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Shine'

T

Tony Bones

Grundalier
Joined
Feb 4, 2004
Messages
768
OK, I bought a still, fermented five gallons of mash, and cooked her up yesterday.

1. Distilling at home w/ a 26 L still takes a loooooong time. About 12 hours. It takes for damn near ever to get stuff up to temp. using an electric hot plate. I'll pre-heat the still on the gas stove to boil next time, then transfer to the hot plate. Should cut the cook-down time in half.
2. I pulled about 3/4 of a gallon of good, drinkable product off.
3. Current alocohol content is about 50%. 100 proof.

In terms of taste, this is a different deal than what I've ever dealt w/ in terms of alcohol. It has almost no taste what-so-ever, except for a hint of corn and yeast. You could easily throw down a pint and think nothing of it...until you woke up on the garage floor of someone's home other than your own covered in vomit and urine.

From here, I will ferment another 5 gallons of mash (w/ a higher sugar content for more end product this time). I'll then cook it down, mix it w/ the first run, and cook it down again. This is where things get interesting.

After the second distillation you generally have an alcohol content of somewhere in the neighborhood of 80%. That's 160 proof folks. Two gallons of 160 proof liquor is enough to get you, your friends, and a couple of people you hate very, very drunken. Very.

Will provide an update sometime here next week.
 
Mmmm. Nothing like a nice glass of 'XXX'. :)

I drank everclear once.

Once.
 
Whatcha need is a nice cask to let it sit in and get all good and flavorey...LOL I'll tell ya what, send me down a mason's jar full and I'll send ya back some good ceegars... And don't tell those Virginian's you got this stuff....

Emo
 
Glad to see you got it up and running Tony. I was just wandering what happened with it the other day when I was surfing the sites you sent me.


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Years ago I lived way out in the country. An old black man lived near by. He would cook about twice a year for his personal use. He said his daddy passed the recipe to him. His came out a light caramel color. I had a drink of it once. It was slightly sweet with a kick that was too much for me to handle. He thought it was funny to see me stagger around.


There are still a few people in rural West Tennessee, where I live, who cook. I've been in on busting a still once. But people who do are a dying breed.
 
I got to see a real still in action once near Shake Rag Tenn about 1976-77. Well, actually nothing is near Shake Rag but it was in that area. :D Pure corn squeezins still warm will hurt you, hurt you bad. I remember the old guy making it was eating mustard and pickle sandwiches, first time I ever saw that too.
 
Mustard and pickle sandwitches are an important part of a drunken southerners diet. :D
 
Hmmm...I'm partial to Peanut Butter, Pickle, and Onion sandwiches myself ABV.

The story of how I developed an interest in this craziness goes something like this:

Dad had a friend whose father was an old, ornery, nasty son of a bitch. But boy, did he have character. He'd gotten kicked out of all of the local bars for life, due to his propensity for discharging fire arms inside said establishments.

At-any-rate, the old codger was always taking sips out of his walking cane, which I thought was interesting. At the ripe old age of eight or nine I mustered up enough courage to ask him what was in the cane and he said "well, this here is white lighting." Huh, I thought. "You want a swaller?" I got the OK from dad and gave it a go. Hmmm...didn't taste like much of anything at all. Kind of burnt a little going down, but I'd taken sips off mom's Southern Comfort that burnt one hell of a lot more.

W/ in fifteen minutes I couldn't stand up and my dad damn near had to drag me out of the garage by my feet.

Once I got over my "I hate that I grew up in the country" phase of my life I started revisiting stuff I had fond memories of.

1. Low-down, twangy country music. Johny, Hank, and Waylon.
2. Hot Rods and Motorcycles
3. Illegaly produced alcohol

I figured since I had 1. and 2. taken care of I better figure out 3. :) The old codger is long gone, so I'm figuring it out on my own. I'm sure he's smiling in his grave.
 
Ya, my grandfather use to have a couple of buddies that use to make "White Lighting". I was maybe 10 or 11 and one of them let me have a taste.....Damn!!! I thought I burned my taste buds right out my mouth. That stuff was rough!!!
 
While I was stationed in Germany, my Uncle who lives in Budapest Hungary always has a still going and he let me try some of his home brew. Knocked me out like a heavy weight punch. I'd highly appreciate a small Mason jar as well to bring back some old memories and as brother Emo says, ceegars will be mailed in return...... :D :thumbs: :p
 
On my Dad's dad's side of the family, I've still got cousins off in Tn and Ky that I've never meet, that allegedly brew the stuff...have been for over a hundred years.
 
Once I get a good run going I'll send a few people mason jars for gars. No problem there.

Mind you, this could be a while as I'm not sending you guy's anything less than the best I come up with.

Will report back in early next week after round two.

For the life of me I can't figure out why it's OK for me to brew up a bunch of beer, but it's illegal to cook up a drop of liquor. That just ain't right, no matter how you look at it :(
 
cigarsarge said:
Hey AVB. Where is Shake Rag, Tennessee?
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Shake Rag, Population 47 1/2 (cause somebody is always pregnent) is about 30 miles east northeast of Memphis. Just a country crossroads at the time.
 
I think that is pretty neat making your own stuff. I have made beer, which is a very popular hobby these days, especially in St. Louis. My family is German and has made home brew for more than 100 years. I stopped because it wasn't worth the trouble with all the local micro breweries producing fresh beer. I have also made wine...one time. Kinda tasted like Mogan David. Distilling sounds interesting.

I once bought some "Goergia Moon" corn whiskey that was sold in Mason Jars and was legal. I thought it had sort of musty taste.
 
golfgar said:
I think that is pretty neat making your own stuff. I have made beer, which is a very popular hobby these days, especially in St. Louis. My family is German and has made home brew for more than 100 years. I stopped because it wasn't worth the trouble with all the local micro breweries producing fresh beer. I have also made wine...one time. Kinda tasted like Mogan David. Distilling sounds interesting.

I once bought some "Goergia Moon" corn whiskey that was sold in Mason Jars and was legal. I thought it had sort of musty taste.
Click to expand...
I do a fair share of home brewing. I've had good success w/ Kolsch, Hefeweisen, and Amber. Not so good of luck w/ darker and high alcohol content beers like Imperial Stouts and Tripels.

The funny thing is that I'm not "Mr. Alcohol Guy" I have a beer every night and occasionally will have a nice single malt, tequila, or something else that's way too expensive.

I guess I just like the experience of it all. Just seems cool to get it right and make something that's actually palatable. I wish I could impress this same mentality on to my wife w/ her cooking.
 
Try insulating the still, that will reduce you time.

Loosely wrapped aluminum foil works. If you plan on doing this often, you could make a custom jacket using a welding blanket.
 
Regular duct insulation should work too. It has a sticky back so it stays in place once you wrap the ductwork, this should stick to your still too.
 
Good suggestions guys. Thanks.

Little upset w/ my yeast provider. Ordered up some Turbo 24 hr. last week and paid extra for shipping to ensure my having it by Friday. Nothing :(

Not a big deal. I'll just run round two next weekend. But man, you'd think if you were paying extra for shipping you'd get your end of the deal :angry:
 
Random technical question - how do you measure the proof of the finished product?
 
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