Home Distiller

Ok I have never done any distilling yet but looking to get into it. I am an experienced beer homebrewer and I don't understand this. I have been looking on youtube recently and I see some guys making shine by pouring sugar and cornmeal into a carboy and just adding warm water and yeast. What I don't understand here is why? It seems to me there is no way for the starches in that cornmeal to get converted to sugar without at least cooking it to gelatinize the starches and and then adding some amylaze enzyme to convert at say around 152degress F. What am I missing here?

I do not know the recipe you talk about, nor have I seen 'this' utube vid. Keep in mind, there are tons of REALLY bad videos out there about this hobby that give horrible, and often dangerous advice.

Now, what you have 'explained' may be a simple sugar recipe, where the ethanol is made from the sugar, and the corn meal is there for a corny flavor, and for some yeast nutrients. Just a guess, since you did not list proportions, but that is likely what that recipe is all about.

H.

You may be correct, the recipe was 4 lbs of table sugar and 2 1/2 lbs of cornmeal and yeast in warm water, nothing else. There was no mashing of any kind so it probably was just for corny flavor

Go to the tried and true recipe section. There you will find some really good recipes. But if you read through the sweetfeed and or UJSSM threads they mite help you understand what flavored sugarheads are about.

Now don't think that this is how you have to do it. YouTube vids give some the wrong ideas. If you are acustom to AG ferments. Then they would work good for you. Some of us are a little lazy and don't want to take the time to do AG. And for learning the sugarheads are a lot easier and faster.

I think you are just reading into it a little harder then you need to. But the good thing is you found HD now you can get to some serious research. Not like the YouTube vid stuff. Stick around do plenty of reading. Welcome aboard.

Yes, take Mr. Piss's advice. I know exactly which video's you are speaking of. And the one where the guy is drinking a beer and spilling all the shit everywhere is honestly hilarious. The corn meal would be for flavor only as there are no enzymes to break down the starches. I think it is essentially a sugar wash with corn for flavor.

Tried and true are the way to go. So far I have had very wonderful success with Gerber, All Bran, and WPOSW. They are all pretty easy and we can help you work through them all.

Any questions, please fire away, this site has many great mentors and friends who enjoy helping.

Bottoms up!

Dallas is finally getting more rain, hoooorrrraayy!!!

tomgndallas wrote:Yes, take Mr. Piss's advice.

That would be Mr. Piss to you sir. I think I need to change my sig now.

LOL, yes the video with the guy drinking the beer was the one I was talking about, absolutely hilarious. I am an AG brewer with beer so yes I'd be wanting to jump in headfirst and do AG for distilling mostly. I will probably do some sugar washes for neutral spirits I want to add flavor to though. Thanks for explaining.

as brewer have you done cereal mashes? that is how most whisky is made . but some are done from all malt.
these are mostly Scotch,or scotch like and mashed almost like beer.
with cereal mash what you use most of gives its name.
brandy is much like making wine but sugar is not aloud.when making your own you can do whatever you want so most add some sugar.
most on this site do sugar,,,sugar/grain,,,sugar/fruit..these can give you flavor with out all the work and much cheaper for most.

Yes I've done a cereal mash, I did one recently with Polenta for a Classic American Pilsner that I am enjoying as I type this. I think I'll try a Whiskey with 56% Corn Malt, 22% Rye, 11% Wheat, and 11% Barley.

that whould be a bourbon,I like all grain. seems much smother at least to me.
can be cheaper if your in the right neighborhood.if not then it can git rather
expensive.that is another reason most use sugar.

Dnderhead wrote:that whould be a bourbon,I like all grain. seems much smother at least to me.
can be cheaper if your in the right neighborhood.if not then it can git rather
expensive.that is another reason most use sugar.

I agree with Dnder that AG give a smoother product, especially when it's aged. Expensive if ya do single malts but in my experience well worth it.

As to your original post gtwarren1966 that is a typical moonshine recipe. I know of several individuals who use it in ,well, a much larger scale. I know of one who doesn't use yeast but uses malted corn to produce the alcohol. Not really sure how that works though.

Big R

So what is meant by 'single malt'? Does that mean brewing with just one malt as opposed to using say 70% barley/30% rye?

gtwarren1966 wrote:So what is meant by 'single malt'? Does that mean brewing with just one malt as opposed to using say 70% barley/30% rye?

single malt usually means a single grain bill, not a blended drink.

a single malt is ,,all malt of one grain type,,(like all barley malt.
single grain is ,,,all one grain ,,(like malted barley and unmalted barley
then if you mix grain,its called by what it has the most of,,witch has to be over 50% in the US.
(like,,,bourbon is over 50% corn/maze
rye is over 50% rye
other grain can be mixed of your choosing.

What Dnder said.

I do both single grains and single malts. Single grains are much cheaper to produce because you're not paying for all the malted grain and the results are similiar to the single malt. Malting though adds something to the flavors, so the single malt is a little different, spicier I guess ya could say.

Big R

Dnderhead wrote:that whould be a bourbon,I like all grain. seems much smother at least to me.
can be cheaper if your in the right neighborhood.if not then it can git rather
expensive.that is another reason most use sugar.

yep that would be me, well at least if you are buying from the homebrew and wine store. The grain bill is cheaper than if you did a wort with extracts, powder, and floated a grain bag. but of course there is the added equipment. went to a brew day the other week. They did their mash in a big insulated cooler with a false bottom and valve. heated water to 160 or so, then added and held the mash at about 150 or so for i think 30 or 45 minutes. Much better then when I tried a step conversion on a big pot with insulation around it. That was tedious as hell. so cheaper on the grains, but not cheap because of added equipment, and for me, definitely not cheaper than 2 bucks for a box of all bran, buck and a half for corn flakes, and 15 for a 25 pound bag of sugar which will make two decent size washes.

I was gonna go gerber mixed grain again, but that corn flake thing has me mezmerized. thinking maybe 60/40 all grain to corn flake, with EC-1118. Not sure how much would really come over on the T500 reflux, been thinking of pulling a little packing and just running with some copper scrubber. this hobby is totally laden with experiments

Tom if you are liking that all bran then the Gerber prolly ain't gonna git it done for ya.
Corn flakes and all bran does a respectable job of things aye.

i can buy grain for .10-.20$ a lb depending how i buy and how much i buy,i can buy malt for 1.00$ a lb. but i malt most of my own.
of course those that live in a city mite git some funny looks if they had balk feed bins in there yard.