What'd ya'll make today?

[OlympicMtDoo]

I just finished the last of 4 stripping runs in 2 days. I had 2 twenty gallon Birdwatchers washes going to build up my neutral stash for the winter. I could have done it 3 with my keg boiler but I have the 13 gallon milk can going right now so it took 4, glad that is done. OMD

[brewbob]

2 gallons of pear brandy.

I don't normally run brandys but my pear tree is about 50' tall now and hate seeing the majority of them rot on the ground. Made it a family affair, kids helped everyday for almost a week to collect all the pears, wife helped chopping them up than used a paint mixer on a drill to chop some more. The long cold ferment was killing me, it took about 3 weeks at 65° to dry up. Smells great and I think we have started a new family tradition...you know...word it right and your fruit gets picked for you.

[rubberduck71]

Just got done with 2nd batch of Rad's All Brain with my buddy's 6x4" Brewhaus bubble plate still. This rig is a beast & I am insanely jealous. Neutral hearts cut is just mega compared to my double distillation process.

In just a couple hrs, we're on our way up to another buddy's house to run 100% corn meal on his 6x4" Mile Hi bubble plates (only 3 plates in though -- going after a whiskey).

[jonnys_spirit]

2 gallons of pear brandy.
20231017_141437.jpg
I don't normally run brandys but my pear tree is about 50' tall now and hate seeing the majority of them rot on the ground. Made it a family affair, kids helped everyday for almost a week to collect all the pears, wife helped chopping them up than used a paint mixer on a drill to chop some more. The long cold ferment was killing me, it took about 3 weeks at 65° to dry up. Smells great and I think we have started a new family tradition...you know...word it right and your fruit gets picked for you.

V.Nice! How much volume of pear ferment did it take to get 2g after cuts?

Cheers,
j

[brewbob]

2 gallons of pear brandy.
20231017_141437.jpg
I don't normally run brandys but my pear tree is about 50' tall now and hate seeing the majority of them rot on the ground. Made it a family affair, kids helped everyday for almost a week to collect all the pears, wife helped chopping them up than used a paint mixer on a drill to chop some more. The long cold ferment was killing me, it took about 3 weeks at 65° to dry up. Smells great and I think we have started a new family tradition...you know...word it right and your fruit gets picked for you.

V.Nice! How much volume of pear ferment did it take to get 2g after cuts?

Cheers,
j

Filled two 25 gallon fermenters, probably 125 lbs each. I feel like I could have done better but wanted to be conservative with my cuts. Heads/early hearts smelled great despite having a sharp nose, aromas died out pretty quick. I got some fusels noticeable around 35% then they cleared up about 28%, didn't add alot of tails anyways cause they didn't really have anything I think would add to flavor.

[higgins]

2 10 gallon stripping runs of my Badmotivator Tribute rum on Tuesday morning to get 5 gallons low wines. I'll combine that with the 5 gallons of the wash that I saved and run it tomorrow morning thru my 4" flute, 3 plates.

[Archee72]

3 bottles of Wineos Wodka for SWMBO

[Konsekvens]

Today I filled my sherry badmotivator barrel with Aquavit.

[shadylane]

I "supervised" someone making whisky from LME with a stove top potstill.

[MooseMan]

I "supervised" someone making whisky from LME with a stove top potstill.

I bet that felt great shady eh?

I started guiding a trusted friend a little while ago who I'd built a little pot still for, and whilst I'm a million miles away from your level of experience and knowledge, it really gave me a buzz to know I was helping to start someone out on the stilling journey.

[6 Row Joe]

UJSSM with some flaked rye for flavor. Last batch I added some chocolate malt for fun and flavor. Strip and spirit run and it has been setting in a glass jug for a few weeks. Oh my! At 140 proof it is silky smooth and delicious. I tried a sample proofed down to 120 and it's real nice there too. That chocolate goes on forever. I might pour off a pint and add some toasted oak chips just to try. I am thinking S'mores!

[rubberduck71]

I "supervised" someone making whisky from LME with a stove top potstill.

Did I mention that LME likes to puke? viewtopic.php?p=7752262#p7752262

[shadylane]

Gluco cures 90% of the puking problem.

[Deplorable]

Mashing up some CROW bourbon tonight to fill a badmo barrel.
First ferment of the season.

[jonnys_spirit]

Harvesting some 2yo red white and blue corn 5+ grain from the gibbs.

I shouldn’t be testing this while running the still but damn it’s smooth af

118pf barrel exit, approximately 2yrs in a five gallon gibbs. Testing and angels left me about 2.5g @ 118 pf (mostly testing)

I’m keeping this barrel in the house bourbon solera lineup and adding a second new charred oak.

Happy Sunday!

Cheers,
jonny

[Dancing4dan]

Golden graham malted barley with 272 chocolate malt and some rolled oats. YL yeast to get it all going. Ferment is smelling awsome!

I strained off about 20L clear beer to add to my spirit run and steam stripped the rest.

Now doing a sugar head on the rest with DADY. My brew room smells like a Willy Wonka chocolate factory right now.

Will steam strip this as well then decide if it’s time to start over or do another sugar head.

[NormandieStill]

I strained off about 20L clear beer to add to my spirit run and steam stripped the rest.

Now doing a sugar head on the rest with DADY.

You do a sugarhead on steam stripped grains? Do you strain off the added liquid or just buffer the he'll out of it and add some sugar?

