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Shine'

Tony Bones said:
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:
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US PO was closed on Friday, by executive order, a day of Mourning. So if it was coming USPS they couldn't even move the trucks doing the shipping on Friday
 
All you good ole boys got some great stories about 'shine, white lightning, etc. :p

We rarely see that up here in the northeast but I gotta tell you a story from my college days.

I was in a fraternity and a few of us UCONN guys went to our chapter's house at URI (Rhode Island). A few of our brothers had driven up from Glasboro State in New Jersey and one of them had brought a mason jar of honest-to-goodness Alabama moonshine. I didn't have any of it but I remember one of the UCONN guys drank some of it at the party. The next morning, we found him sleeping on top of the washing machine and for the next two days, he had to wear sunglasses 'cause he swears he was almost blinded by the stuff!!! :sign:
 
coventrycat86 said:
All you good ole boys got some great stories about 'shine, white lightning, etc. :p

We rarely see that up here in the northeast but I gotta tell you a story from my college days.

I was in a fraternity and a few of us UCONN guys went to our chapter's house at URI (Rhode Island). A few of our brothers had driven up from Glasboro State in New Jersey and one of them had brought a mason jar of honest-to-goodness Alabama moonshine. I didn't have any of it but I remember one of the UCONN guys drank some of it at the party. The next morning, we found him sleeping on top of the washing machine and for the next two days, he had to wear sunglasses 'cause he swears he was almost blinded by the stuff!!! :sign:
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Here's the low-down on moonshine making people go blind:

3) Will it make me blind ?

Not if you're careful. This pervasive question is due to moonshine lore, which abounds with myths of blindness, but few actual documented cases. The concern is due to the presence of methanol (wood alcohol), an optic nerve poison, which can be present in small amounts when fermenting grains or fruits high in pectin. This methanol comes off first from the still, so it is easily segregated and discarded, and easily observed via changes in the vapour temperature. A simple rule of thumb for this is to throw away the first 50 mL you collect (per 20 L mash used). Probably the greatest risk to your health during distilling is the risk of fire - collecting a flammable liquid near a heat source. So keep a fire extinguisher nearby.

The cases where you do hear about people poisoned by "illict spirits" have been the terrible situations where adulterants such as methanol, antifreeze, battery acid etc have been added to the spirits afterwards by unscrupulous sellers (for what misguided reasons ??). If you have had a healthy fermentation take place, it is infact very difficult to make methanol. The other problems have been lead poisoning when people have used lead-based products (ie lead solder) when constructing their still, instead of something more appropriate for food-grade vessels. The rules should infact be "dont buy spirits from an unknown supplier" - but its very safe to distill for yourself.
 
Lead and Antifreeze are/were introduced when car radiators were used to cool the vapors. They work very well but were lead soldered and almost always have traces of antifreeze no matter how well they were flushed.
 
Round 2

Decided to try a variation on the recipe this go around. Although the corn version is widely recognized, it's a real SOB to cook up the mash and dispose of the grain. 15 lbs. of dry flaked corn makes for one heck of a lot of matter to get rid of :)

Here's what I ran with this time:

-10 lbs. white sugar
-1 can of dark malt kicker
-1 gallon of apple juice
-3.5 gallons of water
-1 packet of 24 hr. turbo yeast

Mix it all together (minus the yeast) and add a little heat to get everything disolved nicely. Then let it cool to room temp., transfer to your fermentor, and add yeast.

Boy, I've realized that the still temperature is oh-so important and you really need to stay on top of it. Once I tossed the first 100 ml. (the bad stuff) I ran the still at a steady 70 C. This resulted in some extremely pure and flavorful stuff. About 78%, right off the still. The downside is that running a temp. that low results in a slow flow rate. About 1 drop per second.

I ran off approx. 1/8 of a gallon at the slow rate before it just got too late to take it anymore. I then cranked the heat up to 85 C. The flow rate increases to about 5 drops per second, but the purity suffers greatly. Basically, you end up w/ more water in the end product and less alcohol. This is OK though. I'm going to cook up one more batch and then redistill all three.

