Home Distiller

I made six runs using Uncle Jesse's simple sour mash with good results. When my daughter was born I had to stop off for a couple of weeks. So I poured my spent mash in buckets when I syphoned off my last run. That evening I took my used mash (about 8 gallons) down to my hog pen and poured it all in my favorite boar's (Wilbur) feed trough. Then I went back to my run. After I got done with my run and got cleaned up it was feeding time. I made my way down to the hog pens and Wilbur was lying on his back with his feet straight up in the air. I thought the poor pig was dead. I started calling his name and shaking the now empty feed trough and he slowly rolled over and got up. He fell and then got up again and stumbled and fell all the way over to me. The next day he was back to normal. Looking back it is kind of funny now but it really did have me concerned that ol' Wilbur was going to die. I guess the lesson I learned that day is if your going to feed mash to your livestock then you need to dry it out or heat the alcohol out of it first or your going turn your animals into alcoholics!

Better watch that pig now--they're smart!! He'll be "helping" you distill next thing you know!!!

When my pot bellied pig Willy was alive he enjoyed rum and coke as much as I do.But after a few he would try to start a fight with the dog.

Was he mean and ornery the next day? Just wondering if he had a mean hangover!

hehehe, good story !

VG, he showed no signs of hangover. He was as happy as a pig in shit!!

Your leftovers were THAT bad??

Well, I make forty gallons of wash at one time. Plus I rack my wash on top of the corn. So there is usually a fair amount of liquid left over in my mash barrel that I don't bother with trying to strain out. At an average of 14% alcohol. Eight gallons of that stuff minus a couple of handfuls for the chickens is a rather hefty amount of alcohol for a 200 pound boar.

32 gal of 14% wash . That’s 4.5 gal of etho. Maybe (?conservative pot still estimates?) 2.5 gal. collected at say 80% cut with 2.5 gal water to 40% ending with 5 gal drinkin hooch.

What do you use for a boiler?

Are you putting that up a barrel at a time?

Joe, I have never did the math but you are close with your amounts. I usually get between 7 and 9 gallons drinking shine a run. I use a 55 gallon stainless syrup barrel for my boiler. Right now I'm just putting my drink in quart jars but I now have a fresh 53 gallon used bourbon barrel that I have been considering putting up. I have read that I shouldn't try it with a used barrel. Can anybody tell me why? If I cleaned the barrel out real good would I not get a nice drinking product?

Id say it would make a good rum barrel To used up for burbon.

Rum distillers, Scotch distillers, everybody except Bourbon distillers (they are required by law to use new barrels) use "used" Bourbon barrels. The trick is to make sure they are "sound". Fill you barrel with water. Wait two days. If it leaks, don't put booze in it. (I likely will leak the first day, don't worry about this, the wood is swelling). If there are no leaks after two days, go for it!!

and for home brew, I think a used bourbon barrel is fine for making bourbon. I've used cut up used barrel wood for aging with good results.

i made the exact same mistake once. too many grains after a grain-in ferment. my poor pig was so drunk i didn't know if she'd pull through.