Home Distiller

So far I have only added dunder to the spirit run and not to the wash but then I am not too brave about adding heavily contaminated liquid to the wash as would hate to lose it. But having said that there are many brave souls like LWCTS who add the dunder to their wash and never have problems. I gues...

I used to feel the same about the fruit flies but since I moved to Bulgaria I no longer have any concerns as they are extremely common here and they manage to infiltrate even the best seals on the wash. The locals never worry and I or then have never had any problems with losing a batch by turning t...

Has anyone tried a dunder pit for brandy? I have tried it with rum and with excellent results with a significant improvement in nose and taste but I havent heard of dunder being used in a brandy. Here in Bulgaria it is common for the wash to be prepared in autumn (fall) and then left all winter and ...

I make about 120 litres of brandy each year from apples, grapes and quince and most of mine goes into oak casks, 1 year old, with 5 mls of maple syrup per litre and several burnt pieces of oak. (aligator skin burnt). Then I leave it for 1-2 years and it is magnificent. After about 18 months there ar...

You are what you eat (or drink)

The baker, Yes the dunder drum is outside and we are currently having temperatures of about 32 deg C (90 deg F) at the moment so plenty of scope for bacterial growth. Maybe when the temps drop in autumn I will put it in the shed where its cool but stable all year. But I am very impressed with the re...

Having read of the benifits of using dunder I started with a wash of Billingtons molassis, white sugar, honey and golden syrup. The "rum" it produced was OK and had a nice nose. With the remains from the still I then started a "dunder pit" which I let sit outside in the heat for ...

Very interesting posts! I live in a small mountain village in Bulgaria where brewing rakia (brandy) is carried out in all the houses using the local fruit. This fruit is collected late summer, crushed and put into 200 lit drums to ferment. This is usually complete as the snows arrive so the wash is ...

Ayay, NZ to Bulgaria...casually legal to casually illegal. You have the best of both worlds! Yes when Bulgaria joined the EU they tried to bring in an alcohol tax but this was met by huge opposition so now we are allowed to brew a certain volume prior to being required to pay the tax. but this is on...

Blind drunk,
I diced the quince first and then put the blender in there to make a pulp. Worked an absolute treat but the quince need to be fresh as tried it with frozen and no flavour at all. Give the quince a sniff should tell you if they are fresh.

Nazdrave

As a Kiwi that also lived 30 years in Perth in Oz its a pleasure to read such interesting topics here. I have been distilling for about ten years in Oz but moved to Bulgaria about four yesrs ago. Bought a handmade still from the gypsies (50 lits work of art) and have been distilling a variety of was...

I live in a mountain village in Bulgaria and the surrounding mountains are full of wild apples and plums and these are extensively used by the locals to make the local "brandy"which we call rakia. The fruit is gathered as ripe as possible and placed in a 200 litre drum, covered in water an...

Just to make you guys green with envy...I live in a small mountain village in Bulgaria which is surrounded by beech and oak forests and we burn it our fires for heat! hahahahaha. There is a thriving trade here that makes excellent oak casks as well. Incidently they also make a lot of casks out of ac...

In Bulgaria where I live a common wood that casks are made from is Mulberry. It is rather porus though so it is often combined with oak and so the staves are both mulberry and oak, a great combination. It gives a wonderful colour and flavour though but very expensive to buy. Mulberry sticks are also...

To obtain alcohol they must convert the starch to sugar and then ferment the sugar. So the amylase could be coming from the manioc or the saliva (which contains amylase too)

Nazdrave (cheers in Bulgaria)

In Bulgaria where I am now living, most Bulgarians and in particular the villagers, simply gather the fruit and put it in a large drum, cover with water and leave it for months on end. The mash gets covered in flies and often develops a white mould on top, which they tell me is good for the fermenta...

Having returned from Africa where Manioc is one of the staple foods, I noticed when eating it that it has a definite sweetness to it. Has anyone heard if there is an amylase in this as it is eaten cooked and maybe a starch to sugar conversion? I brought back a couple of KGs to try it in my next mash...

The other product that I suspect contains a high amount of amylase is manioc which maybe available in SE Asia. Its a root product and when cooked it tastes quite sweet which I suspect is conversion of starch to sugars via amaylase. Fresh ginger is also a source of amylase which you need to break dow...

Surely if the salts do not interfere with the yeast activity then during distillation they will remain in the still anyway and won't pass over with the spirit. Just a thought and worth a try.

Weestiller.. hey Mike All the recipies I have seen for making rum say that the beet sugar molassis should not be used but no one gives a reason, but what the hell I guess if its no good then I will put it thru the charcoal and then make a liqueur out of it. I will give that a try as in Bulgaria they...

Yeah some brown sugar is available here but only in very small quantities and would be cheaper to fly to Carribean than buy the quantities that I need. I can buy white refined sugar in bulk. I hear the beet molasses is not suitable for rum making so trying to manufacture some from the refined white ...

I am living in Bulgaria where home distillation is the norm and even the villages have a communal still which is great fun. Very few people buy their spirits and certainly the only spirits they drink, usually a brandy called rakia, becomes a talking point at all the parties. I want to make a rum but...