How Much?

[Chixter]

A thought occurred to me today as I am doing some organizing in the shop. I've only been practicing this hobby for 2 1/2 months or so. Looking at my newly built storage shelves, I see I already have almost 2 gallons of whiskey aging. UJSSM and Still Life Rye. I have en route the ingredients for 3 more batches of the rye which will yield me at least another 2 gallons. Bubbling away in 2 fermenters right now is a 6 gal. each wash of corn and malted barley. Lets say if all goes well, another 2 gallons. I'm in the process of looking for barrels now. It got me to thinking...some of you guys have been doing this for years if not decades. Some of you run pretty big mashes and boilers compared to mine. I also get the impression, I may be wrong, that a lot of you folks are over 60 years old. How much likker do you guys have? What do you do with 10 years worth of 'stillin? 20 or more years worth of 'stillin? I'm imagining store rooms full of home made whiskeys, rums, gins, vodkas and brandies dating back to the Clinton administration. My drinking habits are thus: I love to drink good whiskey. Yes my tastes are limited to ryes and single malts...dont like gins, rums, vodkas....so I wouldn't expend the effort making them. I drink mainly on weekends with a heavy day or night being about 4 doubles. There are some weekend days and weeknights where I'm working in my machine shop (another hobby)...no place for enjoying spirits unless I want to donate my fingers to science. Do you build yourself up to a certain level then take a break for a month or year or 2? I'm just curious. I did this with ammo re-loading a few years ago and I am being honest I have more ammunition that I myself will ever be able to shoot foregoing a Zombie apocalypse, and I'm a regular 2x/month range visitor. I cannot deny a bit of paranoia as well. In the unlikely event the po-po visit me and discover a still and 100+ gallons of home made likker....that could be a problem. Again...no need to reveal particulars given the nature of our hobby, but these are my brain musings for the day.

[Still Life]

Great minds must think alike.
I had asked a similar question back in April.

My shelves are bulging since I started this in ~May 2016.

[still_stirrin]

Ahhh....such a difficult predicament to be in. But trust this...it is easier to deal with once the liquor is in bottles.

But I find this...my close friends drink more of my homemade liquor than I do. Sure, I enjoy my products as well, but I give away more than I drink, probably by an order of magnitude. Since it is a hobby, I enjoy sharing with close friends.

Does it get expensive...probably. But the cost of producing hasn't kept you from brewing and distilling, has it? I didn't think so.

Again, when the time comes and you pull the product from your casks and bottle it, the shelf life won't be your biggest concern. More likely, what to fill the cask with next will be.

But to your concern, a cellar full of liquor and ammo are not the worst things you can stockpile. Both would be fine collateral in the event that SHTF. Plus, it's always a thrill to pull up a bottle of "old stock" you've had for a year or five, even 10 or more. It becomes a celebration of the times past. If you've got a couple of buddies who've been with you through the years, that makes it even more rewarding.
ss

[NZChris]

Likker is more difficult to deal when it is in bottles. You can leave it in the aging vessels until a few weeks before you need it. It takes up less room and it carries on aging. Once off the oak and bottled, aging is pretty much finished, so why bother?

[still_stirrin]

Totally agree with you Chris, when storing an inventory of liquor, it is easier to do in large vessels, preferrably the cask. But my point was that once bottled, my inventory is reduced quite rapidly. So my next thought is to refill the cask again. It seems Thanksgiving and Christmas always happen around bottling time and the gatherings serve to deplete inventory. For me, accummulating 100’s of gallons of stock is not a problem...it is a fantasy!
ss

[Chixter]

And so we press on. I think I see a Jimbos AG single malt in the near future.

[NZChris]

If you go hard out and make enough to last you for, let's say, four years, after that you only need to replace what you drink every year and after four years you should always have some four year old in the cellar.

