What'd ya'll make today?

[MooseMan]

I finally managed to make enough super tight cut white dog, to fill a special bottle that I've been hiding away.

I'm making corn/oat/rice/barley malt and honey washes, and keeping only the cleanest of the middle hearts each run, putting the rest into feints for now.

It tastes fantastic right off the still, smooth, popcorny and oily thick.

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Doesn't look much, but this is a big old 1 gallon Bells whisky bottle that lived next to my dad's favourite chair for many years when he was alive, perpetually filled with pocket change and constantly raided when he was not around!

Super happy.

Nice job MooseMan. I bet you fell like a proud papa. Congratulations on getting your dad's old bottle filled. Looks great. I'm sure it tastes great as well. Cheer's

Thanks Wild, and yeah I feel pretty content about the fact I have made such good use of it after all these years.

[Beerswimmer]

Thanks! Today I'm distilling again. After that spirit run I thawed out all 5 stuffed-full gallon ziploc bags of blackberries that I picked last year and pureed them. I added about a half gallon of the rice whiskey and let it soak for 24. This morning it went into the thumper and 2 gallons of the rice whiskey that was watered down to 30%went into the boiler. Hopefully it's tasty!

Also, last night I filled a once used 5 gallon bourbon barrel with the rice whiskey @ 130 proof

[tombombadil]

Stripped about 2/3 of the honeyshine wash.
The honey aroma was really aparent in the tails.
I'm going to do a 1.5 run with the rest of the wash to get the spirit for the port style mead.
About 3 gallons of wash and about 3 gallons of low wines.

[MooseMan]

This time of year I'm a busy winemaker too, but only hedgerow wines not the real stuff.
This is today's batch, just over 8kg fruit to a 5gal bucket.

I try to make enough red each summer, to get us through to the following year, but usually end up sharing so much of it that we run out by spring!

Blackberry, Elderberry and Blackcurrant (Ratio: 75/20/5) is my standard, and I usually add a handful of black bananas to each 5gal ferment to add body and help it clear.
All frozen first to help breakdown and juice release.

[Deplorable]

Just running some old feints through the CCVM. Struggling to get above 91%. Will probably have to run it through a second time to get all the flavor out.

[JustinNZ]

Ran 15L of rum feints along with all my random bottles of old wine, rhubarb feints, unloved bourbon and rum, and half a litre of Pimms. Ended up with 25L in the pot at 40%. Kept 9L at 70%. Had a helluva time making cuts - but I’m sure it’ll be fine in a year. Gotta find somewhere to hide it now.

[rubberduck71]

Marathon session: picked my buddy up @ 0830, got to another buddy's house 0930. Set up his 26 gal rig with 6x4" perforated plates & ran 2 batches of 20 gal sugar wash back-to-back. Didn't get done until well after midnight...

There were some process glitches along the way, like running out of ice to cool the condensing water, pump overheating, etc... But in the end, many, many gallons of neutral. He'll be set up for a while!

Also started up 2x20 gal batches of corn meal + Yellow Label Angel yeast.

[MooseMan]

Made a batch of sipping cream with my white Oat dog and a recipe that I've done a few times now that the wife really likes.

One of each of these:-

Plus;
1 Tsp instant coffee
1 Tsp vanilla essence
1 Tbsp Hershey's chocolate syrup

And 400ml of oat dog at 60%

Lovely over ice!

[welly]

Stripping a black treacle rum wash at the moment. First run I've done that hasn't puked from me overfilling the boiler Aiming to get around 15L of low wines and I've got another 8L of wash left that didn't fit in the boiler that I'll put through my air still in the office so hopefully get another 5L.

Aiming to get 20% low wines of whatever quantity I get. The spirit coming off the still at the moment is tasting incredible though. Looking forward to this one!

[NZChris]

Stripping a black treacle rum wash at the moment. First run I've done that hasn't puked from me overfilling the boiler Aiming to get around 15L of low wines and I've got another 8L of wash left that didn't fit in the boiler that I'll put through my air still in the office so hopefully get another 5L.

Aiming to get 20% low wines of whatever quantity I get. The spirit coming off the still at the moment is tasting incredible though. Looking forward to this one!

Why 20%? It's a bit high for triple distilling and a bit low for double distilled rum.

