First attempt at what appears to be a wonderful addition to my list of eccentric hobbies. A few buddies grabbed some local fame for some good beer brewing and not to be outdone I created this beast. I will admit I've been lurking around the site for a few months now, reading a lot of the newbie topics and writing down recipes. I'm new to distilling but not to Internet forums so i wanted to answer on my own some of the easy ones. On that topic, thanks to the mods/creators/contributors for what seems like a really well put together forum.
On to the good stuff. My first run was a pre-made 5 gal batch of apple wine that the beer maker i mentioned above donated to the cause. Into jelly jars poured the oddest apple paint thinner I have ever seen. At first, but it actually leveled out after a pint or so and made a really nice apple pie. I cut it off 1 jar after it stopped burning and yielded roughly 4 pints, 8 after adding the juice and such.
so now that I was an expert it was time to make something great! (go ahead and laugh). partner in crime and I headed to tractor supply and bought some nice livestock rations. 10# cracked corn, 50# of sweet feed. Did our first mash with all the corn, 7# of malted barley and bread yeast. He was appalled. After soiling his beautiful 25 gal mash tun with chicken food I went one step further and poured "roughly four inches" of fine fine horse dinner into a five gallon water bottle. Huge fucking mistake, I'll tell you why later. We tossed in a bit of malted barley for good measure. Both were done fermenting in about a 5-6 days. The corn mix was just that....corn. kept enough to make 6-7 pints at around 80 proof.
On to my new love, sweet feed..after what seemed like two pretty decent runs I was set back a bit with my third creation. First of all I had to get the 25# of oatmeal I had made out of the narrow necked bottle I decided to use. Then, I had to extract from this barnyard mush something I might be able to put in the pot. My elbows still hurt from the 3 hours of wrapping and wringing this funky mush in a cotton cloth. I also owe my wife a new pillow case. Roughly 21/2 gallons turned out some weird molasses whiskey with a total sum of 2 jelly jars. Here's where things got crazy. In a bit of a stupor, not brought on by my creation entirely, I decided charcoal aging would be a great idea. I opened the door to my wood stove, stumbled dangerously close with the tongs and plucked out an inch square chunk of maple wood I cut this summer and tossed it in the drink. Capped it up real quick cuz if I'm gonna ruin it, at least it will be fun to watch. A week later an viola, great tasting creation. Although it was a rather crude process my interest was peaked. And I only had two jelly jars of final product and that would hardly earn me bragging rights on the next camping trip.
So let's make some rum. Melted 21 lbs of brown sugar, two pounds of honey and passed out on the couch waiting for it to cool. It's 14 degrees in Ohio. At 3 am I awoke from my slumber and waddled the turkey fryer pot full of simple syrup into the kitchen. I'll just stop here because this is a sad story.
Most successful effort so far. I went back to the farm food, but put it in cheese cloth bags this time. Why isn't that attached to every dam sweet feed recipe on the planet? I bet I read 100 of them. I used some malted barley and threw in 5-6# of sugar, just for good measure. Two ale pales full of sweetness rotted six days exactly, still using the bread yeast, BTW. I've also learned a bit more about heads and tails at this point, so I've started keeping a lot less. .75 gal to be exact. Oh, and I dropped a charcoal stuffed mess of cheese cloth in the column. I left the top cap loose for this purpose. This one is really good! Cut it off around 60 and when mixed ended up with around 90. I plan on buying some barrel staves for this batch, the dirty charcoal treatment was just an experiment. But I think I'm on to something here, so I really want to press onward with my horse food concoction.
I'll keep you all posted, as I'm sure this is gonna be a long ride. I do have a few opening ?? for the experts.
1. Is the yield I'm getting in the ballpark? I feel like making 8-9 gallons of beer should get me more than 3 pints of output. Maybe not, I don't know the equation yet but I could do the math if you point me in the right direction.
2. Does starting abv determine output? The above reverenced apple wine was 12-14% start, I have no idea what the horsey juice was, but more of the apple seemed drinkable on a percentage basis. Maybe a function of question #1?
3. Any body else a sweet feed pro? Or is it bottom of the barrel, po' boy, ghetto shit. I think there's alot of potential here. Don't get me wrong, I don't assume to that I'm going turn turn winners choice show food in makers mark, but what you like is what you like right?
4. What do you think of the first build? Im $200 in. I run 3 gallons a min through the cooling jacket, in finish runs in 3-4 hours.
I look foward to your comments, and appreciate any advice. Ive got a few more pics to come, but i have to resize them all to get them over here. Thanks again for all your help.
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