My Story

[Mr_Rice68]

Some years ago, My 82 year old great uncle in Missouri had passed away. I was invited to come out and look through his estate to see if there was anything that I'd like to claim. I live in California so I really didn't entertain the idea other than to visit relatives that I haven't seen since I was a kid (I was 36 at the time of his passing). My aunt (subject's wife) instead just sent me what she thought I might like. There were some pictures of when he was in WW2, some of his war and western novels that he read and within them were some hand written recipe books. I like to barbecue so I looked through and found a couple of good barbecue tricks. He was really into cooking and apparently beer making. From that I started brewing beer from time to time. I didn't read all of his notes and recipes, up until just a little over a year ago. The notes have been sitting idle in my garage storage. I got to looking in my garage, realizing that it was past due for a cleaning. So I tore through the garage throwing away old magazines, lame tools and other junk that had no currency or personal value. I came across the box of my late uncle's items and put them aside to review later. About a week after the cleanup, my daughter asked about the box containing the uncle's items. After passing on the whole family tree story and how he was related and what not. I was going through his albums and found a jail/prison photo of him. Who keeps those and what was it that he could have done to get a jail/prison photo? I thought it had to be a novelty photo so I contacted my cousin and I got the shock of my minute. He was apparently a moonshiner. I knew my great grandfather was a "whiskey maker" but that was supposed to be pre prohibition. So the story goes that prohibition came around, and he was out helping his dad with distilling and selling. They got busted by the revenuers and since didn't sell. At least they haven't been caught.

What I found in the recipes and note was a distilling apparatus. It was a the boiler, thumper and the condenser. When I had seen this, I asked myself if this was that easy. I had only heard of this type of thing from watching those shows of the 70's such as the Dukes of Hazzard. I started doing internet searches and came across this site. I found a picture of a still. Specifically, one from this site. Surpisingly, my wife gave me the support and encouragement for the project. So me having plumbing skills (I was an HVAC installer) put one together in 2 weeks, ran one of my uncle's recipes and distilled it. My first run I would only call it successful on one account. It was good enough to run my lawn mower. I think I had done something wrong during the fermenting process. To my knowledge, I've never tasted a fart, but I'm sure that batch was a good comparison to what one would taste like. To date, I've distilled four batches and they seem to be getting better. They've all been my Uncles recipe of honey, cider, cane sugar and baker's yeast. From what I can tell, it seems to have been his favorite. So to make myself clear, I will be dwelling your lower forum ranks and asking ALOT of questions. Thank your for your time of putting up with my long thread.

[rtalbigr]

Be interesting if you could post some of those "old" recipes.

Big R

[Samohon]

First off, Welcome to HD Mr_Rice68..

Great story... Glad you made it to the HD boards...
Your runs are only gonna get better with a trip to the reading lounge on the main page and your Uncles notes...

+1... I'd love to see any of those old recipes...

[ArkyJ]

Welcome to the fourm. Glad to have you!
I kinda find that if your willing to tell a story along with kinda asking a question and not really asking a question.
poeple here will jump all over themselves to help out. Ranking don't matter much then. It's when you come here
and say: Poor me, poor me that they look at your count and think; Another stupid one.
Enjoy your stay here and there is lots of reading to do along with some great recipes.
ArkyJ

[LWTCS]

Good read.

Welcome.

Good luck.

LT

[Ayay]

Welcome Mr_Rice68; Your great uncle found his mark in you whether he knowed it or not, and your daughter is involved too. This forum is a compendium of knowledge hidden under layers of discussion and chatter. Takes a lot of research to uncover the essence, and your first post is a contribution.