THE Alcohol (drinkable) Thread (merged)

[AgentR11]

lol.
Only an American could write that recipe with a straight face and not be horrified.
kg, liters, lbs, dry ingredients by volume, measured in Imperial units.

You make me proud to be a Texan! WOOOT!!

[PeakOiler]

lol.
Only an American could write that recipe with a straight face and not be horrified.
kg, liters, lbs, dry ingredients by volume, measured in Imperial units.

You make me proud to be a Texan! WOOOT!!

Actually I measured out everything using metric units and converted (and rounded) the units to "Imperial" for the benefit of most readers on this forum (which most likely still use the outdated and cumbersome Imperial units).

lol Agent, I just had to razz you! I am a chemist after all, and use the metric system most of the time at the lab at work.

Below is the primary fermenter which has already started to produce CO2 less than 12 hrs after adding the yeast this morning. It will be the centerpiece on the dining room table for the next few weeks until I rack the wine to a 23 liter glass carboy.

[JimG]

I still think the ingredients used ( which all come from god knows where - think of the petrol used and miles driven ) to make home brew is still much cheaper than buying, say, a 6-pack of an IPA at the local Stop and Rob liquor store.

Yesterday I saw a six pack for $ 7.49. Wow. That's getting pricey. There were a few microbrews at 9.99 a six-pack.

WA state taxes the cheap beers too- so even a crummy batch of MGD w/ it's corn adjuncts is expensive anymore.

I can make 5 gallons of home brew for $ 38.00. Yeast, hops, malt, a few bottle caps. Done deal. Which would in turn create a bit more than 8 six-packs This translates to about $ 4.75 a 6-pack. So... not bad.

But even w/ the potential savings, well, it's just fun to make beer. Sometimes the batch is delicious, sometimes it goes sideways and tastes just so-so. But, hey, it's beer. I dont take it too seriously.

[PeakOiler]

Hey JimG, good luck with the beer. I'd make beer if I grew any of the ingredients.

I'm making peach wine since the peaches only traveled from my front yard.

I'm racking the 3rd batch of wine into a 22 L carboy as I type this. I'll bottle it up in about 10 days. It's become quite clear now, and I sampled a sip earlier. It's better than the last batch.

I plan on sterilizing the bottles using boiling water, heated with my solar ovens.

[PeakOiler]

Yesterday I bottled the third batch of peach wine. Sixteen 750 ml bottles and one 1 liter bottle. Total of 13 liters.

Instead of sterilizing the bottles in boiling water, I washed them well with soap and water with a large bottle brush, rinsed thoroughly (with a bottle wand attached to the kitchen sink faucet), and then baked/dried the bottles at ~360 F in the SunOvens. After removing the bottles from the SunOvens, I allowed them to cool on the countertop to room temperature and then kept them in the frig till they were ready to fill.

Happy EarthDay everyone!

Cheers!

[PeakOiler]

Today I started my fourth batch of peach wine. I used the last of the 2010 frozen peaches as well as freshly processed 2012 peaches. Total of 12 lb (5.5 kg) processed peaches. I'm also going to use a yeast that was recommended for non-grape fruits this time. And in this batch, I slightly decreased the amount of sugar and slightly increased the amount of peaches and water called for in the recipe.

I recently traded with a coworker a bottle of peach wine (from the last batch) for a dozen or so empty bottles. Now I should have enough bottles for the batch.

[Wynston]

Although not legal in my area, I know a really really good friend who has built himself a very nice still. It is a vapor managment still and can produce 95%+ neutral alcohol (vodka, except his recipe doesn't include grains so it does not meet the government's description for a vodka)

His equipment includes a 15.5 Gallon SS keg with a 3" Diameter, 5' high column and 7500watts of elements with a home built controller which allows 0-7500watts. He can produce top notch neutral at about 1L every 15-20 mins, this is after about 5-8 hours of bleeding fores and heads. Mash recipe is simple, 28kgs Cane Sugar, 4tbsp Citric Acid, 1500Ml Tomato Paste, 908G Bakers Yeast and then topped up to the 280L mark with well water(which I have no idea on the chemistry of other than its on the softer side for well water and is bacteria and chemical free)

When said and done (there is quite a bit of time involved, 16+ hours easy) This results in about 17L @ 95% neutral ethanol, knocked back to drinking strength your looking at near 40 quarts as they are called here(Canada) but are in fact 750ML bottles of a very very drinkable booze, better that most top shelf vodkas you can buy. Unfortunately this is an illegal hobby in Canada (and the US I believe) but if you are interested in gaining more information on the subject http://homedistiller.org/forum/ and http://www.artisan-distiller.net/phpBB3 ... dda92bb74d will have you reading till your eyes are bleeding. Enjoy! If my friend can find some pictures of his "tools of the trade" I will see if I can post them. This is an expensive hobby to enter and you will want to be a plumber/pipefitter or know one for the best deals as copper is EXPENSIVE!

*Edited to add: Booze where I live is expensive, a quart of vodka (750ML) on the cheap end cost $22CAD on the low end, top end bottles of vodka (Grey Goose, Effen, Etc.) are over the $40CAD mark. What I buy when not "bumming " is Russian Standard Vodka and this costs me $25.49CAD for a 750ML bottle, which I consider ridiculous, but is a sad fact of life where I live

[Wynston]

After re-reading I should add a little more, my "buddy" strips the original mash about 12 gallons at a time fast and hard and collects "low wines" at about 50%abv, in a stripping still head, same keg, different head, once he collects about 13-14gallons of shine (think the stinking backyard/garage shine that most people are used to) this is loaded into the same keg with his spirit head connected, this is where the spirit run occurs, this is a slow run which is closely temperature monitored by his laptop with a chemistry grade thermometer connected. Fores and heads come off at a lower temperature, once he hits 77.1C (thermometer is not calibrated but is what works for him) this is where the hearts collection occurs, once in this range collection is closely monitored, once the thermometer hits 77.2C the game is over and tails are being collected, this is recycled into the next batch. Collected hearts are allowed to air out in open containers and than drank (typically quicker than they should ) Any questions I am sure I can find out the answers!

Edited to add: Fores and early heads are added to his home boiler oil tank, late heads and tails are recycled into the next batch to get any precious Ethanol that escaped earlier collection

[Wynston]

hrmm guess I should detail the spirit head just for clarification. This is a 3" diameter column packed with copper mesh. The packed columm is 5' tall, on top there is a 1/4"copper reflux condenser that returns about 85-90% of the vapor to the column for re-distillation, 10-15% is tee'd off, condensed and collected, based on temperature this is discarded, recycled, or collected as drinkable spirit. Once again read the sites I posted or ask questions, will do my best to answer!

[Wynston]

Picked up a weekend bottle of my favourite vodka and the price just went up from $25.49CAD to $26.45CAD, which I find even more ridiculous for a 750ml bottle of vodka........damn Canadian taxes.....

[PeakOiler]

Last weekend I racked the 4th batch of peach wine a second time:



Today I washed and rinsed the bottles in an oxidizing sanitizer and purified rainwater heated to 185 F from the solar water heater. Then I dried and baked the empty bottles using the solar ovens. The bottles were heated to about 345 F for about 3 hours:



The bottles are now cooling in the frig. I'm going to fill them this evening.

If I get another 17 bottles of wine, this would bring my cost per bottle (from all 4 batches) down to less than $7.

I may have to try a glass tonight.

[PeakOiler]

Yum! I had to have a second glass...

If I didn't drink two glasses, I would have gotten 17 bottles.

Oh well...