For those of us who don't regularly partake in the al/ck/ threads (or maybe you do), has anyone here tried distilling your own liquor?
About to get into it with a friend who made his own still. I am a novice homebrewer and have never made my own mash. Was thinking corn for a grain since its easy to come by.
Thoughts on the process, particularly the mashing? At what point do you ferment the yeast is it done directly in the mash tun?
If I was to make anything at home, it'd be organic, and probably tepache.
I miss Tepache. He's probably CEO of his own microbrewery today, hahah. We used to have real homebrew threads here, and they were fascinating.
I make some with a "Presto". Planning on getting one of these njce things it will.make things easier.
Haven't distilled yet, but I have done all grain beer brewing, and it's pretty easy.
Just make sure you're safe and not creating a potential fire hazard, or using anything that could put unwanted chemicals in your booze, like lead / plastic / rubber or whatever.
I've done it. Not as a serious hobby, but more of a fun project to try. I did it seriously redneck-style, using "sweet feed" (for horses) and a ghetto rigged still. I've also used bananas for the mash. Straight out of the still the liquor was unpalatable. After aging it was surprisingly good.
I'm not real interested in turning out a lot of alcohol, but I have some interest in distilling.
I've toured some smaller distilleries and looking at their setups - I'm mostly interested in what they have in the backroom for doing small stuff. Pic related is a common setup I've seen them use for experiments for liqueurs and gin.
I haven't seen a rotovap or something that uses lower temperature distilling, but that's what I'm really interested in.
i have formulated a scratch mash recipe for a stillmaker/distiller in my area. it makes good booze. this was a few years back but IIRC it goes something like this:
1 part 6 row MALTED barley
3 or 4 parts dry corn, sweeter the better
crack and soak the corn in hot water [about 1 quart per pound, about 120 degrees F] the temp should fall down to about 110 after adding the corn. heat it slowly up to about 130 degrees and rest a half hour.
add in water at 130degrees, 1 quart for each pound of corn and 2 quarts for each pound of barley to be added, but dont add the barley yet, just the water
[remeber 4/1 total corn to barley ratio]
this will end being a 2 qt/lb water to grain ratio on the whole for the mash and since the water you are adding is the same temp as the mash, it should still be at 130F
bring this concoction up to about 145 degrees F and add in the barley [milled to the consistency of busted up grits]. little cournels about the size of a grain of rice broke in half.
Adding the barley will bring the temp down to the low 140's.. slowly heat the whole mixture to 144-146F and hold for 60-90 minutes stirring often to to disperse the moisture and heat through the grain
Next heat the whole mess up to 165 stirring often as it heats to disperse moisture and heat evenly. rest for 30 minutes and "strain" and cool to room temp
pitch proper amount of yeast
wait till it is completley fermented, generally a week on the outside
boil booze off of the resulting wash
///profut???
ps: dont underestimate or put off planning on how to "strain" this mess. you will be frustrated and sticky as shit by the time you are done. also you can boil the wort before cooling and pitching to pasteruize, but since you are making booze its not absolutley necessary. the yeast will take over quickly and out compete anything that would cause off flavors. this is assuming you wont be storing the wash more than a few days before distillation.
the wort is the strained sugar rich liquid
also if you prefer you can leave it as a mash and cool the whole mess without straining and pitch yeast directly into the mash and strain it after its finished fermenting.
additionally you can leave it as a mash and let it cool naturally and sit a day or so before pitching yeast and strain it after fermenting, this will yield a "sour mash" whisky
this is all whisky by the way
I tried to distill once.
The ATF shot my dog and fined me.
kek does your but get sore shitposting with this intensity
seriously, dont set up a large scale distrobution ring and tell everyone and their brother and you will be fine. the ATF just wants a cut and to charge you licensing fees, so dont "sell" it and you will be fine. in fact its perfectly leagal in small quantities as long as you arent "selling"
I've just started all grain. I don't have the space to distill anything without being afraid of burning the place down.
That's also the most common setup in general, brings me back to o-chem. Just sitting and staring at a fractional distillation for 2 hours because all of the math was already taken care of.
in addition to the recipe above:
i got so cought up in reciting what i told this guy, who had no experience brewing, that i forgot you were already using words like mash tun and shit. so since you abvously are getting a feel for the lingo...
you can ferment the mash whole in the mash tun and lauter post fermentation... just vorlauf to set up a filter of the grain bed.. probably want to mix in a shit ton of rice hulls to before vorlauf since theres so much damn corn pone in there.
or you can lauter and ferment the clean wort. your call. i think alotta the pro distillers ferment the whole mash, and this is the way sour mash is made for sure.
no need to sparge .. you basically want to make a mash that yields 1.140 - 1.150 first runnings and ferment that if you are looking for max booze yield per gallon of wash. i simplified for this guy so a 2qt/lb mash might be a little thin to achieve that high a gravity. if you are familiar with all grain calculations a simple no sparge ppg calculation with corn and barley in the correct proportions should get you in the ballpark of you shoot for 1.150sg
What kind of booze do you want to make?
If you want something with actual flavor, then go with a pot still, and use an all grain mash for flavor. Something along the lines of a bourbon or Tennessee whiskey recipe like:
80% cracked corn
12% malted 6 row barley
18% malted rye
Or go with a scotch whiskey and use 100% malted barley.
If you just want high concentrations of alcohol, then go with a reflux system and do sugar washes or some shit, since you'll strip out most flavors anyway.
Regardless, do it safe and make sure you're distillate never comes into contact with anything that could leach bad chems into your shit, like lead, plastics, or whatever. This includes making sure the construction of your still and piping doesn't have any lead solder / whatever used to make it.
...
will the atf shoot my cat if i have a beer before i'm 21
pic related
Where did you get that still and how much did you pay for it? It's a pretty incredible looking work of art.
>18%+12%=30%
>80%+30%=110%
that's some hardcore hooch
Hi there ATF
My bad, should be 80 corn, 12 rye, 8 barley.
We don't harm kitties.
your cat is clearly drunk, so it may be shot
Prolly.
But cats are free/cheap so is oky.
Just did a batch yesterday. Filled a five gallon culligan jug with ingredients plus yeast, waited a few months, and did it on the stovetop.
I'm trying to think of a new mash, so far it's mainly been apple concentrate for a nice apple brandy, but thinking maybe of doing something more creative. Thoughts?
I've considered getting a small copper pot still like OPs pic to cook down wine into brandy.
But they are pretty pricey and im not sure if i would do it enough to justify the cost.