Home Distiller

Jimbo wrote: whats everyone makin, I know's y'all arent takin the summer off cookin up some fine hooch.

Well, I have been thinkin bout making a bigger still to get some more time LOL. Other than the panela rum, I have just been sticking to my faux wheat whiskey.

Taking the summer off does not look like an option in my life time!

Some rye/wheat/corn Pure Whiskey. Loading the still as we speak!

Odin.

Got the following fermenting on the porch

8 lbs malted white wheat
2 tsp gypsum
1 tsp epsom salts
1 tbl spoon 5.2 ph adjust
2lbs Dextrose
5.125 gallons H2O
1lb of rice hulls (mash tun sparge filter)
2 packets of Fermentis S-04

3 gallons of Strike water at 160F for a rest of 90 mins at 150 once grain added.

SG of the 3 gallon mash = 1.07

SG after 2.125 gallons sparge = 1.05

SG after sugar = 1.07

Hydrated yeast added before bedtime and happily bubbling away this AM.

Strip run on Monday.

SG after

Well this was more last night than today, but its the first time I had to post.

Made a nice glass of UJ that's been Oaking for a while. I had to sample the progress and I was very happy with the smell / taste test. Good way to enjoy a rainy night

Pesty, Nice mash!

Squeezed out some bourbon grain, and made 5 gallons of IPA with Sorachi Ace and New Zealand Moteuka hops. Big pile of grain from both waiting for some sugar in 20 gallons to make another round of Gumballhead tomorrow after I have some backset from the bourbon runs. ALL for my own consumption, with or without label, not a drop sold, ever! For the record. Fuckinhell.

Jimbo,
Ever think about taking the grains from a good beer run and do a gum ball run? Or was that what you were saying above? I've seen some pretty interesting artisan whiskeys being made base off beer mash, like a Russian imperial stout whiskey.

Yup. 50 from the bourbon + 13 from the IPA.

Nice, that I'd be interested in. Love me some IPA.

Black Eye wrote:Jimbo,
Ever think about taking the grains from a good beer run and do a gum ball run? Or was that what you were saying above? I've seen some pretty interesting artisan whiskeys being made base off beer mash, like a Russian imperial stout whiskey.

Ive been thinking about doing just that. Make it just like beer, come up with some recipe super malty and dark, lots of roasted barley, special B and others. Sparge it and ferment the wort. Then take the grains and add sugar and water and ferment a sugarhead on the grain.

Yeah I started thinking about that after reading Darek Bell's book Alt Whiskey. Then when you started the updates on the gum ball ferments all the gears started grinding. I was talking with the guy at my LHBS about skipping the hops and just distill a oatmeal stout. All I got was, well that would be an expensive whiskey. I'd really hate to waste all that tasty beer so I'd love to see what a gum ball run produces. It'd be interesting to make a gumball run of a IPA or white ale then hop/herb it later with a gin head. Bell's been doing that too. That might be something up Odin's alley with the Genever I've been reading about? Hybrid Gin/Genever style whiskey ( in the sense that it was herbal infused).

I got a batch of limoncello soaking tonight. Two months out is a long ass time to wait but it's worth it!

Stoked to hear more about the gum ball run whiskey

Jimbo wrote:Pesty, Nice mash!

This morning i awoke to the hydrometer floating at .990 so yes, nice mash!

racked it off into a clean carboy so i can harvest the yeast bed. Plan to set up and run either later this evening of first thing tmrw morning.

Always be careful if harvesting from an AG run. That malt was never pasteurized in the process so the assorted bacteria are still there. Give the harvest a good sniff before dumping it in the next batch. If the bacteria are winning youll smell the bastards. It will smell 'off'

It had a nice zinggy tingly almost fruity smell when i poured it into a sterilized Qt mason jar.

If this comes out like I think it will. I'm planning to run this batch 5 more times, do a final spirit run and oak it up in time for xmas delivery.

Ran this morning and after all said and done, I've got 2 full Qts of 50% product airing out on the counter.

Made a little sweet sun "shine" tea for a fine sunny day. Took a jar of 100 proof UJ, added a little simple syrup... maybe 1/4-1/3 of a cup of sugar in all, and a few irish breakfast tea bags.



