What'd ya'll make today?

Production methods from starch to sugars.

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OtisT
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by OtisT »

Toasting. Once it cooled off last night I did another round of toasting American Oak, Cherry, and Port Orford Ceder. This batch I toasted at 325 deg F, versus the 375 deg F and 400 deg F batches I have done over the last few weeks. Wanted to compare the results of the various toasting temps. Been reading how ester creation changes at various temps, and according to the latest articles I've read there are more ( and different) esters created in the 300-330 deg F range that at higher temps. I'm no expert though; just seeing if I can tell the difference myself. Will try some smell comparison tests in a few weeks when one of my stillin buddies comes to visit. :-)
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raketemensch
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by raketemensch »

I'm running the first of a new batch of UJ.

Boring, except I threw 3 bananas into the boiler, and it smells amazing. I can't wait to taste it.

If the flavor is anywhere near the scent, this is going to be delicious after sitting on some vanilla-toasted oak for a while. Or maybe even white with a vanilla bean for a few days.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Pikey »

raketemensch wrote:I'm running the first of a new batch of UJ.

Boring, except I threw 3 bananas into the boiler, and it smells amazing. I can't wait to taste it.

If the flavor is anywhere near the scent, this is going to be delicious after sitting on some vanilla-toasted oak for a while. Or maybe even white with a vanilla bean for a few days.
Do let us know - you've hit the "secret" of bananas - Cooking them :thumbup: - be interesting to hear whether just 3 cooked in to a Sour mash is enough to make a significant difference 8)
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by chickenfeed »

Did you just throw three chopped up bananas right into the boiler when you were doing a stripping run?
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raketemensch
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by raketemensch »

chickenfeed wrote:Did you just throw three chopped up bananas right into the boiler when you were doing a stripping run?
Well, I’m running a flute, so it’s just one run.

I didn’t even chop them, just peel and toss. There wasn’t a single sign left of them in the backset.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Pikey »

WELL ? - Did it affect the taste ?
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by DutchDoubleBarrel »

@Raketemensch......
Happen to have a batch of 23 ltr Banana &(raw cane) sugar wash at hand ... So that might be the trick for me to the aimed One&Done
Silly me,as I was considering putting in a bunch of dried banana chips.... after using fresh in the ferment never came to mind to use fresh ones again...
So,eagerly awaiting your result. Greets DDB
[i][size=150][b][u]Its funny how time flies......and fruit flies like a banana[i][b][/b][/i]...[/u][/b][/size][/i] Groucho Marx.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by OtisT »

Last night I stripped a freshly fermented batch of Honey Hear Bourbon. First of two ferment batches I need to fill a 5l barrel with HBB. :-). I saved a few quarts of the backset to freeze for future flavoring endeavors.

This morning I started a ferment of my Bourbrum, a molasses rum ferment using backset from the Bourbon strip run. Yummy!
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raketemensch
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by raketemensch »

Pikey wrote:WELL ? - Did it affect the taste ?
It definitely did. We finally had the cuts party last night, and it’s sweeter and rounder than usual, my wife loves it.

You wouldn’t pick out a specific banana flavor, but it’s very different, a little sweeter, and more rum-like than my usual UJ.

Next time I’m going to pick up a bag or two of “overripe” bananas and throw hem all in.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Pikey »

Don't forget to add half the skins as well 8)
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by RedwoodHillBilly »

Yet another bourbon run. I tend to get about 12L of barrel strength per run. I now have about 48L on oak, just need to do another couple of runs to get another 48L. Then I'll get a chance to experiment with esters.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by DSM Loki »

Made cuts on my uj run from last weekend on my new 4 plate rig.

Dumped it and the product from previous 2 weekends together and watered down to 60%. Planning to fill my 10gal barrel when I get home from work tomorrow. Hoping to forget about the barrel for a year and see how it ends up.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Brewjitsu »

I did my second 11 gallon AG bourbon mash. 20lb flaked Maize, 6lb red wheat, 5lb US 6 Row. Having a hard time hitting my efficiency numbers with all the corn for some reason. Boiled for a bit to get it up to 1.070. Pitched Moonshine Distillers Single strain whiskey yeast. The curious thing about that yeast is that is insists on the package that you should use NO airlock of any kind or risk fermentation stall. Did a coffee filter and rubber band on the top but, after being a beer brewer for so long this feels like sacrilege.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Pikey »

Does it form a cap on the surface ?