If all goes well this should result in approx. 1/2 gallon of 170 proof. I'll then cut it w/ water to my liking and call it even. Although the idea of drinking 170 proof liquor seems appealing, I assure you that it will damn near rip your face off and needs to be cut w/ water. Two shots of the uncut stuff and it's all over.

Further updates to follow.
 
Can ya make rum the same way? With how plentiful sugar cane is down here, it would be cool to roast the sugar cane, then do the boil. I might have to check out this still thing. Also, any idea where you can buy small oak casks for the ageing process?

Emo
 
As a kid I learned that my Grandmother had a still during prohibition. The bottled up the stuff and my mother had a delivery route after school.

I was told they put the stuff into home canning jars with whole cherries and a bit of sugar. I duplicated the recepie using vodka instead of alcohol. In 6 months the liquid takes on the cherry color and the cherries take on the alcohol content. I put up a few jars every year when cherries are in season. Nice.
Peter
 
emodx said:
Can ya make rum the same way? With how plentiful sugar cane is down here, it would be cool to roast the sugar cane, then do the boil. I might have to check out this still thing. Also, any idea where you can buy small oak casks for the ageing process?

Emo
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Everything you need to know regarding distilling, ingredients, and the equipment needed is available at www.homedistiller.org

And yes, you could make rum or something similar w/ a combination of your sugar cane and molasses. It would take a very large pot to boil it down in. As best I can guess, you'd have to stick a bunch of cane in the pot w/ water covering it, boil it for a few hours, pull the cane out, and reduce the water and sugar down a bit. From there you'd just go about things as you would w/ any sugar-based substance.

It's surprising what you can cook into liquor. Most fruits, most syrups, sugar candy...basically, anything w/ a high sugar content.

The problem w/ producing anything other than good old fashioned shine' is flavoring it. It can be done through mixing a portion of the tails (the watered down, high in congeners substance that comes towards the end of your distillation) w/ your middle run. An easy way around this is to buy essences and add them to the finished product. This is the way many home distillers replicate their favorite spirits.

Regarding the small oak casks: Most any home brew or wine shop can order them for you. Plan on about $125 for a one gallon barrel.

One thing I need to make abundantly clear: The end product of home distilling takes a long, long time to make and you end up w/ very little bounty. This is why I'm not sending a bunch of my CP friends who have asked complimentary samples as of yet. I just don't have enough to offer.

If you have a 6 gallon still you need to distill approx. 18 gallons (three runs) of mash, to produce a good, palatable spirit. You end up w/ about 2.5 gallons of OK stuff. If you want the high octane, really good stuff you need to take those three runs, mix them together, and redistill it to produce 1/2-3/4 of a gallon of finished product.

I'm just doing this to keep a tradition alive and to kind of blow people's minds. It's one heck of a lot cheaper to go to the liquor store :)
 
Round 2.5

Mixed up some mash this evening and decided to try yet another recipe:

-5 lbs. of molasses
-10 lbs. of white sugar
-Water to fill fermentation vessel (about 4.5 gallons)

Cooked up the molasses and sugar w/ a gallon of water just to get things disolved and decided this is the way to go when cooking. Don't need to use the super-giant, 6 gallon stainless pot. That thing is a monster and w/ 6 gallons of fluid and ingredients gets heavy. One gallon of water and ingredients is much more manageable and much less, uh, kitchen floor safe. Furthermore, by mixing 4.5 gallons of cool water w/ the hot stuff I can add the yeast immediately, rather than wait a day for stuff to cool below 100.

Distilling on Saturday, then mixing my three batches together to redistill for the final product on Sunday.
 
Tony Bones said:
The concern is due to the presence of methanol (wood alcohol), an optic nerve poison, which can be present in small amounts when fermenting grains or fruits high in pectin.
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Methanol is a simple analysis if your interested. I would also be able to tell you what proof it is. I would only need 25 ml or so.

Just a friendly offer
 
Joe said:
Tony Bones said:
The concern is due to the presence of methanol (wood alcohol), an optic nerve poison, which can be present in small amounts when fermenting grains or fruits high in pectin.
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Methanol is a simple analysis if your interested. I would also be able to tell you what proof it is. I would only need 25 ml or so.

