What'd ya'll make today?

Production methods from starch to sugars.

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Deplorable
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Deplorable »

Put up a gumballhead on some bourbon grains.22 gallons at 1.064 OG. I still need to get around to the spirit run on the low wines off them grains.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Deplorable »

Spirit run on my bourbon mash. ABVs need correction for temp. The jars were all coming off the still about 70°f. Mighty tasty hearts. I think this is gonna be a great jug-o-booze.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by howie »

1st attempt at rum spirit run with live dunder + ordinary dunder + some feints + a stripping run.
10 minutes from the the end of a 1 hour full reflux with just 3 rolls of copper mesh.
soon to go into spirit pot mode and see what we get :|
smells good so far.
and going after the rum oils at the end for my next run.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by 6 Row Joe »

I need to look and see if I made some notes on this batch. I do remember running some chocolate malt and Harris Otter and some sugar. I found a bottle that I had just marked S45 which should be sugar shine 90 proof but damn it had a sweet and chocolate nose that carried on into the palate. It was a sweet biscuit flavor and a mild milk chocolate flavor, a warm hug in the middle and a honey flavored finish. Damn, I hope I can duplicate it. Notes from now on.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Toxxyc »

Running the rum wash for a friend today. Doing a single run, collecting just the hearts straight off the wash. I've found with rum that this produces by far the most flavourful product, and I love it. It cut the fores (firestarter jar) and then collected a healthy shot of heads, before doing a taste and in a matter of minutes the flavour went from "wow, heads" to "wow, this is awesome". It's the highest percentage molasses I've used in a wash to date, and it shows. I typically use 20%~30% of the weight of the fermentables as Treacle 3, but this time it was 50%. Worth every gram.

I'm now collecting hearts relatively fast, as it carries a bit more flavour, but not too fast otherwise I've found it can taste almost "plastic".

The smell currently in my brewery/office/distillery smells amazing. Wish I could do this every single day.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

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... stripping run between showings of our house. :-)
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Toxxyc »

Rrmuf wrote: Wed May 19, 2021 4:19 am ... stripping run between showings of our house. :-)
I had the garage door wide open the first time I ran my still. It's fine, because the house next door was standing empty.

Until the agent showed up with potential buyers, my still in all it's glorious beauty openly displayed for all to see, a mere 5m or so away.

They bought the house.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

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Toxxyc wrote: Wed May 19, 2021 4:40 am
Rrmuf wrote: Wed May 19, 2021 4:19 am ... stripping run between showings of our house. :-)
I had the garage door wide open the first time I ran my still. It's fine, because the house next door was standing empty.

Until the agent showed up with potential buyers, my still in all it's glorious beauty openly displayed for all to see, a mere 5m or so away.

They bought the house.
:thumbup:
Our agent saw my still some time back and asked wwhat it was. My wife said "A distillery". He said nothing at all.
.... It didn't make the feature sheet. Stay tuned on when it sells. :crazy:
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Toxxyc »

Yeah the previous neighbors loved the fact that I made booze. I kinda carried them through our hard lockdown last year, so maybe they saw it as a selling point? :D

Anyway, back to topic, the rum I made a few weeks ago, is now with:
Glycerine (I used on the very low end), 25ml for the whole 6.5 litres
Bourbon Vanilla extract, 25ml
12 Allspice berries
9 Whole cloves
1/4 Teaspoon aniseed
1 Knife tip's worth of cinnamon (cinnamon tends to be REALLY strong in my drinks, so I am very careful with it)
3 x Slivers of orange peel, cut as shallow as possible to get very little pith
1 x Tablespoon of treacle #3 molasses

The orange peel (not sure if I posted this) seems to have broken down and created this sludge all over everything in the jar. I therefore decided to let it settle and then yesterday filtered the rum first through a paper towel, and then through a coffee filter. It came out crystal clear.

I washed the pieces of oak in there to get all that gunk off, and then added them back into the rum. Looks beautiful now. I took a picture on a light background to show the amazing colour, and I love it:

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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by BlackStrap »

5 gallons "All Feints" (rum, banana rum, 3 runs of UJSSM, 2 apple brandies, and a soured scotch ale & whatever else didn't make the first cut) started out @ 120pr or 60% abv proofed down to 20% ... Making sure the element remained covered and the proof was in a safe range.

Turned out better than expected, ran the still in reflux and pulled 1.7 gallons of 90-92% abv. of an interesting tasting spirit, clean not overpowered by one flavor or another, not a neutral either... I think this will get proofed down to 50-60% and used as a "white" mixer. Thinking something like a Lemonade Sour. :)

:) Be safe and take care! :)
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Deplorable »

pulled the oak sticks and filtered my KSSF that's been on oak for 7 months. In that time the proof dropped 3% from 63 to 60.
image4869.jpg
Then I made 750ml of 43% of it. I'll drink on this jug while my AGs age.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Sporacle »

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Just about to start stripping 20L of SBB molasses, 20 already stripped, and 20 to go in the fermenter tomorrow
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by NormandieStill »

After my first HBB mash failed so spectacularly, I decided to try a simpler AG bill with some high-temp enzymes to make neutral (or a light whisky if it turns out to be interesting).

4.5kg unmalted wheat (feed stock)
0.5kg porridge oats
15L water.

