Home Distiller

I got bored and decided to make some basic molasses wash to test out my new worm only to find out that I don't have any molasses and my carboys all broke after I got too enthusiastic with my new nail gun (this is why I can't have nice things ). I did however have a sack of sugar and an almost empty gallon jug of balsamic vinegar so after a quick look at the bottle confirmed that it was #1 food grade plastic I rinsed it out and disinfected it with a stronger than usual bleach solution to get rid of any of those vinegar pissing nasties that may be floating around. I then got a cup and a half of sugar and carmalized it to a deep brown and added another one and a half cup white sugar after dissolving it in a little under a gallon of water and added about 100 grams of raisins and one multivitamin along with a sachet of red star instant rise (ran out of yeast too). Right now it's bubbling along nicely and I'll update as I go along if I remember .

Carboys and nailgun? Is there a funny story there?

RumRaider wrote:Carboys and nailgun? Is there a funny story there?

Yes please do tell?

I just use tape to attach my labels...

RumRaider wrote:Carboys and nailgun? Is there a funny story there?

I modified my nailgun to be able to shoot without the safety that only allows it to fire when pressed up against something and used it to put together a cabinet with annoying interior angles that I couldn't quite get to, at one point I found out I could use it like a dart shooter... it escalated from there

we do the same thing to our nailguns at work, can get a lil sketchy sometimes! (it's just a little finish nailer, nothing life threatening like roofing nails)

curious to see how this turns out!

yeah roofers love removing the safeties off those things, my neighbor is an ER doc and was telling me about a roofer that put a nail through the side of his knee at a job about a week ago...apparently its a pretty common accident when they get pretty trigger happy

i am interested as to the outcome of this experiment and it comes out like buttershots that be great...there a shot called the caramel apple (1 part buttershots, 1 part apple pucker, 1 part vodka) i would like to try a caramel and apple ferment

That yeast was bubbling like crazy! It died down but damn near burst the glove, I more or less just used my normal sugar wash recipe but caramelized some of the sugar and added raisins. Does anyone know if caramelizing a sugar wash would help the yeast along by breaking down the sugar for it? Maybe the raisins gave some extra nutrition or sugar? I did notice some sedimentation when I added the raisins in the pot before I pitched the yeast but I filtered it out and rinsed the raisins though before it got in the jug... I dunno maybe I got a magic mutant yeast strain ?

When you caramelized the sugar you actually make some of the sugar unfermentable. Raisins are a great nutrient source so you are probably fine. Sounds like you are distilling something like a bochet.

Durace11 wrote:When you caramelized the sugar you actually make some of the sugar unfermentable. Raisins are a great nutrient source so you are probably fine. Sounds like you are distilling something like a bochet.

Wow. That was fast . So what should I expect when it comes down to final ABV on my wash?

Can't tell, when you caramelized the sugar you make some of it unfermentable, how much is unfermentable you can't tell because we don't know how much was made unfermentable during the process. You really need a hydrometer reading to tell what's going on, one before you add yeast and one when it's all done. Otherwise you are flying blind. I'd suggest if it's fermenting you are fine. I'd be more worried about how it tastes once you are done but I'm thinking you are probably ok. Just like malt, some of it being unfermentable, the unfermentable part adds flavor to the end product. You when you still it you might get carmel, marshmellow and or anything else you get from caramelized sugar plus raisins. I'd say roll with it and see. Report back to tell us what happens.

Durace11 wrote: You really need a hydrometer reading to tell what's going on, one before you add yeast and one when it's all done.

God freaking damn it, I knew I forgot something. Well, too late now and I could always use the good ol' taste test later. So far it tastes good enough to drink on it's own and the raisins pretty much re-hydrated into beery carbonated grapes which taste surprisingly good, but that's probably my sweet tooth talking. It's kind of like a rum wash except sweeter and much less bitter, which is what I was aiming for so fingers crossed.

just be careful running that

Running the sucker right now. It was off to a slow start so I left for a couple of minutes to do something else and my trusty foreshot shot glass overflowed and the entire kitchen smelled like a raisin scented nail polish remover Pretty sure I only lost some heads along with the foreshots so it's no big deal I hope. My plan is to oak it for about three months and hopefully get something close to a brandy rum kinda thing. I never ran a batch this small before so I just scaled down calculations and prayed to god that it won't give me fur flavored failure. That's the joy of home distillation vs home brewing though, you can get drunk off your failures much quicker. I'll update this with a taste test. Who knows? If this tastes good enough I might just age it till Christmas for a special treat. That's not jinxing it, right?