What'd ya'll make today?

[SW_Shiner]

Did cuts on a spirit run of cornflakes/rye bread.
3kg cornflakes
1kg rye bread
18kg sugar
water to 120L and fermented with YLAY cause that's what i had.
Ended up with about 14L @ 63% on some toasted oak.

[higgins]

...
I put it up on some toasted & charred Chestnut staves... you HAVE to check this Chestnut out! It smells like marshmallow to me, has way less tannins than the oak, so it just gets nice and sweet over time. Otherwise, I think the cherry is a good idea!

Booze Pipe,

What kind of Chestnut are you referring to? I have a small amount of wormy chestnut barnwood, and a few pieces of Chinese chestnut firewood about 5-6 years old.

I have gone almost exclusively to badmo clones for aging since I can make them for about $25 in materials, but I could use either of those to make some fingers and use glass.

[The Booze Pipe]

...
I put it up on some toasted & charred Chestnut staves... you HAVE to check this Chestnut out! It smells like marshmallow to me, has way less tannins than the oak, so it just gets nice and sweet over time. Otherwise, I think the cherry is a good idea!

Booze Pipe,

What kind of Chestnut are you referring to? I have a small amount of wormy chestnut barnwood, and a few pieces of Chinese chestnut firewood about 5-6 years old.

I have gone almost exclusively to badmo clones for aging since I can make them for about $25 in materials, but I could use either of those to make some fingers and use glass.

I could find out specifically. I got it from Badmo Legacy. but I believe it is American Chestnut.

[stillkaren]

Apple brandy sounds like a great way to get back in the groove. I just finished a run of corn and rye came out smooth with a nice bite. Thinking of trying a fruit wash next. How’s the apple brandy smelling so far?

[hbe5863]

@stillkaren' I can't speak on anyone else's but I need to combine mine and do a spirit run. It tasted good at first but the longer it sits, the more funky it tastes. Going to try to do it this weekend.

[The Booze Pipe]

Today I refluxed six gallons of feints + six gallons of corn+YLAY(low wines) for five gallons of 190 vodka/neutral. Also, made a yeast starter with OYL-501 for the bourbon I'll mash in next weekend. And then a friend came by with his lab still and we made a lavender vodka all at the same time!

[kiwi Bruce]

I have a Bourbon wash just stopped working today.

[Malted-Mike]

I steam stripped 10 gallons of rice wash I fermented with Angel Yellow Label Yeast. I will strip another 10 gallons in a few days. Then I will do a spirit run. Then I will be flavoring it with apple or peach -- I am still debating. The rice produces a very pleasant but lightly flavored beverage - perfect for flavoring.

[JustinNZ]

Stripped an SBB rum wash. Been using a new molasses for a while now (always interesting) that has a high sugar content (60%). It ferments well and hardly ever pukes - and if it does it’s the kind of tiny puke people might not even notice at a business meeting. Bundy is 55% sugar by comparison. I’m used to 50% feedgrade so this is a bit of a change. I’m getting really good returns though and cuts are fairly easy. And it’s a nice-ish drop off the spout. Hmmm. But I won’t know how it compares for a few more months. Promising though.

[PalCabral]

In the middle of a spirit run of Panela rum. Knock on wood.

[Shark_Sugar]

2 weeks ago my wife found guavas on a sale. She brought 10# of guava. I peeled half of them, put the rind in 60% neutral spirits then cut them into small pieces. I heated 3 gals of water, added 2# malted barely & 2# of malted rye, let it set at 140F for 45 minutes, then added the cut guava. I let it cool to about 120 then added about 1.5 more gallons of water to get it to 95F.

My routine at this point is to check Ph while I'm lowering the temp, then check the Specific Gravity. With grains not effecting Specific Gravity, I added sugar until it reached 1.050. It was only about 2 cups or 1 lb. Temp was 97F & pH was 5.43

I made a yeast starter & used half Red Star baking yeast and half Red Star Rouge. The fermentation never really got vigorous, but it was slow & steady for about 6 days until it slowed. The pH dropped to 3.87 while the temp stayed around 74F. The Spec Grav was now at 1.000. I let it sit over night then filtered it through a brew bag into my pot still. (recently got a 5 gallon stock pot with a pot still lid conversion running into a simple worm condenser) Ran it slowly for a few hours & collected everything after the first couple of ounces till the abv got below 10%. After taking cuts, tasting & mixing it together, I ended up with about 2 quarts of spirits at 60%.

The guava was light on the nose with just a hint of flavor. I drained the rinds from the neutral spirit they had been sitting in & added it to the guava brandy. The rind spirit maximized the smell & added to the taste. After adding some sugar water & proofing it down to 40% it is interestingly tasty. It smells like a sweet flower with a tropical wine taste. I won't be drinking it on the rocks, but I think a little ginger ale my be perfect for this light and flowery brandy.

Just happy I made something that someone other than me will drink.

[PalCabral]

Did a stripping run of my Bourbon today. Got a liter less and I figured out my mashing must have converted short or something. Rather than being 9.someting my mash was 8.something - my guess is that I missed on 0.8% in my measurements. Good that I have a week to figure out how to fix the next mashing. Good day, never the less.

[Corn Cracker]

An all corn mash, only cracked corn with added high and low temp enzymes as it cooled

[BlackStrap]

2nd distillation of a TPW... Turned out impressively well. 3 gallons of 92% total after blending... Has a nice floral note and no burn or after taste when proofed down to 50% (100 proof)...Best neutral I've made.

