/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>13111464
I do not distill or brew

I only make janky hooch with whatever fruit or fruit juice I have around plus champagne yeast

>>13111504
Do you use airlocks or just wing it?

>>13111630
Yeah I have proper equipment, use a glass carboy and a plastic 5gal with airlocks. Too lazy to ever bother learning specific gravity and such though.
I have brewed in a milk jug with seran rap over it though.

>>13111464
Home made Kvass is a way to go.

i brew some beer from time to time and it turns out really well. makes a good present for christmas.

>>13111869
pretty fucking neat

>>13111464
I've brewed a few batches of beer. I would say look into some kits first if you don't want to really learn about all the nessesary stuff but there are things out there for that. It's cool if there's a brew shop near you that you can go to because you can always ask for advice. Sanatize everything. Good luck, its fun drinking something you made.

>>13111464

Can someone explain what that contraption is and also, why it's sitting out on a frozen lake?

>>13111902
I can only do part, it's a keg still with a liebig condenser. The condenser is a tube inside a tube, and in between you circulate cold water to condense your alc/water/whatever.
Dunno why it's out in the cold and not connected to anything.

>>13111923

Thanks, man.

>>13111464

I have 2 in 1 pot/reflux that i use to make vodka sometimes but lately im too lazy and I don't want to sit and baby it for 6 hours. when I have more money I will upgrade it to be fully electronic so i don't have to touch it at all but I'm poorfag right now. pic rel

>>13112174
Whats the purpose of running the water though the column?

>>13112284
reflux

>>13111464
Check this guy out for home distilling

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCThY8lOKKkVDd9HVBT59zCg

>>13111630
>>13111504
same but i don't use any equipment. I ferment in the plastic jug that the juice comes from, I just keep the top loose enough to let air out

>>13112398
Ha I've actually been binging his videos and reading on home distiller.

>>13111464
I've fermented goon in prison.

I'm a distiller, at a regional craft distillery. Technically production manager now but whatever, I've been doing it professionally about 7 years.

My opinion and what I tell people who come through on tours is that home distillation is rarely worth it. The time, money and effort that go into it all to produce a spirit that will likely be inferior and more expensive than bottom shelf liquor, with the added risk of poisoning yourself with poor cuts.

One thing that can be fun with little to no risk of self harm with lots of room for experimentation is doing gin with redistillations of neutral spirit (everclear watered down to ~100pf). Vapor infusions, macerations, making liquers like Genepie, that's the good shit right there.

>>13112976
Why the fuck would you discourage a handful of people from engaging in a rewarding hobby just because you lick slavemaster boots in that industry? Sad, really sad.

yeah i make ultra high proof on my fractionating column
i've made a few batches of whiskey too, but usually i don't have the patience or finesse (or interest in learning how to ferment properly)

>>13113055
Esp with incorrect information.

>>13112976
>The time, money and effort that go into it all to produce a spirit that will likely be inferior and more expensive than bottom shelf liquor,

this is far from the truth.

>>13113098
I was going to ask do you think the reflux is worth the loss in flavor, but it seems like you probably do infusions rather than just the spirit on its own.

>>13113055
That’s an awfully aggressive response there bud. Having a true passion and following it into a career makes me a boot licker?

It can be a rewarding hobby if you do it correctly and have a passion for watching pots boil but doing it correctly involves a lot of work. If you’re like most people and you just want to crank out a dirty sugar wash and get yourself fucked up on shine then nothing I can say would ever stop you anyway, and there’s nothing to discuss. That’s why I suggested an avenue of home distillation that is very fulfilling and safe and the best way to learn the craft before jumping into the deep end with rums or whiskies.

>>13113144
reflux does not lose flavor on it's own. if you know the science of what you're making, you know the boiling points of the desired fluids (ethanol + various flavors), you can mix the ethanol with the desired flavors MUCH more accurately if you fractionate, which all but requires reflux.

>>13113179
I get what your saying, and it makes sense mostly, everything I've read though says reflux generally loses more of the mash/wash flavor than a pot still. Which can be a good thing obviously for some spirits.

Even from what I've read a detuned reflux running as a pot still doesn't produce the same flavors.
Going at ask to be spoon fed, can you point me towards some reading about what your describing? It makes me want to do a reflux more than I thought.

>>13113102
>this is far from the truth.
after you get some experience,but at first you'll be making some nasty shit

>>13113220
duh. everything takes practise. it's not like it costs much to make a sugar wash.