[Dancing4dan]

I strained off about 20L clear beer to add to my spirit run and steam stripped the rest.

Now doing a sugar head on the rest with DADY.

You do a sugarhead on steam stripped grains? Do you strain off the added liquid or just buffer the he'll out of it and add some sugar?

I have to add water to get a 18 gallon ferment after steam stripping.

Remember I pulled about 20 L cleared beer from the original ferment prior to stripping. I add this to spirit run.

I buffered the total 18 gallons with a 1 2/3 tea spoons calcium hydroxide (pickling lime) and added sugar. PH is around 5 today.

[smiling]

Making Odin's easy gin..

[tombombadil]

I made a sugarhead on the pressed grapes from my recent wine batch, but I did a bad job on the cuts. It's pretty nasty.
Way too much tails.
Multi tasking...
I'm just gonna throw the whole thing in to the feints jar for a future vodka run.

[GrumbleStill]

Spirit run on a five grain bourbon. Away for a few days now, so have to wait until next weekend to make the cuts.

[Brtzz]

Helped a buddy go through water leak test, vinegar, and then sacrificial run on his newly built rig. Felt good to get to share the experience and yet painful to watch some of the mistakes we make. I figure hawking over someone and not letting them learn on their own, well doesn't let them learn. Provided some feints as a surprise present so he didn't have to dump his first ferment as the sacrificial run. Also was a good crash course in dilution calculations vs reality and how we can always add more water.

[MooseMan]

Helped a buddy go through water leak test, vinegar, and then sacrificial run on his newly built rig. Felt good to get to share the experience and yet painful to watch some of the mistakes we make. I figure hawking over someone and not letting them learn on their own, well doesn't let them learn. Provided some feints as a surprise present so he didn't have to dump his first ferment as the sacrificial run. Also was a good crash course in dilution calculations vs reality and how we can always add more water.

You totally echoed my own experience with a friend who I made a small still for a while back.
I took a bottle of 6% acetic acid and a jar of feints to his place, and said that wash I made you get ready, is going to be your first strip run.

It's such a great feeling to guide someone else through the first stages, knowing that they are going to be proudly sharing their product with you soon.

[higgins]

Made a new Badmo barrel for my Badmo Tribute rum, with the head made from used bourbon barrel staves. I scrubbed off most of the existing char, then re-charred it to approximately a char #1.

Also fixed my controller box with a new SSR and fan. The old fan quit soon after I built it, but I kept using it anyway. The SSR started becoming intermittent - power didn't change when I adjusted my EZBoil, so I opened it up and saw that the SSR was quite disfigured. I found a new fan that runs off 240v AC, and it works a treat.

[ckdistills]

Well I screwed up twice today making a new mash.

Got a new 40 gallon HDPE fermenter - thicker plastic than the Brute I was using and better suited to dumping in boiling water for easy large batch mash method. Figured I'd inaugurate it with the same all-grain I first ran in the Brute, 10:1 Corn:Oats.

First screw up, forgot to put the BIAB bag in before mashing in. Oops - more work when it's done fermenting.

Second screw up, used rolled corn for the first time and didn't trust my initial sense of smell that something was off. First time using it, had previously only used cracked corn. Smelled kinda animal feedy / off. Got towards the bottom of the bag and big dark clumps starting appearing. It doesn't smelly moldy but it does't smell right either. Stopped mashing in and only a few of those clumps got in, not sure how it'll turn out. It's starting to get that sweet corn smell but there's an undercurrent of something else. Hoping its time at 180 F killed whatever was in there. We'll see.

[tombombadil]

I finally did the second blue corn mash.

50# blue corn
20# 6 row barley malt
5# honey malt
Voss yeast

I used my steam cooker this time.
Much less stressful than using direct heat.
I'll definitely be doing that again in the future.

[Brtzz]

Sunday funday, stripped Gen 3 of UJSSM. Added another ~1.75 gallons to the low wines jar.

It's amazing how the smell and flavor progresses. I've pulled a couple hundred ml sample of hearts from each one to compare and this is a huge step up from Gen 2 even prior to airing. I pulled a lot deeper into the tails than the first two generations as I want the ethanol from the first couple, but I'd like to have the flavor profile of 3 and 4 as a majority.

Also stepped it up another gallon in the fermenter in preparation for maybe a big Gen 5. Debating spirit running Gen 1.5-4 as it's own and then a huge, for me, Gen 5 only strip and spirit.

[rubberduck71]

Cranked up 4x6 gal fermenters of Irish style whiskey. In each:

4# Golden Promise
4# Rolled Barley
1# corn meal
1# toasted rolled oats (this one has become a staple in all my recipes since doing SCD's CROW bourbon)
YLAY

[Deplorable]

This morning I ground 48# of free malts, and mashed a single malt whiskey. Then while that was mashing, I racked and squeezed my CROW Bourbon ferment. Then cleaned my fermenter, and mop wringer. in a couple hours, I'll pitch some yeast on this mash, and maybe tomorrow I'll start a 2nd fermenter of the same single malt. I think I have almost enough free malts to make enough to fill a 5-gallon barrel. (might need another 20 pounds or so...)

[NormandieStill]

Prepped a cocoa bean essence to play around with for ginsperiments. Currently at 60%. Tomorrow I'll dilute down to 45% and then the day after I'll run it in the little lab still and see what I get.