Great 1&2 series!!!! You have a talent. Articulate and instructive. Thank you. I'm looking forward to seeing the results and hearing of the flavor of the corn and barley only wash.
Good video. Here is something that you could try..... Try distilling your corn whiskey once. Then after you distill it with discarding what wash is left behind (FIRST). Step #2: Take the distilled spirits that you collected and re-distill it again!!! Then take a reading of your numbers to see if they have changed. Your numbers should be doubled or in that range? Can't wait to see the next video!
I forgot to tell you that the SLOWER that you run your still..... The better the product!!! Yes, This will improve the numbers that you are looking for in your product.
The way you heat your still is a major factor and many will disagree, but my opinion is this; USE A HEAT SOURCE THAT IS SO SLOW THAT IT MAKES YOU CRAZY. I recommend this because that will allow you to run your wash without clearing it. It will add additional flavors to your distillate. The danger is that a heat source that is too hot will scorch any solids in your wash and the burned flavor will definitely carry over. It is a real trade off. Everything you clear from your wash takes away flavors and aromas, but everything you leave in your wash may be be burned. Just keep in mind that the slower you go, the better your control of the process.
When i was in highscool; i took chemistry 100 & 101, no one could understand how i failed miserably in non biological chemistry, but did so well in biochemistry. I love chemistry! There's always something new to learn, and it's fun.
Good video. You should try clarifying your wash after your fermentation is finished. I improved my liquor 100% by adding this step. Your wash may have stalled due to the high initial gravity, I shoot for 10%. Cheers!
Adding water for cooling further dilutes the specific gravity and forces more dependence on cane sugar. That means non diluting cooling should be done. If you want a good yield with corn it is necessary to raise the temperature of the first stage mash and use bacterially produced alpha amylase. It takes about 3 hours in the first stage. That is why most videos have a lot of expensive flaked corn. Good yields (>65%) require careful monitoring of SG and pH. Nice video work and the music is relaxing and lighting great.
Instead of cane sugar, try corn sugar or corn syrup and malted barley. I do 3 parts corn syrup to 1 part malted barley syrup or dry. I distill it twice and age on toasted oak chips for two to three weeks. Makes a high quality bourbon.
Hi Ralph, I have difficulty getting Corn products here in Australia. I have seen small squeeze bottles of syrup in the supermarkets and they go for around the 3 to $4 a bottle. To get my Cracked Corn for this video I had to go to a produce store...... Bit of detective work for me, must be somewhere.
Great videos! Been looking for a simple explanation on how to make whisjkey without "cheating" by adding sugar or enzymes, I just wanted to see if it's possible I might not actually try it.
If corn is cheap, use corn. This is why people use animal feed corn. Take well crushed corn and make a thick porridge with it, using only just enough boiling water. Let it cool it naturally . THEN add malted barley or malted corn. A mash aimed at 10% ABV is usually the sweet spot for yield vs fermentation stopping due to alcohol stopping the yeast.
You want to do a cerial mash. By heating it up. You need to geletanize the starches. It will look like mashed potatoes and act like it too. Needs to be above 185 This makes the starches available for the barley to convert. Then cool down to 155 to 160 and put barley in. This is not optional otherwise you only get a portion of the corn available for conversion. The other part is like steeping corn for flavor. And yes you need to do a second distillation for any quality. Look up cuts
you probably could have done with more aeration of the mash, this is an often overlooked step. you can either get an aquarium air pump with a hose and put it down in there for a few hours before you put the water bubbler on or just leave the top off with maybe a piece of cheesecloth over it for 3-4 hours while the yeast gets going. this will make for a much more complete alcohol production.
Brilliant idea, would have been a dense and Oxygen starved and will do next time. Going to attempt a bigger volume and boil it more to get a higher starch result.
You have to remember that it was the Great Depression and Probation Era when corn Spirits became popular , sugar was hard to get and expensive but corn wasn’t and became a cheaper substitute the Liquor was made cheap to sell cheap and a way of life for many. Yes it produces a lower ABV but back then any Alcohol was good Alcohol doing a stripping run or double distilling is the best way to up your final Proof . With that set up expect around 140 to 150 proof 70 to 75% after your finish run... “Happy Spirits Y’all” ps: consider adding a thumper to your set up I run a similar set up only larger 168 proof is my best and that’s good enough for a pot still best thing is we retain all the flavor profiles that other stills do not... 👍👍🥃🍻
Thankyou for your video. It is very well explained and yet not over simplified adnauseam like some are. Be nice for some tasting notes on this whiskey and how many grams per litre oak chips you used over what period and at what ABV. With my molasses rum I oak at at 60% @10gm/litre white American Oak plus 1 clove and i vanilla bean per 5 litres.