>>13113211
that just isn't sound science, though. fractionation affords you the opportunity to discard flavors, but that's operator error not a flaw in the design.

i am describing distillation theory, which i learned in university.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_distillation is probably a decent starting point.

if you grasp the concept of fractionation, like really get the theory behind it, then I can go into more detail as to why it's pretty much only a good thing, and exactly how reflux affects distillation accuracy. from there, it's just a matter of understanding your end goal and mixing accordingly.

in very simple terms a pot still separates 1-10 into two groups, depending on the cut. for example you could end up with 1-5 and 6-10 as two separated mixtures.
a fractional distillation column can separate that group into integers: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 which will present themselves for take-off in order of increasing boiling point. instead of a ending your run with a boil pot of 6-10 and a product container fo 1-5, you end with separate containers of 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and a boil pot containing only 10 (or wherever you want to stop).

let's now say you're making a spirit that desires not only ethanol (which we'll pretend is 5) but also some heads and tails for flavor. you can take your separate containers of 2,3,5,7,9, mix them, and get the exact flavor profile you desire.

tl;dr you can make wildly more accurate mixtures with a fractionation column than a pot still, and the only downside is that it takes more effort to run and it gives you a little more room for error (but I would argue against that point desu).

>>13113236
me again

i probably undersold pot stills. but the reality is that the accuracy of your cuts is dramatically improved with fractionation.
yes you could make cuts at every new boiling point, but you can't be confident that you're ONLY taking off the material at that boiling point. at least not nearly with the same confidence of a fractionation column in equilibrium.

>>13113245
>>13113236
So I watch still it a lot and personally plan to follow his method of making very frequent cuts, he does every 500ml or so, then he mixes as desired afterwards.

I still don't quite follow how everyone says reflux generally removes a significant portion of the flavor, and pot stills allow more flavor to come through. It's all over the home distillers forums, it's what still manufacturers say, and similar. Everything I read says reflux is the absolute best for neutral spirits and bad for whiskeys, rum and similar.

And this might be from more hobby and basic reflux designs, but I've read that reflux can actually increase smearing.

>>13113280
>reflux generally removes a significant portion of the flavor
if and only if you don't understand the boiling point of your desired flavor bodies.

>>13113098
this is so sick

Yup.

>>13113327

People don't understand Foreshots, Heads, Hearts and Tails. Or blending.

>>13113407

That's how you monitor temperature in your vapour path.

>>13112174

My Liebig is criminally small and still works because I used 2 different coppers. Normal plumbing copper and heavily annealed cooling coil copper I crimped with a pair of pliers so the outflow would 'bounce around on the cooling copper.

>>13113098

2 Inch forces the vapour up very fast. 3 inch is the least small system I'd ever use, 4 inch is better for energy retention and just faster extraction.

Sorry, I keep forgetting this is just a board for amateur inquiries, keep building those stovetop copper abortions.

>>13113459
if you can afford a 4 inch shell-in-tube, just go professional already holy shit.
i made my entire kit for $30 not counting valves and fittings.
>>13113349
thanks! it works beautifully
>>13113412
and that's ok, so long as they don't spread misinformation about fractionation

>>13112174
>>13113098
>>13113407
>>13113441
>>13113459
>>13113560

>>13111464
friendly reminder that in murkastronk, distillation for human consumption without a licence is illegal, so keep it on the dl

>>13113412
I understand the different cuts, I don't understand why anon is saying something contradictory to everything I've read, from everywhere.

>>13113570
i live in the deep backwoods of tennessee, and don't sell a drop. the ATF can get fucked.

>>13113560

brass fittings give me worms. I use one and I coated it in silver solder. Looks solid. Can you produce azeotropic?

>>13113577
You still need federal permission even if for personal use, regardless of quantity. You might think the BATFE doesn't care, but if those fuckers get bored enough they'll go after a person whose gun fired twice one time thanks to a malfunction.

>>13113577
Manufacture is illegal. Your dog is getting shot, anon. Sorry.

>>13113560

BTW, Drain Waste Vent copper is significantly cheaper from plumbing copper and its all thats needed at 1 atmosphere of pressure. I bought 12 feet of it for 100 bucks. That allowed me to make so manything for my still.

So if you guys want to make 'artisan' vodka or whatever shit you want, you need to make a still that is equal to your heat source. I head my still with 2600watts and I have a still head that can 'knock down' 2600kW of alcohol vapour. That's your starting point.

>>13113573
alright listen. i'm not making anything up. distillation is the process of using heat to separate a mixture into its constituent components based on increasing boiling point.

ethanol boils at 78.4C (and water at 100). you apply heat to the boiling pot and molecules rise from that pot as vapor as soon as (or a teeny bit before) the pot's contents hit their boiling point. for example, at 78C ethanol starts rising from that pot, but water doesn't. make sense?

let's pretend you have a mixture of ethanol, water, isopropyl, and methanol. and let's further say you want nothing but ethanol. if you run a pot still, you apply heat to the bottom and cooling to the top, and what comes out comes out. you discard the first 10% and the last 25% of your product and call it a day. your product will be primarily ethanol, but it will have some small amount of isopropyl in it too and probably ppm level of methanol and water.

