Very Old Shine

[Gatsby]

As a young man I was interested in knowing all about all things; for me, how to make wine, cheese, cure meat, pickle food, distill alcohol, were mysteries to be learned.
During a visit to my younger daughter, (in her early 50s), she pulled out a half full wine bottle of clear shine that I'd made in the early 70s. I knew a bit about distilling back then but didn't know about making cuts, so I think I made none.
I know the mash was sprouted corn, and sugar. I'd use it back then to make big bowls of Pina Colada for parties.
I remember that naked it was pretty rough stuff. So how is it now?
Well after 50 years in the bottle it is still pretty rough stuff!
Gatsby

[greggn]

While it's a treat to be able to sample something so old and so personal it's also a shame that those 50 years weren't spent in an oak barrel.

[LWTCS]

Ah the "good ole days"....

[Bushman]

It would be interesting if I had some of my original alcohol to just remind me how far I’ve come in a relatively short time.

[Desvio]

I remember what i made in my teens and twenties and only thing I'd use it for today would be parts cleaner, but I have to agree 35+ years later it would be fun to have some of it just for conversation.

[The Baker]

I was that proud of my early efforts.
Honestly that stuff was horrible.

Geoff

[Gatsby]

Back then, (1970s), it was hard for me to find information about distilling, and while I eventually found out a good deal about the hardware, there was nothing about operation and cuts.
A lot of my info came from a book that I found in the state library. Unfortunately it was in Italian! My father-in-law and a dictionary helped a lot.
I think that if I had pitched the heads and tails,,,,,,,,, well anyway.

[kiwi Bruce]

Back then, (1970s), it was hard for me to find information about distilling, and while I eventually found out a good deal about the hardware, there was nothing about operation and cuts.
A lot of my info came from a book that I found in the state library. Unfortunately it was in Italian! My father-in-law and a dictionary helped a lot.
I think that if I had pitched the heads and tails,,,,,,,,, well anyway.

I lucked out...I had a teacher. He had been a WW2 POW the ANZAC's took prisoner in North Africa, he was from Yugoslavia and couldn't go home because he had been with the German Army. He made Slivovitz, he had what we would call today a "muck-pot" He said that spirits made with "muck" had been banned between the wars in Yugoslavia...and he did make cuts, crude, but they were cuts, by taste. I got an early start to doing "bad" things.

[seamusm53]

My own learning curve was helped by recognizing my inconsistency. Early on I actually made some surpringly decent hooch and that encouraged me. Subsequent failures forced me to figure our what had gone wrong. Failure is a good teacher as long as it's not fatal - or overwhelmingly deflating.