Stethoscope tells me all is quiet in my rumsky and the weather forecaster tells me it won't be much fun outside tomorrow.
Goddam Green Faerie cast a spell on my UJSSM cut overnight and it's gone cloudy. Tastes great, but you wouldn't show the bottle to your visitors. Maybe that's a good thing.
Bought a secondhand microwave to replace the one the died during an electrical storm. Dismantled the old one and found a grunty 5.2 RPM motor that will be very suitable for a small spit.... chickens, rabbits, kebabs, roadkill, etc.
Three days of sun has finally ended and my efforts at making brunost cheese out of whey using solar has to stop now, so I'm going to finish it off with a gas burner. I need to make a spirit burner that uses foreshots for this sort of thing. I must have a gallon of the stuff and I only use it for erasing felt tip off bottles.
Bottled my Pumpkin Pie (found on another thread). Photo below shows 1 bottle of pumpkin pie and the jar shows the pulp strained before filtering. Got to admit I am happy with both results. The pulp laced with alcohol goes great on a bowl of french vanilla ice cream.
Stripping run on a small rumskey I made to make some dunder for my rum. Smells good. Collected about the right amount to put through my mini pot. If the weather is rubbish tomorrow, I might just do that.
Bottled ginger beer. 5% ABV. Priming them upside down so that they can be disgorged.
I ran a peach/pear brandy and it turned out awesome. I have more peaches and pears, the wife orders fruit on-line through Wynder Farms so, for a change, my kids cant eat all of them. Every week another box full. What we dont eat goes in the freezer then when I have enough I ferment it all up.
Bought a second hand microwave to replace the one that died during a lightening storm. Thought it was doing the job until I realized it was only heating the top of the jar. I bet there is no easy fix for that one.
Put the rumskey through my mini pot still to get rid of it. Sample was nice, more rum than grain. Nuked it with Jim Beam chips and a bit of vanilla pod.
Gen #2 rum smells coming out of the incubator already.
Made butter for the first time in 35 years. Very nice. It might become part of my weekly routine along with cheesemaking. Last week's blue cheese is looking very blue already and I am really looking forward to bringing it out for a Christmas treat.
Bought another microwave to replace the one that was only nuking the top half of the jars. This is the third microwave I've bought for this. Fingers crossed that it'll do the job.
Stripping run of generation #2 rum and generation #3 started. I had enough dunder to make a wash that will fill my still. The next generations will give me enough to fill my still twice, then three times, then it's spirit run time.
Brushed the mold off my blue cheeses. They look and smell good and should be ready for Christmas.
Made up 2 quarts of Peach Pantydropper. Started with 4 quart jars stuffed with peeled and sliced peaches, topped up with a 62% Gumballhead made in May, soaked 3 months on the peaches, then strained and coffee fltered. Sweetened with 3oz of honey per quart. Pretty tasty. Fruit really comes out after a couple ice cubes melt in a glass. Prolly need to cut it down some in proof.
Spirit run (XX) from my first 7% B.W. got 7.6L at 76% out of my 25L still charge - some of the cleanest i've ever run.
Going to make a great base for damson liqueur, and allow me to play some more with gin and absinthe
Where has all the rum gone? . . .
Every new member should read this before doing anything else:
Stripped my tripple malt yesterday. Biscuity and peaty. I will add the strip, some 7.5 liters of 38% to my next whisky beer and do a 1.5 on them.
Currently stripping some sugar head vodka I made with the spent grains from above tripple malt. Got a nice lacto infection today, decided to run anyway.
Odin.
"Great art is created only through diligent and painstaking effort to perfect and polish oneself." by Buddhist filosofer Daisaku Ikeda.
Just did a run of watermelon kiwi brandy. 30 pounds of watermelon ten kiwis a cup and a half of rasisns and four pounds of sugar with EC 1118. It came out pretty good. But the kiwi dominated the flavor.
“I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.”
Howdy folks...
Ran two batches two days ago...a Grappa for my Lemoncello >> great to bottle into little 375ml bottles and give away at Christmas to friends and family and a batch of Rum, for the same purpose. The Rum is getting spiced up and I'll filter it out in a few days.
The next one is a batch of prune mash, 2nd generation. Has a huge head on it and it hasn't burped in awhile.... the Rum came out 45% and the Grappa just under 40%...
gg
They say, "you are what you eat"... Then I'm fast, easy and cheap!
