junkyard dawg wrote:I been taking a long break from making anything. got back into it today with an apple brandy. just pitched the yeast... ec1118, 15 lbs of apples and a bit of sugar to make a 9%, 6 gallon wash.
What yall been making?
Damn near the same thing.
Ran a 10gal batch of apple that I had sitting around. My apples were free
CONFIDENCE-the feeling you get right before you realize the severity of your situation
Yesterday, I mixed up a mash of 50 lbs coarse ground corn, 15 lbs of wheat berries and 6 lbs of whole oats. I mixed the whole works together in a barrel with 2 gallons of backset, 18 gallons of water and 1/2 the recommended dose of high temp enzyme. I brought 10 gallons of water to a boil in my boiler and used steam injection to bring the mash mixture up to between 190 and 200 degrees. Held the temp for a couple of hours then shut off the steam. I poured the rest of the high temp enzyme into the remaining water in the boiler and mixed the water into the barrel with the mash. I stirred the dickens out of the mash with a mud mixer in my 1/2 inch drill then covered it for the night with an old sleeping bag.
This morning the temp was down to around 140 degrees. I had an sg of 1.050. I added the other enzyme and stirred the heck out of it again. I'll wait for the temp to drop to around 80 degrees then I'll pitch my yeast.
I mashed some barley that I smoked with apple and cherry. I made ten gallons of beer then partigyle another ten weaker gallons. That's the third round, the previous two were 100% beechwood smoked malt. After stripping this latest batch, I should have enough low wines to finally do my spirit run and get this stuff on oak.
Started a batch of rye whiskey.
Life has moved me from Michigan to Maryland, at least temporarily, and I found a farmer out here with a big ol' field of rye.
He poured a bunch off the back of his truck into all the buckets I could find, about 150#.
I malted all of it, air dried it, then kiln dried it all in my oven.
I ground it up today and mashed half of it, it smelled wonderful.
Gonna be a 100% malted Maryland rye whiskey, looking forward to how this one turns out.
Shouting and shooting, I can't let them catch me...
MichiganCornhusker wrote:Started a batch of rye whiskey.
Life has moved me from Michigan to Maryland, at least temporarily, and I found a farmer out here with a big ol' field of rye.
He poured a bunch off the back of his truck into all the buckets I could find, about 150#.
I malted all of it, air dried it, then kiln dried it all in my oven.
I ground it up today and mashed half of it, it smelled wonderful.
Gonna be a 100% malted Maryland rye whiskey, looking forward to how this one turns out.
Why is it that when you tell a process like this, in my head, you knocked it all out in one afternoon as if it were all one step. "Yeah, I don't always make rye whiskey, but when I do, I look like a badass".
In any case, I would love to find myself drinking of a bottle of that next summer
"Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!
You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond."
That sounds outstanding MCH! Let us know how it goes. Do you ever make it back to the Zoo anymore or is this a permanent departure? If so, give me holler Ill throw my bag in the truck and head out to say heyho with a box of goodies. I could use a good excuse to get away for a couple days right 'bout now. I think you have a couple blue barrels with my name on them too eh? Or at least usetadid.
Jimbo wrote:That sounds outstanding MCH! Let us know how it goes.
So far so good, SG on the rye is down to 1.010 and still bubbling. I might be heading back to the zoo in the next week or two, and then actually doing some work in Chicago for a few days sometime in November, will definitely keep ya posted!
Shouting and shooting, I can't let them catch me...
Jimbo wrote:That sounds outstanding MCH! Let us know how it goes.
So far so good, SG on the rye is down to 1.010 and still bubbling. I might be heading back to the zoo in the next week or two, and then actually doing some work in Chicago for a few days sometime in November, will definitely keep ya posted!
Hell in that case throw your bag in the truck and swing by my place for a short bender. 6 brews on tap and enough ethanol to light up greater Iceland. The missus is always welcome too if she's with ya. We empty nesters now with lots of empty bedrooms!
I pulled the rye off and poured it into carboys to settle, then dumped a wheated bourbon style wort, tweaked with oat malt, onto the yeasty dregs. Woo hoo, off to the races again!
Shouting and shooting, I can't let them catch me...