in a taller column without reflux, the necessary energy to keep fluids in liquid form increases the further up you move along a column. so if your boiling pot is at 68C, your column with be a gradient of temperatures all the way down to whatever your condenser is cooling at (say 20C). at some point, you will have methanol vapors above and non-methanol vapors below. if you keep adding heat in you boiling pot, that point on your column will rise, as your boiling pot gets hotter but your condenser only is able to remove so much heat. your product takeoff now is overflowing with methanol and trace amounts of ethanol. adding more heat in your boil pot only increases the rate of methanol (and trace ethanol) boiling off at this point, and you will achieve steady state (with the methanol molecules absorbing all the heat and changing states) until all of the methanol is boiled out. the top of your column will then jump from 65C and start rising, repeating the previous process until you are taking off pure [sic] ethanol. This is what a fractionation column does

>>13113633

This is a fractionating column that is stuffed with mouse copper mesh. That acts as the columnation. It slowly separates all the distillates like they do when producing gasoline from oil.

>>13113638

there it is.

>>13113638
a fractionation column with reflux does the same thing, but better. because instead of your product take off pipe being full of whatever the first molecules were to jump out of the boil pot and make it through your column, it now sends everything from your condenser back into the column as liquid. that liquid splashes on the packed media (stainless pot scrubbers in my case, bubble plates in many commercial applications) and mixes with the boiling up vapors from the boil pot. this interaction knocks back down heavier materials and keeps the lower boiling point molecules in vapor form, further purifying the vapor space of the top of your column. with time, heat, and sufficient cooling, your column achieves steady state (without taking any product out of the system yet) and is truly a fractionated spectrum of ever-decreasing boiling point materials up and up the column.
you measure the temperature at the very top of the column, and know with utter certainty that when you open your product valve you are extracting almost 100% pure material with a boiling point exactly equal to the measured temperature. in our example, pretend isopropyl is the flavor you want to add (hint: it isn't) to the ethanol. you simply mix together the product take-off streams from when the temp reading was 78C (ethanol) and 83C (isopropyl) and you have the exact additive with no complicating molecules.

this is the beauty of reflux. and anyone telling you that you "lose" something because of this design simply does not understand the nature of their end product.
>>13113586
nearly, yes. the purest I've achieved is 94.8%

>>13113638

Reflux is slow and expensive if you're doing it with electrical heating. I can make vodka that tastes like mild vanilla and it's 93% but it's just a pain the ass.

>>13113573
>>13113638
>>13113670
to be clear, this was a two part response because I ran out of room

>>13113674

Really glad you piped up. I was the only asshole around here trying to tell people. Your information is invaluable.

>>13113673
that's fair. no one ever claimed fractionating columns were cheaper to produce or operate than pot stills.

if your entire goal is extracting ethanol from a mixture with no regard to purity, then by all means don't waste your time or energy fractionating.

>>13113684
ayyyy finally my chemE degree helping someone besides by overlord execs!

>>13113685

I respect both. If you can't take some ethyl acetate in your diet then, by all means.

>>13113685

This is what my piss smells like..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwOL-mhLCWE

>>13113693
>I respect both.
I totally get that, there's a time and place for super simple low tech strip runs (like wine extraction and the like) but there's no reason to pretend an RFC can't do everything a pot still does and more.
you wouldn't road trip on a lawn mower when a 65 Shelby was yours for the taking, would you?

Regarless of my kidneys. This is how the flavours of booze develop.

>>13113638
>>13113670
I appreciate the explanation, but I already understood how fractionating distillation works. Everything I read though says that it strips away too much of the flavor, aka produces 'too pure' of a product.

I follow the idea that distillation doesn't produce anything new it only separates them.

Actually I follow it all now after reading your second post. I guess the issue is that most people would struggle to re blend their cuts to produce something similar to what happens on a pot still. From my understanding it seems those flavors will end up more 'compressed' into the heads/tails and to reblend them in (if desired) would take many tiny cuts to pick the flavors.

How do you personally go about re-blending to produce desired flavors rather than just a high abv almost flavorless spirit? Or do you typically go for neutrals anyway? Again I really appreciate the explanation. It makes me want to do a reflux over a pot, which I was pretty set on previously.
>>13113690
I'm just a EE major so all I know for sure is how to set up some heating elements and controllers.

>>13113724

That's basically what I do, I strip low wines from Birdwatchers and it's the least poisonous of a double distilling. I treat my still like a coffee pot that takes 3 hours to make 3 handles of booze.

>>13113730
What's the leaf that shows up like a dozen times?

>>13113731

I use a triac controller on a 2600watt element on a 9 gallon recepticle that takes 1.25 hours to reach boiling, 1.75 hours to finish at 95 degrees/c

>>13113741

mint?

>>13113731
>it strips away too much
again, if **and only if** your understanding of your end goals is lacking.

