What'd ya'll make today?

[squigglefunk]

ran 50 gallons of all grain mash through the stripping/spirit process, used 15 gallons of backset when done to dissolve 50 lbs of sugar and threw that back into the fermenter of spent grains and yeast.

[NZChris]

It's feijoa season in NZ, so I'm playing with methods of getting this greasy pig into a bottle. It's an easy flavor to capture in wine, but it's a very tricky flavor to capture in a distilled product. The best I've managed so far is a Feijoa Gin that tasted like feijoa hot off the still, but not the next day.

I've been freeze jacking juice and that has been making very nice ice cubes for use in a Gin & Tonic and making an OK cocktail spirit when blended with a failed feijoa spirit I made a few years ago.

Feijoa does make a very nice fruity spirit, but I'm not the only home distiller to have failed to find a method that captures it's unique flavor in a bottle.

[Rrmuf]

Wow! Never thought of using Feijoa....... Maybe because I've never heard of it before !
Good luck with that Chris! I have had a similar issue crop up with "fixing" a flavour in place, so I'm curious as to how you manage that.

[Danishe]

I've been running the spirit run of my potato mash today, smelled like hell and had to do two stripping runs before it came out clean. Didnt bother clearing it, had plenty of trouble with oil from the chips even though they were rinsed three times and soaked. Practically I was so tired of this mash that I got upset when it actually tasted really good after third distillation where I made my cuts. My two neighbors was helping me with some electricity in the house and they laughed at me because I felt that this mash wasn't worth the trouble and it then came out amazing
It was made from 8 or 10 kilos of potato and 900g of sea salt chips, and then 2,5kilos malted barley, Pilsen 2RN to a 25L mash.

Now I'm running two stripping runs of sugar washes with banana leftovers from my banana brandy. Enjoying my new cooker that we installed today that finally allow me to distill at the right speed. Could barely get more than drips with the old and stripping runs took so many damn hours that my electricity bill will go nuts for the last two weeks

[xerolad]

I made a cassava flour wash with enzymes. Just a 2 gallon test batch to see if I like what it turns into. No idea what the product will taste like. Hopefully very neutral. I know of a distillery in Texas that makes a vodka with it. We will see.

[Lights Out]

Ran a strip of my LME whisky wash, and then used the backset to dissolve another 6kg ish of LME and got that into the fermenter, with Still Spirits whisky yeast and glucoamalayse.

Plan is to continue running these as "base" whisky to up my inventory of aging spirit, whilst also running AG washes as and when, and combining the 2 to fill my 10l barrel.

[NormandieStill]

Finally corrected two longstanding problems with my still. I added a drain at the bottom (I was draining from the side which left a good 4 litres of liquid behind when the drain stopped pouring. And I added another element to the bottom of the still to let me run with a lower charge. I can now run down to around 4 litres before exposing the element, and I can still use the other element to boost for heat up. Which means I can finally run my first batch of BB's rum!

[tombombadil]

I finally worked up the courage to drill a hole in my 16g milk can.
I was nervous because last time I drilled a hold in stainless it did not go well.
This time I got a carbide tipped hole saw and it worked out great.
Pretty much chewed right through it, only took a few seconds.
So now I can put a heating element on both my 8 gallon and 16 gallon cans.
This will definitely make my upcoming rum run a little easier.

[CoogeeBoy]

I finally worked up the courage to drill a hole in my 16g milk can.
I was nervous because last time I drilled a hold in stainless it did not go well.
This time I got a carbide tipped hole saw and it worked out great.
Pretty much chewed right through it, only took a few seconds.
So now I can put a heating element on both my 8 gallon and 16 gallon cans.
This will definitely make my upcoming rum run a little easier.

You have to drill it slow and keep it well lubed.

