New guy what to learn.

[Bph]

Just wanted to start by saying thanks to everyone for making this website possible. I currently have access to a 10 gallon copper pot still and so far I've make one successful sugar wash. Now I would like to move to All Grain. I'm a chef by day and an enthusiastic hoppiest by night. I love fly fishing I love gardening and I love foraging for wild edible foods. Last year I decided to take up growing mushrooms. It started with a lot of YouTube videos made by people who come to find out didn't know anything about growing mushrooms. Then I found a sperm similar to this one and it all started making sense. I find it to be the same for this Hobby and probably every other Hobby. So I'm pretty excited that I found this so early before I had a chance to taint my mind with the opinions of a lot of people that don't know what they're doing. Now all I need to do is learn how to properly navigate this site cuz I'm sure that all the information I need is right here at my fingertips. If anyone can point me in right direction as far as things I need to read it would be be greatly appreciated. I'm looking forward to all the information I'm going to learn and I look forward to one day being able to contribute do I have a new be like myself. Thanks for taking the time to read this and thanks in advance for helping me to figure this all out.

[Bph]

Lol. Found a forum not sperm.

[living in the hollar]

Welcome to the crew. You found a good place to start, like it has been said before and will be said again start at the beginning and read this forum until
your eyes bleed and read it again. There a lot of great resources here and a lot of good people willing to help.

[Twisted Brick]

I'm a chef by day and an enthusiastic hoppiest by night.

Then welcome down the rabbit hole, Bph! Lots of directions to follow in your pursuit of making fine spirits.

Enjoy your journey.

Twisted Brick

[cob]

Now all I need to do is learn how to properly navigate this site cuz I'm sure that all the information I need is right here at my fingertips. If anyone can point me in right direction as far as things I need to read it would be be greatly appreciated.

at the top of the page is board index in forum are ~1500 posts start there and you will soon learn

what you want or need to read. next is new to distillation, skip the welcome center unless you get

bored. after that read almost everything, novice distillers falls into that if bored category.

somewhere along the line what suits you will start to stand out and the rest falls by the wayside.

a using the search tutorial should be in the first few hundred posts. write down your questions

because you are right it's all here, and you will come across answers eventually, but search is faster

if you really get lost someone will help. this rabbit hole is infinite. welcome and good luck.

[TDick]

Welcome!

In addition to Required Reading indicated at the bottom of the page,
Look through Tried & True Recipes and pick a couple to study.

One piece of advice.
I also have a copper pot.
I learned early that it's not much harder to make a big batch than a small one.
Make enough for 3-4 stripping runs which will give you enough for a spirit run with a full still.

[Bph]

Thanks for not giving me a hard time for that ruff draft. Lol. Big thumbs and broke screens... I'm so excited. When this guy told me he had a still and that he would teach me the ropes, I was pumped. Then we made a batch and ran it together and I quickley realized he knew less than me about every aspect. All I know came from you tube so thats bad. He dosent take cuts. He never even heard of a stripping run. He said "my whiskey is good first run thats why I bought the copper" when I told him I plan to do all grain he laughed at me and said "yea aint gonna get nutthin if you dont add no sugar tha corns just for flavor!" He's a trip for sure. That said I'm about to get my read on. Ordered up 50# of malted barley, 150# of corn, and a hand mill yesterday so its time to go figure out what to do with them.

[tombombadil]

Decades worth of experience on here. Read read read. Welcome!

[seabass]

Glad you found your sperm.

My advice for all grain is to learn the basics of mashing and fermenting, find a tried and true AG bourbon recipe and just go for it. The hardest part will be separating the liquid from the sludge. Research that and figure out whether your want to squeeze a bag or use a mop bucket.

[Tummydoc]

Welcome to the time warp, this site will make time disappear! Lots to learn.

"I'm a chef by day and an enthusiastic hoppiest by night."

Well that beer experience should come in handy!

[Bph]

Well, after much research ive decide to order more stuff. Lol. Gonna go with some liquid enzymes for my first corn mash. I'm still gonna use the malted barley and possibly some oats one day cause I have em laying around for my oyster mushrooms. Ive also thought about millet cause I feed it to the birds. Well to be honest I have been reading non stop for 2 days since discovering this place and ive been thinking about everything to do with whiskey. So for my first run im gonna do the casual corn method. I have started milling my corn and built a 50 gallon fermenter. I got a 120qt pot and a paint mixer for the drill. I am considering insulating the fermenter (its a blue food grade barrel with locking lid I just put a whole in it for the airlock) I figure it will help keep the temp even during fermentation and may even try throwing the corn in there at 200 then follow directions for the enzymes from there. My curent plan is to mash in the big ass pot I already own cause I'm very comfortable manually controlling temperature. Truth be told im kinda sad I dont get to cook the corn with this method. Ive cooked enough grits and polenta in my career (and scrubed enough burnt pots) to know how to keep it from scorching. But at the end of the day for me its about conversion and using the least amount of resources to make something delicious. Then when I get this all figured out I can move on to more traditional methods.

