Home Distiller

After much anticipation, I just couldn't wait any longer. My first jar of oaked UJSM seems to be a little dark; After diluting down to 80 proof (from 110 proof) this is what it looks like: Nice subtle oak flavor, too my surprise, wasn't badly over oaked, just no vanillians or sugars came through. So I topped off the quart at 110 proof, removed half of the oak chips and will let sit another month.

I also made Fire Piss Whiskey today with the quart of 55 proof sitting on 6 cinnamon sticks. Here's the first shot (cheers): Nice cinnamon flavor, not as strong as I had hoped, thus when I filled the quart back up with UJSM, I used straight 165 proof. I mixed 2 cups of sugar into 2 cups of water, boiled to reduce by half, cooled and added 100 cc of syrup to 550 cc UJSM with 100 cc of filtered water, made it just about perfect!

Replenished my apple pie!

FightnFive wrote:After much anticipation, I just couldn't wait any longer. My first jar of oaked UJSM seems to be a little dark; After diluting down to 80 proof (from 110 proof) this is what it looks like:

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Nice subtle oak flavor, too my surprise, wasn't badly over oaked, just no vanillians or sugars came through. So I topped off the quart at 110 proof, removed half of the oak chips and will let sit another month.

Don't worry about that Signature red wax. I actually started buying bottling wax to wax up my newly bottled likker (grey). Keeps me an others honest about opening a bottle.


I didn't exactly make anything new today but I just spent quite a bit of time collecting apples in preperation to make some of Jimbo's apple brandy, then since I needed to buy some yeast I ordered up a selection to play with, and thats where it went all down hill.... Ordered up some 10 lbs of 2 row for a little whiskey project I'm getting ready to move on.... and this the season to start making stout for the winter slumber... so I piled a grain bill on to my order to whip up some oatmeal stout. Should keel the UPS guy employed another week and it'll keep me busy for a while. Can't wait to get boiling... just refreshed all my propane tanks for fall fun.

Black Eye!

Kicked off another Birdwatchers to make some of Odin's simple gin with since I've been collecting a fair few damsons and the two go really well together.

Started a rum ferment. And ran gen 1 and 2 stripps with gen 3 ujssm started gen 4

Ran some smoke shine and two smokers. One full of grain and the other backstrap from the elk I got 5 days ago. Hunted with my recurve this year. Nice fat cow. Gonna start some jerky up tomorrow.

Ran a 1.5 run of Odins Rye Bread Whiskey yesterday ( my twist being to mallardize the bread by dipping in baking soda water and then baking for a couple of hours).

Smelling the jars today, I think I'm going to really like Rye

I'll be blending and diluting after dinner - some center hearts as white dog and the rest on toasted and charred oak.

Gotta get some UJSSM back on the go (got some backset on spent corn about a year old - tasty as!) Suspect that they will blend nicely together.

Sounds good, FTB!

I just started up an Easy Grappa Recipe with raisins. Three kilo's of them, with 2 kilo's of cane sugar. Used a yeast starter, because those Tokay yeast sachets are for just 5 to 10 liters, and I ferment close to 27 liters now.

Took of like a rocket!

By now, 2/3rd of the raisins actually float instead of being at the bottom of the fermentor.

This is going to be tasty!

Odin.

Still experimenting with various blends of my first UJSSM jars.

One blend has been made into my first ever Irish Cream which has been stolen by my daughter and is now many hundred miles from my fridge, along with several lbs of my raw milk cheese.

Woke up to rain so it's a great day to hang out in the shed. Getting my elk jerky goin then a mash of Smoke Shine followed by a mash of Blue Dog for aging. Will also do a run of Smoke while checking out the race at Loudon.

Rain on the coast today as well. Running two pots of Blackbeards Treasure-Whiskey, not rum. After foreshots one pint it is about 75abv with correction off the still and 70 a quart #2. Got grapes to crush and pears to cut for cobbler. Need more drums and hands!
GA Flatwoods

Got 30 gal of sweet feed started today. Bur instead of just sugar for the etho i added some 6 row and some enzymes with only little sugar came out to 1.072. Not to bad should make a good rumskey or whiskum whatever you want to call it.

Laziness & necessity are my main motivators. I tried an AG, but hated the hours of stirring. I ground whole corn into coarse meal. I heated 6 gallons of water in a BOP to 200 deg & turned the heat off & left it off. I added 13# of corn meal & stirred until it was mixed in. That took about 15 minutes. BUT by the time it was mixed, it was cooked! Now it was 7 gallons of thick corn mush. The temp was down to 180.

I put it in a cooler to let it rest for an hour. Added a gallon of cold water to get temp down to 152. Added 3.5# of homemade wheat malt. The mush thinned in a few minutes. Then it sat in the cooler overnight.

This morning there was 3" of sweet liquid over the grain bed. Iodine test showed conversion. My homemade malt worked!

Squeezed out 5 gallons at 1.054 SG. Draining & squeezing is a pain. (Scratching noggin to stimulate idea formulation.) Put it in fermentor with baker's yeast & nutes.

The yield of 5 gal of 1.054 SG seems low from 16.5# of grain. I'll check other AG recipes to see how they did.

Stripping run on a rye, corn, barley, malt biscuits, sugar and gen #6 UJSSM backset, whiskey. A sample in Coke tastes promising.