Interesting effort, you may have greater success with one of the many breakfast cerial washes, maybe something like a nutrigrain whiskey or corn flake whiskey, even the weetbix wash etc, would be better for your little pot still would be much more cost effective aswell, and when aged on American or french oak Domino's for a few months is amazing.
Hi Skurvy 84, I plan to try a Corn Flakes wash and still looking at the right recipe. I use the little Pot Still to try and retain flavour from the Wash. I normally use a Reflux Column but you can forget flavor with this..... Very good for Vodka though
Still Stuff you are probably already on to it but both the homedistiller and aussiedistiller forums have tried and proven receipes for all those cerial washes, if you want to make a really nice vodka i can suggest teddysads ffv with good cuts and airing its easily the nicest and cleanest neutral I've made.
Seeing you have a reflux still, I've read that a "stripping run" more like a pot still in retaining the flavours, can be done in the same still, minus the shackles, inside the T500 arm. It looks great what you have made with your existing pot still.
I ripped my hair out in the beginning...... Started with the little Pot Still and very happy with the result. When I purchased the T500 unit I tried the same procedure with Stripping and it backfired on me - the end product was terrible even after 3 separate distillations. The best thing I could determine is that the T500 operates at FULL STEAM AHEAD (full boil) and somehow seems to have bonded the many different flavors together on the 2nd distill through making the Heads Hearts and Tails indistinguishable. I even tried running the results of the stripping run through my pot still and had zero effect betterment. The best advice I can give you is do not do a stripping run with the T500 and then expect to re-distill and take out the heads and tails.... You will find them somehow molecularity bonded together. With the T500 I simply discard the first 100ml and smell the output after 750ml - when it starts smelling bad I make the cut. On the other hand, I will use my little Pot Still if I want to retain the flavor and often do stripping runs. I have tried removing the inner components of the tower, but you still have to get the wash boiling flat out - there is no temp variation with the T500 - The Pot Still has a thermometer stuck in the top and I increase the temp to around the 80 Deg C to take out the Ethanol - You can't do that with the T500. All things being said I like the T500 for my Vodka and use my Pot Still for everything else...... I am thinking about upgrading my pressure cooker to a Beer Keg??????? Glad you enjoy my Distilling Journey, my motivation was to do something better than what I found on line when I first started.......
Using table sugar you only use 85% that's all the yeast will use now if you use corn sugar the yeast will eat 100% and I use wheat ground small and not to powder
thank you very match it is a good journey with you and excellent video . hope to see new videos for making BEER , wine , liquor AND VODKA . see you man . BYE FOR NOW
the extra sugar came from the malted barley.....it turns the corn starch to usable sugar....real moonshine is made like your receipt, except, instead of malted barley, use malted corn.
yeah, kinda , or whats cheaper.!!! usually,, its corn.. here in the South..... Alabama, Tenn. its corn. plenty of it. optimizing the fermentation, patience, and lower heat produces more and higher quality!!
The initial 25 liter wash was 12% ABV and after distilling in the pot still it was around 85% ABV or 179% Proof. After diluting it was 40%ABV land I had 2.8 liters.
Please stop the short passage of music played over and over and over again, which irritated me so much. Probably you are not hearing that stupid music yourself.
Hi there, heard the same from others and I stopped it running through the video around 3 years ago. Only use it for a few seconds in the intro and outro.
Great 1&2 series!!!! You have a talent. Articulate and instructive. Thank you. I'm looking forward to seeing the results and hearing of the flavor of the corn and barley only wash.
Good video. Here is something that you could try..... Try distilling your corn whiskey once. Then after you distill it with discarding what wash is left behind (FIRST). Step #2: Take the distilled spirits that you collected and re-distill it again!!! Then take a reading of your numbers to see if they have changed. Your numbers should be doubled or in that range? Can't wait to see the next video!
Good idea Kevin. Next video will be to make pure Potato Vodka using no added sugar. This should prove interesting.
I forgot to tell you that the SLOWER that you run your still..... The better the product!!! Yes, This will improve the numbers that you are looking for in your product.
The way you heat your still is a major factor and many will disagree, but my opinion is this; USE A HEAT SOURCE THAT IS SO SLOW THAT IT MAKES YOU CRAZY. I recommend this because that will allow you to run your wash without clearing it. It will add additional flavors to your distillate. The danger is that a heat source that is too hot will scorch any solids in your wash and the burned flavor will definitely carry over. It is a real trade off. Everything you clear from your wash takes away flavors and aromas, but everything you leave in your wash may be be burned. Just keep in mind that the slower you go, the better your control of the process.