[welly]

Stripping a black treacle rum wash at the moment. First run I've done that hasn't puked from me overfilling the boiler Aiming to get around 15L of low wines and I've got another 8L of wash left that didn't fit in the boiler that I'll put through my air still in the office so hopefully get another 5L.

Aiming to get 20% low wines of whatever quantity I get. The spirit coming off the still at the moment is tasting incredible though. Looking forward to this one!

Why 20%? It's a bit high for triple distilling and a bit low for double distilled rum.

Mainly I thought I'd read somewhere here about 20% low wines and a number of whisky distilleries I've been to talk about 20% low wines. But then, I'm not making whisky, I'm making rum.

Should I be aiming a bit higher in the 20s %? I got down to 34% last night but have been finishing off the last 8L today which I'll add to yesterday's batch. That's useful to know though, thanks Chris! Will keep that in mind.

[Steve Broady]

Should I be aiming a bit higher in the 20s %?

For my taste, out of my (pot) still, using my current skill set, I typically aim for 30% or a smidgen lower for anything I plan to age on wood. That gives me right around 60% finished product after cuts, so that I don’t have to proof it down or end up too low. For AG whiskey, that means stopping at the right point (I actually strip lower, but everything after that point gets saved and put into the next stripping run). For rum, that usually works out about right to just collect until it’s done.

Let me stress that this is what works for me, as a relative novice, and with limited tools and experience. YMMV, as they say. I would suggest putting your low wines back into the pot still, running it, and seeing what you get. Is the proof where you want it? If not, go back and adjust the process.

[welly]

For my taste, out of my (pot) still, using my current skill set, I typically aim for 30% or a smidgen lower for anything I plan to age on wood. That gives me right around 60% finished product after cuts, so that I don’t have to proof it down or end up too low. For AG whiskey, that means stopping at the right point (I actually strip lower, but everything after that point gets saved and put into the next stripping run). For rum, that usually works out about right to just collect until it’s done.

Let me stress that this is what works for me, as a relative novice, and with limited tools and experience. YMMV, as they say. I would suggest putting your low wines back into the pot still, running it, and seeing what you get. Is the proof where you want it? If not, go back and adjust the process.

Great stuff, thanks very much. The last batch of rum I made, I ended up around 32% and for some reason I thought I had read I should be aiming closer to 20% but probably makes sense for higher up in the 20s. So will aim for 28-30%. Most of the run has been done, just need to finish these last few litres to get a bit more low wines so I can dilute what I have down a bit more.

Cheers!

[NZChris]

If I'd come across distilleries saying that they used 20% Low Wines, I probably would have tried it, but I haven't, so I haven't.

25-27% gives me a heart cut that doesn't usually need dilution before aging.

[welly]

If I'd come across distilleries saying that they used 20% Low Wines, I probably would have tried it, but I haven't, so I haven't.

25-27% gives me a heart cut that doesn't usually need dilution before aging.

Pretty much all the distilleries I went to visit on Islay last year had said on their distillery tour that they distill their low wines down to around 20%. They were all quite consistent in their processes - 8% abv for the wash and around 20% abv for their low wines.

Couldn't find anything online from those distilleries, only a couple of mentions here https://www.thebordersdistillery.com/bl ... wash-still and here https://greatdrams.com/an-exploration-of-whisky-stills/

Edit. seems the low wines at Bowmore are more like 22%.

[still_stirrin]

Deer lick molasses

It smells like a big rum ferment. I can tell this one will require triple distillation already. Lots of “raw” molasses flavor, so I’ll need to tame it I’m sure.

Notice the foam on one carboy but not on the other. It demonstrates the “variability” that fermenters can induce. But they’re both bubbling through the airlock aggressively. So, they’re both working just fine.
ss

[welly]

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It smells like a big rum ferment. I can tell this one will require triple distillation already. Lots of “raw” molasses flavor, so I’ll need to tame it I’m sure.

Notice the foam on one carboy but not on the other. It demonstrates the “variability” that fermenters can induce. But they’re both bubbling through the airlock aggressively. So, they’re both working just fine.
ss

What size fermenters are those? Both look around 20-25L or thereabouts?

[still_stirrin]

What size fermenters are those? Both look around 20-25L or thereabouts?

Yep, they’re 5 gallon glass carboys.

