Forfar, Angus, Scotland.

[William Wallace]

I folks, My name's Gordon, but my hero is WW so I'll take that as my user name. Okay, I'm not long back from a holiday in Lithuania with my Lithuanian girlfriend.

I love my beer, and I love bourbon Whiskey but my habit/passion costs about £30 per week. I suppose I'm what the medical profession would call a fully functional, disciplined alcoholic meaning that I work and run my business successfully, make enough money to look after myself, pay the rent, utilities, feed and clothe myself and have two or three ten day vacations a year.

Anyhoo, Lithuania is quite a poor country, and I reckon that most of the populous partake of alcohol on a regular basis. They can't afford to buy as much as they would like so most households brew their own beer, and distill their own bread wine (vodka) and other spirits from whatever fruit is in season, mostly plum, cherry, lingonberry. I'd like to give this a try, in particular the corn lager.

The local farming and feed supplies has a flaked maise product which I can buy in 25kg bags (54 pounds) but it's described as cooked flaked maise. Not sure if that's quite right being cooked perhaps the enzymes that I need to make mash are destroyed in the cooking process. I can also get brewers yeast in powder form that's intended for equestrian and canine use as a tonic. I can also get jars of barley malt in syrup form. Are these products suitable for use in distilling alcohol?

[kiwi Bruce]

Welcome W W...read all the safety and intro post...it's a good place to start... Like here :- it's cranky's spoon feeding for new comers.

http://www.homedistiller.org/forum/view ... 52975//url" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

The maize you have, even if it was whole corns, would not have enough enzymes to do the starch to fermentable sugar conversion quickly enough to of any use. You will see that most of the Bourbon stillers on HD use a fair amount of Malted Barley to make the conversion. I think one of the problems that you will face with a flaked grain is that you could end up with a mash that will be very stiff and quite hard to work with.

Anyway Welcome...read lots and be safe...and have fun !

[kiwi Bruce]

Cast your eyes on this :- http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 96&t=47492 what Odin calls white dog here is unaged bourbon. Haven't made this myself but it may help you out.

[Mikey-moo]

Cast your eyes on this :- http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 96&t=47492 what Odin calls white dog here is unaged bourbon. Haven't made this myself but it may help you out.

+1 for Odin's Cornflake recipe being awesome.

Welcome aboard from south of the border.

[zapata]

You can use all those things in some way, though you need to understand how, because you can certainly screw it up too. Well, except the yeast. No idea why you would use that instead of proper beer, wine or bread yeast. Maybe in Lithuania yeast is hard to find, can't imagine it is that tough in Scotland.

Of course you need some equipment, but so far as ingredients go I think the first thing you need to wrap your head around is sugar vs. starch sources, how starch can be converted to fermentable sugars with enzymes, and where those enzymes come from.

You mention corn lager, and that I have done before, and I loved it. Broke most beer snob rules who tend to look down on large amounts of corn, and it was great. I made a wort from all corn with just a bit of crystal malt for body, and threw heaps of noble hops in it. Like Imperial IPA amounts of hops, by the handful. Lagered it for a while, dry hopped with more noble hops, and it was exactly what I wanted. A clean, light bodied beer with gobs of noble hops. All that being said, I'd never still that, but it made a great beer unlike any to be bought at any price. Corn was cheap deer feed, but the hops offset savings on grain.

Fair warning if you're hoping to save money, most of us end up spending as much or more on the hobby than just buying mid-shelf booze. I might break even if I was buying bottom shelf. Could probably save money if you scrounge a lot, and make sure you plan your equipment well to pay once, cry once. But personally I've got hundreds just in materials for projects waiting for me to get around to, not even counting functioning equipment and abandoned builds I've had over the years. I like to think my booze is cheap, but that only works if I don't actually count my time, all the little bits that I don't track expenses for etc. Of course I also could've happily spent a lifetime perfecting the first potstill I built and saved handfulls of cash, so don't feel like you have to keep up with the Joneses equipment wise. Start at a decent scale, and keep an eye to easy upgrades and multi-function while you build.
Welcome.

[William Wallace]

Thanks for the welcome guys, readin until my eyes are bleedin

[Pikey]

...........The local farming and feed supplies has a flaked maise product which I can buy in 25kg bags (54 pounds) but it's described as cooked flaked maise. Not sure if that's quite right being cooked perhaps the enzymes that I need to make mash are destroyed in the cooking process. I can also get brewers yeast in powder form that's intended for equestrian and canine use as a tonic. I can also get jars of barley malt in syrup form. Are these products suitable for use in distilling alcohol?

If that is called "Micronised" flaked maize - I've made a sour mash with it and it does fine - but it's a sugarhead - look up UNcle Jessies Simple Sour mash - Good cheap way to start.

Malt extract of any type will have been cooked and teh enzymes dead. Fine for flavour - useless for converting starches.

[just sayin]

WWW or Welcome William Wallace! Good to see you here! It seems your goal is to make something less expensive to whet your whistle. Pikey's suggestion of UJSSM/Uncle Jesse's Simple Sour Mash is very popular here, many start there and never see any reason to move on. Uncle Jesse's uses sugar to provide the alcohol and grain for nutrients and flavor. It is popular because it is economical, it is easy and importantly is quite tasty. All you need is a simple pot still to start. It you are planning to keep up with your consumption I would recommend a minimum boiler size of at least 25 liters, that will allow some head room to cook 20 liters of beer.
You mentioned brewers yeast, you will discover in your studies that brewers yeast is dead and is used for it's nutrient value. Many recipes call for boiling yeast to act as nutrients. Malt syrup can be a direct route to Scotch or ale. Your flaked maize may work for Uncle Jesse's, it usually uses cracked corn/maize. I would recommend sticking to the recipe until you have truely mastered it before you start changing things up. Plain bread yeast is just fine.
Good luck keep us posted as you progress. Never forget you are going to be boiling rocket fuel, keep it safe!

[thepatchworkdoll]

Welcome William
Im yer uncle Argyll
Enjoy stilling and be safe
Lang mar yer Lum Reek neighbour
Regards
Patch