What'd ya'll make today?

[Bro-sephus]

Just made up some apple pie with that run of candy likker I stilled the other night! Got me about 3 quarts and had some extra cider/apple juice mix left so I put some UJSSM in there....oh my.... MAN is that good stuff!


Brosephus over and out!

[Odin]

Took some Limoncello, geneva and a first try at apple pie with me to Hungary. They liked the Limo, loved the geneva, but absolutely fell for the apple pie. The family in law finished the bottle in under two hours. Made some 7 liters extra. Sippin' on some right now. Great stuff.

Odin.

[Bro-sephus]

Yeah brother, great story! I hope my family has as good of an experience with my apple pie as yours did!

Cheers,
Brosephus

[chris_adams]

Just finished stocking my mash, I've tried one recipe I saw from this site. Really excited about getting this batch! It's past midnight I just noticed wew feels really like old day moonshining, under moonlight getting around cops hahaha

[MDH]

Began to infuse EXPENSIVE trinitario cocoa beans with neutral spirit and plan to distill once... I hope this works...

[PrairieDew]

All grain Rye mash for some single malt.

[Braz]

Did a gin run today using the vapor infusion gin basket on the pot still. This was a new herbal recipe for me. Sipping a gin martini now and it is just a little bit "in your face" on the herbals. I think about a 1 to 2 mix with a neutral and it will be about right.

[billy5077]

New to the hobby and to posting so I fig I'd just check in. First, thank you to all who have contributed info for us all to learn from. Bought a Reflux tower and de-tuned it to run 60 gallons of a 2010 Cab from central valley grapes that ended up way to acidic for my tastes (TA 10 g/l). Looking to make an aged brandy in the "cognac" style. Ran multiple stripping runs and now learning the art of the spirit run, using pint jars but concentrating on smell and taste. I've also been devouring all info on aging with oak sticks.

In the meantime, I bought 20lbs of golden promise and 10lbs thomas fawcett peated malt to make a scotch style whiskey....sitting in my fermenter right now. I've been brewing a few years so I have all the necessary gear to mash and lauter without much effort.

I have to say this is such a great hobby which requires a lot of skill and artistic touch. I'm glad to have taken it up and look forward to gaining more experience as I go.

Cent'anni

Billy

[pieeyes]

Well I'm brand new to the forum, but not new to distilling, home brewing, and wine making. I made tone of shine in my younger days. The simple cornmeal, sugar, water and yeast mash. Ya know? So I decided to give er a run after 15 years of down time. I made a Batch of the usual. Hot and Boring. So Today i made a mash of 3lbs smoked malted barley, and 4lbs of flaked maize plus 8 lbs of sugar and 1oz of distillers yeast. She's bubblin away. Has anyone tried smoked malted barley in their mash? If so, Hows the finished product? I was totally wingin it!!!

[frozenthunderbolt]

So Today i made a mash of 3lbs smoked malted barley, and 4lbs of flaked maize plus 8 lbs of sugar and 1oz of distillers yeast. She's bubblin away. Has anyone tried smoked malted barley in their mash? If so, Hows the finished product? I was totally wingin it!!!

you get some smokyness come over - others have even smoked the (paper) bags of sugar before using them

[pieeyes]

So Today i made a mash of 3lbs smoked malted barley, and 4lbs of flaked maize plus 8 lbs of sugar and 1oz of distillers yeast. She's bubblin away. Has anyone tried smoked malted barley in their mash? If so, Hows the finished product? I was totally wingin it!!!

you get some smokyness come over - others have even smoked the (paper) bags of sugar before using them

Glad someone answered me. I have a lot of stuff I'm thinking about doing, just want some input first. I have 2x5 gallon primary.. well
they're are called primaries in beer making. Never thought about what to call them when making shine. My grandpa taught me and he just called them buckets. lol the smokey mash is in my 7 gal primary. someone fill me in on the terms, I was taught by an old hillbilly. Seems like a pretty cool forum. see ya around:)

[Braz]

Distillers generally don't bother with secondary ferments. So we just call them "fermenters" or "buckets."

[pieeyes]

Distillers generally don't bother with secondary ferments. So we just call them "fermenters" or "buckets."

Thanks Braz. Ya"ll are very technical. This is not a forum full of guys like my grandpa. I just lost a whole batch of wash last night. I poured it in my pot and started bringing it up to temp. I got it to 180 and nothing. So i set my alarm for an hour later and checked my catcher and nothing. I had a huge air leak in my pot so i lost 2 hours of vapor to the air. I was so angry i just turned it off and went to bed. I got up this morning and fornd the leak. It was huge. Patched it up and I'm starting a run on it again o see if i can squeeze even a pint out. I'm hoping the vapor condensed a little on the lid and dropped down into the wash. It ;ost a lot of the smell. I'm very irritated

[Braz]

pieeyes,
Put on your fire suit 'cause you are going to get scolded for a couple things.

First, you should never run with a vapor leak. You need to check all potential leak points as the still comes up to temp. It is just part of running the still. It might help to get a little mirror and check for fogging at every possible leak point. Alcohol vapors in a heavy enough concentration are explosive.

Second, don't ever leave a running still unattended. Bad shit can happen in a hurry.