>most people would struggle to re blend their cuts to produce something similar to what happens on a pot still
do you want to know a secret? if you run an RFC with a greater heat input than removal (increase your boiler gas or reduce your cooling water flow), and slam your product valve wide open, you magically just created a pot still.

people struggle because their quantity of product cuts exceeds their knowledge of product composition.

if you don't know what to do with the mason jar of material that was ripped at exactly 81.4C, then an RFC isn't for you. just run a pot still, pitch the first 10% and the last 25% and control your flavors in your fermenter just like your great grandpappy did.

>I'm just a EE major
yo dawg mad respect for EE. I could have never done that.

>>13113752
The one with multiple leaves (next to the star anise) looks a lot more like mint.

>>13113731

My Jackson crossflow is my magic bullet. It knocks down 3kW of product at the drop of a hat.

>>13113754
>respect for EE
Ha I've always heard ChemE was harder. EE is just a bunch of differential equations, something I'm guessing your plenty familiar with. That and some programming, which is my minor and personally something I like more than the rest of the stuff.

I've got a lot more reading to do, not that I planned on getting anything soon. What's kind of confused me too slightly is the storage of the spirits. People say Mason jars but they have plastic in the seals, and some cut PTFE liners for the jars, it just seems a little impractical. Any better recommendations?
I've also heard people recommend used liquor bottles, but some of those also have mystery plastics in the lids.

Again I really appreciate the help Chem anon.

>>13113808

For christ sake, below azeotropic, what do you use? Then you use LDPE. Cmon man.

>>13113808
as long as you don't overfill or jostle the mason jars, submerging the rubber liners, they will work fine.
swing top brewing bottles would work too, as would wine bottles with a cork. again, just don't submerge any volatile components in the liquor and leeching will be negligible.

>>13113837

Yeah this asshole wants you to fear teflon, PTFE, No one fears teflon or even the rubber used in canning.

>>13113808

You realize you get more BPE from Coke than any other shit you drink?

>>13113850
I don't drink coke.
>>13113834
I've almost exclusively have been reading on the home distiller and they are pretty hard core anti plastic anything, hdpe for fermenting, but after that they say glass, stainless, copper, wood and hdpe (some say don't even use this after distillation). I've never distilled or fermented anything yet so I'm trying to soak up as much info as possible before I start doing anything. I don't think I'll be leaving anything at >60% abv.
>>13113843
Home distiller forum seems to be pretty terrified of almost all plastics for anything.

>>13113877

That's why you dillute your low wines to 50% or lower. What are you making? I've always been a glass enthusiast but I don't know what you're storing.

>>13111464
I only brew beer; ales specifically. Every summer I think about making lager but decide "eh, fuck it".

I tried jacking a cider once and it was gross.

What are the dangers you guys know of? Of course there is methanol. I think I was watching something about making spirits and they said infections can be dangerous which i don't understand. Maybe I'm misremembering and it was something to do with yeast.

Funny story like others mentioned here I don't use an airlock but how I actually ruined up my current batch is I poured ~2cups of juice out of the bottle and neglected it at room temp for ~a day so it smells slightly rotten. I poured a double IPA in because i don't have hops. I put it in the fridge but that possibly could leave sugar for bacteria. I think rotten food is dangerous mostly because toxins from fungi.

>>13113988
>methanol
Only a danger if you distill and don't know what you're doing.

>funny story
you sound like a crazy person

>>13113927
Nothing yet, but to start I'd be just doing neutral spirits until I get the hang of distillation. Probably make a good portion of that into gin, around 50%abv. When I get the hang of it I'll like to do whiskey-esque spirits. One that looks particularly interesting is UJSSM, and it'd be nice to store that and others around 'cask strength' probably 60%ish for aging. Ngl if it's feasible and can be done safely I'd like to store higher for space reasons, but I have concerns about the flammability and potential leeching if plastics are used. Seems that there are some decent risks with both.
The current thought is to go for a 15.5 gallon keg boiler, and I know I don't have to top it off, but some basic maths leads me to believe it's reasonable to expect about 1.5 proof gallons of drinkable spirits (maybe an under estimate?) and a proof gallon of undrinkable spirits (probably an over estimate), I'd like to leave the foreshots and maybe even some of the heads at a very high abv for camp stove fuel, but obviously it doesn't matter if there's leeching then.

>>13113988
Methanol isn't really that dangerous, assuming your not distilling a shit load of mash/wash, and throwing out your foreshots. From what I've read in most personal size stills even drinking the foreshots won't do much past a severe hangover. Most of the stories of poisonings are from denatured alcohol. Don't take this as advice and drink the foreshots, that's stupid.