Sat out for a few hours in the sun and darkened up real nice. Only problem is, this aint the kinda sweet tea you can slam down. Small glasses. Can't wait for the mint to get growing so I can add that to the mix.

Interesting licker idea. A couple of those and you will be licking a fence post. Boiler Maker? Teapot terror?

I made coffee

Careful on the mint it is really overpowering. We have a thread on Sweet tea vodka you might want to google and read. I tried it and it tastes pretty good. If I remember right some folks said avoid the earl grey tea bags.

Nahhh I stay with the bags I normally make Iced Tea out of. As for mint... I like my mint strong, just like my ginger. I typically add the Mint to the sugar when making simple syrup, that way I don't have to pick leaves out of my drink. I hate picking things out of my drinks

Bushman wrote: If I remember right some folks said avoid the earl grey tea bags.

I tried it with earl grey and was initaly very disapointed, forgot about it for 6 months and came back to something special!
Time heals all ills

I have an old bleander i have for the purpose of grinding grain.
Grain bill:steam rolled barley(feed store stuff3 lbs)
Corn ground into meal(whole kernels feed store also6 lbs.)
Malted corn3puond before sprouting
Cooked brown rice/defrosted then liquified.1 lb apprx left overs.no butter or soy sauceLOL.
3beano tabs
Took corn meal &barley cooked the heck outta it with cream of tarter.poured 3gallon if 171 water in insulated cooler and my mash dumped in rice stir it all togetherat 6:00 ill dump in my malted corn(ground into flour)and go to work.pitch my yeast.at 8:30in the morningafter pouring 5gallon jugs of distilled .i cooked with tap water I always forget to use the britta.(fleishmans bread yeast)

this thread will never end. love it

sprouted corn, stinky corn. 6 row n stinky corn. ferment went well. double distilled under 160. threw it on charred white oak like Pinto does. month later it sips real nice
gave to friend who gave to friend who buys bunch from GA, he said it was the best he has had. ha, he has not had much then. but as i sip it now, not bad but needs age.

Just distilled 9 gallons of 2 row with some smoked barley. smells good. used its dunder on a 15 gal batch of 2 row and some sugar to bring OG up a bit. yeast is partying like their at Monsters of Rock.

Uber Thanks to the many awesome people on this site!

Batch #2 of my wheat run has finished it's ferment.

I'll rack it into another carboy and let it clear until Sunday when I can run it.

Dropped another oak stick into the brandy jug!

Got 28 gallons of panela rum bubbling away. First attempt at any type of rum so looking forward to running this one when it finishes. If it turns out well I'll have to do another batch to get enough to fill one of the 3 gallon Gibbs barrels I got a few weeks ago, another first.

2x rum and tpw,

Got my first AG going this morning, it's all corn that I malted myself (first time malting) On Rads advice I used all malted corn. I started with 10 lbs of pop corn from the grocery store as seed corn is strangely difficult to find here. The malting went well, a guestimate would be about 85-90% sprouted, dried on a screen set on a box fan and ground the corn in a blender. I heated 2 gallons of water and 1 gallon of backset from a batch of UJSSM to 160deg striking temp and added the corn, the temp dropped to 148 deg. I was really worried about hurting the malt by overheating so I kept a close eye on the temp and held it at 150 for 2 hours, I then dumped the whole mess into an ice chest and added 3 more gallons of 150 deg water, closed the lid and left it till this morning and went out early and gave it a stir. About noon I activated some bakers yeast and went out to the ice chest to pitch it. I got a great surprise when I opened the lid and found that the mash had kicked off on it's own and was bubbling vigorously, I figured that I might get "some" reaction without yeast but not this much so I decided not to pitch the yeast and just let her go and see what I get. When it stops working I'll rack it off, let it settle out and run it. I'm really looking forward to this batch. I think I'll build a sugar head on top of the grains with about 2 gallons of backset from the AG and see if it'll kick off on the yeast already there, like with the UJSSM.

Cheers
Chopper

Some Akvavit.

Odin.

2nd strip of WPOSW. Spirit run to follow and hopefully some apple pie tonight