Vodka from sweet potatoes?

[John Brandon]

Any experience with or views on producing vodka from sweet potatoes?

[Denver Distiller]

It'd be a interesting spirit. It's already used for fuel ethanol, so it's obviously doable.

Mashing potatoes is a pain.

[Low Vane WVa]

Any experience with or views on producing vodka from sweet potatoes?

how many sweet potatoes per 60gal barrel [ a peck or bushel]

[Jonathan Forester]

In Japan they use sweet potatoes to make one style of Shochu. Their version of spirits. So it is definitely feasible, possible, etc. Sweet potato shochu has a great musky earthy taste, that style is my favorite. Of course for vodka you will lose that.

[coop]

My only comment would be, what do you do with the left overs? Dump it on the ground? With grains we sell out spent mash back to the local farmers for feed> Coop

[Odyssey Spirits]

Perhaps it could be dried out and sold to dog food companies? Our dog loves dog food with sweet potatoes in it!

[Galapadoc]

bump

[daveflintstone]

5 hours ago, Galapadoc said:

bump

14 years later...

This must be some sort of record.

[Galapadoc]

13 hours ago, daveflintstone said:

14 years later...

This must be some sort of record.

🤣 I had no idea. I was just hoping to reignite the conversation.

[daveflintstone]

🏆

[SlickFloss]

F- - - you. Start your own thread. Ask technical questions. 

[Galapadoc]

It was less about asking questions and more about sharing experiences. A lot of sweet potato vodkas have appeared on the market in recent years. I think I've covered all the bases but I won't know if I have any questions until I start running into problems in a few months.

[Thatch]

On 10/3/2022 at 11:50 AM, Galapadoc said:

It was less about asking questions and more about sharing experiences. A lot of sweet potato vodkas have appeared on the market in recent years. I think I've covered all the bases but I won't know if I have any questions until I start running into problems in a few months.

Hey @Galapadoc, your question was a good one.  Don't worry about @daveflintstone, he's our resident troll.  I'm not sure what @SlickFloss meant, he is usually very helpful.  Don't let one troll keep you from asking questions or in this case resurrecting a 14 YO post.

[daveflintstone]

Well 🖕 M. Thatch

Learn the definitions before you go slinging your 💩

One does not bump a 14 y.o. post.

[Thatch]

53 minutes ago, daveflintstone said:

One does not bump a 14 y.o. post.

I understand what a troll is very well.  BTW who says you can bring an old topic back to life, you?

 

[daveflintstone]

BUMP is a specific use, NOT a 14 y.o. post.  One does not just bump after such an extreme interval; one can revive the discussion by adding or asking for info, as slickfloss mentioned.  "bump" in this instance is just "hey look at this 14 y.o. thread!  wowza cool and nifty doo."  So wtf, who cares?  Ask or answer or add something.  Don't just wave your arms and yell bump.  Galapadoc apparently understood when I lightheartedly pointed out the age of the thread, which he hadn't noticed.  But obviously you have a different concept of time and place, and probably length and width as well.

 

AND YES I AM THE ARBITER OF THAT RULE.  SO SUCK IT.

[SlickFloss]

So I have deleted a few vulgar responses here

i enjoy when people go through the motions. Chatting. Providing context. Asking for help. 

@galapdoc bumped a thread from 14 years ago with no context. His response to my silly response would’ve been a great bump to this thread instead of a literal “bump” to this thread. Context context context. Precision precision precision. I would love to help anyone with anything but I don’t want my time and attention to be wasted. 
 

I’ve had issues before in a similar vein here for “talking shit” to someone about how they asked for advice and never answered anyones questions for context. It was a subsequent post the person made where I said they should get a consultant. People flipped out. I was a bully. My post was deleted. Blah blah blah. Wah wah wah. But honestly can’t we all just respect each others time and effort more?
 

