"This recipe is a spin on the tried and true ""Deathwish Wheat Germ"" (DWWG) recipe that appears on various forums, most notably posted HD by tater. You can find (what I believe is) the original recipe at:

http://homedistiller.org...opic.php?f=14&t=4909

The original recipe is very simple and very reliable. It has been vetted for over five years by many hobbyists and there is a wealth of information, threads, comments, and suggestions should you need any support. This spin of the original recipe is an attempt to simplify it further. I'll provide some additional posts with background information that may be of interest.

The ingredients for a 5 - 6 gallon wash are very simple:

10 lbs. sugar
12 oz. raw wheat germ
1 tsp citric acid (or about 2.5 oz. of juice from a lemon)
baker's yeast
tap water

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The process is simple: Bring about 2 gal of water to a boil then slowly stir in the wheat germ. Bring the water to a rolling boil once again, then cut back your heat to maintain a slow gentle boil for 90 minutes. Just before the 90 minutes of cooking is finished, dump the sugar into a sanitized fermenting bucket along with 1 tsp of citric acid (or about 2.5 oz. of freshly squeezed lemon juice). When the wheat germ has finished cooking, dump the contents of your pot (water and wheat germ) into your fermenting bucket and stir until all of the sugar is dissolved. Then use cold tap water to top off to around 5 - 6 gallons. Pitch about 8 tbs of baker's yeast once the temperature is below 32 C (around 90 F). Usually, the addition of the cold tap water will bring the wash temperature down low enough that you can pitch your yeast almost immediately. I just sprinkle the dry yeast evenly over the surface of the wash.

To avoid any spill over, you may want to leave the lid of your fermenting bucket loose for the first day. Once the kraussen and the foam settles you can then lock it down and just let it finish.

You can strip two or three of these washes, then do a final spirit run. When you strip, bring it down to at least 20% so you can bring more flavor forward on your spirit run (pot still). Folks have reported using this wash for a neutral, but it seems like extra effort compared to a Birdwatcher's for that purpose.

Some folks report preferring the final product white, others like it on oak. You'll have to decide for yourself. But many report a nice delicate flavor and that the wheat can in fact, be detected. My tastebuds aren't that sophisticated yet, but I do like it.

A note on the boil volume: There's nothing special about using 2 gallons of water to boil the wheat germ. You can use more, or you can use less. Personally, I use 2 gallons because that's what will comfortably fit in my small stock pot. If I were to use more boil water I would have to use my 40 qt. stockpot ... and I don't want to be bothered with cleaning the beast ... it's a PITA. If I were to use less water, I'd have to spend more time stirring to dissolve the sugar. That's all it is. One of the finge benefits of using less boil water is that I can add 3 - 4 gallons of cold tap water to top-off. Since the faucet has an aerator screen, I don't need to aerate ... it's already done for me. Also, the cold tap water brings the wash temperature down enough so I can pitch the yeast immediately after topping off. So it's all a matter of conserving effort ... it has nothing to do with getting good nutrient extraction from the wheat germ.

More to follow ...
--JB"

"The original recipe calls for a 90 minute boil. Several posters tried a shorter boil time and reported slower fermentations.

Now on to speculation and anecdotes, but they sound reasonable. The argument for the longer boil (other than the reports of slower fermentation) is that it simply takes time to extract the nutrients from the germ. When we eat germ, our bodies have all sorts of enzymes working to do this for us. Since we're just using plain old boiling water, you'll just have to give it adequate time ... and 90 minutes appears to be adequate. Think of it a bit like boiling rice or potato ... you have to give the water time to do its job.

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During the boil just be careful of boil-overs. You will get a hot break from all of the protein in the germ (it has roughly 25% protein)."

Hi JB, Thanks for this post, it's a good informative read. As to boiling it all together or separating the sugar out I've done it both ways and find no difference in the end product.

I agree with you on running it down to 20% on the first run through. It will add flavor on the spirit run. I found this out in making rum, which is what I've been concentrating on lately. My first few runs I was only stilling down to 40% and was'nt as much flavor as I wanted. SOOO I lowered my cut off point and ended up with more flavor. Not as much as I want yet so I'm modifying the still to try for that extra little bit.