What'd ya'll make today?

[Beerswimmer]

Dumped out the boiler and thumper, saved some backset, cleaned the whole still, cleaned the fermenter, made cuts and proofed, prepped and then filled a barrel, washed and put all the jars away, started milling grains for the next round: Sundae Chocolate bourbon.

[Beerswimmer]

I also donated to the site today, thanks to everyone for all the help along the way!

[dieselduo]

I hooked up a hop randall inline with my beer gun.

[NZChris]

Advocaat.

Well, not really Advocaat, but a drink made from avocados that may, or may not, have been the beginnings of Advocaat, but the history is debatable.
http://www.bythedutch.com/about/origins-of-advocaat/

It's my second attempt, but using UJSSM because I can't find the demijohn of white rum I used for the first. Two other people have tasted it and said it's nice. I like it, even though it's not a style of drink I would normally choose. I have thinned it down enough that it can be poured, albeit slowly.

Nice on ice with lemonade and a squeeze and twist of lime, if you are into that sort of thing.

[Corsaire]

I just bought a bag of frozen avocado to try the exact same thing. I was planning to use rhum agricole or cachaca.
Any pointers you're willing to share?
My plan of attack is pureeing the avocados, blend in rhum to standard advocaat abv levels, add 2:1 sugar syrup to taste.
I have some lime and sugar syrup that could be a good substitute for the sugar.
Does the alcohol preserve the avocado color?

Over here advocaat is usually served as a side with a cup of coffee, with small sweet pastry. You don't drink it, you scoop it up with a spoon.

[Durhommer]

That cup there is 2 year old single malt. Yep I made that just not today

[NZChris]

I just bought a bag of frozen avocado to try the exact same thing. I was planning to use rhum agricole or cachaca.
Any pointers you're willing to share?
My plan of attack is pureeing the avocados, blend in rhum to standard advocaat abv levels, add 2:1 sugar syrup to taste.
I have some lime and sugar syrup that could be a good substitute for the sugar.
Does the alcohol preserve the avocado color?

Over here advocaat is usually served as a side with a cup of coffee, with small sweet pastry. You don't drink it, you scoop it up with a spoon.

This is based on what I did yesterday. Adjust sugar and abv to your own preferences.
Simple syrup made with the lime juice might be better than plain white sugar.

For 1l at 18% abv, 22.7% sugar.
230g of avocado flesh.
3 tsp lime juice.
227g sugar.
Add rum containing 180ml of alcohol.
Add some of the water and mash well before blending, or it won't blend, or else use a stick blender.
Make up to 1l
Blend again

If it's too thick, (mine wasn't), make up 500ml to thin it down with, then only use enough to get it to what you want.
113g sugar.
7ml lime juice.
Maybe make that into simple syrup.
Rum containing 90 ml of alcohol.
Add water to 500ml.

[tombombadil]

Started macerating a batch of "Christmas Absinthe"
3l 150p neutral
150g wormwood
300g anise seed
300g fennel seed
25g clove
25g cinnamon
25g nutmeg
25g allspice

Running this one today. Tastes pretty dam good so far.

[CoogeeBoy]

Right, well I made some Limoncello and the equivalent made from limes.
Here is my report.
I macerated chopped limes and chopped lemons separately on 85% ABV neutral (it dropped from 92% to 85% when I filtered it).
At the same time, I macerated lemon skins only on 85% ABV neutral.
The Lemon skins only made a lovely limoncello after diluting with 1:2 sugar syrup (1 sugar 2 water) and had that typical cloudy limoncello look, BUT........
The macerated chopped lemons and chopped limes did something quite unusual, something I didn't foresee: both the lemons and the lime pieces looked "dry". I did a check and the ABV had dropped to about 45% from 85%.
I think this was osmosis from the fruit to the alcohol.
This created a dilemma as I couldn't use the 1:2 sugar syrup to sweeten as I would dilute the ABV too low so I made a 1:1 sugar syrup.

I then asked all my mates to try the 3 different ones and let me know what they thought.

Well, he said he liked the lime one first, then the lemon piece limoncello then the limoncello made from skins only. And I had to agree with him.
The limoncello made on the pieces of fruit had a more "real" limoncello taste, not as smooth, maybe a little gutteral, rustic even.
It was back to basics compared to the one made on lemon skins only, which was delicious but lacked "character" maybe.
Here is the other thing: all my research told me it would be bitter beyond repair if I included the pith but it wasn't, and I think that was because the little pith exposed was between the flesh and the skin, very little surface area.

Anyway, I am now going back to do a second run (I've run out of neutral so it will be a little while) but I have also tried macerating whole limes in 92% ABV and that seems to be just as good as the skins only method so far (I taste tested today).

Thanks for listening.

[seabass]

Got my false bottom cut out for my 30gal mash tun build. I'm making a support structure out of 2in lengths of 1in copper pipe with slots cut in the bottom like bubble cap slots so wort doesn't pool in them. Probably hold them together with 3/8" stainless rod soldered to them to make grid patterns to keep them from falling over when I'm installing the fb.

At some point, I want to seal the lid and set up steam injection so I can mash, ferment, and distill bourbon in one vessel.

Haven't put any fittings in it yet, but going to make myself a dip tube out of copper pipe and a 1in triclamp spool.

[Hambone]

Put together my first shotgun condenser...