[markieb]

since i made my reflux still i got a little carried away with myself and this hobby i was drinking roughly a litre of vodka a night i got through about 42 litres since i started distilling in late aug.my mrs said she was getting worried about me and so did my friends.i explained ive wanted to distill spirits for years and this is just a reward period for me I LOVE THE PRODUCT I MAKE i get no hang over, none of the nasty head twitching gehhhh when i drink a large amount in one go, i dont get a vodka head ache whilst drinking like i do with other vodkas, i dont get nasty im actually quite freindly when im drinking this product instead of a total dick head!!!!i have calmed down to reassure them that i am in control, im not an alcoholic dependant on drink and have cut back to a few on weekends (drinks not bottles) i have got a little bit of podge on me since ive been making my own too its not a bad thing ive always been a rake even when i tried to bulk up with protien shakes and eating tons so to get a bit of weight is a good thing for me.im going to do a couple big runs for xmas drinks to share with our families hers and mine presents and just drinks but il calm down abit next year and build up a good stock to age.its an initial buzz of doing something that ive wanted to do for so long but took the time to read and understand the things im doing and doing it to the best of my ability instead of my usual bull in a china shop approach and messing it up then giving in!ive done something i can be proud of that ive created and its better than the shop stuff its proven to me i can achieve something sorry for the essay

[Pikey]

....... i have got a little bit of podge on me since ive been making my own too its not a bad thing ive always been a rake even when i tried to bulk up with protien shakes and eating tons so to get a bit of weight is a good thing for me...............

If you look at the "High protein - LOW CARB" type diets, Our distillate is free of carb ! - so does not put on weight. I've lost 30 lb (2 stone 2lb) since this was pointed out to me ! There's a reference in the "Off subject" section.

[Edit - it only works with the LOW CARB diet, otherwise teh calories kick in and make you fat ! ]

[markieb]

....... i have got a little bit of podge on me since ive been making my own too its not a bad thing ive always been a rake even when i tried to bulk up with protien shakes and eating tons so to get a bit of weight is a good thing for me...............

If you look at the "High protein - LOW CARB" type diets, Our distillate is free of carb ! - so does not put on weight. I've lost 30 lb (2 stone 2lb) since this was pointed out to me ! There's a reference in the "Off subject" section.

[Edit - it only works with the LOW CARB diet, otherwise teh calories kick in and make you fat ! ]

ive been 9.5 stone all my adult years im 38 now so putting on a bit of weight is a good thing for me its only started happening since ive been drinking my happy juice lol i do alot of miles on my feet cutting grass every day strimming so its quite nice now winter is on its way and ive gone up a stone im well happy about it

[zapata]

So, I started distilling...12 years ago? 15? I dunno. I have several rigs ranging from tabletop to pretty big. For me, I've taken a lot of breaks. I'm not in the seniors class yet with their empty nests and retirement liesure so family, work, home, etc gets in the way. I certainly dont have rooms full of Clinton era booze! Wish I did! I build up a stock, then just like everything else I bat my eye and its 6 months or 2 years later and Im running low or god forbid out of my favorites!

Consumption varries over time too. Sorry, but if you have a newborn baby and are knocking back a handle+ a week you're a dick and an alchoholic not a hobbyist or artisan. Or if you're traveling for work you're probably drinking in a bar with the team more often than you're secretly hitting a flask of UJ in the shitter. And honestly, its good to just dry out completely for a month, or even a year sometimes...anyway...

The upside to this pattern for me is that even the downtime is useful. Im still reading, learning related hobbies, thinking, aquiring tools, reflecting deeply on lessons learned and mistakes made etc. Its also why I have such a variety of gear. Every so often I start from scratch. Not literally, but everything is packed away and I have to put thought and effort into getting set up again.
So I may think, "screw all those little ferments, this time I'm going big". Or it may be, "geez, I did eventually get bored of 5 gallons of the same spirit, I need a good small batch setup to play with some variety". Or "if I'm going through the trouble of setting up again, I'm damn sure gonna crack that running on the grain nut". And as much as anything, when I get back in gear, I educate myself in the latest trends, techniques, builds, and even resources. Which is actually why I've been active here lately, the vibe here is friendlier than the last time I was running often and the volume is much higher than my former home. This periodic binge and purge pattern really deepens my knowledge base over time, and pays off in the long run.

[NZChris]

I didn't drink much gin because I didn't like commercial gin enough to bother, but that changed when I built a small gin still. If you like distilling as a hobby, distilling many small runs keeps you more active in your distillery than doing an annual large ferment, which is what I did for many years. Now, I have a some small stills that can be run in a variety of formats including simple pot, Carter Head and Bokakob. My hobby has morphed from my original intention of making cheap rum and products needing cheap neutral, to making small batches of high quality, rare, historical, experimental and unique products that are not available in my local liquor shop.

Plus the occasional UJSSM, of course. Despite all of the effort I put into making fancy stuff, new make, white dog UJSSM corn likker is my favorite tipple and I have a new sack of kibbled corn ready to go