[pieeyes]

So Today i made a mash of 3lbs smoked malted barley, and 4lbs of flaked maize plus 8 lbs of sugar and 1oz of distillers yeast. She's bubblin away. Has anyone tried smoked malted barley in their mash? If so, Hows the finished product? I was totally wingin it!!!

you get some smokyness come over - others have even smoked the (paper) bags of sugar before using them

Glad someone answered me. I have a lot of stuff I'm thinking about doing, just want some input first. I have 2x5 gallon primary.. well
they're are called primaries in beer making. Never thought about what to call them when making shine. My grandpa taught me and he just called them buckets. lol the smokey mash is in my 7 gal primary. someone fill me in on the terms, I was taught by an old hillbilly. Seems like a pretty cool forum. see ya around:)

Gotcha. I feel like a newbie again. The still i used when i was in my 20's was a copper one, all one piece and dummy proof. All you had to do was put the wash in, bring up temp slowly, when you got to like 175 back off the heat and monitor the temp. Oh, and keep filling jars. Then when it got to about 190, collect your tails and clean er up. This pot is a 21 QT granite ware Stock pot with a make due silicone seal. I just didnt have enough clamps. Its sealed and im trying to run it again. I checked for leaks an have none. but its at 184 now and not one drop os goodies Its about to go to the toilette. I'm very disappointed now. Guess all the ethanol boiled off last night. I have another barley/corn wash thats down to a bubble every 20-30 seconds, I'm about to run it. I'll have to wait till morning, Dont want to be up all night.

[frozenthunderbolt]

Loose the silicone seal too. Look up "Easy gasket" PTF - ptf tape (lots and lost of it) over card works great and is completely safe

[Bro-sephus]

Pieeyes, brother, you need to step back and start anew! Graniteware stock pots are cheap and readily available, but they aren't safe for distilling in! I'm guessing you drilled through the lid for your column? Anywheres you break that graniteware surface treatment allows super caustic alcohol vapors to infiltrate causing corrosion and leaching into your distillate. If you stick to copper, stainless steel, and glass you won't go wrong!!

If there is one thing this forum advocates is safe distilling, otherwise we'll never see the day when hobby distillers can legally craft their own spirits! Please do some more reading in the New Distiller Reading Lounge http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=46 and and take a look at some of the designs folks have posted on the My Still section http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=50

A safe still uses lead free solder, copper/stainless steel/glass construction, non-toxic seals (flour paste, PTFE), and is always monitored from the minute it's on to the minute it's off!! Be safe brother!

Brosephus

[DistillerofDisdain]

Just started a Corn/Barley Whiskey Mash. This should be great!!! No turbo yeast for me this time. Going about it with distillers yeast. I will observe and report.

DoD

[Odin]

I have set my mind to making some fruity things. Got inspired by making my first apple pie. Like it a lot. Since then I have made Pear Pie (yes, like Apple Pie, but with pear juice instead of apple juice). And I have made Creme de Cassis. Great in the mix with a dry white wine or Champagne.

[qball]

I ran my peated barley wash last night into about 1.5 gallons of low wines.

[Marshwalker]

Finally bottled up the Mead!!!!! it's goood gooood goood to podnah!!! 16 - 750ml bottles and 2 - 1.5 liter bottles .... also bottled 3 1/2 - 750ml bottles of amerretto that I made from a couple gens of shindig whiskey..

[Devonhomebrew]

today i made 15L of sugar wash 3kg of sugar and nutrients and yeast

[NcHooch]

mashed up a batch of RD's "stupid good" bourbon ....I aint at liberty to divulge the secret recipe, but I will say its got some bird seed in it
Can't wait to taste it ( in a year)

[blind drunk]

? Secrets among friends

[Bro-sephus]

Bottled up a batch of green pear rum with some of the left over pears, some maple syrup and a bit of honey!

Brosephus

[Bro-sephus]

Just took my first ride on the All-Grain-Train tonight, taking a swing at NCHooch's bourbon!

14lbs cracked field corn + 1lbs 6-row simmered in my BOP over propane for an hour then held it at around 190 for another 40 minutes or so in my cooler. Cooled it down with some frozen backset from my green pear rum which dropped it a little too low (135 degrees F.. oops!) so I heated it back up with some boiling water back up to 155 and mashed in 6lbs of 6-row about 3 hours ago. Been stirring it every 15 minutes or so and checking temps, still sitting at 150degF out on my porch wrapped up in my favorite OU blanket , added a few crushed up beano pills for good measure and gonna let it continue to mash over night and check my SG in the morning after I get the kids off to school.

Cheers
Brosephus

[whiskeytripping]

Ain't that funny Bro?, anytime I NEED to drop the temps a little it won't hardly drop at all, then when you need it to drop a little, it's drops way too much

Let us know how this turns out, the all grain is an interesting brew I want to make myself, although rum will be the next project though

[Bro-sephus]

Whiskeytripping, gotta love ol' Murphy dorking around with your temps! I've mashed before twice, but never with grain alone, always used at least 3 or 4 lbs of sugar as my insurance policy before I put it in the fermentor.

[NcHooch]

Sounds like you got the hang of it Bro

[Bro-sephus]

Thanks NcHooch! Means alot coming from you! Got it fermenting nice now with some Red Star bread yeast, got an SG of about 1.040, so I'm pretty dern pleased with myself for my first shot!