[seabass]

Put together my first shotgun condenser...

Nice! Always good to make something that will last through several upgrades. How big? Post pictures!

[Hambone]

Is 18 inch 4x 1/2" ID in 2 inch shell. Decided against putting in baffles. I'm shit for taking pics...never remember until I'm done.

BTW how do you like the 30 gallon tun? I picked up a 50 gal pot and feel ridiculous. I could cook an entire human in that thing...

[seabass]

One of my kids climbed in it as soon as I opened the box...I still haven't used it. That'll be in a week or two. Still have to make the dip tube, sparge arm, and get a pump. At this point, all I've done is grind the shit out of some perforated stainless with an angle grinder and make a bunch of plans.

A 50 gal pot could make a great mash tun or fermenter.

[Bushman]

Ran my 4th generation rye/corn, should have enough to put in my 10L barrel now!

[pope]

Is 18 inch 4x 1/2" ID in 2 inch shell. Decided against putting in baffles. I'm shit for taking pics...never remember until I'm done.

BTW how do you like the 30 gallon tun? I picked up a 50 gal pot and feel ridiculous. I could cook an entire human in that thing...

Where'd you get the 50 from? I got a steal on one from Spike Brewing awhile ago but those clearance kettles came and went. 50 is a big af vessel, I put mine on top of my ceramic kiln for storage and its larger than the whole damn kiln.

[Hambone]

I got the 50 from Brewtech. Heavy bastard. But makes mashing in less of a chore.

Speaking of which, just mashed in a batch of bentstick's oat/wheat/rye. That's such a great smelling mash!

[tombombadil]

Ran the 3rd batch of this one:

8 gallons of water
16# corn meal
4# ground steel cut oats
3# distillers malt
1tbsp each alpha and gluco enzymes
11g Mangrove Jack M47 (Abbey Yeast)

I used the spent grain to make a sugarhead (10# sugar plus enough water to get sg down to 1.055) and mashed batch 4.

[Durhommer]

Made a cannalilly a new home from a recycled free huge pot.primed and painted it and it's going to moms front yard

[Beerswimmer]

Stripping the second of 4 Sundae Chocolate bourbon mashes. Got the spent grains dumped, still rinsed and re-filled and fermenters cleaned. About to start milling the grains for the 3rd and 4th.

[The Baker]

Nearly finished remodelling my long shelf in the shed.
Cutting out some shelves so I can put my boiler on the floor with room for a couple of other boilers and a grappa fermenter/steamer-thumper;
and place at least 3 x 70/80 litre olive container fermenters on the floor too.
Also my worm and tank on wheels will fit there.
Two thirds of a COPPER 44 gallon (55 American gallon) drum with a coil of half or five eighth inch copper tube.
Cut most of the front half of the shelves above the boiler(s) away for the column(s) and pipes.
Strengthening some shelves above for thumper(s), and stainless storage containers.
Still a work in planning and progress.

Geoff

[DSmith78]

Put together a really simple recipe at the weekend - 4kg corn, 3kg pale malt and 25 litres of water. Starting gravity only a touch over 1040 so greed got the better of me last night and I added a kilo of sugar to the ferment!

[DSmith78]

Also put this together at the weekend out of bits I had playing around. Gonna use this until my keg still is finished as I've condemned my old worm coil in a bucket!

[Beerswimmer]

First of 2 spirit runs for Sundae Chocolate bourbon, and will pitch Angel yeast on ferments #3,4 later today.

[CoogeeBoy]

25l Ted's Fast Fermenting Vodka (with a small addition of pre-made cake icing which I think was a mistake)
And bottled some limoncello off the skins. 40% ABV (I made a 32% last week and my italian mates said it was too weak!)

[coppercreature]

Been a busy weekend - put 25lbs of grain through the wringer Friday for StillIts Colab (and it's going like a bat out of hell!) and made a triple batch of Teddysad's FFV today, which should be kicking into gear tonight! My earlier whiskey from 3 stripping runs is on the sticks for 3 weeks now, and I'm a happy boy! (oh, and 20th anniversary, twins birthday, and oldest son's gradation...)

[tombombadil]

Been a busy weekend - put 25lbs of grain through the wringer Friday for StillIts Colab (and it's going like a bat out of hell!) and made a triple batch of Teddysad's FFV today, which should be kicking into gear tonight! My earlier whiskey from 3 stripping runs is on the sticks for 3 weeks now, and I'm a happy boy! (oh, and 20th anniversary, twins birthday, and oldest son's gradation...)

Which malt did you pick? Im going to get on that next. Going to make a batch using Munich malt.

[coppercreature]

Ha! I also did the Munich - type 1. I was trying to fine tune my steam injected recirculating mash tun (which I developed after some misadventures with oats) and it really needs a complete redesign. My efficiency was bollocks and had lots of circulation sticking issues and temperature variations. Oh well, that will be another thread....

[seabass]

I finished making the racking arm and false bottom standoffs for my mash tun build. Other than insulation, a pump, and a sparge arm, it's ready to go.

[Beerswimmer]

Racked, strained and squeezed 30 gallons of bourbon mash into the boiler and thumper and cleaned the fermenter. Then racked, strained and squeezed another 30 gallons into the clean fermenter. Cleaned the dirty one, and dumped all the spent grains. Now I'm ready to strip all day tomorrow!