What'd ya'll make today?

[jedneck]

Got the rum ferment started.
Used two quarts blackstrap
Dark brown sugar to sg of 1.075
Pinch epsom salt
6 oz can tomato paste
Two gallons backset from above run
1/4 cup backers yeast pitched at 95°
Smells like a molassas soaked fruit cake

[Due51]

I've been experimenting with the birdwatchers sugar recipe by adding some grain and other ingredients to improve the mash profile. When I did this in December, I added a few pounds of malted cracked red wheat and called it BirdWheaters. Yesterday, I changed to light brown sugar and added 1lb of Buckwheat Blossom honey
Mashed 3lbs cracked wheat at 150* in my 5gallon mash tun.
Sparged with 2 gallons 172* water.
Left me with about 4.25gallons of mash.
Took some of the mash + 1 liter wheat backset + 1 liter clean water and brought up to 180*
Added 5lbs light brown sugar, 1lb honey, 2 teaspoons gypsum, and 1 multivitamin. Dissolved sugar.
Cooled
1.064 OG (slightly lower than I expected)
Pitched 1 packet EC1118 that I rehydrated in 50ml of mash.

I might call this one Bucking Bird Watchers.

[scuba stiller]

Just started a run, sugarhead on the trub from two Booner's we did last week. One of the Booner's was fermented on the grain in anticipation of making a quick cheap drink. Going to start a Rye on this upcoming weekend. Still researching on what I want to do with 12 lb. Rye. Have corn and oats on hand. Hummm...

[aquavita]

Running 2.5 gallons of whatever was in the feints and leftovers jars... Mostly were from a raisin bran and a Mini-wheats that I did with a quart of UJSSMM tossed in for luck.

Hope to run it 2x tonight out of the pot still for a nice neutral.

Wife likes her "Frog Juice" (Vodka & Roses Lime) on the rocks - happy wife.....

[T-Pee]

My first Rad's All-Bran. Promising!

tp

[Johnny6]

I've got my first all grain (rice) bubbling away in the basement, using some enzymes from Woodshed. It was kind of keystone cops as I cooked up 12lb of rice and tried to get everything up to the right temperature for the enzymes to work. Mixing up that thick, hot stuff sort of melted and distorted my long plastic mixing spoon I bought... and I got a blister on my little finger. Sacrifices to the brewing gods must be made. I was a bit worried that I didn't get the dramatic thinning of the rice mixture with the addition of the enzymes, but I figured this first attempt wasn't likely to be too successful anyway. The yeasties, however, have been having a ball in the fermenter so I must have done something right. The little bubbler on top has only now (5 days later) slowed down to just 1 bubble per second. Delicious smell. I can't wait to run this stuff and see what it tastes like... looks like clearing/squeezing/filtering is the next hurdle in this adventure. This is an awesome hobby.

[freshwaterjellyfish]

recently moved and realized i had a fair bit of outdated oats- a few boxes of flavoured quakers, some steel cut oats and I robbed my better half's bakery cupboard for regular rolled oats, I had about six lbs total. I gave the steel cut oats a light simmer to soften them up and added the rolled and flavored oats. I brought the mass to 70C and added the high heat a-amylase and a couple tablets of beano (digestive enzymes)i snapped on the lid tight, wrapped the pot with a heating blanket and called it a night. The next morning it was very soupy. I added a gal of water w 1 lb 1/2 of sugar, pitched windsor yeast and crossed my fingers!!
...a week later the carboys still bubbling and im looking fw to my first run in the new homestead..

[freshwaterjellyfish]

sounds like some potent sake Johnny. i recently acquired a "herbal extractor bag" from a friend. It may be a silk screen or some other material. but it works awesome for "clearing squeezing and filtering" mash. I dont want to elaborate on the what kind of herb it's for but its from wackybag.com.

[jedneck]

Stripped a batch of what I'm calling Henpecked Whiskey. Its 40% white wheat malt and 60% mix of corn oats and barley. There is some rye and spelt in it from the last batch. Started another batch, it will get the malt in the am, still stealing a bucket of grain porridge. Might even have some for breakfast.

[firewater69]

I finally built the perfect (for me) brewpot & mash paddle. I tried it out yesterday by doing a step mash. Cracked corn, crimped oats, corn malt, barley malt & rye malt. it worked out great, so much easier than my old 10 gallon pot.

IMG_20150222_115228.jpg

IMG_20150222_114834.jpg

[humbledore]

Nice job Firewater, is that a pour spout?

Today I built a new 50" x 2" column, just the column with SS ferrules on both ends. I've had these parts for a while. Then I converted my LM head, VM head, and condenser tube from slip fittings to SS ferrules. Goodbye flour paste! Just a lot of sanding and soldering, helps keep my mind off this cold I have. I had no problem with the SS, just kept the heat on the stainless part cause it has more mass, the copper is going to heat up anyway. Used Harris Stay Brite silver solder and Stay Clean flux.

[W Pappy]

sounds like some potent sake Johnny. i recently acquired a "herbal extractor bag" from a friend. It may be a silk screen or some other material. but it works awesome for "clearing squeezing and filtering" mash. I dont want to elaborate on the what kind of herb it's for but its from wackybag.com.