This has been a project that I've been working on since Nov 2024 (not in a hurry, and at my convenience) 4 individual stripping runs, 1 big slow stripping run.

Got an apple brandy sitting waiting to run next. 80

Be safe & Have Fun
BlackStrap

[The Booze Pipe]

I should've been out hunting bears, but decided to run my gin instead! 6 gallons @ 70% all stocked up for the next year or so.

[PalCabral]

Slow and low. I’m doing a one and done Clairin, Haitian style rhum. It’s a long and tedious affaire, but I hope to reap a reward in three months from now

I just love working with Hornindal kveik yeast though. Happiness is a sexy yeast cake!

[Captain Spaulding]

My first batch of honey bear bourbon! I made bourbon last year but my ferment got all pukey smelling and I did not give enough time to turn to a nice pineapple. The Bourbon isn’t horrible but it’s still pretty aggressive and a bit grungy at 16 months in glass with charred spirals. It will come around. So I decided on HBB cuz I read that it is a good one to drink white or just young. And I have some nice UJSSM frozen backset to start it. But I’ll cut it as normal and try not to touch it for a year. In the meantime I will do a sugar head on the spent grains and nuclear age that for drinking in the meantime. I did that last year with spent Malt Whisky grains, adding cornmeal to the sugar head. It’s drinking great now! I take some out of the jar and nuke it on a little more oak, boy it’s good!

[MooseMan]

Stripped 70ish litres of 70/30 corn/oats fermented with YLAY, and pressed the grain while running to recover another 15 litres of cloudy beer that I'll add to the spirit run once cleared.
First YLAY that hasn't took an infection after being left to clear post ferment, smells really cleanly of grain.
Half of the grain given to my mate who does sugar heads on it, and the other half I've done my own sugar head on for a neutral. Added a handful of shells and buffered the pH back up to 5 with NaOH before adding some extra bakers yeast to boost what's left in the grain.

[higgins]

Stripped my bourbon (see my sig) last week, and my Single malt this week.

That Single malt beer was quite tasty. I think the crystal and chocolate contributed some flavor - we'll see how much of that carries over.

I'll be doing a spirit run this week, and probably next before I hang it up for the summer (except gin, and maybe neutral to make gin).

[dtrb]

I started the butter process for ShineOn's buttered rum. Transferred the first 32 liters of wash to the fermenter and held it at 135F for two hours. I will run it tomorrow. I will do another butter prep/stripping run on an additional 32 liters Tuesday and Wednesday. The last 20 Liters of wash and two strips will hopefully be ready to run soon after.

I'm still waiting for the last 18 liters of YLAY bourbon wash to clear to add to the two stripping runs on the clear beer I ran last week.

Cheers
RB

[kiwi Bruce]

Four grain sour mash Bourbon...white dog just went on the wood.

[PalCabral]

Stripping wheated Bourbon again. First drops of fores are just about to come out now, three more minutes or so.

I took the day off as it was only a half-day at work today. Was originally thinking of double-mashing for my Bourbon today but my son needs help with moving to his new apartment, so I decided I'd do a quick stripping run this morning before the rest of the family wakes up. That way I'll have fresh backset for the mashing and fermentation of the Bourbon tomorrow.

[PalCabral]

Stripped my bourbon (see my sig) last week, and my Single malt this week.

That Single malt beer was quite tasty. I think the crystal and chocolate contributed some flavor - we'll see how much of that carries over.

I'll be doing a spirit run this week, and probably next before I hang it up for the summer (except gin, and maybe neutral to make gin).

Sounds like an exciting single malt recipe you've got, Higgins. Can you share it?

[higgins]

Sure thing, Pal. This is basically the mash bill for a Scottish 70 Ale that won a bronze medal at the NHC in 1999.

I have a 25 gallon cooler converted to a mash tun using copper tubing covered with SS braid as a filter.

For a 25 gallon mash I used:
50 lb pale malt
15 lb vienna malt
2 lb crystal 10L
1 lb chocolate malt

I added 3 gal cold water to my mash tun, added the grain (mixed a bit, but very thick), then added 13 gallons of 200F water while power mixing, shooting for a mash temp of 145F. My pH was a bit low (my water has very low buffering capacity) so I mixed in 1 tbsp calcium carbonate to get it up a bit (5.3).

mashed 90 min, drained, then did four batch sparges (5 gal 165F water) to get 28 gallons @ 1.065
Aerated well and sprinkled 2 pks US-05 yeast on top (I like using 1 pk ea of US-05 & S-04, but I was out of S-04 at the time)
I probably could have gotten another 5 gal or so @ 1.040 to make a Scottish 60, but I'll do that the next time.
plan is to double pot still ...

[PalCabral]

Night run today. Final stripping run of my wheated Bourbon. Need to get it done because this weekend will be focusing on vinegar, steam and sacrificial runs..

[PalCabral]

Friday night fun. Vinegar run. Look, aint she a beauty?

[PalCabral]

[PalCabral]

Onion head reflux in a vinegar run.

[Dr Griz]

While my 100% rye mash finishes off, I've been playing around with gin (using my new airstill).

Over the years, I've made a bunch of tinctures with fruit around the garden (blueberries, gooseberries, elderflowers, elderberries, blackberries) but found them a bit too much to drink on their own (usually too sweet, but elderflowers have a sharp edge that makes them interesting but not delicious). Blending those tinctures with gin makes for a whole new world of experimenting!

[PalCabral]

New project and cycle started: Bourbon with high rye content. Planning three ferments and stripping runs during May, finished off with a spirit run. Today we're double-mashing.