I have them in the kitchen sink for the start of ferment because the last time I fermented this deer-lick molly, I had geysers of froth overflowing. So far, these haven’t misbehaved, but the ferment is still very young (< 12 hours old).
ss

[MooseMan]

While I was stripping my second SBB Rum wash, (Added veg oil and no pukes, even at full power through the whole strip this time) I put on a mixed cereal wash using the hot water from the condenser to steep the cereal and melt the sugar.

Corn flakes, bran flakes, fine milled oats and rye bread.
Not tried the rye bread before so I'm looking forward to what that adds.

Then once the strip was done, I used just over a gallon of the hot dunder to melt the molasses and kill the yeast bed from the last one.
Kept another 2 gals of dunder back just in case.

Also put 2l of OEG gin maceration on with grapefruit zest, that I'm looking forward to running in the morning.

All in all, a pretty productive morning!

[Wildcats]

Man that sounds great. I might have to try something along the lines of this. I have the Oats and the All Bran. Just need Rye bread and I'd be all set.
Thanks for sharing this.

[Smog]

Starting serial batches of Buccaneer Bob's black rum and also starting a proper dunder pail (pit)

[MooseMan]

Man that sounds great. I might have to try something along the lines of this. I have the Oats and the All Bran. Just need Rye bread and I'd be all set.
Thanks for sharing this.

Let me know what you do if you have a go at it?

I got the idea to add the Rye bread from an Odin tried and true recipe, have a look you should find it mate.

Can't wait to find out what the result is!

[MooseMan]

Starting serial batches of Buccaneer Bob's black rum and also starting a proper dunder pail (pit)

Would you mind documenting what you are doing with your dunder pail please Smog?

[NZChris]

Pretty much all the distilleries I went to visit on Islay last year had said on their distillery tour that they distill their low wines down to around 20%. They were all quite consistent in their processes - 8% abv for the wash and around 20% abv for their low wines.

As you said earlier, they make whisky, not rum. For rum tricks I research rum distilleries.

[jonnys_spirit]

Grand Marnier style liqueur starter on the left. Using Bushman’s recipe linked below as a guide. I’m using bourbon barrel chips from the winemakers shoppe, Madagascar vanilla bean, panella, and maybe some partially dessicated wine grape skins instead of raisins. Love the roasted/carmalized naval oranges and I also have mandarins right now. Using barrel aged grappa for the base spirit. Once this gets some time on it I’ll prepare another starter with slightly different ingredients and proportions to blend for finishing.
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On the right is smoked and oaked wild agave essence (mezcal’ish). I let this sit and develop - bourbon barrel stave smoke infused agave spirit with a variety of charred and toasted used oak fingers. Add about 30% volume from the jar to the agave BadMo then top up the essence jar from the BadMo. Let both meld for a good while and repeat as needed.

I have a feeling that these might eventually end up balanced with some lime and agave syrup in a smoked pepper salt rimmed frosted martini glass…

Cheers and happy Sunday!
-j

[tombombadil]

My grapes arrived today.
Picked them up from the fruit distributor in the morning.
I crushed them with my feet
I got my two year old involved but she was not amused so I finished by myself.
I removed the stems and did some more crushing by hand.
Finally I sprayed out my garage and cleaned up the buckets etc...
3 boxes merlot grapes and one box of cab grapes, about 144#s grapes, yielded me about 14 gallons of juice, pulp and skins to ferment.
I added some sulfite, going to pitch the yeast tonight or tomorrow.
The stems went on the compost pile.
Gravity is 1.098.

My plan is to ferment, press, bulk age with some oak cubes for a year, and bottle.

I'm definitely going to try to make some likker from the skins!

Any advice is appreciated!
Wish me luck!

[Bradster68]

35 gallons of Bill's Rum


Edited..... unfortunately my Dunder has started to turn to a funky scent and I didn't want to trust it so I had to toss it so this batch will be starting from fresh

[Deplorable]

Stripping a 2nd boiler full of red wine so I can free up my fermenter for all the grain in my shed.

[Bradster68]

Stripping a 2nd boiler full of red wine so I can free up my fermenter for all the grain in my shed.

I'm also cleaning up the grain in my totes. I got some smoke and biscuit trying to figure out what to do with it.

[brewbob]

Today I did my final stripping run on some AG 75/12/13. Up to about 10 gal of low wines. Tried a new grain source, great fermentations, and went with sugar creek rye and pre-prohibition 6 row. Sure smelled nice going into the boiler.