Home Distiller

Just made a quart of vanilla extract I will be giving out for Christmas. This is my first batch of this I've ever made, I bought a 1/4# of vanilla beans from Madagascar (they are awesome) I split them up the center with a pair of scissors. I put the whole 1/4# in a quart jar and filled up with neutral I made with the potstill @165P (it was ran 3 times thought it would be a little more proof) I'll slow down more next time. Clean tasting though. This vanilla extract should be very very good. I will water it down after a couple of months to about 90P

Last night i stripped 6gal of an NCHooch style bourbon mash. I also cooked some cracked corn for another. Its got barley malt and wheat malt for enzymes. Both had backset from previous batches. I used the yeast cake from the first batch for this one and it took off like a rocket. SG on todays mash was 1.060. Im debating on adding 2lb of light brown sugar. Itd bring the SG to 1.070. Havent decided on that yet.

Me and my buddy also brewd 16gal of beer today.

A bourbon based on a corn flakes (Kellogs) sugar head.

Siphoned off my first try at Kentucky shinner's sweetfeed whisky. Gonna let it sit for a day or so.... Also started five gallons of wine and started a batch of UJSSM.... Gonna be a busy week...

Put another 14 gallons of Rad's All Bran Wash together this morning, put this batch back in the house, did the last ferment in the garage and the temp fluctuation took it for ever to clear up.

Running a batch of UJSSM this morning. My wife walked by as I was charging the still this morning and said, "hadn't smelled that in a long time". I've been away from the hobby for a bit and it is nice to finally put another batch on.

Ran that batch of sweetfeed last night.... Turned out VERY well....

In bottles 2 case's Mexican cervasa. In the fermenter 5 gallon velvet rooster 8.5% triple Belgian,6 gallon red wine Chianti, 10 gallons of sweetfeed whiskey wash and 3 gallons of low wines on the shelf...the wife thinks I'm nuts

Racked 6gal of UJSSM sour head off the corn last night and started another batch. Boy it took off fast! having all that active yeast in there really jumpstarts a fermentation. Stripped 2gal so I'd have backset to sour the head, added it right on in last night. The low wines had a nice clean smell with a little corn sweetness. I'll be saving these low wines to combine with the wines from this next head before running spirits.

I also have about 6gal of NCHooch bourbon all-grain mash thats about done fermenting, its settling out pretty good. I'll strain that out and strip it this weekend. I already have nearly 2gal of 35% low wines from another batch to combine with these, should have 4gal for a spirit run. Looking for a little over a gallon of 65% that I can oak and age.

Being new to all this, I kind of want to try everything at once. But I'm finding it takes a lot of time to process stuff from two different mashes, espeically with my small pot still.

I was able to set some time aside and get a 50 gal. rum wash going with a recipe I used last spring. I plan to do a stripping run with this wash as well as another 25 gal. wash I'll ferment soon. This will be used to fill one (10 gal.) of several barrels I picked up recently. These rum washes came to 10% /1.080 initial reading and I'm hoping they'll be done next weekend so I can do a stripping run.

This recipe taken from the Blackstrap versus Fancy molasses was a fantastic recipe for me last spring. I aged 3 gal. in glass with JD Chips flavored w/ pineapple clove & raisins and another 2 gal. flavored with lime zest and lime juice. Both came out fantastic. Below is the Pineapple flavored rum. I'm looking forward to seeing what barrel aging will do in comparison. I couldn't imagine it being better.



This stuff @ 130 proof makes a fantastic Mai Tai.

Ran a batch of UJSSM and a batch of grape/apple/cranberry brandy!!!! All turned out well

Stripped two small runs of NCHooch, then put on another bourbon mash.

I just got a cheap source for day old breads of various kinds. anyone know how can turn this into a neutral wash? I have done BW but no idea what to add and in what amounts for this. anyone have a recipe?

Thanks for the help!

Made some 90 proof apple pie... Good stuff..

Didn't make it today, but had a taste of some whiskey from a feints run (here), that has been ageing for a while on oak. Coming along very nicely.

Ran another batch of sweetfeed today..

added the first two stripped marmalade washes to the final one and ran it 1.5 times. made my cuts and diluted to 45Abv.
It's ok, but not as brilliantly citrus-y as my first stripping run i did.
I've done one overpressure heat treatment ah la Odin, and plan to leave it white at this stage

Yesterday I made two brandy washes, one blackberry and one raspberry. Today I stripped out 4 gallons of rum.

Wed and Thurs I ran 20 gal of sugar wash. Today I started 20 gal of sugar wash. I am sick of this turbo yeast but I ain't wasteful. I'll give it to my Bro in laws... damn moochers

Today I started opened an aged bottle of mead, starting another one today, tomorrow I'm starting a new batch of rum.

I made 10 gal Sweetfeed Whisky, fist ever for me, and got stuff for 10 gal of Birdwatchers. First again.

Over the rainy weekend I did spirit runs of rum and rasp/blackberry brandy. Made cuts, now they are on wood for as long as I can wait! I also started a brown sugar only rum wash with WLP300 yeast to try and get as much fruit flavor as possible. MAybe even let it ferment at 73F to get some bubblegum hints.

I just got finished making 10 gal of BW wash. That and the 10 gals of sweetfeed should give me plenty to run next week.

Stripped 20 gal of sugar, 6row, rye, and raisin bran. Slowed it in the middle to sneak some off, warm n smooth.

If i don't get an overtime call in the next 2 hours, i have about 3 gallons of 100 proof tails i will dillute and reflux them, everyone is asking for more flavored drinks, yeager, ameretto, cini schnapps! Good winter sipping stuff!

Yeah! Single malt whisky! First ferment gave me 6% abv only. Second ferment seems to be going much better and longer. The peat, even though the malt is at 6 ppm only, shines thru really well. I will strip it this weekend. Spirit run will follow shortly after that.

Made me some new old style geneva as well. Wasn't to happy with it at first. Used half the herbs bill I usually do. But let it macerate for 3 days instead of max one day. Astringuent? If that is an English word at all ...

Anyhow, 5 weeks later, and with a little cane sugar added, it is a pretty intense and spicey old styler! Good serious sippin'!

Odin.

Pineapple shine!!

Also made a batch of pineapple wine... She's a bubbling away as we speak...
Had a batch of muskedine wine turn to vinegar so I'll have to run it through the still....

Well, I made an all-grain mash yesterday with 13 lbs. of pale ale malt and ended up with 5 gallons with a SG of around 1.055-1.060 to ferment. After cooling it in my cube igloo ferment-a-cooler I pitched a packet of Nottingham yeast. This afternoon it seemed like it was having a tough time getting started because of the higher gravity so I added a tablespoon of bakers yeast, She's going like gangbusters now. Planning on running it next weekend. I'm thinking it should be fermented out by Friday. We'll See. BTW this is my first all-grain mash for distill'n purposes. I have already ran two or three batches of UJSSM & a couple of batches of Sweet-Feed mash. All have turned out pretty good so far.

Fixin2

@ fixin2 - I've nevder done an AG but want to learn and have been doing lots of research. Is the pale ale malt an extract? Thought it couldn't be done with extract because of the lack of an enzyme required for the process. Like I said I've been readin bout it and may be wrong as theres a lot to learn bugt as I couldn'd find malted barley I thought about the malt extract.