Home Distiller

Just pondering, in these days of instant gratification, the art of distilling and fermenting is almost an old farts pursuit; you know them- people with the patience to read, absorb and apply knowledge. Sort of reminds me of the young bull/old bull in the field of cows. I suppose I was just interested in what the average of forum users was, and what led them to distilling.

I didn't start in the hobby until after I retired from real work. First I began doing blacksmithing (still do), BBQ, and campfire cooking. I'd been making blackberry cordials for years, using commercial brandy as the base, but then a friend showed me his distilling set-up and I jumped right into it and made my own equipment. (He makes flavored vodkas, I make whiskey).

My next endeavor is going to be into bacon and sausage making.

Winemaking made me do it.

It's a natural progression, especially if you like cooking, being slightly self-sufficient, etc.

Aidas

a teacher did a demonstration on distilling, and a year later, I liked it as a craft. I forgot how it went exactly
and this site kept me going.

I'm here because the foxfire books back in gradeschool... Got fascinated then and made a still in high school... finding this site really honed my knowledge and skills...

Macedonian family connection stopped suppling me with Grappa. Instead he said "I'll teach you how to make it".

Did some digging on the net and came across the parent site, read the whole thing over a few weeks and then discovered the forums. Read the whole forum over a few more weeks and then started building my still.
By this stage i knew exactly what i wanted to make and exactly what still i wanted to make it in.

Smelled a bottle of his Grappa i brought back from Qld the other day....wheeeewww
I still got it in the bottom of my liquor cabinet, haven't been game to taste it yet. So obvious they make no cuts at all except a methanol one, just smells like metho...all heads.


In my 40's, make my own smoked meats, dried foods, vegies, beer, sauces and stocks, etc etc

A mate heard me ordering salami cure on the phone on friday, he said "Jeez mate, you won't need the world soon!"

I was a winemaker, from concentrates and homegrown raspberries.

One year I had a large crop of potatoes at my weekend getaway place, grown above ground, under straw (another story). One problem, they were all nibbled by mice.

What to do. I thought, I'll make vodka. Like most people, I was under the impression vodka came from distilled potato wine.

I punched Making Vodka into Google online and up popped Making Gin and Vodka on, at that time, John Stones website.

I decided to phone him to order his book, because I was in a hurry. Where did he live; Aylmer Quebec across the river from Ottawa, where I lived at the time. It wasn't even a long distance call.

I drove over, bought the book, looked at his setup. We became friends and the rest is history.

I remember him saying to make soup with my potatoes and listening with fascination, as he explained the magic of turning sugar, yeast and water into alcohol. He was a retired chemist and spent his career with The National Research Council of Canada.

His hobby was making gin.

I was hooked.

G

Figurin' I might be one of the younger folks on this forum I thought I'd contribute. Mid 20's here and interested in anything but what I learned in school I have had several hobbies most folks my age wouldn't be interested in.

When all my friends were doing keg stands and pounding nasty shots I was left to sip higher priced whiskeys by myself. After learning some people I knew made there own excellent beer, and myself not liking beer, I started researching how to make the beverage of MY choice. Thus several books later and probably a month worth of hours reading online I became 'obsessed' with this hobby.

Can't stop now--I'm hooked. There's only a few problems I've encountered thought: 1) I don't personally know anyone who does it that can be my mentor (save for all the ppl on this forum), 2) Being not the most 'legal' hobby and my job in the government--i weigh the odds of my hobby with risk that someone might discover my secrets (which i take care to hide) and 3) Once I've achieved great success with this hobby, which i will one day or at least hope i will--who can i share it with other than my old man who is somewhat excited about it as well

Other than that, this, as well as primitive living and ham radio keeps my hobby time full or reading and research.

God bless everyone here! One day i hope we can all meet each other or at least meet a few of the other folks here...Maybe a gathering at UJ's distillery for a 'tour'!

The mentoring thing is a real problem, P. I know what you mean.
There's at least half a doz guys i know distilling, but they're all making neutral and cordial crap to sell to mates.
There's no-one i can really sit down and talk potstilling with.

When you try to explain it to others, it's that complex in the details to them that they get confused. What seems so simple to us just confuses the heck out of em.
My missus wouldn't know the difference tween backset and wash and she hears me raving about it twenty hours a day and doing it 2 or 3 times a week
Just overwhelming she says.

I did, however, have a neutral guy with a lot of years experience sipping my UJSM on friday night, say..."Now THAT is the real deal, i just make cordial, but that is the real thing, That's furkin beauuuuutiful"




OfCourseWeWereOnTheSecondBottlePunkin

My Grandfather was a genuine West Virginia Hill Billy. He grew up in the mountains, living in a log cabin, hunting for food (no sport involved) with a muzzle loader rifle. He took over operating the family still and selling the shine when his Father died. He was 10 years old when he took over. He told many a great story about shining, and running the shine into town. He eventually ended up for a short while on the early stock car circuit, having learned mechanical skills in hotting up the cars, as he put it.

