add the water get your thermometer and heat it to 150 F. Once at 150 kill the heat or turn it way down and keep it at 145-150 F for atleast an hour. I did mine for 90min. Don't heat it much over 150 and keep it stirred good the whole time. Atleast every 10-15 min or so or else it will burn.

After you get it cooked for the hour or so it's time to transfer to your fermenter. What I did was get a strainer and poured it through that. Now the first few strainer fulls I poured a bit of hot water over it and pressed them out to get all the sugars. I then trashed it. The second half of the grain I just added right in the fermenter so I know I'll get a good flavor and I know I'm not wasting any sugars in it.

Now add 5-7 lbs of sugar.. I added 7 as I like my SG to be at 1.080 for all my washes. After dissolving all your sugar top your fermenter off with cold water. Once full take out a 3-5 cups or anywhere around there and cool down to under 95 F and add 2 packets of bakers yeast. While your yeast takes off and re-hydrates in the small container keep stirring to your main wash to aerate it good and try to cool it down. After it all cools in an hour or two pitch your yeast and lock it down. I'm looking for the wash to take about 7-10 days to finish.

Here are some notes from John Palmers book.
It has me thinking that you may have needed nitrient and energizer


Yeast cannot live on sugar alone. Yeast also need nitrogen, and amino and fatty acids to enable them to live and grow. The primary source for these building blocks is the free amino nitrogen (FAN) and lipids from the malted barley. Refined sugars like table sugar, corn sugar or candy sugar do not contain any of these nutrients. And, it is common for extracts (especially kit extracts targeted toward a particular style) to be thinned with refined sugars to lighten the color or reduce the cost of production. An all-malt beer has all the nutrition that the yeast will need for a good fermentation, but all-extract beers may not have sufficient FAN to promote adequate growth. Since malt extract is commonly used for yeast starters, it is always a good idea to add some yeast nutrients to ensure good yeast growth.

You know I thought it was converting starches to sugars so I gave it some more reading. After a few google searches I guess without any malted grain I was doing nothing but adding flavor to the water so your dumping boiling water and letting sit will do the same thing.

And scotty ya I added the sugar because had a very very low SG without. The molasses in the grain I think were the only sugars correct?

Hi Mkjt88, If you add about a pound to a pound and a half of malted barley to your next mash it will help to convert the starches in the SF to sugars and do what you thought you were doing when you mashed this batch. It's not necessary to use all malted grains but you do need some otherwise you don't get the conversion your looking for.
Some folks, like me, when useing un malted grains with added malted grains will mash for 3 hours or more in order to convert as much of the unmalted starches into sugars as possible. Heat your pot up like you did and turn the fire off. Then put a lid on it. If your pot don't have a lid use a cutting board. When you go to stir check the temp and keep it within your range. The more malted grain you use the less time needed to mash, though longer mashes are useful to conversion. Whisky and Bourbons are made with All Grains, AG, no sugar, and run in a pot still.
Other than that your on the right track.

Have Fun.

Running my first batch of this wash now. Heads just finished up and got my first taste of it.. My verdict.. Pretty good. Nothing spectacular over the cornmeal washes but slightly different for the better. Also the grains are 200% easier to strain and dispose of rather than that nasty cornmeal.. Man it's a mess. I'll keep posted after it airs out and give final results. Man I love this hobby!

Well the other day I finished up my third batch of this stuff. The first two I did by keeping the feed at 140-160 and cook for about 30 min to an hour. The last one I did I just boiled water and stirred it in till it cooled. Everything else was the same. My latest batch with the boil is average 5% weaker and ever slightest different smell and taste. I also got jut under a 1/3 less product. I dunno if it's something different or just that batch wasn't as good but I'm sticking with the slower cooler approach on cooking my feed.


Now what I found out that I love is blending some different aging techniques. I've always used cherry wood for aging and recently got some white oak. I like the oak more but kinda miss the cherry so I mixed. I aged them seperately for about a week.. Give or take a day or two until I liked them. Then I mix 2/3 oak and 1/3 cherry and damn it's some of the smoothest 120 proof I've ever tasted. It's got a great after taste to it and suggest someone giving it a shot. I've had a buddy tell me this actually tastes like whiskey.. So I succeeded there lol. let me know what you think.

I use fleishmans.. Sp?... Which is bread yeast That you can buy in packets at the grocery store. Ive never used any other kind so can't comment on them.

If you are usin g 5-7 lbs. of sugar with this recept , what kind of yeld would you get ?