moonshiners...i wanna learn

PorterRockwell

Well-Known Member
I never understood the recipes that call for corn meal to be added with sugar and yeast. Yeast needs sugar and nutes. Corn meal is nothing more than startch. All grain (including corn) needs to be converted from startch to sugar before its used. Adding corn directly to the fermentation ain't doing squat. Any alcohol produced is solely the result of the extra sugar added.

And for small scale, you can't beat a water cooled reflux stil with a beer keg boiler.
Cornmeal is typically an attempt to get some ghetto hooch more of a actual old-school corn liquor flavor
 

UncleBurnie

Active Member
The corn meal gives it a flavor
I say convert all grains before fermentation. Corn is an excellent starch and makes a lot of cheap sugar... If it ain't making alkeehol, it's being wasted. Use just enough barley malt to give the yeast the required nutes corn doesn't provide... And keep the damn cane sugar for your coffee and out if your stil!
 

PorterRockwell

Well-Known Member
Far as I understand it barley is scotch
Rye whiskeys are made all over the world but I associate Irish whiskey with Rye whiskey's
Moonshine is corn liquor
bourbon is kind of a blend of concepts
 

cannakis

Well-Known Member
Flavored denotes soaking after. Example.....distilled grape wine becomes brandy, soak grapes in a distillate it is grape flavored.

I pretty much make singlemalt scotch now days. Picky and a bit of a pain (tedious) but I've fooled folks into thinking it was actually real scotch

Not true, methanol is a normal product of fermentation, just in different amounts depending on the substrate being fermented. Less methanol produced with pure sugar, more when fruits (grapes, etc) are used. Methanol boils at a lower temperature than ethanol. If you have good control of the process (distillation) it will come out as a discreet "slug" prior to ethanol. From lower temp and proceeding to higher temps you get the following: Ketones, acetone ---->various esters---->methanol---->ethanol----->water.
man im going to have to read this! smart man. fractioning is key to Everything.!
 

Singlemalt

Well-Known Member
Are they worth purchasing? Have seen the solar stills?
The copper ones? Only if you like the art or have time to kill. I wouldn't have a still smaller than 3-4gal. Average abv from the fermentate is 15%, if you are good and have the right yeast you can bump it up to 18%. You never ever fill a still completely; 3/4 of capacity max as the mash foams and bubbles, if that gets into column the run is fucked. You can never get better than 95% EtOH out of the still, most homestills can get 92%. Say you have a gallon of fermented mash with abv 15%: 128oz X .15=19.2oz theoretical EtOH, but physically impossible to obtain 100%, so realistically say 90%=17.28 oz of 90% (180 proof) EtOH as a yield, basically a little more than a pint of finished product and cut that with water to 45%(90 proof) drinkable stuff and you end up with about a quart. That quart was the result of a weeks time in fermenting and about 4-6 hrs of distilling.

Not impressed with solar stills
 

cannakis

Well-Known Member
The copper ones? Only if you like the art or have time to kill. I wouldn't have a still smaller than 3-4gal. Average abv from the fermentate is 15%, if you are good and have the right yeast you can bump it up to 18%. You never ever fill a still completely; 3/4 of capacity max as the mash foams and bubbles, if that gets into column the run is fucked. You can never get better than 95% EtOH out of the still, most homestills can get 92%. Say you have a gallon of fermented mash with abv 15%: 128oz X .15=19.2oz theoretical EtOH, but physically impossible to obtain 100%, so realistically say 90%=17.28 oz of 90% (180 proof) EtOH as a yield, basically a little more than a pint of finished product and cut that with water to 45%(90 proof) drinkable stuff and you end up with about a quart. That quart was the result of a weeks time in fermenting and about 4-6 hrs of distilling.

Not impressed with solar stills
haha i hear ya.! that was some good information, thanks! Thanks for telling me, that is a very small yield.!

I read that the only way to remove that last bit of water is to use some dessicant chemical. So definitely wouldn't be safe I would think.!
 
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