I think I'd be tempted to e-mail them and ask the question :?
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Kareltje »

Did a spirit run on the heart of a grand birdwatcher.
Made about 50 or 60 litres of birdwatchers and ran it with my 80-ltr still: electric with flour seals. Gathered in 0,5 ltr pots and 5 litr flasks and today I redistilled the heart.
Tomorrow I will redistill the heads and than gather all the tails and concentrate them.

Goal is to get enough neutral to play around with botanicals for gin and ouzo in winter and for some fruits in next spring.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by japsinok »

Preparing to begin my next endeavor. I'm driving across country on my way back home. Been planning to start a blue corn whiskey, since I like the Balcones Blue. Stopped for the night in Tucumcari, NM. Planning to pick up 150# of blue corn in the morning from a nearby supplier. I hope I can get some good flavors in my own blue corn whiskey.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by OtisT »

Today I made 15 gallons of rum ferment bubble fast again. :-)

After 5 or 6 days my rum ferment slow way down at 10 26 sg. With a temp of 76 and a PH hovering near 4, I used Potasium Carbonate to get PH back up to 5.2, airiated, tossed in a small amount of yeast, and turned on the 15 watt bulb in my insulation box to get the temp up a bit.

12 hours later and it's bubbling away nicely at 80 degrees. :-) I'm letting her set and bubble for now and I won't check abv again until the bubbling stops.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by chickenfeed »

Today I'm running a batch of rum but based on a thread I read somewhere in here about someone putting a banana and do their Sourmash I'm trying to bag of sweet dark cherries placed directly into the boiler
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by DSM Loki »

Running some birdwatchers through my flute with packed section, trying my hand at neutral
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Still Life »

DSM Loki wrote:Running some birdwatchers through my flute with packed section, trying my hand at neutral
Just got done with some refluxed Birdwatcher's myself, and then ran it through a carbon filter system.
Like drinking water ---40% ABV water!

Today I felt oat-y.
On a whim, went with 5-lbs. cooked corn, adding 3-lb. malted oats.
Bubbling away.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by chickenfeed »

raketemensch wrote:
chickenfeed wrote:Did you just throw three chopped up bananas right into the boiler when you were doing a stripping run?
Well, I’m running a flute, so it’s just one run.

I didn’t even chop them, just peel and toss. There wasn’t a single sign left of them in the backset.
tried this with a bag of frozen Cherry's. worked out well.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by OtisT »

Yesterday and today were fun maintenance days. By far the best part was working with my Bourbrum (a molasses/sugar head on spent Bourbon grains.) I did cuts last night with a few friends. I personally think it has good fruity, sweet corn, honey up front, warm butter through the middle, and a bunch of the typical rich molasses smells from the bottom. I took a slightly wider than normal rum cut to get smells/tastes from both ends in, and With that am committed to a longer aging process to work it all out.

2 liters went into my first barrel. I know it's a rum base, but I have tried to keep the goodness of the Bourbon grains my distillate through this process so I figured a toasted/charred barrel was appropriate. Good idea? Time will tell.
2l of Bourbrum
2l of Bourbrum
I saved the heart of hearts jar, proofed it down and split with by stillin buddy.
Heart of hearts
Heart of hearts
The rest was put into 7 jars for a toasting test I am starting. Will post about it in my "Learning to Toast" thread.
Toast test
Toast test
After tasting a handful of aging experiments, I also bottled some rum that was on oak, and an apple cordial experiment that went sideways (time and oak fixed it.). I also siphoned off 3+ gallons of clear Dunder for creating a pit.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by The Booze Pipe »

I just made the cuts on my wheat vodka after its third distillation. For those of you who didn't make it, better luck next time...
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by dukethebeagle120 »

just started a 70-16-14 wheated bourbon
used socd methed and is cooking now
gonna add malt tomorrow
this method is great
corn is always cooked and jelled
this is a makers mark grain bill
cannot wait till morning.
in think i like mashing better then stillin :thumbup:
its better to think like a fool but keep your mouth shut,then to open ur mouth and have it confirmed
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by MontanaMule »

Just finishing up a 60% fresh sweet corn 25% Rye, 15% Barley run. Hearts are pretty tasty (heavy corn/spicy finish). Overall i'm satisfied with the immature product but didn't see a difference to using regular cracked corn except sweet corn is more work.