Just a friendly offer
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Appreciate the offer Joe. Maybe I'll take you up on it when I get back into town.

The interesting thing w/ the methanol (bad stuff at the start of the distillation) is that there's no doubt it's bad. It stinks to all ends of the earth and is definitely not something one would have any interest in putting in their mouth.

I actually have a Hydrometer and seem to have had good luck w/ it. My current batch came off the still at about 170 proof and I cut it to 140 for taste.
 
Well, she's redistilled, half canned up, and sitting comfortably in my garage. Cut the proof from 170 to 140 for drinkability and put five Ranier cherries in each bottle for a little flavor.

Once I get back from NY I'll can the rest of it and bomb a couple of folks who showed interest. I'll send it out in canning jars that hold about three shots. This way nobody will wake up on their patio wondering what happend :)

Trust me, three shots is all you'll need.
 
Tony,

Send me some info on those small jars if you could please.
 
I tried the cherry idea with some vodka from the store, and it's fantastic, I'm sure they get better over time. I'll have to find some Ranier cherries like you used, are they the best?
How much do you estimate it cost you and how much time, to correctly make the shine? Sounds alot more fun, and easier than making beer, or am I misguided? :)
 
texasaggie said:
I tried the cherry idea with some vodka from the store, and it's fantastic, I'm sure they get better over time. I'll have to find some Ranier cherries like you used, are they the best?
How much do you estimate it cost you and how much time, to correctly make the shine? Sounds alot more fun, and easier than making beer, or am I misguided? :)
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I gave the old corn recipe a shot but it just didn't taste that great. Tried the Molasses recipe and that wasn't too good either. The one below had a really nice body to it and produced the best flavored end product.

$4 - 1 gallon of apple juice
$5 - 10 lbs. of sugar
$7 - 1 can of dark malt kicker
Free - 4 gallons of water
$8 - packet of 24 hr. turbo yeast\

$24 total

That'll make you about 1/3 a gallon. Depending on the proof, you'd likely cut it a bit w/ water, creating somewhere around 1/2 of a gallon of finished product. I decided to cut mine from 170 proof to 140. 140 is strong enough to clean Harley parts and also provides a good little buzz when consumed :)

Now regarding it being simpler than making beer: Hmmmm...sort of. Basically, making beer is exactly what you are doing, plus the additional step of distilling. Where it is more simple is in the creation of the mash. Using the recipe above all you have to do is:

-Heat up 1 gallon of water and one gallon of apple juice to 150 F
-Stir in sugar and kicker
-Poor into fermenter
-Add four gallons of cold water
-Add yeast (check temp. of liquid to make sure it's below 95 F)
-Put your lid w/ airlock on and let it sit for a couple days

I guess where it's easier is that you're not dealing w/ grain bags and 6 gallon boiling pots on your stove.

The actual distilling is an all day affair (literally). The first couple of times you do it you'll need to check the still often. Once you get a good idea of how long it takes to get up to temp., how tempermental your heating element is, and when approx. you move into the tails of the run you'll be able to check the still less often.

Sorry for the long response. It's tough to put this stuff to words. Easier just to see it. If you're ever in Seattle let me know ;)

And yes, those Ranier cherries are just amazing. So much sweeter than your normal Bing.
 
Thanks, I think there might be some more people who might try this, it does seem easier for sure than cleaning and bottling all the damn beer. :D :D
 
Have you tried brown sugar or light brown sugar? That might change your flavor a little. Also, might try distilled water or spring water. I rarely will drink anything but spring water or distilled water. I cook with it also. I have also found I prefer dark dark sugar over the bleached sugar in just about all my cooking and drinks.

Emo
 
emodx said:
Have you tried brown sugar or light brown sugar? That might change your flavor a little. Also, might try distilled water or spring water. I rarely will drink anything but spring water or distilled water. I cook with it also. I have also found I prefer dark dark sugar over the bleached sugar in just about all my cooking and drinks.

Emo
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Yepper. I use distilled water, w/ a little citric acid to get the PH right. I'll give the brown sugar a go next round. May add a little more body. For the most part though, I've found that the malt kicker takes care of that.
 
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