Novice Homemade Whisky vs Commercial

Other discussions for folks new to the wonderful craft of home distilling.

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Woddy123
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Re: Novice Homemade Whisky vs Commercial

Post by Woddy123 »

Yummyrum wrote: Wed Jun 23, 2021 1:19 pm The still is just the tip of the whisky ice-burg .
Thanks and yes I need to find out more about the rest of the gear required.
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Re: Novice Homemade Whisky vs Commercial

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Re: Novice Homemade Whisky vs Commercial

Post by Setsumi »

aging certainly improves brown spirits. developing a sound understanding of the process is as easy as reading on here. then you need practical experience. the better your cuts the quicker you will be able to sample.
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Re: Novice Homemade Whisky vs Commercial

Post by Trapped-in-Oz »

Woddy123 wrote: Wed Jun 23, 2021 8:23 pm
I am not looking for cheap booze.


It took me nine months to arrive at a satisfactory result (mocha on French).
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Re: Novice Homemade Whisky vs Commercial

Post by NZChris »

Woddy123 wrote: Wed Jun 23, 2021 8:23 pm I am happy to learn although if it is going to take 20 years of learning and many years of aging to produce a quality product I might have to give it a miss.
As a newbie, I made many successful batches before I had a failure. Back then, Youtube and forums didn't exist, so there wasn't nearly as much misinformation available to a newbie as there is now. There also wasn't as much fantastically good information available. Unfortunately, there is nobody policing what gets posted here or on the Web, so be careful when doing your homework.

You should be able to make fine product from your first run, then get keep getting better from there on.
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Re: Novice Homemade Whisky vs Commercial

Post by Yummyrum »

NZChris wrote: Wed Jun 23, 2021 11:03 pm Unfortunately, there is nobody policing what gets posted here
Thats your opinion Chris .
I think the members here do a pretty damn good job of policing the info thats published here and calling BS when its bad .

Sure , not everyone will agree entirely with your way of doing things …. nor mine …. but we are generally all on the same page . Just like not all Whisky or Rum producers follow exactly the same procedure , they stick to basic familiar processes .
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Re: Novice Homemade Whisky vs Commercial

Post by LWTCS »

100% yummy.
You need to spend enough time here to get a feel for who is who. Its overwhelming at first. But gets easier.

Pluck out the few members that seem to have somewhat consistent, similar experiences and use their input as a guide until you are more precisely able to trust your own forthcoming experiences against other enthusiasts.

Of all the on line platforms, HD is pretty darn self policing imo.
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Re: Novice Homemade Whisky vs Commercial

Post by Stonecutter »

I’ve been doing this thing for a measly two years and honestly I think I already enjoy the flavors I’m pulling out of my single malts and peaty “scotch” more than the store bought stuff. I think all the shelf stuff starts to taste the same and the Craft whiskey flavors I can create are just more enjoyable to drink. It should only get better. Don’t be shy! jump in the pool and start enjoying what booze should really taste like.
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Re: Novice Homemade Whisky vs Commercial

Post by desert_distiller »

I think if your goal is to make an absolute carbon copy of a commercial product you may be disappointed. Short of using the exact same process including the years in barrels and blending multiple barrels I think you'll find you might spend years and come up a bit different.

I look at it as similar to your favorite guitarist. You can have the same guitar and amp, but no matter how much you practice never sound quite the same. The key is realizing you can gain the skills to make beautiful music, your music.

The same with home distilled spirits. You can make a wonderful product you'll enjoy drinking and be proud to share with family and friends. Just realize it will be your version and spend the time to time to find out what you produce best. Enjoy the journey and the learning process.

As far as equipment, I agree with getting a boiler that accepts tri clamp fittings which allows you to have a modular setup. I think a 7-8 gallon boiler for 5 gallon batches is a good balance of making enough product to be worth the effort and having enough resolution for good cuts.
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Re: Novice Homemade Whisky vs Commercial

Post by Twisted Brick »

desert_distiller wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 10:45 pm I think if your goal is to make an absolute carbon copy of a commercial product you may be disappointed. Short of using the exact same process including the years in barrels and blending multiple barrels I think you'll find you might spend years and come up a bit different.

I look at it as similar to your favorite guitarist. You can have the same guitar and amp, but no matter how much you practice never sound quite the same. The key is realizing you can gain the skills to make beautiful music, your music.