Making a second/8th generation using all of the previous grain bill plus rye, oats, malt biscuits, potato water, sugar and backset.

I'm thinking about using the backset from this to start off a series of rum ferments as I don't have any dunder. If I 'steal' gen#1 it might make a good rumskey or whiskum. Thanks for the idea, pfshine.

Grrr ... added resveratrol to my rye UJ's. And they now ferment for 2 1/2 weeks instead of one. What's going on? Are the grain starches being converted as well? Activity does not seem any slower than normal, but does it take longer? Yes. I don't like that, but am curious to find out what taste will be.

In my other fermentors: grappa made from raisins. By now all the raisins are floating. Should be finished in a few days. I hope, 'cause I want to run something!

Odin.

Last night made 2 buckets Gerber, but one I used
"Beech Nut" rice cereal, b vitamins and most other
values are the same. 6 gallons each bucket.

Went to work, left it to cool.... just got home an hour ago,
Added yeast, see you in 2-3 weeks!

Sat did a run, so I'm just doing my regular nuetral runs,
But doubled the amount since my new rig came online.

Made my cuts on my Branflakes Whiskey, tastes rough this young so on the JD chips it goes. Also made up another basic rum using treacle.

I've got a 2nd generation of Odin's Cornflakes ready to distill, but I won't be able to do that this weekend regrettably.

It looks like my first Sweet Feed mash is pretty-much finished today -- maybe some minor bubbles still popping. It has been working for about 11 days. I added more sugar when making it to bring it up to 1.074 to start, and it is now at 0.990. Around 11% ABV. Tastes nice and sour and smells great! Might just distill this one before the CF mash since it is something new. Or, maybe I will do a double run maybe next Saturday. Of course, that is if I can get the SF clarified by then. Since I had so much trouble finding the "all grain with molasses" sweet feed, it's kinda special.

I'll be running them thru my CM column with no or very little reflux.

Took a taste of some (about a quart at 65%) Odin's CF last nite that I had put on JD oak chips around 11 days ago. Is my first attempt at oaking. Color is great! Looks like bourbon. I also took the chips out at the same time rather than leave them in. Seems I remember reading about doing that -- hope that is ok. Cut the sample to a bit less than 40% -- was right good! Better than the original "white". Gonna let the rest of the "quart" age for awhile -- iffn I don't keep tasting it! LOL! Well hell, I figure I kinda outta since I want to see how oaking and aging progresses! It's a learning experience. Ain't that what I am supposed to do?

Y'all take care!

Drip

Gonna fire up the burner and run off 14 gal of UJSSM in a few hours here. My first Gen 3 of anything yet. Getting super excited, as #2 tasted great!

Odin, I have been experimenting with the 'res' lately myself . My Smoke took 27 days. I'm normally 7.
May be grain starch. Mash taste different. Not bad, just different. Too dry.

Ran a spirit run of rum I've been collecting. 110 proof in a carboy cut down to 35% gave me 5 gallons.Yielded me a nice run of rum for aging... Gonna be good. Been resting a while now and jar #6 was 160 proof. In the mean time ran 25 lbs of whole corn thru the grinder. Got a nice crack to her... Just got 10 lbs of 2 row in the mail so I smell some of that pumpkin whiskey in the very near future.

Same ole faux wheat but I was a few pounds low on sugar so I tossed in a half gallon of sugarcane syrup that I picked up last summer that was made local. Hope it turns out. Probably kind of rumski I would imagine.

I made a pint jar of neutral with orange pineapple syrup,
Added a few drops bannana (propylene glycol)
Bananna Orange Pineapple!
At 90 proof, drank it with soda water over ice.
Tasty! Too much bananna, but still pretty good.
Watched the Pats beat Atlanta.
Feel good today, so that works.

My wine from raisins, for a grappa, is all but done. Few days still. SG at 1.020. The wine is good in itsself, actually!

Odin.

Trying nuking different cuts of my UJSSM, but my $10 microwave's misbehaving since the lighting strike. I wish it would start smoking or blow my fuses or something, instead of just teasing me by working when it feels that way inclined.

Ran a spirit run of 2 gal UJSSM, diluted to 3 gal with filtered water. Half a gallon of what I pulled off would almost be a shame to store, as it's so good now. But it will all get cut and then some of it blended in a day or 2, then the very best pint stays in the white, and the rest get the oak!

Ran the first half of a 18ltr rum wash, didn't get as much as I was expecting but I did mess up the recipe a bit. Still it'll be another mistake that I'll have to drink up rather quickly

I finished up a gallon batch of lemoncello. It is sooooo good ice cold.

Just wrapped up the start of my pumpkin whiskey mash. 17 lbs of the corn I ground last weekend, 5 lbs fresh sugar pumpkin I roasted the shit out of on the grill, 9-10 gallons water and 2 gallons backset the wife's been begging me to get out of the freezer. Once this corn and pumpkin are done soaking I have a 10 lb bag of 2 row I'll weigh out 5 or so pounds and finish her up. I've got 4 or 5 packets each of S-04 and US-05 so I'll take my pick there... Most likely the US-05 and test out my new Speidel 15 gallon fermenter. Fun times for a quiet Saturday.