Anybody get any good deals lately?

[Deplorable]

Thats a hell of a mash pot!

[acfixer69]

Nice fine there PP. Good to see you around. You still liven off grid.

[MichiganCornhusker]

And who said it was for Hobby? I might be looking at going legit.

Oh hell yes, I hope that comes to pass!

[Prairiepiss]

Nice fine there PP. Good to see you around. You still liven off grid.

Yes I am. Well I am back to living off grid again. I have actually been living in Hawaii for the last year and a half.

[acfixer69]

Need to start thread on that twist lol.

[Prairiepiss]

Need to start thread on that twist lol.

I might.

[nerdybrewer]

I picked up two blue 55 gallon barrels for fermentation @ $20 each.

I have a 30 foot motor home in the back that is becoming my new stilling shed.
These barrels are going to be an important part of my new design.

Think Breaking Bad but for booze...

[JellybeanCorncob]

So you’re saying you make booze in your skivvies?


Great find on the barrels!

[nerdybrewer]

So you’re saying you make booze in your skivvies?


Great find on the barrels!

Well now I would be able to, if I wanted to!

[Zeotropic]

I traded a broken washer and a scrap air handler for a 15.5 gallon keg.

[Zeotropic]

I found a place where there's thousands of board feet of white oak for a dollar a board foot or less. I picked up a load of sticks that are around 3/4 by 1 inch by about 4 ft and they were selling them for 25 cents a piece so I gave the lady $50 and she said I don't want to count 200 sticks so load up whatever you feel like and when I said that ought to do she loaded about twice as much as I had in there. I just gave half of it to my parents as firewood for their mini wood stove in there conversion bus.
The best part is it has been seasoned out in the weather with no cover for several years. I can't wait to clean it up toast it and make the final cuts on my booners casual all corn so I can get some stock aging.

[Bushman]

I live on the west coast but while visiting historical Williamsburg they had a person(s) making tools out of white oak. I wanted to find a way to send all the scraps home.

[Zeotropic]

Hopefully it isn't too moldy. I just got to looking at some of it now that I am home and it has a lot of mold and such. Hopefully a bit of bleach water and sanding will fix it.

[NZChris]

I wouldn't put nasty chemicals on it. A light plane, or sand, before toasting and/or charring would be enough to keep me happy.

[Zeotropic]

I wouldn't put nasty chemicals on it. A light plane, or sand, before toasting and/or charring would be enough to keep me happy.

Thanks I will go with that. I did some tonight.
Although personally I am a big fan of bleach I mean we drink it every day. [emoji16]

[NZChris]

I wouldn't put nasty chemicals on it. A light plane, or sand, before toasting and/or charring would be enough to keep me happy.

Thanks I will go with that. I did some tonight.
Although personally I am a big fan of bleach I mean we drink it every day. [emoji16]

We go to bit of trouble to ensure that most of our drinking water is chemical free. Most of the ice for our drinks is carefully hand cast 30mm balls of rainwater.

[Zeotropic]

My house smells amazing from toasting oak!

[NZChris]

I toast oak at a couple of different temperatures. Yes, it does smell very nice, Zeo

[WithOrWithoutU2]

Found a craft malt house in a nearby state and within driving distance, Black Gold Malt Farm in Cascade Iowa. The guy grows his own barley and malts it. He uses ND Genesis 2 row.

I bought 50lb bags of each type:

Raw unmalted
Pale Ale
Pilsner
Munich
Vienna
British Pilsner - (He wanted to give it to me for free but I insisted paying something - $10. He can't sell to Breweries because something went wrong with the batch and caused high levels of DMS). I told him, I'd take a bag and give it a try. I figure a double distillation should run off those sulfur flavors.

All this for just $175! His typical rates are $1lb and unmalted is $0.20 lb. But he gave me a break on some of it as I took one of everything he had to try. He may have also given me a break because I handed over a golden jar after talking with him for about 1/2 hour and hearing his story (his family actually bought the farm from bootlegging money over 100 years ago). I am not sure how I will get through all this barley as I don't really mash that often. But he sells in 50lb bags and for the price, I wanted to try the different types he had. I can see some single malts of each type in my near future.

But the best thing was meeting this young man. The farm has been in the family for multiple generations. This malt house is just one extension of the farm that he is taking on himself. He has gone 100% organic for the barley and is part of a program called Indigo Ag that is focus on being carbon neutral. He is doing things in a way that others are telling him aren't possible or profitable including growing Malt Barley in Iowa. But he is doing it and proving them wrong.

