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Is Sweet Feed the Best Choice for Your Horse?
I have heard about old shiners using sweet feed (a blend of corn, barley, oats, and molasses) to make whiskey from. Can you do this legally from a TTB standpoint? Since the product is not intended for human consumption, can you distill it and sell it??
Did I miss a thread somewhere on this? I assume you cannot as I cannot find any commercial examples of this.
Jake
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16 Replies
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I have this in formula now, so I’ll let you know…
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Why couldn’t you make it? You just can’t call it whiskey, it is a distilled spirits specialty, requiring formula approval. We have a corn, barley, and honey distillate approved that way.
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call it “Old Nag” Whiskey
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Or I might call it “Mother In Law’s Feed Whiskey”….
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I have this in formula now, so I’ll let you know…
And yes, please let me know how this progresses Panoscape!
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with molasses in the ferment, he won’t be able to call it whiskey. if he added it after distillation, it would be a flavored whiskey.
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I’m very curious about this also, Sweet feed is cheap and easy to purchase in bulk but since its not marked ‘Food grade’ I was nervous about trying it out. If anyone knows of any TTB or FDA objections to its use please let us know.
In general I’d like to know if mash ingredients need to be certified somehow and if they must be then does it go by category (vodka, gin, whiskey, etc). For example, it seems you can make vodka from just about anything (some odd vodkas out there) does it matter if a vodkas mash ingredients are labeled food grade or come from a ‘food grade’ crop? Can I just use standard feed corn? What makes something ‘food grade’? Is it the actual crop or how it is handled and shipped or both?
Obviously for whiskey, bourbon, etc there must be certain specific ingredients but, once again, do they need to be somehow certified ‘food grade’ by the FDA.
Or from a marketing standpoint does selling something made from ‘sweet feed’ sound too unpalatable to the consumer? Or do you just say “made from a wholesome mixture of natural grains and molasses’
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We’ll be making a traditional sugar head sweet feed. So, it can’t be called a whiskey. The ingredients listed on the package is corn, oats, barley and molasses, so that’s what we’ve put in the formula. No preservatives/chemicals/additives in this one so I feel totally confident in its contents. We’re going with the specialty classification so no worries there.
Our 30 gallon test batch fermented out in 2 days… now that’s a fast fermentor!
Man, formula’s take a long time to get approved…
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Sorry for my impatience here Panoscape, but any update?
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Las Vegas distillery already does this, its called Rumskey. Its basically a speciality distilled spirit in which they use both grain and molasses. Been done, COLA approved.
If you want all the answers, call George down there. He’s a great guy, very engaging.
Cheers,
John
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The only thing I have been told to watch for is to make sure it’s a Whole Grain product. There are many sweet feeds out there that have “pellets” in it that are not grains. Nutrients they may be but I wouldn’t drink it…
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Patience is one thing you need heaping mounds of when working with the TTB. I submitted the formula way back in May and it just got approved. Lets hope the label doesn’t take as long….
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Jake,
Our Honey Moonshine (Willie’s) is based on a sweetfeed recipe and is classified as a specialty spirit. Been approved and in production now since May. PM me if you have any questions.
Nick
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Just to follow up on the feed grade vs. food grade grains as i am not all that familiar with the terms.. my local mill asked me if i needed grains that are “food grade” and explained that they go through a separate mill that has higher inspection standards, but basically uses the same grains.. We are both assuming I do not need that as long as the grains are fairly clean, preservative free, etc. Can anyone add anymore insight into this food/feed grade question, or share what type of quality milled grain they order? What else should we be looking out for as we source grains?
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You have to be careful with sweet feed. Depends on what time of year it is. Summer blend has special acids put in with it so it will not ferment so the Barns or storage areas will not spontaneously combust. Winter blend does not have that and it will ferment.
It is the molasses that is the problem. It would be way easier for you just to make your own sweet feed with normal molasses without any additives in it. Or get the winter blend and use that to make your sweet food.
That’s my two cents.
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Just got denied on this exact topic. Molasses in the mash doesn’t qualify as a whiskey. It will be classed as a DSS.
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