Well done sir. You are an excellent teacher. I will try your method very soon. Thank you
Just exploring the path and recording it as I go.....
When i was in highscool; i took chemistry 100 & 101, no one could understand how i failed miserably in non biological chemistry, but did so well in biochemistry. I love chemistry! There's always something new to learn, and it's fun.
When I was in High Skool, the most exciting moment was watching Neil Armstrong walk upon the moon....
Good video. You should try clarifying your wash after your fermentation is finished. I improved my liquor 100% by adding this step. Your wash may have stalled due to the high initial gravity, I shoot for 10%. Cheers!
Adding water for cooling further dilutes the specific gravity and forces more dependence on cane sugar. That means non diluting cooling should be done. If you want a good yield with corn it is necessary to raise the temperature of the first stage mash and use bacterially produced alpha amylase. It takes about 3 hours in the first stage. That is why most videos have a lot of expensive flaked corn. Good yields (>65%) require careful monitoring of SG and pH. Nice video work and the music is relaxing and lighting great.
Instead of cane sugar, try corn sugar or corn syrup and malted barley. I do 3 parts corn syrup to 1 part malted barley syrup or dry. I distill it twice and age on toasted oak chips for two to three weeks. Makes a high quality bourbon.
Hi Ralph, I have difficulty getting Corn products here in Australia. I have seen small squeeze bottles of syrup in the supermarkets and they go for around the 3 to $4 a bottle. To get my Cracked Corn for this video I had to go to a produce store...... Bit of detective work for me, must be somewhere.
Great videos! Been looking for a simple explanation on how to make whisjkey without "cheating" by adding sugar or enzymes, I just wanted to see if it's possible I might not actually try it.
Malted barley or corn contains the enzyme that makes sugar from starch (as does a small bottle)
Waiting on that Part 3. Great video!
Going to have to take a few sick days off work to do it....
If corn is cheap, use corn. This is why people use animal feed corn. Take well crushed corn and make a thick porridge with it, using only just enough boiling water. Let it cool it naturally . THEN add malted barley or malted corn. A mash aimed at 10% ABV is usually the sweet spot for yield vs fermentation stopping due to alcohol stopping the yeast.
You want to do a cerial mash. By heating it up. You need to geletanize the starches. It will look like mashed potatoes and act like it too. Needs to be above 185 This makes the starches available for the barley to convert. Then cool down to 155 to 160 and put barley in. This is not optional otherwise you only get a portion of the corn available for conversion. The other part is like steeping corn for flavor. And yes you need to do a second distillation for any quality. Look up cuts
you probably could have done with more aeration of the mash, this is an often overlooked step. you can either get an aquarium air pump with a hose and put it down in there for a few hours before you put the water bubbler on or just leave the top off with maybe a piece of cheesecloth over it for 3-4 hours while the yeast gets going. this will make for a much more complete alcohol production.
Brilliant idea, would have been a dense and Oxygen starved and will do next time. Going to attempt a bigger volume and boil it more to get a higher starch result.
You have to remember that it was the Great Depression and Probation Era when corn Spirits became popular , sugar was hard to get and expensive but corn wasn’t and became a cheaper substitute the Liquor was made cheap to sell cheap and a way of life for many.
Yes it produces a lower ABV but back then any Alcohol was good Alcohol
doing a stripping run or double distilling is the best way to up your final Proof .
With that set up expect around 140 to 150 proof 70 to 75% after your finish run...
“Happy Spirits Y’all”
ps: consider adding a thumper to your set up I run a similar set up only larger
168 proof is my best and that’s good enough for a pot still
best thing is we retain all the flavor profiles that other stills do not... 👍👍🥃🍻
Thank u...you are veary good teacher
Cheers....
very nice video
Thankyou for your video. It is very well explained and yet not over simplified adnauseam like some are. Be nice for some tasting notes on this whiskey and how many grams per litre oak chips you used over what period and at what ABV. With my molasses rum I oak at at 60% @10gm/litre white American Oak plus 1 clove and i vanilla bean per 5 litres.
Are you making beer or whisky? You don’t hace to clear your wash if you make whisky
How do you know when your pressure cooker is empty?
Set your boil temp at 78C and you will liberate the Ethanol leaving the water behind (water boils at 100C).
thanks for the reply
Interesting effort, you may have greater success with one of the many breakfast cerial washes, maybe something like a nutrigrain whiskey or corn flake whiskey, even the weetbix wash etc, would be better for your little pot still would be much more cost effective aswell, and when aged on American or french oak Domino's for a few months is amazing.