Ya know I have seen one of them there bags in use Dont ask how I ended up at particular time and place when I did.
But now I'm glad I did or I would have no clue what you is talkin bout.It never crossed my mind to use one of them man you can
strain some fine stuff with one.Great Idea

[firewater69]

Thanks Humbledore, & congrats on the new column, i am planning on adding ferrules to my column & 10" extension soon. One ferrule will be made from the keg top that i cut out from my brew pot. & yes that is a pour spout, i heated it with a torch & gave it a whack with a ballpeen hammer.

[Jimbo]

Nice boiler firewater!

I stripped off a batch of S3 triple malt, and made 10gal of IPA today. Half will get a dry hop, the other half will get the bourbon barrel treatment. Oaky IPA is nice,

[firewater69]

Thanks Jimbo, how long do you leave the beer on oak? Sounds tasty!

[Jimbo]

I take 3 sticks that I use for quarts of bourbon. 1x1x5inch. Cut them in half long and short to make 4 pcs ea, 12 total. Char them all around, soak in water for a couple hours, and then soak them in a pint of whiskey for the 3 weeks the beer is fermenting in primary and secondary. When I keg in 3 weeks I add the whole pint of whiskey and the sticks into the corny keg with the IPA. Its nice! I have one on tap now, wish you were here to tip one or 3 with.

[firewater69]

Sounds awesome, im gonna have to make a batch soon.

[Jimbo]

Seems about right on the oak, forward and very clear oak, but not a tongue scraper, balances the hops real nice. Clarification on my post. 3 sticks. Makes 12 smaller pieces after I quarter them. Then char soak and add to 5 gal IPA.

[W Pappy]

Got 4 good batches of sweet feed symphony kickin in the background now,and a good batch of wheated bourbon going.

[freshwaterjellyfish]

sounds like some potent sake Johnny. i recently acquired a "herbal extractor bag" from a friend. It may be a silk screen or some other material. but it works awesome for "clearing squeezing and filtering" mash. I dont want to elaborate on the what kind of herb it's for but its from wackybag.com.

Ya know I have seen one of them there bags in use Dont ask how I ended up at particular time and place when I did.
But now I'm glad I did or I would have no clue what you is talkin bout.It never crossed my mind to use one of them man you can
strain some fine stuff with one.Great Idea

ill snap some pics of it when i use them next and throw a post up.

[T-Pee]

ill snap some pics of it when i use them next and throw a post up.

Just don't get confused and post some pics of you throwing up.

tp

[freshwaterjellyfish]

..lmao..no doubt.
....if i do get confused and end up posting a pic of me puking up a post....just call me Beaver!!

[MisplacedTime]

Took advantage of a rare Louisiana ice-out. Spirit ran the low wines of a 20gal batch of a Jimbo's Bourbon Gumballhead and inverted the sugar to ferment on the spent bourbon grains. 3 quarts of 65% on roasted charred oak and the sugarhead feeding the yeast. Luckily for me, I have a gallon of aged UJSM to sip on as I watch the sleet fall for a few days. Just saying.

[Jimbo]

Home today for a root canal at 1, lucky me, but if he makes this pain stop I might bring the sumbitch flowers. Anyway, took advantage of the morning to whip up a barrel of 100% corn meal mash. Using SebHT and Sebsuper enzymes at hot and 150. 75 lbs corn meal and 28 gal water, (looking for two 13 gal strippers) I suspect my SG might be a little high, we'll see. I can adjust later. Wanted to use a bag and half of corn meal, leaving another 1.5 for next time. I dislike partial bags of shit lying around. Using RO water, 4 tablespoons gypsum, 2 tablespoons Calcium Carbonate and 28 grams Epsom salts to get me 26ppm Magnesium.

Nice thing of doing straight single grain runs is you can blend later into whatever. With the 100% wheat grain run from last time, this gives me 3 different spirits, bourbon by blending them. 4 by keeping some corn likker white.

[firewater69]

Sorry bout that root canal Jimbo, hope ya get sone relief.

[jedneck]

Stripped another batch of henpecked. I think I scorched it. It was clearing for 2 days. Musta sucked a little shit up syphoning into boiler. Ill check the element when I clean up after eating.

[smoCha]

Thought I'd throw a post in here since my first couple threads went so well. Got 48 Oz of awesome strawberry/plum neutral. I guess that's what you call it, can I still get off easy by saying I'm new? I plunked about a half pound of strawberries that i found in the back of the frige and half a container of prunes into my last sugar wash. Has just the slightest fruit taste. Damn near 150 proof after I blended it. Cant decide if I should turn it into "strawberry pie" or make some sort of panty dropper out of it.

I'm also gonna repeat the recipe with a bit more fruit for next week. Finally, a recipe I want to make twice.

[humbledore]

Today I did my first strip run on a detuned VM running as a pot still. I made a cap for my LM column, drilled a hole in it an put a cork there for pressure relief. I removed most of the packing and started warming up. My liebig is kind of short at 32" long, 24" of it cooled. But it is 1" over 3/4" with some scrubby inside. It was pretty cool, I stripped 6G of all corn within an hour and a half including warm up time. I was getting a liter every 12 minutes. As a reflux column guy I could not believe how fast it was coming out (I was pushing the heat a bit). And the low wines taste pretty good! All in all I like it. I have 12G of another batch bubbling away in my furnace room.

[The KYChemist]

I made a collection table top for my keg boiler. Column will run up through the center hole. Made out of reclaimed pallet wood and nails. Just needs one more coat of polyurethane.

[Jimbo]

Nice. If you staple some insulation around it to drape down over your keg you can improve your run time and energy efficiency.