>>13113988
>What are the dangers
pretty much the biggest dangers are heat. honestly, burning yourself on hot product, or not condensing all of your boilups in a confined space leading to an explosion is your biggest danger.
it's 2019, you're not going to methylate yourself to blindness anymore and you're probably not dealing with lead and asbestos. as such your biggest dangers are in the act of distillation itself.
>>13113877
>they are pretty hard core anti plastic anything
yeah they're pretty intense. but plastic won't hut your product through the air. limit contact to leechable materials and you'll be fine.
>before I start doing anything
desu just do it. you'll learn more on your first run when it tastes like ass than you ever will reading about it on the internet.
>>13114004
>potential leeching if plastics are used
yeah your concerns are valid at higher concentrations. generally speaking you want to distill -> dilute -> carbon filter -> store
>even drinking the foreshots won't do much past a severe hangover
generally true today. but yeah don't be stupid, watch your thermometer (you are using a thermometer right?) and pitch the initials.

>>13113991
I'm not crazy I'm an alcoholic. It is funny because I have a good collection brewing equipment with two siphon pumps I bought just to try out. But prison hooch is actually good from what I here. I even like the idea of using a condom which is sterile or balloon because you can very fucking clearly see how much alcohol is inside with zero hassle.

>>13111464
I bought one of these about 4 years ago. After about three years I had to limit myself to drinking no more than 3 days a week because I turned into an alcohol.

why is it illegal to do personal home distilling?

>>13115092

When sugar costs 1 buck a kg it's hard not to become an Alcohol.

>>13115202
Because the government wants its cut

>>13111902
Brewers can be extra rustic and this is for basically moonshine soo... Probably ice fishing.

>>13111902

It's a shit fake pot still welded or triclamped onto an aluminum(bad form) keg. It'll make you 65% garbage stripping runs.

>>13115245

BTW, this is the interior of my liebig. It's short and small and works perfectly. It ends up as a waterfall and cools very efficiently.

I've done a bit but it was ages back, was strong enough it smelled like it was eating through the lid
left it sitting for a few years and accidentally stumbled on it again and it smelled fantastic

this was made mostly out of sugar badly freezer burnt frozen fruit my buddy had, and the rig we used was, not the greatest, took a good 18 hours to do the carboy and we sealed any gaps with a simple flour/water dense but sticky dough which worked great but baked on and was a bitch to get off the brushed metal

I don't really feel the need to go back and do it all again better, it was a fun experience but unless you plan to sell it or just drink an absolute shit tonne it's honestly a waste of time doing it more than a couple times.
knowing how to do it properly was a valuable experience, but we basically ended up using the heads and tails as rocket fuel since they were even worse than the hearts smelled


>>13113988
people doing the 'spoon flame test'
knew a guy who lit the spoon, didnt see a flame, went 'aw shucks guess its too much water' and dumped the spoonful back into his pot
he came back and the whole pot was gone, you can't see the flame easily in bright lighting
the fucking dumbass

PSA: If you distill, do your math right and use indicators to pour off the vast majority of deadly methanol and leave you with drinkable ethanol. Sure, regular fermentation makes methanol too, but its diluted by the whole batch of something not meant to be the proof of liquor. But the first 2-3 mason jars tapped are literally part gasoline.

>>13115250

Asshole, you don't make methanol unless you use fruit. Pectinase is the only thing that makes methanol. Jesus Christ, shut you stupid mouths if you don't know the chemistry. On a 9 gallon run I toss the first 150ml because I don't like drinking acetone. No fucking METHANOL. God. It's like talking to sawdust here. You're more likely to die from lead poisoning from a still than methanol.

Oh, and code, that stupid flame colour test is a myth like the sasquatch. You people really know nothing about distilling, do you?

>>13115250

Do you drink wine? You're drinking more methanol than anything you see in any form of distilled alcohol. Smarten up.

>>13115257
It's not really a myth just pointless
but people thinking thats what you do is whats dangerous
>yup theres alcohol!!
>why is everything on fire

>>13115263

Ethanol burns the same as methanol, it's a myth. The only time you see alcohol burning is the pollutants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zpLOn-KJSE

>>13115257

>>13115271
oh thats what you meant
Nah I was talking about people trying to figure out the proof by the colour of the flame, not if there is methanol in it

you can tell only a little bit about dilution from it, like whether its 35 or 70 but christ you should be able to smell the difference anyways

>>13115280

I'm trying to teach you to not be a moron. How do you not see that? This place is just random fuck ups pissing in the corner of your house.

>>13115283

The smell is always different because people use "Turbo Yeast" which lives to 18% or so. They're the assholes that make rotgut. Here's my recipe handed down by the great birdwatcher, who I think was a Torontonian.

115L of water
30Kg Sugar
1326ml tomato paste (8.5cans)
5tsp Citric Acid
380g Yeast
1 tsp Epsom salt
2 campden tablets in water

>>13113988
Does anyone know what I'm really talking about?

