Home Distiller

Made 40l of blonde ale today. Also distilled a few litres of foreshots I took off various stripping and spirit runs to date. Distilled purely to purify the foreshots and to increase the ABV so I can use it as cleaners and firelighters around the house. Very interesting flavour from distilling pure foreshots, I have to say. Starts off 100% acetone, and then almost smooths out on the nose as you get through the acetone and into the heads. Pretty cool experience. Glad I did it.

I held a cuts party yesterday.

I've only been stilling for about 6 months, but a couple of years before that a small group of long-time close friends who are whiskey lovers (and fellow 20+ yr homebrewers) formed the Brown Liquor Appreciation Society. There were 8 of us in this group, and we would gather weekly (usually 3-5 members each week) to sample various brown liquors that we'd bring to share. The only rules were that the spirit had to have some color and that we did no more than 5 1/2 oz (15 ml) pours (it was in the afternoon and we had to drive afterward, usually to dinner and a few beers, and then 50 miles home for me). If there were more than 5 brought, we would select the 5 to sample as a group. My whiskey/rum palate was definitely expanded in those few years.

I did the spirits run on my all molasses rum on Saturday, plus I had a set of uncut jars from an AG low rye bourbon from a few weeks ago, so I scheduled Monday afternoon in the shed with some BLAS members helping me to make the cuts on the bourbon and rum. Of course we took the opportunity to sample my previous 8 batches, and a couple of commercial bourbons too.

It was a nice way to spend an afternoon with friends helping me to do a tough job.

BTW, we are all old and retired and have had at least 1 of our shots, with 3 of us having had both shots. And I'm way up in the mountains with only 3 neighbors within a mile. So I don't think I was hosting a superspreader.

Spirit Run for a new batch of neutrals for Gin!

Should run 24 gallons of Booner's casual but I'm struggling to find the motivation.

Rum wash. Can't wait for this one (again). Thought I had more molasses, but ended up using 1kg of molasses on 2kg of brown sugar into a total of 22l. Poured the boiling hot sugar water onto an old yeast cake for nutrients, sealed it and it's now cooling down. Tomorrow morning it gets yeast!

3rd gen UJSSM, 4th gen mashing. Wonderful flavor!

Mississippi roast

I made a purchase. A smith and Wesson .40

Last Wednesday I made 10 gallons of a el Dorado hopped blonde/pale. Friday I made 5 gallons of Dusseldorf Alt. Sunday I mashed two bourbon batches.

My basement smells awesome. My wife might disagree, so I'll keep her out of my fermenting room!

K

Stripping a batch of neutrals.....

Hot Cross Bun Gin. Nice straight, but needs some extra Mixed Spice steeped in it to be more 'in your face' HXB.

Durhommer wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 1:40 pm I made a purchase. A smith and Wesson .40

Got my .40 today

Ran 20 gallons of sugarhead that I did on 110lbs Golden Promise barley malt. Ran the remaining racked Golden Promise yesterday. Also ran 20 gallons of bourbon I made with Extra Dark Crystal and Crisp English Chocolate malt. Busy week, now to find some aging vessels! Have about 12-15 gallons ish to blend and put somewhere. That should at hold me over for a little bit.

Tempered (to 125p, for aging) and blended (heads, hearts) the first few gallons of UJSSM spirit run. Saved a sample from each of the 3 generations, to compare. As expected, 1G wasn't much to speak of, not even being 'sour'. 2G was somewhat better; I'd serve it, just not to friends. 3G was passable, I'd drink it now and again. But the results of the spirit run was kind of a surprise. Expected a strong corn flavor, but it didn't even have the corn flavor of 3G. It will be aged for 150 days, let's hope the barrel can give me some wiggle room!

Finished some triple distilled "neutral" through the pot still for my first try at limoncello. Ran real slow and hit 87% abv from a 40% boiler charge. So I brought the spirit to exactly 60 degrees, checked with two different thermometers, to match my hydrometer calibration temp. Yep, 174 proof. That oughta do.

River Rat wrote: ↑Thu Mar 11, 2021 3:47 pm Finished some triple distilled "neutral" through the pot still for my first try at limoncello. Ran real slow and hit 87% abv from a 40% boiler charge. So I brought the spirit to exactly 60 degrees, checked with two different thermometers, to match my hydrometer calibration temp. Yep, 174 proof. That oughta do.

The secret is in the lemons IMO. The difference in limoncello can be huge depending on the quality of the lemons, what are you using?
A few of my fruit based alcohols there.
I keep my ABV at 45+ on my limoncello, easier to dilute it with soda or something else than it is to make it stronger!

