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I do think soaking the oak in port or sherry would be closer to the real thing. Since I'm using old whiskey barrel staves I don't think it needs toasting. As I wrote I'm not charring the whole oak piece so I'm getting less color than I would on a full charred stave like I do with bourbon or American...

I picked up an old JD cask (Lowes flower planter) that was falling apart so it came cheap. I took the staves and cut them to fit a qrt mason jar, about 5 inches, and then split them so they're about 3/4 inch sides. I use a circular sander to take the wood down to white and then char one side with a ...

Real simple recipe. Mash bill is 50/50. 2/1 water ratio (2 lbs to each 1 gal water) 13# Bairds Heavy Peated Malt (Phenol 35-45) 13# 2 row I mill the grain pretty fine with a MM3 mill. Finer than what my local HBS does but still plenty of husks and such. I have a Coleman 48 qrt cooler configured as a...

Those enzymes are magic, surfanarchist. Even when I calculate a sufficient >30L° diastatic power, I still toss in a little enzymes to help things along. I don't know how low the pH will go. I use crushed oyster shells in a brew sock to buffer the pH and keep it from crashing. They use the oyster sh...

This just flat out works. I'm an experienced AG beer brewer so here is how I did it. I used organic whole corn. Cost $22 per 50 lbs. Ground it to a better than standard crack with a Victory mill using a bolt in place of the handle and running it with a drill. 16 Lbs corn. 8 gal water. I put the corn...

Hi all, I'm new, introduced myself a month ago, and this is my second post. I have a fair amount of alpha amylase & gluco amylase powdered enzymes that I picked up to do a run of Uncle Remus Rice Vodka. Has anyone tried using the powdered enzymes for this recipe? Any opinion on whether powdered ...

Hi all, New guy from the mid-atlantic area saying hello. I'm looking to learn some distilling techniques in the hopes of one day going commercial. Figure I will start small and get a feel for the process and the gear and see if I have an aptitude for it. I've made bier (and pretty good bier if I say...