I didn't quit downplay my fear of methanol in this post. I have a concern for different fusal oils but thats because i brew warm and my liver is taxed/i don't do hangovers. I even have shit in my fridge i brewed at 100f not knowing the danger.

>>13115291

That's the perfect recipe. It finishes at SG 0.990 @ 12.99 % and floculates normally. Floculation is the yeast falling out of susupension when it dies.

>>13115286
i reitterate

>>13115294

Pick your iso, butyl, pentols then bro. EIther use real Sodium carbonate on your low wines or bicarbonate and wait.

>>13115298

Everyone who uses cartoons is smrat.

>>13115294
Oh i am interested in distilling a bunch of shit i made and dont like or think is dangerous. I'm pretty good at chemistry and i would get a little glass distiller.

>>13115311

no no no no no. Get a 3 or 4 inch column. Use Silver solder to make it. It'll cost you about 600 bucks and you'll make 1 dollar a handle booze the rest of your life.

>>13115291
wait why the tomato paste
does it help suspend the sugar and yeast for better distribution instead of all settling?
or is it almost being used like a fining agent? the inclusion seems very odd to me but like I said we just threw a bunch of random shit into a carboy, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, couple bananas, bunch of yeast and who knows how much sugar

looking it up tomato paste wash is pretty common but nobody seems to list why tomato paste is used
is it an enzyme thing?

>>13115318

Jesus Christ, the tomato paste is the food for the yeast. Did you not pass organic chemistry in highschool?

>>13115327
I know the yeast would eat it but why not just use more sugar
the acidity of tomatoes in my mind wouldn't benefit the growth of yeast at all unless there was something else at play

>>13115316
Is that just the cost of copper? Lol wtf. Yeah i should quit drinking but I dont.

>>13115329

You can't create molecules in a vacuum.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae needs other shit.

>>13115329

Can you eat just rice and live? You can for a time, but eventually you die from vitamin deficiencies. That's the roadmap. That's the reason for the campden tablets normalizing the chlorine from the tap. You need to balance everything so the yeast can have a shit fit. Oh and we havent even talked about temperature.

Perfect temp is 34. I have a wrap for my vat to keep it at 30 to 35.

>>13115307
>I am invulnable to criticism because I can gaslight

>>13115345

Just bow out. No one here is listening to your kidstuff. Jesus you're 13 right? Men are talking.

>>13115334
>>13115344
okay so it is basically just for the more varied nutrients the yeast needs

and that would mean the tomato paste is used just because it's cheaper than a old few bananas or something then? same thing for the citric acid and salt I take it?
we never used salt but had plenty of citric acid from the fruits probably, I still don't remember quite all what went into it we probably had an orange

>>13115355

Yeah you wouldn't need the citric acid if you had citric acid. The point being is you need to make the yeast happy and comfortable until it dies.

That's called yeast attenuation. I'm sure some beer dipshits around here learned that back in beer school. You need to let bakers yeast die happy so the entire batch doesn't taste like you raped a Polish village.

>>13115364

Sorry I'm trying to get ready for bed and you dipshits are like swatting wasps. Any more fucking stupid questions?

>>13111504
I want to make janky hooch. Is there a /ck/ guide

>>13113161
except you flat out lie
like everything you daid was a lie from price to quality
and its as difficult of a hobby as baking aka easy as fuck if you arent retarded

>>13115352
pretending am not child
claim no one cares
call other guy a child
they'll never know

>>13115364
What are the chemicals responsible for this raped polish village essence

>>13111464
I made cheapass honey wine. It was pretty good considering it cost me maybe 12$ for all costs including tools

>>13115390

The germans that left fallen potatoes for the raped teenagers. That's where Perogies came from.

>>13115396

yeah, because you know that honey has a natural anti bacterial that kills yeast, right? You in the know?

>>13111504
I will instruct you, young one.
>Have 1 gallon or larger liquid container
>Sanitize thoroughly, use a real commercial sanitizer, they're very cheap off Amazon
>Boil like a pound of fruit product
>Combine 1/4 th random fruit product (mashed, juice, canned), 1/4th sugar, 1/2 water in your container by ratio
>Add a half packet of wine or champagne yeast
>Put some sort of airlock on your container (you can literally use a balloon with a home poked in it or just spend 3 fucking dollars to get a real one)
>Wait 4 weeks
>Pour your shit through a filter into another container
>Wait one week
>Pour your shit into bottles or whatever they'll be served from (I like empty handles of vodka)
>Wait one week
Congrats, you should have fairly clear and almost decent hooch at almost 20% ABV for very little monetary cost.
However, the time investment is big from the start so you might as well put in a bit more time to make something good.

>>13115410
Don't use raw honey tard

>>13115412
the fuck?

>>13115427

Or don't piss honey down your leg at all like a fucking amateur. Who needs to denature honey? Go back to molasses like your cromagnon idiot people.