Nice bottles coogeeboy

CoogeeBoy wrote: ↑Thu Mar 11, 2021 4:23 pm The difference in limoncello can be huge depending on the quality of the lemons, what are you using?

This is what worries me. Citrus doesn't grow here and I'm limited to whatever the grocery store has. We have 2 varieties: organic and not organic. I don't know what kind they are. I tried to hit the highest abv possible to extract as much flavor as the lemons can offer.

Right, there are quite a few different lemons.
Amalfi lemons are apparently quite sweet and you can eat them, skins and all. Unlikely you will have those there but not so good for limoncello apparently.
Femminello have more citrus oil in the skins and are often used for liqueurs.
I have been using lemons from a dwarf lemon tree that has a relatively smooth skin. That produced a nicer lemoncello than the lemons that had bumpier or lumpy skins.
If you only have one or two types around, don't worry about it, give it a go and manage the sugar water ratios to get the taste you want!
i had a lot of fun getting the balance right on mine. Good luck!

Started stripping a 20something gallon single malt

Thanks Coogee. I picked some up today and started the soak. There is no indication on the bag as to what kind they are. I'm guessing Lisbon just from poking around on the internet. It's already got a great yellow color after soaking for only an hour. Now I just have to try and forget about it for a few weeks. Thanks for the tips.

River Rat wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 12:56 pm Thanks Coogee. I picked some up today and started the soak. There is no indication on the bag as to what kind they are. I'm guessing Lisbon just from poking around on the internet. It's already got a great yellow color after soaking for only an hour. Now I just have to try and forget about it for a few weeks. Thanks for the tips.

I think 'a few weeks' will be much too long to soak your lemons in that fairly high proof alcohol.
And it may be best to have soaked the PEELS (avoiding the white stuff); that is the traditional method.

What do others think?

(I soak the peels then juice the lemons and freeze the juice in ice block trays for cooking).

Geoff

The Baker wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 3:47 pm And it may be best to have soaked the PEELS (avoiding the white stuff); that is the traditional method.

Yes sir that's what I did. Peeled them very carefully, there's not a speck of pith in there.

The Baker wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 3:47 pm I think 'a few weeks' will be much too long to soak your lemons in that fairly high proof alcohol.

Sounds like I shouldn't just forget about for a few weeks. I'll keep an eye on it and pull it when the peels look depleted. Thanks!

I am curious about that now though. I'm sure somebody on here has tossed some whole lemons into a jar of shine before. If you cut that with simple syrup does it taste like limoncello? Sure would be easier. As long as it didn't pull some bitterness from the pith out through the peel.

River Rat wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 5:41 pm I am curious about that now though. I'm sure somebody on here has tossed some whole lemons into a jar of shine before. If you cut that with simple syrup does it taste like limoncello? Sure would be easier. As long as it didn't pull some bitterness from the pith out through the peel.

I think maybe it would.
I left some oranges stuck on skewers above the spirit. To flavour the spirit from the vapour....
Left them a lot too long and now I can squeeze the orange and make a screwdriver with no added spirit,
so certainly the vapour/ spirit can get into the orange, through the pith, so the pith
or its flavour probably can get back into the spirit...

Geoff

Makes sense. And that sounds like a damn good screwdriver.

River Rat wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 5:41 pm I am curious about that now though. I'm sure somebody on here has tossed some whole lemons into a jar of shine before. If you cut that with simple syrup does it taste like limoncello? Sure would be easier. As long as it didn't pull some bitterness from the pith out through the peel.

If you use relevant search terms I think you will find a post about that. If you can't find it, just do it. It is ok to be the first.

Ran my licorice root vodka today 100 grams of licorice root, 2 star of anise and one stick of cinnamon macerated in some 90% neutral for 2 weeks then tempered down to 40% for a run in my 5 litre SS boiler and 2" potstill

Another single malt strip today

NZChris wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 10:17 pm

River Rat wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 5:41 pm I am curious about that now though. I'm sure somebody on here has tossed some whole lemons into a jar of shine before. If you cut that with simple syrup does it taste like limoncello? Sure would be easier. As long as it didn't pull some bitterness from the pith out through the peel.

If you use relevant search terms I think you will find a post about that. If you can't find it, just do it. It is ok to be the first.

I put a whole lemon in 8oz of 125p whiskey for 3 weeks. Nice lemon color, smell and taste. I’m not a lemoncello fan, but it would work as a base for it.