1st damn run of liquor I'll ever make..

[Cleco]

...well actually, the second and surely not the last! My first small run consisted of flaked maize and sugar and was a cleaning run. I know it was an unnecessary waste but I wanted to try my hand at fermenting as well.

Now to the fun run;

10# Sweetfeed
14# Sugar
10 Gal. Water
50 grams High Spirits Whiskey yeast

5 gallons boiled water added to 15 gallon barrel with 10# sweetfeed. Mixed well and added sugar, mixed well again-all sugars dissolved. Stirred the mix occasionally for the next 40 minutes. Added remaining 5 gallons of cold water and mixed well with my Dewalt drill and paint mixer attachment. I let it all cool down to 80f and started the yeast in a 80f sugar bath. As the yeast was coming to life I aerated the mash one last time. Checked the OG-1.084. Added the yeast and stirred manually. Buttoned her up with an airlock and tucked away into a corner. Temperature remained 72f throughout the ferment. 13 days till it crashed with a FG of 0.998. Very dry on the tongue and indicative to an apple smell.

I pulled 8 gallons of wash and ran it through a 10 gal. Alembic. No thumper. DIscarded a little over 100 ml. of Fores and then started collecting through a parrot. 60% abv at the start and topped out at 70% abv in the middle. Did my collection in pint jars until reaching 45%, as I ran out of pint jars. From there I collected in quart jars until 35% and will add those to the next run.

One piece of advice I've seen repeated on this forum I've made sure to adhere to. Patience. Well, up until now. I pulled a pint from the middle and I'm enjoying it this very minute. And I don't know if it is because I made it (Im sure that has an influence) but damn this is good. I initially planned to run it again but I don't believe I will. I'll be trying my hand at learning to make cuts in two days.

Suggestions and critics are welcome. Just be gentle..

[Truckinbutch]

It's not waste when you are doing a cleaning run . Anything you can do to keep yourself safe is a positive .
Your first run will taste great to you . Particularly after the second drink that leads to the third . Save a bit of that to compare to what you re making a year from now if you stay with this hobby .
Cuttin that og back to 1.06/7 will be a benefit to you .

[jb-texshine]

Great!
But just so you know , from this point on the hobby gets more and more addictive.

[Antler24]

Save a bit of that to compare to what you re making a year from now if you stay with this hobby .

I've still got a jar of my very first keeper run. Wasn't too fond of it at the time but it's something special now. I don't think I'll ever drink it, it just sits on my desk next to the still.

To the OP. If you like it now, just put a charred oak stick in a jar and stash it somewhere you won't see it. In a year your gonna be soooo proud of yourself lol

[Truckinbutch]

"Stash it somewhere you won't see it ". SHEEIT! Once you figure out you can make a good drop there is no hiding it from yourself . You just got to increase your production to get ahead of demand .

[Cleco]

Save a bit of that to compare to what you re making a year from now if you stay with this hobby .

I've still got a jar of my very first keeper run. Wasn't too fond of it at the time but it's something special now. I don't think I'll ever drink it, it just sits on my desk next to the still.

To the OP. If you like it now, just put a charred oak stick in a jar and stash it somewhere you won't see it. In a year your gonna be soooo proud of yourself lol

Good idea. I have a bag of toasted chips & I will definitely do that!

Great!
But just so you know , from this point on the hobby gets more and more addictive.

I have a feeling Louie the liver might agree!

It's not waste when you are doing a cleaning run . Anything you can do to keep yourself safe is a positive .
Your first run will taste great to you . Particularly after the second drink that leads to the third . Save a bit of that to compare to what you re making a year from now if you stay with this hobby .
Cuttin that og back to 1.06/7 will be a benefit to you .

Yep, I was concerned with the high OG and wasn't really sure go to bring it in check. Plus I figured I'd roll with it and see how it goes and on the next batch I'll know a little more and get it lowered.

[Still Life]

Can hear the excitement through your typing. Congratulations!

[Shine0n]

Congratulations bubba, I love my sf too!

Just wait, next thing you know you'll be rum, then brandy at some point you'll be on all grain. It's never ending and keep getting better and better.
Enjoy the ride!!!

Shine0n

[Shine0n]

Also, 1.084 og and you end it at 1.0 you'll have 10.92%
That's not bad at all imho.

If that has a bit too much bite then you can always tame it down some but I think it'll be fine.

Keep the heads and tails in a feints jug for to do an all feints run later. You'll find that an all feints run will produce a Hella good whiskey.

[Cleco]

Shine, that's exactly what I plan to do with the heads & tails. I plan to mix up another batch of SF and hit the numbers on the mark. Still need to get a ph tester.