Hey man. I just found your channel. ❤ I appreciate that you respond to questions I’m just starting out and will probably have few of my own. Haaa. YOU HAVE EARNED MY SUBSCRIPTION CHEERS FROM MANITOBA CANADA
Thanks! Have you seen any of my later stuff since these videos were uploaded? Namely, my open-source technology assisted distillation projects? I've invented the world's first add-on smart still controller and just released an upgrade for Air Stills last week that fixes its temperature control and gives you 3 operating modes. I'm also working on a boiler controller right now that absolutely rivals any SCR or PID controller on the market and is WiFi enabled so you can control it from your cell phone or computer just using a web browser.
@@PanhandlePonics Jesse, absolutely not. George is pretty clear on his use of cuts, especially for neutral spirits. Get rid of the fore-shots, then run to 204 degrees F or about 100 proof. If one isn't running their still too hard, that should keep you out of the tails. With that said, whiskeys are all about flavor. Everyone is different in their likes so that means some will take no heads or tails, and some might take a bit of each to get a profile they are looking for. I will never tell anyone what to take or what not to take, that is a very personal thing. Great job my friend ! I'm glad you explained about hydrolyzing or gelatinizing your grains. So many people don't understand that distillers yeast doesn't chew up starch, but rather sugars, and they need to be converted first. There are some really cool high temp enzymes available, that will thin out a mash to make it more workable before the addition of alpha and beta enzymes, either through amylase powders or 2 or 6 row malted barley. I will have to try them someday to see for myself how they work. Keep up the great work my friend. -- den
Yeah, I'm a lazy fucker, I have too many things going on to deal with all that. I toss out anything collected before 180 degrees and I stop at 199 degrees (which is about 60 proof) and then run it through the air still. Yeah, I'm tossing out "feints" that could be redistilled, but I didn't spend hardly anything to get to that point. So if I'm tossing out the same ABV that you'd find in Triple Sec, I really don't care. My stupid little method works just fine for me and it's cheap.
When I'm in the kitchen I get all ingredients pre measured and put in bowels or cups then dump them into the mix as needed. I just found your excellent videos and I'm binge watching them.
You need to capture your own yeast culture. It's easy, fast & fun to do. Then capture 2 or 3 more in different areas and combine them to become one your own unique yeast culture. I've got one I came up with about 20 yrs ago, had to buy a small refrigerator to store my jars I multiplied. It's all from those 2 wild cultured I captured 20 yrs ago.
Hey guy I just discovered your videos and subscribed. I have a couple questions about redistilling to get a better tasting product. On a redistill I'm guessing that you still separate heads as that's what is causing the burn and off taste? Do I barrel it at the proof it comes off the still? Do I add the glycerin when I proof it down to drinking strength? Thanks for putting out these videos. Kenny
You'll never get rid of the burn, you only get used to the effect of ethanol on your throat. The glycerine is really only necessary if you don't redistill when you're using a basic pot still like the one I used in this video. I don't use that still anymore and no longer use glycerine at all. But you only have to get rid of the heads and tails on the first round, those chemical elements don't come back and have to be removed again. As for barrel proof, it needs to be 120 or less, or you will pull unwanted chemicals and elements out of the wood.
Hi mate. I’m in Scotland trying to get this perfected like yours. I have about 2 inches of dirty looking sparge at the bottom of my fermenting drum and the rest is looking good. It didn’t release as much gases as I thought it would. Should I just use the cleaner stuff? Trying my absolute best here 🤦🏻♂️
Did you measure your gravity with a hydrometer before and after adding your yeast? If it's all settle out at the bottom, that's usually a sign that the fermentation is done. But, having those two gravity readings is definitely the guaranteed way to know.
If it's still sweet, I'm betting it hasn't dropped much below the 1.065 mark, I would check it now. I can't predict what caused the fermentation to stall because there are so many things that could cause it. But the top 3 would be temperature, pH, and bad yeast.
Bummer, you're just further behind now. It would have been an easy fix. If you do things the same way, it will just fail the same way. Test your yeast to make sure that it's good and make sure that you're adding enough. Temperature and pH are also important to stay on top of because both will also cause a fermentation to stall if they're too far out of range.
Simple, because there's only 6 gallons of liquid which is nowhere near enough to yield anything more than a couple ounces of alcohol. This is why large distilleries have mash tungs that hold thousands of gallons. Old moonshiners in the south did it this way all the time because they certainly had no way to mash thousands of gallons at a time. As for rum, no, that's made from molasses.
Because yeast converts sugar to alcohol and that small amount of mash doesn't have enough naturally occurring sugar to produce enough alcohol even worth mentioning. This is why the Jack Daniel's distillery has 64 fermenters that hold 13,000 gallons of mash in each one.
