The economics of home distillation?

[Hammered-Hank]

Hey every one. I am new here and am wondering about the economics of making my own alcoholic beverages.

It looks like distilling can be a fun hobby, but all my hobbies have to basically pay for themselves due to my limited money earning power.

I currently make wine, (which saves me quite a bit of money on the wines myself and wife drink). I also keep a vegetable garden large enough that we dont buy any produce and few fruits. Again I spend money on seeds and fertilizers and the like but it more than pays its way.

After a simple but functional still is procured, how much can I expect to pay for the raw ingredients (per liter or quart) which would be necessary to make a nice 80-100 proof Rum for example?

thank you all for any nsight you might be able to give me.

[Rocky_Creek]

Buying sugar at $20 for 50 lbs and a bag of corn for $7, distillers yeast at $7 per pound and using the sour mash method and redoing this all summer you should be able to make lots of 100 proof for a little over $4 per gallon. Assumes you recycle water and are ready to store your liquor. Thats about as cheap as it gets. On the other hand if you get fancy the cost will go up.
This is basic sugar liquor but it's damn good to me.

[As-Ol-Joe]

You should be able to make a pot still for about $50. It will make about 65% on the 1st run. Or keep your eyes open for the things you need and make it cheaper.

[wineo]

Once you have your equipment,you can make it real cheap.I ran some sugar wash last week,and it cost me at the most,$12 for 3 gallons of great tasting 80 proof vodka.Thats less than a dollar a fifth.

[Rocky_Creek]

On rum you are going to get all kinds of answers. It all depends on the type molasses you use and whether you go all molasses or molases/sugar.

I've had thyroid cancer and a precancerous polyp removed from my colon so I will not use horse feed molasses which in almost all cases contains urea, a likely cancer causing agent when distilled. I figure the third time might not be so charming. Course these young guys are invincible.

[HookLine]

The vast bulk of the cost is upfront (still and fermenters, etc). Running costs (for making vodka at least) are very very low, especially compared to buying it from the store. And after a few runs you should be able to make a much better product than the average commercial stuff.

[punkin]

I tend to get around a litre per kg of sugar on a strip run. That'd equate to 65% or so for rum, which i haven't been running twice.
So if sugar costs ya a dollar a kilo, you'd be paying 80 or 90 cents a litre by the time you cut to O.P.
Bit cheaper than the fifty bucks you'd pay at the bottleo, so probably worth the effort

UJSM works out a lot better as a finer drink than rum for me, and it's just a couplea kilos of cracked corn for starting off extra. Rum you have your mollasses as extra, feed mollasses is dirt cheap.

If you keep your fermenters going from brew to brew, you don't need to pay for yeast, cept the first time.

Biggest cost is probably keeping your fermenters warm in winter, and hot water costs for washing up all the time. Gas you're cooking with etc.

[bronzdragon]

I agree with the above posters. The initial investment is the biggest hurdle. Then, you can find a recipe that you like and over time become very good at making that recipe as cheaply as possible without sacrificing flavor and quality.

The cheapest liquor you could make is just straight sugar wash vodka. With the addition of some molasses you could make a good tasting rum, but that would bring the price up a bit.

Buying the molasses by the bucket (I buy food grade from a bakery supply), I'd say you could get away with under $10 per gallon of rum.

The basic answer to your question is yes, you can make liquor for much cheaper then what you can buy at the store.

cheers
~r~

[schnell]

if your merely after home/farm economy you can do very well.

but once you get bit by the bug...

pretty soon you'll wanna try this recipie, and wonder if you substitute this for that, then next you'll want to upgrade this equipment, and streamline one process or another.

next thing you know you'll be growing old. but at least you'll be happy having spent your life doing something productive.

Aaron

[Hammered-Hank]

I appreciate all the replies. It sounds like it is going to be fairly easy to pitch the idea to swmbo if I can tel her that I can make some good hootch for around a buck a quart.

I forgot to mention that I also keep honey bees and collect a fair amount of honey.

Are there any recipes where honey could be used to further rueduce the costs of raw ingredients?

[mikeac]

I believe BirdWatcher started a thread where people broke down there exact cost. He was meticulous in keeping track of every cent he spent. I don't have time to look for it but you should be able to find it if you want some precise numbers...

[Tater]

I forgot to mention that I also keep honey bees and collect a fair amount of honey.

Are there any recipes where honey could be used to further reduce the costs of raw ingredients?

yep- welcome to forum -try search on word honey- you'll get 127 hits

[bronzdragon]

Good on ya if you have some good healthy bees. The bees have been hit hard here in the States this year.

And I agree with the above posters. If you can make a mead, then you can distill it! And they taste great.

~r~

[grainhopper]

sell the honey buy more supplies.

[pintoshine]

I would like to point Hammered-Hank to a previous discussion about this.
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4193

[blanikdog]

Are there any recipes where honey could be used to further reduce the costs of raw ingredients?

Make some Honey Mead and distill it, hank. I put a recipe in here and a search will find it. I can promise you it's worth the wait.

blanik