>>13115432
I'm not mad and am cromagnon master race but litterally what are you saying my dude. Molasses is for rum. That's far from a cromagnon thing lol

>>13115431
right!?

>>13115449

I'm not saying much. I'm saying that honey kills yeast and molassass doesn't. I'm very tired and bored now.

>>13115483
Nah your drunk. I misread that actually... because I'm drunk... and high

>>13115431
>>13115460
How did these simple instructions confuse you

>>13115507

What fucking asshole waits 4 weeks for a 5 day process?

>>13115514
If you want to cut it short and have a yeasty, thick, shitty hooch, be my guest
Or you can be smart and have 5 milk jugs on rotation so you have a gallon+ of hooch every week that has been clarified and aged

at first i was thinking about making brandy and more flavorful liquors
but now i think i just want to make the purest neutral spirit money can buy
something that wont give me a hangover unless im retarded

what equipment should i buy on a 1-2k budget

and what would be the best mash for this

>>13115524

you honestly don't know a goddamn thing. You give the yeast what it wants and it generates it own heat. You keep that below 35 degrees so it doesn't create massive fusiles.

I know you don't know shit. but the recipe is the recipe.

Here you go, gumbee. https://shuggo.com/birdwatchers/

>>13115524

What asshole uses 'jugs'? Go somewhere else.

>>13115202
Theoretically, it's because people don't know what they're doing and end up drinking dangerous amounts of methanol or blowing up their stills. In practice, it's more about >>13115219

>>13115620
I'll defend jugs supposing he likes to exeriment and refine flavor

i made cherry wine, turned out pretty bad.
i made apple cider, turned out alright, the side version i made with vanilla and cinnamon turned out pretty good.
i made "glögg" (think mulled wine but made from a base of kvass/"small beer" and then spiced and further brewed, i think mines at about 14-15%) it's got a kick to it but it's actually in my opinion better than most versions that you can buy commercially.

if i want a pure neutral spirit would triple distilling with a reflux be a good idea

>>13115623
I think it's partially the gov wants its cut but more of fear mongering as methanol isn't the scary thing people make it out to be. It's a poison but there isn't much in home distilled products.
>>13115245
Kegs are stainless, even the non polished ones.

>>13115857
glogg is a fun name

>>13115898
Can you get a column still instead for triple distilling?

>>13115839

When every other asshole has already done it before him. Build on what was created. Don't play like a kid in a sandbox that knows fuck all. Give us whiskys and gins(you require a addon to your still for that) and rums(you reqiure a batshit pond if you don't know what dunder is) and make something MORE. Stop pissing about with the beginnings of stilling.

>>13116701

You can't talk to these people, they don't do it. Or they use gramma's still to make grappa.

what's everyone favorite source of yeast?
especially people with good healthy looking recipes like >>13115291

>>13116979

SAF, every day of the week. I used to use Red Star, SAF is king.

>>13116979

It's 4 bucks, sugar is 15 bucks, tomato paste is 4 bucks. Figure out the yield from 135 Liters at 13%.

>>13116995
i think you replied to the wrong person

>>13117001

You didn't want to know ingredients?

>>13117015
not really, I was more interested in specific sources of yeast

>>13117027

And I gave you that immediately you fucking autistic screw up. Jesus Christ, are you all so stupid and militant here? Maybe learn to 'go with the flow' so you don't sound like a dumb asshole.

>>13117048
so you and >>13116989
are the same person?
cool thanks for clearing that up in the most polite way possible. i look forward to further discourse.

>>13117069

Roger that.

>>13116701
you could but thats not the point

>>13115412
dick stuck in container :(
anon please be more specific

>>13115203
That image is beautiful. Do have more build pics?

>>13116989
Baker's yeast is the go-to for a lot of people. I've tried a bunch of turbo yeasts, and they pretty much all produce awful tastes. If you have a good reflux setup, this might not be an issue. LIQUOR QUIK SuperYeast X-Press w/AG is handy due to the enzyme, and it's not quite as bad as the others. Still Spirits Classic 8 is alright if you absolutely need to ferment the most sugar possible in the shortest time.

Has anyone tried any White Star yeasts? I've only tried American Rum, and I rather like it. It's very quick and doesn't produce many off-flavors.

>>13118131
Meant for
>>13116979

>>13117864

Aborted Coldfinger. Good idea, bad copper.

>>13117864

This is the Sony Guts of a boka still. One plate sends distillate to the extraction plate. The extration plate is controlled by the needle valve to draw off concentrate. The rest is returned to the column.