[Bph]

Well I decided to throw caution to the wind and get something going while I await my liquid enzymes. I had ground up 50 lb of corn yesterday so I grabbed that. I brought 30 gallons of water to a boil. I got my 10 lb sack of malted barley and a 1 oz pouch of amylase enzymes. When the water was boiling I slowly added in the ground up corn stirring with a paint mixer attachment on an electric drill. Once I got it all mixed I thought to myself "easy money". I just let the heat rip and kept mixing for 30 to 45 minutes. At this point I checked the temp thinking it's got to be close to 200. Oh s*** 167. Now despite using a sheet tray as a diffuser for my 120 quart stock pot I I was getting a film on the bottom. At this point I decide to let instincts take over. I threw about 5 more gallons of water into the pot with the heat turned off and stirred like crazy. This took care of the film. I thought "Whew I'm back in business". Then I turn the heat back on and keep stirring. A couole hours later after stirring like a mad man I check the temp... f*** 173 and it's getting thick again on the bottom. I put the lid on the giant pot and got a normal size pot filled it with water and got it to boil. Remind you this is a solid 3-4 hours after I initially had the boiling water going so ive lost a lot of my first 30 gallons. Fuck it. I keep stirring. My drill is starting to smell like burnt plastic. But I keep mixing. I got the 5-gallon pot of water boiling and a ladle. I laddle in water as I mix my ass off.. Patience. I've come this far and poured so much sweat. Finally 2 hours later I've got 50 lb of grits 201 degrees! They're thick as a brick and there is no room in this pot for 10 more pounds of barley. F*** I'll deal with that later. Put the lid on the big pot and go drink a lot of beer. At this point it's past dinner time and I haven't eaten. I thought I'd be done by lunch. I hang out and keep the temp above 190 for a few hours . Then I grab the drill, just like before I kept stirring like a madman until the temp is 154. Its now 11:36 I've just finished adding the malted barley but first I had to scoop out a 5 gallon buckets worth of the corn to make room. I mixed in the barley (after hand milling like the fucking corn) and the one ounce of enzymes then put the lid back on. The temperature was 152 and my plan is to go down there once an hour and cut the heat on for a few minutes tell the temp returns to 152 for the next few hours then go to sleep. At the rate it's been cooling I'd say it's still going to be 135 when I wake up. Wish me luck.

[tombombadil]

Welcome!

In addition to Required Reading indicated at the bottom of the page,
Look through Tried & True Recipes and pick a couple to study.

One piece of advice.
I also have a copper pot.
I learned early that it's not much harder to make a big batch than a small one.
Make enough for 3-4 stripping runs which will give you enough for a spirit run with a full still.

+1

There's lots of wisdom in the tried and true recipes. Just read them all, even if the type of spirit doesn't appeal to you. Learning about other peoples processes will teach you a lot. A lot of them explain why they do things the way they do, that helps a lot. It did for me anyways.

If you want to learn AG, then find a recipe that's close to what you want and just follow it closely.

[Bph]

Long story short this shits hard. Mad props to the my HD homies. I just went down and hit it with the drill and cut the heat on for a min cause the temp was down to 149. It was noticeably thinner so maybe the enzymes are working! Also sorry to the mods if this is not the place for my ramblings. Im just used to a lot of chit chat on the message boards for mushrooms. Is there anywhere people go to shoot the shit on here? I dont want to clog up the boards or piss off the admins. I just get into hobbies.

[Bph]

"If you want to learn AG, then find a recipe that's close to what you want and just follow it closely."

Ill be doing this as soon as my liquid enzymes get here. I just got bored today.

[Bph]

Well damn. Just my went to check the temperature. It was holding steady at 151. But its crazy how much loser it all is. I honestly wrote this whole thing off but wanted to give it my all. I do belive its working tho. I just threw in some banana chips I had that no one will eat and 5 lbs of honeysuckel my fiance and I picked at the farm we will get married at this fall. I had it in the freezer so its no longer my first all grain. I'll take a reading tommorow and bump it up with sugar if its no good. But I honestly belive its working. Maybe the gods will favor my wedding "spirits" if I get abything I'll pass the jar around the bone fire.

Lol sorry too many beers and not enough meals today... Love this place tho. I really am learning at light speed.

[seabass]

Sounds like the only real mistake you made was not having enough room in the pot. Also, you'll probably want to insulate that pot to save time from temp loss.

Definitely sounds like it's working. Good luck!