In real life we have “norms” of all types and some social ones in different ways dictate how we interact with each other. For instance it’s “rude” to interrupt people. It’s “rude”to ignore people. It’s “rude” to not display gratitude for assistance. It’s “rude” to communicate in any way a sense of entitlement. Similar things exist for socialization via the internet. They’re not rules per se, but they enable civil and efficient discourse and prevent a multitude of waste. It’s hygienic in a way, right? Isn’t it nicer to speak or interact with people up close whose breathe doesn’t stink? Same with someone who doesn’t interrupt you. And someone who doesn’t ignore you. Or someone who asks for help and answers any questions people trying to diagnose the issue have.

Would I ever come up to you and poke you in the ribs and say “talk about what these people talked about 14 years ago now.” 

Fucking no.  Absolutely not. I’d say “hey I’m tapping that Az on some yams and I’m wondering if anyones been able to get a lighter congener density I don’t like how this GCs out and it smells like my crotch” or “it doesn’t match my target this is what I’m doing” or “sweet potatoes too high in Iron yeast are bugging out save our ship“ or “what beer gallonage can I run these yams in my column at and how does that impact phenolic activation” or “I keep telling my yeasties ‘orange you glad I mashed that Yam you got a pretty mouth’ but they won’t shit the likker out help please”.

 

But we’re here now. You have our attention for a moment currently. Perhaps context and technical questions would get you the help you need or want. Even on the lowest level like “is anyone else doing this, I am doing [    ] and it’s going [.      ].

 

 

[Galapadoc]

I didn't realize this was going to cause such a ruckus. My bad. I bumped it because I wanted to see if people who are doing this currently could chime in on their experiences. We'll be starting production in a few months and sweet potato is the only thing that grows well on this island so we're going with that.

That being said, I do have some things I'm not sure about.

First off, I've plowed through tons of scientific papers on the nutritional content of sweet potatoes. From what I can tell, it seems I won't need to add any nutrients to the ferment, but has that panned out for anyone in the distillery? It's one thing to do a chemical analysis on a plant and characterize everything that's in there, but just like the stuff we eat, it doesn't mean everything is bioavailable. I'd be interested in hearing what others have to say on the matter.

Also, while the plant does contain alpha and beta amylase, is it enough? I know with enzymes a little goes a long way since they aren't consumed in the process, but I don't want to wait 10 days for it to ferment dry. I have a friend on the mainland who has the first malt house in the country, so I was thinking maybe I could add that. We're trying to limit the amount of products we have to import into the country to get this done because the customs service here is really hit or miss. Things get delayed, things disappear. I'd prefer to not have production halted because some guy in Guayaquil is waiting for a bribe.

Once again, sorry for the 14-year-old bump. I didn't realize that was a thing. I was pouring through old posts on the subject and didn't really pay attention to the date. I just wanted to revive the conversation since it was the only one going on the topic.

[SlickFloss]

3 hours ago, Galapadoc said:

I didn't realize this was going to cause such a ruckus. My bad. I bumped it because I wanted to see if people who are doing this currently could chime in on their experiences. We'll be starting production in a few months and sweet potato is the only thing that grows well on this island so we're going with that.

That being said, I do have some things I'm not sure about.

First off, I've plowed through tons of scientific papers on the nutritional content of sweet potatoes. From what I can tell, it seems I won't need to add any nutrients to the ferment, but has that panned out for anyone in the distillery? It's one thing to do a chemical analysis on a plant and characterize everything that's in there, but just like the stuff we eat, it doesn't mean everything is bioavailable. I'd be interested in hearing what others have to say on the matter.

Also, while the plant does contain alpha and beta amylase, is it enough? I know with enzymes a little goes a long way since they aren't consumed in the process, but I don't want to wait 10 days for it to ferment dry. I have a friend on the mainland who has the first malt house in the country, so I was thinking maybe I could add that. We're trying to limit the amount of products we have to import into the country to get this done because the customs service here is really hit or miss. Things get delayed, things disappear. I'd prefer to not have production halted because some guy in Guayaquil is waiting for a bribe.