The calculations are in...Without the sugar, the mash would have only fermented out at 2.6% ABV, which comes out to 1.92 ounces per gallon. So with 6 gallons, and if the still was 100% efficient, 6 gallons would only yield 11.52 ounces of 200 proof alcohol (which is completely impossible). Therefore, in small batch home distillation operations, your grains are only there to provide flavor and a small amount of its own sugar. Which is why you add sugar to the mash if you intend to run your still for any actual useful purpose.
Why would you not draw off enough liquid to be able to use a hydrometer from within the measuring container it comes with? You don't have to put the hydrometer directly in the mash. I have found the Amazon refractometers to be very inaccurate. There is an interesting formula for figuring out how much corn will get you what amount of gravity points. If you were aiming for a 5 gallon batch, select the last 2 digits of the original gravity you are shooting for (1.070 would be 70). Take this times the number of gallons. This gets you 350 gallon points. To achieve 1.070 OG, you need to add enough grain to equal this number. Examples of 1LB of starchy grains: Corn 33, 2 row malt 32, wheat 30, rye 25. So if you were to use corn and assume a full conversion you would need 350/33 = 10.6 lb of corn. This is of course assuming no added sugar and a complete conversion after the corn is properly gelled first. To calculate the amount of liquid enzyme to use, I take .36ml/pound of dry starchy grains. in this case for 5 Gallons this would be 3.9ML. Most recommendations for powdered enzyme are .5 oz/10lb of grain.
Please keep in mind that the videos here are only posted as a "get started quick" set of instructions for my cousin. I'm not posting videos here for the purpose of competing with George, Jesse, Bearded, or anybody else. My method that I use is not a critical scientific method, it's just a cheap and easy method that works for me much the same way that the old moonshiners in the south did things.
As a matter of fact, the content that people might accidentally find here is so low-tech that it probably shouldn't even surprise them to see a Still Spirits T-500 and copper reflux condenser in a possible upcoming video so my cousin can see the difference between the two. Content here is just a shortcut so he doesn't have to go hunt on all over UA-cam to find what he needs just to get started.
Hey man. I just found your channel. ❤ I appreciate that you respond to questions I’m just starting out and will probably have few of my own. Haaa. YOU HAVE EARNED MY SUBSCRIPTION CHEERS FROM MANITOBA CANADA
Thanks! Have you seen any of my later stuff since these videos were uploaded? Namely, my open-source technology assisted distillation projects? I've invented the world's first add-on smart still controller and just released an upgrade for Air Stills last week that fixes its temperature control and gives you 3 operating modes. I'm also working on a boiler controller right now that absolutely rivals any SCR or PID controller on the market and is WiFi enabled so you can control it from your cell phone or computer just using a web browser.
Great presentation. Very easy to understand and follow.
Nice job on the first two videos.Looking forward to the rest. I think George, Bearded, Jesse and Randy would all approve !! -- den
I don't think they'd approve of my lack of taking cuts and remixing what I consider to be the better cuts.
@@PanhandlePonics Jesse, absolutely not. George is pretty clear on his use of cuts, especially for neutral spirits. Get rid of the fore-shots, then run to 204 degrees F or about 100 proof. If one isn't running their still too hard, that should keep you out of the tails. With that said, whiskeys are all about flavor. Everyone is different in their likes so that means some will take no heads or tails, and some might take a bit of each to get a profile they are looking for. I will never tell anyone what to take or what not to take, that is a very personal thing. Great job my friend !
I'm glad you explained about hydrolyzing or gelatinizing your grains. So many people don't understand that distillers yeast doesn't chew up starch, but rather sugars, and they need to be converted first.
There are some really cool high temp enzymes available, that will thin out a mash to make it more workable before the addition of alpha and beta enzymes, either through amylase powders or 2 or 6 row malted barley. I will have to try them someday to see for myself how they work. Keep up the great work my friend. -- den
Yeah, I'm a lazy fucker, I have too many things going on to deal with all that. I toss out anything collected before 180 degrees and I stop at 199 degrees (which is about 60 proof) and then run it through the air still. Yeah, I'm tossing out "feints" that could be redistilled, but I didn't spend hardly anything to get to that point. So if I'm tossing out the same ABV that you'd find in Triple Sec, I really don't care. My stupid little method works just fine for me and it's cheap.
ua-cam.com/video/2SM1IIH9F_o/v-deo.html
Thanks for all the details keep em coming!
ua-cam.com/video/2SM1IIH9F_o/v-deo.html
When I'm in the kitchen I get all ingredients pre measured and put in bowels or cups then dump them into the mix as needed. I just found your excellent videos and I'm binge watching them.
You need to capture your own yeast culture. It's easy, fast & fun to do. Then capture 2 or 3 more in different areas and combine them to become one your own unique yeast culture. I've got one I came up with about 20 yrs ago, had to buy a small refrigerator to store my jars I multiplied. It's all from those 2 wild cultured I captured 20 yrs ago.