He has purchased a 2nd hand malting equipment up that does the steeping, drying, and kilning all in the same vessel. He believes it is the only set up in the world that does all three in the same vessel. He can get temps up to 300F, so he can do both base and most specialty malts. He has some breweries that are just now starting to hear about him and asking him to do some custom malting specific for them.

Like I said, the $175 for all six 50lb bags was incredible. But the best value is meeting this young man and I am interested in watching him grow this business and do some amazing things. He is just in his 2nd year and anticipates selling 300,000+lbs of malt this year.

If Cascade, Iowa is within driving distance consider making the trip (he doesn't ship). https://www.fieldcraft.com/co/blackgoldmaltfarm He does not have his own website yet but you can find information about him on the above link. You can PM me if you want his mobile # to text him for yourself.

[cranky]

Got this today for free

It's hard to tell but most of that is Minute Maid apple juice. A few are various sodas but most is apple juice. I haven't done an accurate count but it's somewhere around 6 cases. Which if my math is correct... 6 cases x 24 cans per case= 144 cans x 11.5oz each = 1656 oz which according to google = 12.93 gallons. Almost enough for a single run I'm hoping I can manage a little bit more tomorrow but will have to see.

Now I need to make a plan on what to do with it Maybe I'll try one of those newbie inspired recipes... Lets see, how does this sound? 2 cans apple juice, 10#s sugar, 6 apples and 5 gallons water Of course what I really do with it will be posted in the fruity goodness thread.

[cranky]

Got even more free juice today

There are a few different things mixed in there but it is mostly apple juice and a few cases of "cranberry cocktail"

which according to the label looks like it could meet the recipe I posted yesterday

But it's fermentable and free so I figure I'll just make vodka out of it.

I have no idea exactly how much of what I have but I'm hoping for at least 30 gallons of apple juice.

[Durhommer]

Nice find

[Bushman]

How did you score that quantity?

[nerdybrewer]

How did you score that quantity?

Yes, please share with the class...

[cranky]

Right place, right time.

It's difficult to get into too much detail but there were 7 or 8 pallets of soft drinks stacked 5 feet high that couldn't be used for their intended purpose and rather than throw them away we were told "Help yourself, take all you want." Most people went for the sodas and weren't very interested in the apple juice. I considered taking some tomato juice but not sure I want to deal with a straight tomato ferment and won't be back until Saturday. It will all probably be gone by then but if there is anything fermentable left I will load the truck up again.

[Bushman]

Right place, right time.

It's difficult to get into too much detail but there were 7 or 8 pallets of soft drinks stacked 5 feet high that couldn't be used for their intended purpose and rather than throw them away we were told "Help yourself, take all you want." Most people went for the sodas and weren't very interested in the apple juice. I considered taking some tomato juice but not sure I want to deal with a straight tomato ferment and won't be back until Saturday. It will all probably be gone by then but if there is anything fermentable left I will load the truck up again.

Knowing where you work I think I can figure it out! Lucky you.

[8Ball]

My local Wal-mart just started stocking panela on the shelf for $1.12 a pound. Woman checking me out asked what it was and what I was doing with so much? Told her I made bbq sauce for a big bbq joint and it was the “secret” ingredient. I had some cider vinegar and a couple bottles of hot sauce in the cart too. She said she was going to tell her son who cooks about it ... it probably will work too! Ha.

[Durhommer]

Cant wait to ferment this

[cranky]

Knowing where you work I think I can figure it out! Lucky you.

Thank you, it really was very fortunate.

I just finished unloading it all and now have a total

346 cans of apple juice equaling 31 gallons of apple juice
166 cans of "cranberry cocktail" equaling right at 15 gallons. I did have 6 more cans but gave them to my son to try to see if he likes it.

[Deplorable]

Knowing where you work I think I can figure it out! Lucky you.

Thank you, it really was very fortunate.

I just finished unloading it all and now have a total
JUICE 24 MAR 21 #1A - C.jpg
346 cans of apple juice equaling 31 gallons of apple juice
166 cans of "cranberry cocktail" equaling right at 15 gallons. I did have 6 more cans but gave them to my son to try to see if he likes it.

lol my wife would shit if I unloaded all that. 31 gallons of apple juice. That's a nice bit of apple brandy right there. The cranberry cocktail, Im not sure what I'd do with it. Reflux into neutral?