Tried out my new SS 8 gallon, electric fired kettle today. Fit it with a 2" to 3" spool to use my 3" column. 110V element with a cheapo digital controller. Just taped the thermocouple to the side of the kettle for reference. I was surprised at how much less fooling with temp input was vs propane. Found a sweet spot at 155 degrees on the surface of the kettle adjacent to the element which gave me a nice broken stream until the wine started to deplete. I had to monkey with the controller after that. Ran about 4 gallons of peach wine I had made summer before last. Had about 10 gallons and was kind of tired of it. I have a fresh 5 gallon batch of mucadine just finishing off and enough muscadines for another 10 gallons and needed the room. I was using the little PID controller and I also have a digital thermometer at the top of the column. Kettle came up to temp pretty fast but the top of the column just hung around 95 degrees F while the kettle outside temp was 155 degrees. The top of the column took off and in about 2 minutes was at 173 and I had fores coming over. I think I will like the electric heat and the smaller kettle for small batches and spirit runs. Nice to be inside too without the roar of the burner. I will still use my bigger kettle and propane for stripping runs. Product came over at 140 proof and I ran down to 80 proof and cut it off. Got about 3 and 1/2 quarts. Put a charred oak stick in all three quarts and a cinnamon stick in 2 of them. I will enjoy the 1/2 quart just like it is.
I did one of two last spirit runs of my smoked whiskey today. Hopefully I can do the other tomorrow and the spirit run and finally get this batch aging.
Made a 2.5 gallon batch of red wine (for Mrs Hooch)
...cuz when Mama's happy, everybody's happy
Wine takes a long time, be lucky if its ready for new years
NChooch
Practice safe distillin and keep your hobby under your hat.
made up a batch of my xmass spiced rum. 15 gallons just purring away nicely. should be ready next weekend. then on oak for a month, bottle and wellah. xmass gifts.
It’s finally getting cool out, so I set everything back up in my hiding place. Fermenters were empty, but I found all the feints and put them in. Really good run. I also started a couple more buckets of UJ. I didn’t have DAP, so I threw in some Epsom salts and alpha amylase.
I'm running 12 gallons of wine through the still today making low wines, cut up a barrel stave into fingers and toasting @ 400F for four hours or so... I've got another 12 gallons of wine to run when this one's done... Going to spirit run those low wines into some nice brandy pulling just the very middle of the best hearts... The feints from the wine will get watered and run a couple three more times to clean it up for some krafty wodka.
jonnys_spirit wrote:Going to spirit run those low wines into some nice brandy pulling just the very middle of the best hearts...
I've done a good amount of brandy myself and actually have 20+ gallons more to strip as soon as I find the time. Don't be afraid to keep a little bit of late heads. There's a ton of delicious fruit flavor in those parts and I'd hate to see you miss out.
Thanks! I was thinking about that yesterday as I pulled tastes off at different points and was going to keep some select heads and tails off to the side to blend into the brandy hearts. I cut a JD stave into fingers and toasted med-dark @400F for four hours. May hit those lightly with a blow torch for a little charcoal but the fingers are med-dark all the way through now.
Spirit ran this today (nine gallons 80pF low wines - added three gallons water to drop ABV a little for safety) and have about 1.5 gallons of hearts that I suspect I can keep as my hearts once they air out for a couple days along with some different cuts of heads and tails to potentially blend. Mid week will be a testing and blending.
I make a little bit more ethanol, to use as tractor fuel.
The ethanol, has an excellent shelf life compared to gasoline.
But, obviously has a problem with the angels share vanishing
Would like to be on Oldvine Zin's Christmas list!! 17 month old rum....wow. I mixed up my last wash before trying an AG scotch. I wanted to try my big igloo cooler as a fermenter as I plan to mash in my barley for the scotch in the cooler and ferment on the grain in the same vessel. Mixed two gallons of light Karo syrup, 2 cups of honey, a handful of raisins, 4 B12 tabs crushed and a handful of crushed graham crackers. Warmed enough water to melt syrup and then stirred in honey. Poured in water at varying temps to bring the wash to 82 degrees, also to reach 1.070 sg, and pitched 23 grams of US-05 yeast. I ended up with about 11.5 gallons of wash. Woke up this morning and ran down to check it. The wash was working and temp had risen to 84 degrees. pH had fallen to 4 so I added oyster shells. I had the lid on the cooler loosely closed so propped it open about an inch to bleed off heat. Have seen varying ranges for the US 05 as far as temps it likes. Everything from 59F to 82 F. I hope I am going to be OK. Wondering if the AG will be as aggressive and generate as much heat?