I did a run of rum a week ago. Wife thought it'd be a good idea to throw some cinnamon sugar in the mash. Came out spiced. Real good.
“I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.”
So made a 5 gallon batch of mash consisted 50% apples crushed 25% pears and 25% bananas. Added 5 lbs sugar half brown half white...added distillers yeast and a few craisins 3 days in going strong. Gonna wait it out airlock it when the process slows down. First ever run. Im creative who knows what it will come out like? Been reading a lot of these posts and finally confident enough to know the process. Opinions? Constructive critiscm? Thanks!
Had near a gallon from a SF spirit run. Started making liquers yesterday and today. Yesterday I put together 3 forty oz. Hurricane bottles of apple pie and started mascerating the zest of 5 big lemons in a quart jar of the 65% ABV SF for Lemoncello. I'll let the zest soak for about 3 weeks and then use Corene1's recipe to finish it.
Today I started a double batch of Knuclehead's Amaretto recipe, but switched the amounts of dark brown and white sugar based on some of the comments in his thread. I'll also be making a butterscotch (snapps?) based on the ameretto recipe - substituting butterscotch flavoring for the almond flavoring. Not sure it can be called butterscotch snapps because I'm using SF. Anyway, I ran out of vanilla flavoring, so I'll be making a trip to the grocery store before I can finish it up.
S-C
Every new member should read this before doing anything else:
Hobbyprone wrote:So made a 5 gallon batch of mash consisted 50% apples crushed 25% pears and 25% bananas. Added 5 lbs sugar half brown half white...added distillers yeast and a few craisins 3 days in going strong. Gonna wait it out airlock it when the process slows down. First ever run. Im creative who knows what it will come out like? Been reading a lot of these posts and finally confident enough to know the process. Opinions? Constructive critiscm? Thanks!
-Hobbyp
Hope you did your cleaning runs. If not, you probably shouldn't run that good wash first. If you need to do cleaning runs, go get yourself a gallon or two of vinegar, dilute it 50/50 with water and run it for a couple of hours. Then, get yourself some cheap wine or bottom shelf vodka (or other) and run that through your still - and throw it away. After that, you should be good to go with that good wash you been fermenting.
Just sayin',
S-C
Every new member should read this before doing anything else:
Okay sounds like a plan. Thanks for the info gonna let it work for a while. Ill update also like to see what a straight corn run would come out like? I needed a hobby this really pertains to me love the technical side of it glad I signed up.
Did another batch of UJSSM with some feints thrown in. I didn't have any leaks, and ended up with quite a bit. Heads started at 65%, and I kept running it until about 40%. After blends and cuts, it's still about 55%, perfect for oaking. BTW, I pulled out some that I put on oak last year, and it's getting GOOD.
Mixed up a gallon jug of lemoncello. zest and juice of 5 lemons, 2 cups sugar, 1/2 gallon of 62% white. This white is a little much on the bourbon flavor, usually use vodka, but the lemons should knock it down. One of these days Ill buidl a neutral makin machine.
Also made a couple great deals on the way home tonight. Picked up three 5g glass carboys from a lady for 20 bucks, craigslist. And stopped at home depot for some more electric conversion stuff, and scored 27 feet of 8/3 stranded for 50% off on the remnant rack. Gonna run this from my breaker box loose to double 4 prong 240 plugs in a box off a 50A breaker, to move around the brew room as needed. Ill be able to run 2 controllers and 2 elements for double batchin. I like brewing beer while Im doin a stillin run. kill 2 birdies.
Made a heater box for my fermenter ,got the idea and instructions from other threads here. Foam box with clamp light . Had to try different bulbs to get temp right . Problem was having to take top off to check temps so I bought a inside/outside digital thermometer put the outside unit in fermenter box and inside unit in pouch on recliner( so anyone can see and wonder why it's 74 deg outside when it's really in the 40's . Now i can make sure my yeasties are comfortable without going to my shed all the time
Smoked 100lbs of malted corn, 50lbs sweet feed, 50lbs malted barley.
Tomorrow morning a run of Smoke Shine and a mash of the same. Empty fermenter is not good.
Then off to my favorite watering hole to watch Jimmie Johnson win his sixth championship.
I bet there is no easy fix for that one.