The same with home distilled spirits. You can make a wonderful product you'll enjoy drinking and be proud to share with family and friends. Just realize it will be your version and spend the time to time to find out what you produce best. Enjoy the journey and the learning process.
Great analogy. Many distilleries share information on their grain bills and still configs, but will not divulge anything about their yeast, often a proprietary secret kept under lock and key.
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jayka
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Re: Novice Homemade Whisky vs Commercial

Post by jayka »

Hey mate I've been distilling for about a year now and I went straight to a pot still with 100% grain mash and here is what I can tell you.

First up I purchased a "over the counter" still.
I got the alcoengine pot still. It's super easy to use and looked a little less daunting that what the t500 was offering. Literally 3 parts! The only thing it's missing is power input control but you can start without it no prob. Power control will set you back another $50 when your ready.

Watch still it's mash video it's really easy to follow and involves no sugar.

I like to age in barrels. Never tried in glass but like how barrels turn out.

I bottled up my first batch the other day and my father in law couldn't put it down. And he had a bottle of 12yr old sitting on the bench.

So in summary you can totally make a top shelf whiskey at home.
Learn what you can from here but also go back and watch all still it's old vids too. There's a lot of good info there.

Here is his mash video.
https://youtu.be/C84jENc70tk

And you can always upgrade and build one later. I'm building one now but at the time and I still stick by it now. If I was going to build I would would still be building now and not drinking as it is. I have over 40lt ageing away and more to come while I tinker with my new build.
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Re: Novice Homemade Whisky vs Commercial

Post by bluc »

Twisted Brick wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 10:57 pm
desert_distiller wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 10:45 pm I think if your goal is to make an absolute carbon copy of a commercial product you may be disappointed. Short of using the exact same process including the years in barrels and blending multiple barrels I think you'll find you might spend years and come up a bit different.

I look at it as similar to your favorite guitarist. You can have the same guitar and amp, but no matter how much you practice never sound quite the same. The key is realizing you can gain the skills to make beautiful music, your music.

The same with home distilled spirits. You can make a wonderful product you'll enjoy drinking and be proud to share with family and friends. Just realize it will be your version and spend the time to time to find out what you produce best. Enjoy the journey and the learning process.
Great analogy. Many distilleries share information on their grain bills and still configs, but will not divulge anything about their yeast, often a proprietary secret kept under lock and key.
I still reakon cuts is the most important part of the process..
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Re: Novice Homemade Whisky vs Commercial

Post by Deplorable »

bluc wrote: Fri Jun 25, 2021 12:33 am
Twisted Brick wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 10:57 pm
desert_distiller wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 10:45 pm I think if your goal is to make an absolute carbon copy of a commercial product you may be disappointed. Short of using the exact same process including the years in barrels and blending multiple barrels I think you'll find you might spend years and come up a bit different.

I look at it as similar to your favorite guitarist. You can have the same guitar and amp, but no matter how much you practice never sound quite the same. The key is realizing you can gain the skills to make beautiful music, your music.

The same with home distilled spirits. You can make a wonderful product you'll enjoy drinking and be proud to share with family and friends. Just realize it will be your version and spend the time to time to find out what you produce best. Enjoy the journey and the learning process.
Great analogy. Many distilleries share information on their grain bills and still configs, but will not divulge anything about their yeast, often a proprietary secret kept under lock and key.
I still reakon cuts is the most important part of the process..
You can make better cuts with better ferment control. That is, control your ferment to keep the yeast happy, and you be able to make better cuts, increase your keep, and improve your final product.
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Re: Novice Homemade Whisky vs Commercial

Post by underdog »

You can do this.
Look at the still designs on this site for an idea of what is possible. Every one of us has been where you are today. We all want to get started as fast as we can, however that's not the best way to approach this. Read until your eyes bleed. Learn about the different types of still designs. Think about what you want to do, and how to do it best. If you don't know, read until you do. The time you spend increasing your knowledge before starting out will be well spent.

If you have just a little mechanical aptitude, you can build an electric SCR controller from eBay parts for very little money. We have plans here. You will only need one, ever, and you can set it up exactly as you need it to power an electric water heater element for your boiler.
People like to use kegs for boilers (they make excellent ones with some custom work), but you can get a stainless milk can boiler on eBay for $200-300 (8 gal or 13 gal) with all the necessary ports in it already. It will last you forever. Some off-the-shelf stainless tube fittings, tri-clamps, a Liebig product condenser (which you could buy or build) and you're looking at a pot still that will kick that T-500's ass.

You can always improve your own rig (I just did exactly that) and it can grow with your knowledge and talents.