By the time I knew him he was living in Texas - had left WVA as a result of a run in with a G man, a run in the G mand did not come off too well in, but Grandpa did have to make a new home elsewhere. (He never heard if the bones were ever found or not.) He was no longer cooking in Texas, but I did hear a lot about it, late at night sitting by the hunting fire.

Some years ago I was reading the first Fox Fire book and was fascinated by the section on stills. It was like having Grandpa back for a few minutes.

I was reading some ancient Chinese philosopher a few years ago - can't remember his name now. He lived somehting like two thousand years ago and he said that the peasants needed to get closer to the land and give up the new fangled notions they had. I wonder - how much closer to the land could a chinese peasant have been 2,000 years ago? My kind of philosopher!

I'm here because a guy I used to work with brought some of his shine to the shop one day and ruined commercial spirits for me. Anyhow we both moved on and I don't see him anymore, so now I have to figure out how to make it myself.

junkyard dawg wrote:I'm here because the foxfire books back in gradeschool... Got fascinated then and made a still in high school... finding this site really honed my knowledge and skills...

I have heard of these before, but what are foxfire books?

It was a series of books that I guess most grade school libraries carried. They taught all kinds of boyscout type skills... All I really remember is the section on moonshining...

I started making wine, then I made beer, then I wondered "how do they make vodka, whiskey, rum, etc?". So I googled vodka, found out about distillation, found this site and the forum soon after, and here I am, started with a potstill and just finished a reflux still this weekend. By the way I'm 19 and turn 20 this month (and no I'm not a drunken college idiot, I keep my liquor to myself and never talk about distilling in public. I drink because I like the flavor of liquor, not to get piss drunk and make myself look like an ass)

Winemaking: Started in 2006 (I was 18) stopped in 2007
Beer Brewing: Started extract brewing in mid 2006, Soon moved to all grain brewing and have been making awesome beers since then.
Distilling: Started in December of '06 with a potstill, in August of '07 I built a new pot still "Mary Queen of Scotch", This weekend I built my first reflux still. (and I'm just barely 20, I can't wait to see what I've accomplished by the time I'm 30, or 50! Who knows what kind of still I'll have by then.)

rumbaba wrote:

junkyard dawg wrote:I'm here because the foxfire books back in gradeschool... Got fascinated then and made a still in high school... finding this site really honed my knowledge and skills...

I have heard of these before, but what are foxfire books?

Fox Fire is a series of books that started off as a high school english project in the late 60s or early 70s. The teacher sent the students out into the hills (Rabun County, GA) to interview the old folks to get articles on how to do basic things. The project was kind of an anthropology experiment too, to record for posterity the old time Appalachian way of doing things.

The kids brought back such good articles and photos that they made up a little magazine, which after a few years of kids doing it turned into a book and that book was so popular that they kept at it.

In essence it is a series of books with a series of instructional articles on how to do nearly everything you would need to do to survive in the wilds without much help from the outside world. Like building a log cabin, making the furniture, planting and harvesting, preserving foods, blacksmithing, barrel making, well digging, quilt making, raising and butchering livestock, moonshining, making a banjo or a fiddle, etc, etc. Also there are a lot of articles on the lore of the times like planting by the signs, ghost stories, religious beliefs, customs, horse trading, etc....

These are fantastic books. I have about 12 of them put away as survival manuals, but take them out to read them frequently. Most of the first person narratives about the lore of the times are fascinating.

The Fox Fire books are a time machine into an older and in most ways better culture.

butch that is a very good description of the books. i told my wife i wanted the complete set for christmas and i would buy her the dishwasher she has wanted for years. i to was fascinated by the foxfire books and i guess you could say a fuse was lit at that moment. what really got me started in this hobby was the desire to try some real moonshine but i was scared of all the horror stories of going blind,dead animals in the mash and radiators . so i decided that the only safe way to do this was to do it myself. i did a little internet research and made a pressure cooker potstill. an ol tymer said i was cooking it to long. after joining this sight i understand what he was saying. i have been doing this hobby for about 7yrs off and on and can say that thanks to this sight i believe that i can finally make a decent drink. and there is rarely a day goes by that i dont learn something on this sight. those days are generally the ones that my wife doesnt let me on the pc. patience and time put forth in reading this forum and the mother site will put anyone devoted to this hobby on the right track.

Anyone doing any stilling in Montreal, drop me a PM.

I think it's just in the genes to want to do things from scratch. Family moved away from the hills 2 generations ago so I didn't have anyone to apprentice to, that brought me here.