I didn't have the water quite hot enough. I was aiming for 80C in the mash tun and poured it in at 89C, but between the mash tun and the grains it finished up at 77C. Stirred the grains (single pass through the corona mill) thoroughly and added 1ml of high temp alpha-amylase. When the temp had dropped to 60C I added 2ml of gluco-amylase and let it rest for a couple of hours. Took a sample of clear wort and cooled it to take the SG (1.064) and then used the sample to hydrate 11g bakers yeast. Chilled the wort down to about 25C with a chiller and pitched the (really bubbling) yeast starter. It's been four days and it's still roaring. No heaters, I'm going to let it go dry at it's own pace.

I've ordered some yellow label yeast to have a play with in the future. I can get wheat for next to nothing. In fact if this works out as I hope, even allowing for the enzymes and the oats, it's cheaper than a sugar wash (Unless I can find a bulk source for sugar, I'm currently buying in 5kg bags). The idea will be to double distill with conservative cuts and aim for a vodka with a slight grainy taste. Unless it turns out to be a really nice grainy taste in which case it may become a sipping whisky. Since I have some sugar left over, I might try some gumbalheads with the first few batches as well.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Yodaspike »

Just a beer batch for those long days
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Rrmuf »

Yippee!!!! First spirit run in a month (busy!!) I am refluxing and it's going better than any other run. Coming off at 95%+ after a liter pulled off.
Many thanks to the veterans here, but on refluxing, I have to do a special call out to Mars (aka. Stillerboy) for the hints and tips along the way!
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Jstroke »

Just finishing a SweetFeed strip and headed at SBB Rum next.

On a side note I found a source of aged oak for practically nothing, so I am headed there tomorrow to pick it up
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by NZChris »

Gin, using a new hot plate and controller. Both worked well and the gin already makes a nice G&T even though the distillation was only finished four hours ago.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by jonnys_spirit »

I've got 46 gallons of various wines to strip. First of three strips last night and got about 4.5 to 5 gallons of 50% low wines... If I strip it down to 35% I'm going to have too much low wines for a single spirit run but we'll see... I might reserve some of the pinot blanc or chardonnay for proofing. I'm going to use this spirit to make some grand marnier and various macerations as well as some straight brandy aged on used wine oak.

Cheers!
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Stonecutter »

Running more whiskey:
2.5 lbs quick oats
4.5 lbs malted Barley
3.5 lbs flaked Corn
3 lbs malted rye
2lbs sugar
So far so good. She smells delicious and tastes even better :ewink:
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Deplorable »

Stonecutter wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 4:30 pm Running more whiskey:
2.5 lbs quick oats
4.5 lbs malted Barley
3.5 lbs flaked Corn
3 lbs malted rye
2lbs sugar
So far so good. She smells delicious and tastes even better :ewink:
Stop with the sugar. 13.5# of grain should be plenty in a 6 gallon mash.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Stonecutter »

+1 It definitely is plenty of grain to make a great product. I added the sugar for shits and giggles. I pushed up to around 1.077. The fermentation worked great and the run has been bountiful. I’m not a fan of the off flavors a bunch of sugar. This was a bit of a experiment. Only time will tell. Thanks for the advice Deplorable.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by NZChris »

Picked and trod 370lb of vine ripened gold kiwifruit. The Brix was 17.8, so it should be a good yield as long as the pressing goes well. It's fermenting on the pulp.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by NormandieStill »

Elderflower sparkly following a recipe by John Wright. My last batch of this, cooked up 2 years ago was not too shabby, and I'm hoping to get a double batch going this time so I can get 12 bottles down.

Otherwise still waiting for my somewhat delayed 32L fermenting buckets to show up so I can actually get some decent ferments going for my enzyme mash wheat whiskeyvodka (I won't know what I'm going to do with it until I actually run it).
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Hambone »

Made a big batch of burnt ends while my mashes finish off…
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by NZChris »

Hambone wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 4:35 pm Made a big batch of burnt ends while my mashes finish off…
burnt ends?
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Sporacle »

All corn and smoked Thai chicken
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by SomethingObscure »

NZChris wrote:
Hambone wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 4:35 pm Made a big batch of burnt ends while my mashes finish off…
burnt ends?
Burnt ends are pieces of meat cut from the fatty end of the brisket, the lean part is the deep pectoral, while these are fattier "point" . Usually bbq'd, grilled or smoked as a whole brisket then cut off after (at least in the UK). Because they are the fatty pointy end they usually get rather blackened. Very very tasty.

Cheers SomethingObscure
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Hambone »

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Smoked brisket points for about 10 hours, slice into chunks and put into foil pan. Cover with a mix of broth, BBQ sauce, and brown sugar and smoke them a couple more hours.

Sweet, spicy, beefy nuggets of heaven.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Tummydoc »

Hambone wrote:Made a big batch of burnt ends while my mashes finish off…
Brisket burnt ends are meat candy! Also great from pork belly.
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Re: What'd ya'll make today?

Post by Deplorable »

Tummydoc wrote: Sat Jun 05, 2021 5:02 am
Hambone wrote:Made a big batch of burnt ends while my mashes finish off…
Brisket burnt ends are meat candy! Also great from pork belly.
Indeed. I might have to pull some pork belly out of the freezer to smoke.
I've got 24 gallons of Bourbon gumballhead to strip today, and spirit run tomorrow.
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