Home Distiller

I am a fanatic about brewing the cheapest thing I can, with the lowest cost materials and the least amount of work.
Some distill for flavor and other for variety. My passion has always been cost cutting. Over the years I have studied many of the trade-offs of flavor vs. cost, speed vs. cost, and the cost of energy input to the processing.
There are other costs also, in example the cost of cleanup and disposal.

So here is my question...
What is your most cost effective wash and where could you cut costs?

Here is my largest cost cutting trick. No shipping on any material and no specialty store items.
My most cost effective wash for a 6 gallon wash.
Time to acquire all ingredients. <1 hour.
I take a trip to the local grocery. I purchase 10 lbs beet sugar, 1 jar 20 oz wheat germ, 1 small bottle of generic lemon juice, and a 3 sachet red star.
total cost:

2 x 2.19 for sugar.
1 x 0.98 for lemon juice.
1 x 4.95 wheatgerm.
1 x 0.79 red star yeast.

total assemble time 3 hours max.
cooking time on a 2200w burner 2.5 hours.
straining hot wash 10 minutes.
cleanup is 5 minutes for pot spoon and strainer.

cooling time depends on the day usually less than eight hours.
fermentation time 6 days if the weather is nice to me.
distillation is 1 hour heat up at 3800w and 2 hours distillation at 2280w.
Cleanup is <1 hour.
total output 1.5 gallon good, drinkable, pot liquor at 100P with the mild flavor of whiskey.

Since I use air cooling or recirculated water there is no water cost. The birds eat the dried wheatgerm as if it were candy to them. The spent wash gets recycled or is fertilizer for the garden. My water is cistern water and there is a nominal cost of US$2.00/1000 gallons and no sewer fee. I usually use rain water and that is totally free.

Total cost is about 7 hours time invested. total cost is US$11.00 and total energy is 13.86KWH which costs me US$0.86

Total money invested is US$11.86. for 1.5 gallons or US$1.58/750ml 100P
Time invested is 7 hours.
This is not my absolute best cost but this is the least time consuming and energy efficient for the price.

If I use a batch turbo yeast from Brewhaus my cost jumps to US$20.16 for one sachet and shipping.


If I used Lalvin EC-1118 that would change my cost input from $11.86 to $17.22 because of no local supplier.

I can get SAF Red Star Champagne for .89 but requires an hour and a half drive round trip to the brew store. I have never found there to be a huge difference in the final product, but the bread yeast seems to make less SO2 and less diacetyl, but this is just my flavor assessment.

Take some time and evaluate your economy process and let me know your results.

I find the cheapest 2 washes (sorry, I have not tracked as carefully as you have), to be UJSM and a sugar fortified feed-grade rum.

The UJSM will produce 1.3 gallons or so of 100 proof (which is what your original recipe was based). Ingredients:

9 lb sugar $4.00
2 lb cracked corn $0.20 (only needed on first run)
1 lb cracked corn $0.10 (about this much added each generation)
EC1118 $0.95 (only cost on first run)
K1V1116 $0.95 (only cost on first run)
Yeast on later runs (free)

Distill with propane. About 8-10 runs, from bottle. About $8 to fill.

So, costs:

Run one, about $7.00, on subsquent runs, about $5.00.

It just does not get much cheaper than this. However, I also like to age, so my time cost will be more, as I distress age with a beer fridge's freezer. (Also, there is probably a dollar a gallon elect cost for this aging). However, I have found that first run "center hearts", mixed with 2nd run hearts from the heads / tails of the prior runs, is very drinkable by simply airing out the white spirit for a couple days.

So, if one runs 10 generations (easy to do, if you keep things clean), then you end up with 12 to 14 gallons of 100 proof, with an end cost of just under $60. So, end cost for a 750ml/100P is about $.95 (assuming 13 gallons for a 10 generation run).

The "time" cost for UJSM is about as minimal as you can get (other than finding cracked corn). For me, cracked corn was simple. Just hit a Tractor Suppy Company store on my way home from work. A 50lb bag is about $5.00, and will produce a LOT of generations of UJSM.