[NormandieStill]

I finally worked up the courage to drill a hole in my 16g milk can.
I was nervous because last time I drilled a hold in stainless it did not go well.
This time I got a carbide tipped hole saw and it worked out great.
Pretty much chewed right through it, only took a few seconds.
So now I can put a heating element on both my 8 gallon and 16 gallon cans.
This will definitely make my upcoming rum run a little easier.

You have to drill it slow and keep it well lubed.

Water is recommended over oil. It's easier to see when it starts to get warm and stainless work hardens really easily! (Looks at shattered teeth of previous carbide hole saw and shakes head!)

[Deplorable]

Doing another stripping run of HBB today. Hoping to spirit run a full boiler charge tomorrow and get another mash started to fill a barrel.

[tombombadil]

I finally worked up the courage to drill a hole in my 16g milk can.
I was nervous because last time I drilled a hold in stainless it did not go well.
This time I got a carbide tipped hole saw and it worked out great.
Pretty much chewed right through it, only took a few seconds.
So now I can put a heating element on both my 8 gallon and 16 gallon cans.
This will definitely make my upcoming rum run a little easier.

You have to drill it slow and keep it well lubed.

Water is recommended over oil. It's easier to see when it starts to get warm and stainless work hardens really easily! (Looks at shattered teeth of previous carbide hole saw and shakes head!)

Ya, I work hardened the shit out of it last time. Running drill at full speed, bright red, flattened out my cheapo hole saw.

I have a buddy who works in manufacturing, he was laughing pretty hard when I was explaining what I did. "All you did was make it way harder. Now you might never make your hole!"

This time I had some water going and I did not run the drill fast. Learned my lesson last time lol.

[NormandieStill]

Made some chocolate wheat malt. Possibly. Only mashing in will tell if it's actually worked, but it smelled amazing when roasting.

[Deplorable]

It's 0430 and i just flipped the power on for a spirit run. I couldn't sleep, so I figured I might as well get the still running.

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

Exciting day, Deplorable. Don't nip too much on the run and stuff up your cuts!

[Deplorable]

Thats why I start before the lord is awake! Slow heat up, real slow fores draw. Painfully slow, like 300ml over the span of 55 minutes. Just about to raise the power a bit as I get into heads.Just trying to see how much compression I can get with this.
I've gotten pretty good about judging my cuts on the fly, and after a day of rest when I come back and check my judgement I'm usually within a jar on both ends.

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

Put on some Floyd, too. Heard it helps.

[Deplorable]

Put on some Floyd, too. Heard it helps.

As soon as this work WebEx ends Im gonna!

[Corn Cracker]

It's 0430 and i just flipped the power on for a spirit run. I couldn't sleep, so I figured I might as well get the still running.

I fired the still up at 5:30 this morning, running 4 gallons of ujssm strip runs

[tombombadil]

Starting my first "big" rum run.
I got 20 gallons of blackstrap molasses, I'll have to do two fermentations to get through it all.
I'm hoping to make enough to fill a 5 gallon gibbs barrel.
It'll be the second fill, it's currently holding some chocolate bourbon.

I seem to drink the rum the fastest so it's time to get my rum stocks up or I'll never know what it tastes like when it's properly aged.
I think of myself as being a bourbon and rye drinker, but according to my likker cabinet I'm really more of a rum drinker, I can't seem to keep the stuff stocked up.

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

That's a great barrel progression. Done it myself, but had a stout in there after the rum, lol.

Yep. A mid summer pina colada made from scratch is legendary around here.

[CoogeeBoy]

Starting my first "big" rum run.
I got 20 gallons of blackstrap molasses, I'll have to do two fermentations to get through it all.
I'm hoping to make enough to fill a 5 gallon gibbs barrel.
It'll be the second fill, it's currently holding some chocolate bourbon.

I seem to drink the rum the fastest so it's time to get my rum stocks up or I'll never know what it tastes like when it's properly aged.
I think of myself as being a bourbon and rye drinker, but according to my likker cabinet I'm really more of a rum drinker, I can't seem to keep the stuff stocked up.