Once again, sorry for the 14-year-old bump. I didn't realize that was a thing. I was pouring through old posts on the subject and didn't really pay attention to the date. I just wanted to revive the conversation since it was the only one going on the topic.

I’m giving you a hard time for the most part I am not the resident troll but I am prone to dramatics. Let’s see if I can also be helpful which is what that h said about me, thanks thatch. 
 

you yeah no I also wouldn’t either so you maybe shouldn’t wait that many days for this to ferment out. Can you speak more about the yeast you’ll be using? Does it attenuate well but slowly? And how does it do in acidity? Also column or pot? If pot elements or jacket? And how’s your water (PH and  hardness and iron if you know). 
 

Do you have like a “vision” of a really fancy like Artisianal vodka with character and flavor in mind or are you just thinking yeah let’s fucking rip some yams and move some pgs? My last question for now is how are you going to process the Yams to make them accessible for our yeasties?

 

I personally think utilizing potato and grain together is a much better option than just yams alone, if it must be malt so be it! What type? If it’s DM you would actually be able to sour mash and reuse enzymes but juicing them will help with 

 

you have some strict parameters but they’re doable. 
 

May I ask if you’re waiting for many ferments to dry out for 10 days? If so have you have challenge this Process off a yield and quality basis? 

 

 

[Galapadoc]

Thanks for the response Slick. I should have been clearer up front. We're starting production in 4-5 months. I just put in the order for the still and it's going to take awhile to build, get through customs, and then shipped out here to the middle of the ocean.

The plan for the processing is to shred them in an industrial potato mill and boil them in the tun, essentially turn them into a puree and dilute. I thought about baking them first as that is a well known way to pump up the sugar content in sweet potatoes and you get a nice Maillard reaction, but that's more equipment than we're willing to invest in right now. The still is a steam jacketed column still with 20 plates on two columns. I am actually going for something with character, completely unlike all the NGS vodkas already available. We're a small operation and our market will only be local for the foreseeable future. Once the product I'm going for is dialed in, we'll see about expanding.

I've never done this on anything larger than a 5-gallon pot still, so I'm not sure how long it's going to take to ferment out 100 gallons at a time. It just seems like the enzymes, while there, might not be enough to convert the starches in a reasonable amount of time. Every source I've come across said there's enough amylase already in the yam to get it done, but those were all home distillers working on a much smaller scale. I'm going to try some sour mashing and see how that pans out. Thanks for reminding me of that option.

As for the yeast, I'm gonna try several and see which works best. I've seen plenty of recommendations from others on this forum and I've poured through the suppliers' literature. I've only ever used regular brewers yeast (or even bread yeast because anything else is hard to get out here), so I think the best move will be to just narrow it down to three or four options and see which one works best. The moonshine distillers out here don't even add yeast, they just let nature blow some in and then recycle what they have. Frankly, the stuff they make is better suited as paint thinner, but it gets an entire party drunk for very little money. You can fill your own gallon jugs at the distillery and save even more because the law here allows farmers to sell liquor tax free on the farm's premises. You only pay liquor tax on bottles sold off your property. Nobody on this island has any concept of making cuts. They sell everything that comes out of the parrot, so a wicked hangover is guaranteed.

I have enough microbiology experience that I'm sure I can eventually have my own culture that works best on the yams in our weird climate, but that may turn out to be more trouble than it's worth. I kept my sourdough starter alive for years, so maybe not.

[Kindred Spirits]

Sounds like you have a good handle on the process, I would definitely consider adding some enzymes to the make sure a full conversion takes place.

Going with a yeast trial is a smart plan too, figure out which one works best for the flavor profile you are after.

If you need any help getting your place set up let me know, I would love an excuse to head to the Galapagos Islands 😀

 

 

[Galapadoc]

8 hours ago, Kindred Spirits said:

If you need any help getting your place set up let me know, I would love an excuse to head to the Galapagos Islands 😀

 

 

Thanks! I'll keep that in mind. The nice thing about living here is it's never hard to convince people to come visit.