Hi Skurvy 84, I plan to try a Corn Flakes wash and still looking at the right recipe. I use the little Pot Still to try and retain flavour from the Wash. I normally use a Reflux Column but you can forget flavor with this..... Very good for Vodka though
Still Stuff you are probably already on to it but both the homedistiller and aussiedistiller forums have tried and proven receipes for all those cerial washes, if you want to make a really nice vodka i can suggest teddysads ffv with good cuts and airing its easily the nicest and cleanest neutral I've made.
I am learning and recording as I go...... I will check it out and probably make a vid about it. Thanks for the advice....
Seeing you have a reflux still, I've read that a "stripping run" more like a pot still in retaining the flavours, can be done in the same still, minus the shackles, inside the T500 arm.
It looks great what you have made with your existing pot still.
I ripped my hair out in the beginning...... Started with the little Pot Still and very happy with the result. When I purchased the T500 unit I tried the same procedure with Stripping and it backfired on me - the end product was terrible even after 3 separate distillations. The best thing I could determine is that the T500 operates at FULL STEAM AHEAD (full boil) and somehow seems to have bonded the many different flavors together on the 2nd distill through making the Heads Hearts and Tails indistinguishable. I even tried running the results of the stripping run through my pot still and had zero effect betterment. The best advice I can give you is do not do a stripping run with the T500 and then expect to re-distill and take out the heads and tails.... You will find them somehow molecularity bonded together. With the T500 I simply discard the first 100ml and smell the output after 750ml - when it starts smelling bad I make the cut. On the other hand, I will use my little Pot Still if I want to retain the flavor and often do stripping runs. I have tried removing the inner components of the tower, but you still have to get the wash boiling flat out - there is no temp variation with the T500 - The Pot Still has a thermometer stuck in the top and I increase the temp to around the 80 Deg C to take out the Ethanol - You can't do that with the T500. All things being said I like the T500 for my Vodka and use my Pot Still for everything else...... I am thinking about upgrading my pressure cooker to a Beer Keg??????? Glad you enjoy my Distilling Journey, my motivation was to do something better than what I found on line when I first started.......
This is not a reflux still
Using table sugar you only use 85% that's all the yeast will use now if you use corn sugar the yeast will eat 100% and I use wheat ground small and not to powder
thank you very match it is a good journey with you and excellent video . hope to see new videos for making BEER , wine , liquor AND VODKA . see you man . BYE FOR NOW
You burped your still by running too hot at the start. You switched to the smaller burner and saved the run though. That will effect the taste BTW.
slow and steady...huh ?? city folk, always rushing. nature doesnt rush.
the extra sugar came from the malted barley.....it turns the corn starch to usable sugar....real moonshine is made like your receipt, except, instead of malted barley, use malted corn.
yeah, kinda , or whats cheaper.!!! usually,, its corn.. here in the South..... Alabama, Tenn. its corn. plenty of it. optimizing the fermentation, patience, and lower heat produces more and higher quality!!
I wonder what he can make with Nutra Grain or Fruit Loops !
Hey Brendan..... Happy to try Nutra Grain and Fruit Loops if there was enough Starch in "em
@@pauljacobs5390 We have a few Fruit Loops in Australia but they all tend to hang out in the Federal Parliament building !
hi can you tell me the reashow
Hi Yilma..... Happy to help you with anything I can but I do not understand what you are asking for....Sorry....
In market whisky alcohol around 38~40%, hope your nxt video to increase your whisky alcohol level.
The initial 25 liter wash was 12% ABV and after distilling in the pot still it was around 85% ABV or 179% Proof. After diluting it was 40%ABV land I had 2.8 liters.
You can cold crash it and all sediment falls to bottom
Hey Fred, have to check this out.... You may have something here....
Cheers
Paul
Thank you for realizing adding sugar just mess up everything.
It is amazing how much ignorance there is on the Internet.... Thanks for the comment Barry..... Cheers Mate.
What's worse than using whiskey as vodka is using gin in place of rum or tequila! UUUUGGH!!! 😫
I have tried turning Vodka into Whiskey, but nothing beats turning Whiskey into Whiskey :-)
When I make my mash I get 22.5 percent
Wow..... Please share how.... it must be the type of yeast?
I highly doubt that bud. Ya pushin shit uphill shooting for 20. Post a vid of it, I'll like and subscribe you and so would thousands of others...
Have lost the will to live.....very tedious
Ha ha ha ... I don't have to think about it to do this...... Totally automatic......
The background music is annoying and sickening
Deleted from all future videos
Please stop the short passage of music played over and over and over again, which irritated me so much. Probably you are not hearing that stupid music yourself.
Hi there, heard the same from others and I stopped it running through the video around 3 years ago. Only use it for a few seconds in the intro and outro.