Cheap feed grade molasses rum washes are also cheap. I do not yet have a source for cheap feed molasses, so I can not comment on this recipe. However, here in the states, and with the amount of molasses used in cattle feed (i.e. easy availabiltiy of CHEAP stuff), I think that this type of Rhum is about as cheap as you can get.

H.

My rum probly my cheapest to make.Feed molasses I use has cost from 10 to 15 cents a lb 12 lbs in a gallon .Sugar usally 2 bucks a 5lb bag.So 2 gallons molasses 20 lbs sugar .Lime juice and yeast Id guess around 2 dollors.Propane 2 bucks.Hard to count time in getting my work takes me past most places for supplys.Say 16 dollars for 3 gallons 110 proof 1.33 a qt bit less when tempered to 100 proof.

these boys sometimes run on 1/2s. everythang includein jugs is
supplyed . all they got in it is risk
so im tole

I'm around tater on this one...except I use a blackstrap molassis, lemon/lime/orange juice, cane sugar, and a b-12 vitamin.
My blackstrap costs $6 gallon

I reuse yeast
I re-sugar and lemon(sugar water gets boiled with lemonjuice.), up my backset, and aerate it ,add some water, then re-ferment.
I get about 3runs before the ferments start to stick.

I think I'm lucky with the mineral content in my water.

Limiting expense is my price for sugar.
I estimate $ 2.80 a quart. This is one I make for flavor, using carmel, and oak.

I age it at 120 proof.

The cheapest alcohol I make of from Free ingredients. The local wine shop gives me their dregs. About 10 gallons a week. There is usually 30% yeast sludge 60% wine.
That said I also get free fruit and vegetable scraps from the grocery store every day. The good food gets eaten- the rotten food composted and the fruit made into booze.
Hope this helps.
Cheers

my vodka i think i use a cup of blackstrap for nutrients, some lemon juice, and sugar reuse the yeast and am using natural gas the cook her...

blackstrap AUS$0.25
sugar AUS$5
lemon AUS$0.5

I'm guessing here but id say about AUS$1 - AUS$1.5 for 1 ltr of 40%

I think my cheapest runs are the brandy runs. I usually use the heads and tails from my vodka runs, a basket of lemon or orange slices soaked in sugar over night in the vodka. To clarify, I slice up 5-6 fruit, cover in sugar, cover that with my heads/tails, let sit over night. In the morning, I strain off the liquid, put the fruit in the basket in the still head, and distill it off. This will cover a lot of the head/tail smell and taste, so the cuts can be very generous, thus recovering alot of the alcohol that I would normally have to bitch.
I find that Kaluhas and amerettos are a good place to use these product also, as the coffee and sugar are also a good mask.
Other than these, I have found the UJSM to be very cheap to run. I like this recipe very much, kudos to UJ, and thanks.

bushido wrote:I think my cheapest runs are the brandy runs. I usually use the heads and tails from my vodka runs, a basket of lemon or orange slices soaked in sugar over night in the vodka. To clarify, I slice up 5-6 fruit, cover in sugar, cover that with my heads/tails, let sit over night. In the morning, I strain off the liquid, put the fruit in the basket in the still head, and distill it off. This will cover a lot of the head/tail smell and taste, so the cuts can be very generous, thus recovering alot of the alcohol that I would normally have to bitch.
I find that Kaluhas and amerettos are a good place to use these product also, as the coffee and sugar are also a good mask.
Other than these, I have found the UJSM to be very cheap to run. I like this recipe very much, kudos to UJ, and thanks.

Dont see how ya could call that a brandy.If it aint fit to drink on its own why mask it with something?

I sort of wondered that too? I would like to try the macerating fruit and also putting it in the column trick... just with good light rum or neutral...

My one and only wash produces 1 gallon of fine Bourbon at 60% and costs (now that I've got all the equipment) $15.00.

Were I to factor in the equipment cost and pro-rate it over the 8 gallons I've made so far it'd be about $50 a gallon!

My least expensive - I refuse to say cheap - has to be brandy made from free bottles of red and white wine, doubled and twisted ( thank you goose) and aged on Pear wood.

Maybe it isn't brandy being aged on Pear, but it'll do me until the real brandy comes.