What recipe you using?
I picked up 25l of molasses last week

[tombombadil]

Starting my first "big" rum run.
I got 20 gallons of blackstrap molasses, I'll have to do two fermentations to get through it all.
I'm hoping to make enough to fill a 5 gallon gibbs barrel.
It'll be the second fill, it's currently holding some chocolate bourbon.

I seem to drink the rum the fastest so it's time to get my rum stocks up or I'll never know what it tastes like when it's properly aged.
I think of myself as being a bourbon and rye drinker, but according to my likker cabinet I'm really more of a rum drinker, I can't seem to keep the stuff stocked up.

What recipe you using?
I picked up 25l of molasses last week

A bit of a mix I guess. Nothing real original.

3 parts charcoal filtered water
1 part blackstrap molasses
Fermaid-o, Epsom salt for yeast nutrients
Hornindal Yeast

I'll try to ferment at about 95f, but I don't have temp control set up for big fermentations so I be relying on thermal mass and ambient temp for that part.

I have some "aged" dunder from last years run. It had lambic beer, swiss cheese, fruit and malted barley added to it. I didn't baby sit it so I have no idea what's going on in that bucket at this point.

If it's not obviously nasty or overly fruity I'm thinking I'll just split it up evenly across the stripping and spirit runs. Maybe that'll give it a little funk.

[tombombadil]

That's a great barrel progression. Done it myself, but had a stout in there after the rum, lol.

Yep. A mid summer pina colada made from scratch is legendary around here.

I was worried about the second fill picking up some chocolate flavor, but that sounds like it would be a good contribution to an all molly rum.

[EricTheRed]

Just finishing up Stripping run #4 of a Corn Meal & Rolled Oatmeal mash
3 x 45L ferments (10kg+2kg each) with enzymes, netting me 120L of strained wash - stripped to 28L low wines at around 35%
Spirit Run Tomorrow!

[jonnys_spirit]

90%abv off the alembic mini. Jar #2 @ 200ml ea. Charged with 2.5g melter honey low wines@ about 30%abv. Ran some last night too and yield about 1/2 gallon barrel cut @ 120proof. Maybe a tad bit over 1/2 gallon. Going to put one on plum and the other on peach wood. Maybe toasted maybe charred? We’ll see.

The six month melter honey shine on oak is excellent. Very rich and fragrant. This is an ongoing solera with five jugs in the line and more to come!

Cheers!
-j

[Bradster68]

Made 10 gallons of red wine and 10 gallons white. Gonna make more brandy and try some congnac. I've tried once through the pot and will now try a strip then spirit on this batch. The brandy from my first run was amazing. Big hit with everyone who tried. Even the ladies loved it .( 50%). On ice it's one of my new favs.gonna oak some this time.

[NormandieStill]

Ran my spirit run of Chocolate Bourbon (All the low wines plus a few hundred ml of leftover cleared wash from the last run. Don't know if it'll add much flavour but it can't take it away!). Collected far into the tails and when according to my mini-alcometer I was still getting 30% off the spout, but there was no flavour and no burn, I figured I must be misreading something and that I'd just run it for a while straight into a 5L demi-john. Turns out my mini-alcometer had a slight break somewhere (noticed when I tried to dry it off and the bulb just fell apart). Turns out that my 30% pot was actually a little under 10% and the litre and a bit of "late tails" was less than 1% (I don't really trust my alcometer to be accurate at all at this level). Never run a spirit run that far before. The blend should be interesting.

[General47]

8 liters for RUUUUUM

[juana_b]

Been on the ec-1118 cider kick lately due to the cooler winds coming down from the mountain(amongst other reasons). Will be doing more with D47, 71b-1122, and k1-v1116 to see differences in champagne yeasts.
Made root beer today with botanicals. Edit: also made ahi Wasabi poke jerkey today.
Next is ginger beer.