Got another sweet corn batch just about ready to run, then i'll combine them and oak for a bit.
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Rain Distillate
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Rain Distillate »

Pulled off my first 100LB grain bill today. 50% Corn Meal and 50% Fine Cracked corn. I split the two 50LB bags between a 55 Gallon fermenter and a 45 gallon fermenter. I boiled off 60 gallons of water and dumped about 30 Gallons of boiling water on each barrel and wrapped up to release starch. Next morning temp dropped to enzyme temps and I added Powdered A.A.
After doing my last 3 runs (only 50LB bill) and not getting great conversion/return I waited 16 hrs or so and then added 30 LBS of sugar to each barrel.

O.G of Barrel #1 (45Gal) 1.060
O.G. of Barrel#2 (55Gal) 1.065

Ph comes out the tap at 7.0.
Ph from wash was tested and read 3.4-3.5. Proceeded to raise from 3.5 to 5.5 with about 150 Grams of pickling lime in each barrel (bought from wally world 1LB Bag 2.80$USD)

Added DAP.

Boiled half a jar of live yeast to kill off as more yeast food and then split between the 2 barrels.

After the millionth temperature check it was finally ready for the yeast at a temp of 85-90 degrees F.

Gave both barrels a generous sprinkle across the top with bakers yeast and left alone. I can hear it bubbling already and I haven't even stirred the colony into the wash yet, I'm letting them acclimate to the new environment and then I'll give it a good stir for the first two days and she'll sit til finished.

Total cost about 55$+whatever propane I burned to heat water. So 55$ for 80 Gallons of wash. I should see a nice return on this small investment. :ebiggrin:

Next go around I'll do my first 100LB AG and will post results.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Pikey »

Most people reckon 2 lb grain per gallon - don't they ? You only seem to be on one - so perhaps your conversion is not too bad ? - I'd drop down to very small batches and learn about conversion before working att 100 gallon ferments

Just sayin' :wink:
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Rain Distillate
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Rain Distillate »

Pikey wrote:Most people reckon 2 lb grain per gallon - don't they ? You only seem to be on one - so perhaps your conversion is not too bad ? - I'd drop down to very small batches and learn about conversion before working att 100 gallon ferments

Just sayin' :wink:

Yes Pikey, 2lbs per gallon is recommended by the pros. I read to start off with a little less than 2lbs when starting out though!

I just bought the 55 gallon fermenter this week and was only using a single 45 gallon barrel before. I was then only filling it to about 30-35 gallons so my ratio wasn't as off as you think, about 1.5/gal. I think some HT enzymes would help it along initially. Will be buying some soon to aid conversion and I also picked up some iodine finally so I can check and see how well I am converting starches to sugar.
These barrels are the way to go. I've yet to have a ferment stall in these barrels, even when doing AG. Just need to up the grain amount for next time for sure.
Next ferment will be freshly picked blackberries from my BlackBerry bushes. They've already been through the freezer and are just waiting to be thawed and pressed. I may do that one in a few small buckets because I don't have 100 lbs worth.

Regardless Thanks for the tip!
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by The Booze Pipe »

Just fired up my third batch of vapor infused gin! Botanicals are: juniper, coriander, grains of paradise, cardamom, cinnamon, orris & Angelica roots, fresh lime, and yes, I added back two pinches of anise seed. The base is a triple pot stilled wheat vodka
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by tih »

Plc Ryan wrote:Well it's a rainy day here in NWO so I'm doing a sweet feed all grain. Did a sugar head with it last year and have a little over half a bag left so I'm grinding it up with my amazon special grinder which actually doesn't work too bad with the slight modification to drive it with a drill I made.
IMG_0076.JPG
Ryan, for how long have you been using your drill as drive unit for grain crusher? I'm asking because I still hesitate to use one with my crusher, which is the same as yours, worring about drill bearings and other insides...
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