Hey guy I just discovered your videos and subscribed. I have a couple questions about redistilling to get a better tasting product. On a redistill I'm guessing that you still separate heads as that's what is causing the burn and off taste? Do I barrel it at the proof it comes off the still? Do I add the glycerin when I proof it down to drinking strength? Thanks for putting out these videos. Kenny
You'll never get rid of the burn, you only get used to the effect of ethanol on your throat. The glycerine is really only necessary if you don't redistill when you're using a basic pot still like the one I used in this video. I don't use that still anymore and no longer use glycerine at all. But you only have to get rid of the heads and tails on the first round, those chemical elements don't come back and have to be removed again. As for barrel proof, it needs to be 120 or less, or you will pull unwanted chemicals and elements out of the wood.
Thanks for clearing that up for me, I appreciate it.
Hi mate. I’m in Scotland trying to get this perfected like yours. I have about 2 inches of dirty looking sparge at the bottom of my fermenting drum and the rest is looking good. It didn’t release as much gases as I thought it would. Should I just use the cleaner stuff? Trying my absolute best here 🤦🏻♂️
Did you measure your gravity with a hydrometer before and after adding your yeast? If it's all settle out at the bottom, that's usually a sign that the fermentation is done. But, having those two gravity readings is definitely the guaranteed way to know.
@@PanhandlePonics thank you so much for your reply. I did, it was 1065 ish. I had a little taste with my finger and it’s very sweet 😀
If it's still sweet, I'm betting it hasn't dropped much below the 1.065 mark, I would check it now. I can't predict what caused the fermentation to stall because there are so many things that could cause it. But the top 3 would be temperature, pH, and bad yeast.
@@PanhandlePonics I poured it all out, starting again tomorrow from scratch 🤦🏻♂️ you guys make it look so easy
Bummer, you're just further behind now. It would have been an easy fix. If you do things the same way, it will just fail the same way. Test your yeast to make sure that it's good and make sure that you're adding enough. Temperature and pH are also important to stay on top of because both will also cause a fermentation to stall if they're too far out of range.
Hi sir when setting the mash whole night did u let the fire on ?
No, it's left to cool overnight
Question. If the goal is an all grain spirit, even though the SG is low, why add the sugar? Aren't you then making a rum /whiskey blend?
Simple, because there's only 6 gallons of liquid which is nowhere near enough to yield anything more than a couple ounces of alcohol. This is why large distilleries have mash tungs that hold thousands of gallons. Old moonshiners in the south did it this way all the time because they certainly had no way to mash thousands of gallons at a time. As for rum, no, that's made from molasses.
Because yeast converts sugar to alcohol and that small amount of mash doesn't have enough naturally occurring sugar to produce enough alcohol even worth mentioning. This is why the Jack Daniel's distillery has 64 fermenters that hold 13,000 gallons of mash in each one.
The calculations are in...Without the sugar, the mash would have only fermented out at 2.6% ABV, which comes out to 1.92 ounces per gallon. So with 6 gallons, and if the still was 100% efficient, 6 gallons would only yield 11.52 ounces of 200 proof alcohol (which is completely impossible). Therefore, in small batch home distillation operations, your grains are only there to provide flavor and a small amount of its own sugar. Which is why you add sugar to the mash if you intend to run your still for any actual useful purpose.
If I don’t have flaked wheat and rye can I Grind the grains and use it please I’m waiting for answer
Most everybody who does this stuff grinds their own grains. I don't because I don't have a grain mill or the room for one.
Why would you not draw off enough liquid to be able to use a hydrometer from within the measuring container it comes with? You don't have to put the hydrometer directly in the mash. I have found the Amazon refractometers to be very inaccurate. There is an interesting formula for figuring out how much corn will get you what amount of gravity points. If you were aiming for a 5 gallon batch, select the last 2 digits of the original gravity you are shooting for (1.070 would be 70). Take this times the number of gallons. This gets you 350 gallon points. To achieve 1.070 OG, you need to add enough grain to equal this number. Examples of 1LB of starchy grains: Corn 33, 2 row malt 32, wheat 30, rye 25. So if you were to use corn and assume a full conversion you would need 350/33 = 10.6 lb of corn. This is of course assuming no added sugar and a complete conversion after the corn is properly gelled first. To calculate the amount of liquid enzyme to use, I take .36ml/pound of dry starchy grains. in this case for 5 Gallons this would be 3.9ML. Most recommendations for powdered enzyme are .5 oz/10lb of grain.
Please keep in mind that the videos here are only posted as a "get started quick" set of instructions for my cousin. I'm not posting videos here for the purpose of competing with George, Jesse, Bearded, or anybody else. My method that I use is not a critical scientific method, it's just a cheap and easy method that works for me much the same way that the old moonshiners in the south did things.
As a matter of fact, the content that people might accidentally find here is so low-tech that it probably shouldn't even surprise them to see a Still Spirits T-500 and copper reflux condenser in a possible upcoming video so my cousin can see the difference between the two. Content here is just a shortcut so he doesn't have to go hunt on all over UA-cam to find what he needs just to get started.
ua-cam.com/video/2SM1IIH9F_o/v-deo.html : This should clarify things for you.
I too am from Neb