There is a wealth of good information here and no one here is going to steer you in a wrong direction. In fact, it's impossible as there are awesome moderators standing ready to rip the necks open of those who would try to steer you wrong. This is the mother lode of distilling information. You are in the right place for what you want to do.
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Re: Novice Homemade Whisky vs Commercial

Post by Trapped-in-Oz »

Deplorable wrote: Fri Jun 25, 2021 6:10 am
control your ferment to keep the yeast happy, and you be able to make better cuts

……..and match the yeast to maximise the ingredients, ensuring yeast has anything for happiness = clean ferments.
Woddy123
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Re: Novice Homemade Whisky vs Commercial

Post by Woddy123 »

Thanks gents clearly there is lots more to learn.
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jayka
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Re: Novice Homemade Whisky vs Commercial

Post by jayka »

I must say I'm all for the research and study. But no body learns to make a pot, pan or knife by hand before they become a chef. Go get your off the shelf still play with it experiment and have some fun. In 12 month you will know if you want to take it further.
Sooner or later the people who run the planet all end up choosing one drink....
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Re: Novice Homemade Whisky vs Commercial

Post by stillanoob »

Naw, nothing like 20 years. If you carefully follow the recipes and advice here you will make something decent right off the bat. Truly excellent will shortly follow if you keep reading and learn from your own experience. The first bit up the learning curve is quick. Then you get to the part you can spend the rest of your life learning.
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Re: Novice Homemade Whisky vs Commercial

Post by dunluce »

I agree with jayka. If you don't mind buying off the shelf, and then are willing to upgrade in the next year or so - go for it. You can learn a lot with an off the shelf still, plus it allows you to learn what you might want to put into a build of your own.
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Re: Novice Homemade Whisky vs Commercial

Post by desert_distiller »

bluc wrote: Fri Jun 25, 2021 12:33 am
Twisted Brick wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 10:57 pm
desert_distiller wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 10:45 pm I think if your goal is to make an absolute carbon copy of a commercial product you may be disappointed. Short of using the exact same process including the years in barrels and blending multiple barrels I think you'll find you might spend years and come up a bit different.

I look at it as similar to your favorite guitarist. You can have the same guitar and amp, but no matter how much you practice never sound quite the same. The key is realizing you can gain the skills to make beautiful music, your music.

The same with home distilled spirits. You can make a wonderful product you'll enjoy drinking and be proud to share with family and friends. Just realize it will be your version and spend the time to time to find out what you produce best. Enjoy the journey and the learning process.
Great analogy. Many distilleries share information on their grain bills and still configs, but will not divulge anything about their yeast, often a proprietary secret kept under lock and key.
I still reakon cuts is the most important part of the process..
I would beg to differ. Perhaps a cooking analogy is a better approach. Quality primary ingredients are essential, this is your mash. Putting the ingredients in proper proportions is your cuts. And your seasonings are aging. For an outstanding product you need to get all of them right.

But it really comes down to what you like in a whisky. For me a whisky has to stand on it's own served neat, i.e. room temperature in a glass, no water, no ice. The spices and flavors should be distinct and balanced. I am after a whisky taste, not a whisky like taste where the flavors are there, but they are muted or muddied. Most commercial whiskeys I've tried I wouldn't buy again so I'm picky.

My home distilled experience has only been 4 or 5 batches of UJSSM, two all grains and a rice wine that wasn't a great rice wine but seems to have some promise after distillation and aging on charred oak staves.

What I have found is you can't cheat time by putting in heaps of oak. Around 3 to 4 months the flavors start to get interesting, but I don't think I will ever get the full complexity of a good commercial product without going to a full barrel aging for 7-10 years.

Maybe someday I'll find a combination that will yield a whisky I would be happy to buy if it were a commercial product. I'm just not there yet and look at it as a multi year journey.

Now gin, you can make an outstanding gin at home and don't have to go through the timely learning curve of aging, and the multi month to multi year learning curve for each batch. I wasn't even a gin drinker until a friend introduced me to a good home made gin. I tried one of the recipes on here and after changing my setup to a carter heard I produced a gin I would gladly buy if it were a commercial product.
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Re: Novice Homemade Whisky vs Commercial

Post by Ben »

For the cost of a t500 ready to go milehi has some good pot still options. They are local to me so I favor them but if you need to buy pre-made they are a good choice... plus you can always add more tri clamp stuff or bigger pots etc. The modular thing works.

I love the equipment part of the hobby, so I want to build everything. Not everyone does, but you learn some really good skills building this stuff. You can be a pretty competent DIY plumber if you can build this equipment :) If you get into the electric side you can learn to home DIY that too!
:)
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