>decide I'm going to go into moonshine production when I was like 16 because it seems to be a lucrative business
>download all sorts of books on the science of brewing and distilling
>design a still based on a bunch of theory books and distill apparatus designs
>never actually do anything because I never found a place to do my brewing and distilling
I'll be a moonshine kingpin one day mark my words (a liter of shine goes for like $30 bucks in my country because store bought alcohol is so expensive)

>>13118131

I've used Red Star and SAF. Every other bakers yeast is garbage. Or maybe not if I haven't tried it. E1811 or whatever that shit wine yeast is is expensive and pointless. Never use turbo. You won't get a good product even using tight cuts in a very expensive second distilling.

>>13118211

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMEq1mGpP5A

>>13113570
This post shot my dog.

>>13118252
Agree on the wine yeast. I experimented with EC-1118 and K1V-1116, and the results were always unsatisfactory. I feel that turbo has its place, but I wouldn't defend it if you feel that that place is the trash.

>>13118416

If you like ethyl acetate and every single fusile on the planet, use turbo. It tastes like "burning" as ralf wiggum said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE5mlNCRe9A

I actually started my first batch of wine today using some Concord grapes from my dad's farm. Should yield around 5 gallons. It's my first time brewing wine, and only my second time brewing overall, so I hope it turns out well.

I used 30lbs of grapes, stems and sticks removed, crushed. 6.5lbs of granulated sugar, 3tsp of yeast nutrient, 5 tsp of pectic enzyme, and about 2.5 gallons of water on top. Juiced the grapes, added 2 gallons of hot water to the juice, then added sugar looking for about a 1.08ish initial gravity, but actually wound up at around 1.095 due to being in a rush since juicing the grapes took longer than expected. I'm adding the yeast tomorrow; the campden tablets need 24 hours to work.

Concords aren't meant for wine, and it sounds like the skins give it a flavor that some don't like. I'm going to try a batch next year with more juice and less grape parts, and compare the two. I only was able to bring a small amount of grapes home with me this year so that limited my ability to extract more juice. I followed this recipe, mostly, that calls for 50lbs of grapes.

https://www.baderbrewing.com/content/how-make-wine-concord-table-grapes

>>13119034
I got really fucking messy making this today too. The pressure from multiple grapes popping in the press simultaneously blew the sides out of the mesh bag and sent shards of grapes flying out the side of the press. So I wound up just pressing it by hand in the bag.. took a while.

Press worked well in the beginning at least.

>>13118416

Turbo is shit, but ec 1118 is good wine yeast. Regardless, it's not the yeast, it's how you treat the yeast. You make it happy, it'll make you happy. 34 degrees until it attenuates out to 21c Is a "rush job" that works, for booze. Anything hotter is terrible for bakers yeast.

>>13119034
>>13119068
Ok, so the unconventional brewing method is because of Concord grape being too acidic, not sweet enought and having a "foxy" skin. At first I thought I was reading the story of a screw up.

Made my own rum, accidentally blended some heads with hearts and it has a very strong bite to it. How long should I let it air out for it to get better?

>>13120837

If you can get sodium carbonate, add a small amount of that. Or sodium bicarb, baking soda and let it sit longer. Single carb works a lot faster.

>>13111464
Yes, I brew beer for a living, and homebrew for fun.

For work I mostly make real ale because that's whats popular where I'm based. For fun I make the usual craft stuff

>>13120837
couldn't you just slowly run it through again and adjust cuts

>>13121107
I could but I am a lazy fuck, plus I've already nuke aged it, hoping it would reduce heads. I'll chuck it back in next spirit run if it doesn't smooth out.

>>13121134
good idea

>>13120818
Yup. I’ve tread a couple different recipes and they all vary pretty greatly. One recommends removing the skins before the first day, the rest say it’s fine to leave them in during primary fermentation. Mines been in the bucket with campden tablets about 18 hours now, I don’t know if I want to pull out the skins or not before adding the yeast.

>>13111464

From late-July to mid-August in the Southern US the "Mustang Grape" blooms out all across the countryside, mostly in vines along fence lines and pasture edges. It tastes like shit (EXTREMELY sour and bitter) and causes acid burns on hands so literal tons of grapes just hangs off the vines and rot once the limited growing season ends.

However my dad discovered years ago that you can make wine out of it. We mash them with a 2x4, leave them out in 5 gallon food-safe buckets outside for a couple days to ferment from the open air/grape hull, then strain off the juice into a big carboy with an airlock, add a fuckton of sugar (20 lb per 25 gallons) and some distilled water and wait 3 - 4 months. Then we finally bottle them into individual bottles, just in time for Christmas.

The resulting wine is sweet, with a strong tangy aftertaste, and lots of carbonation; almost like an energy drink or coke than an "actual" wine. Its also stupidly high proof (probably because it ferments outside in +100 F temperatures and the carboy at 80 F inside the house), we've been able to get up to 20% ABV in some batches but average around 16%. Its extremely easy to get completely wasted on it.

I highly recommend it to any anons in the South. You can find alot of vines growing in the shoulder of country roads or by railway lines, and nobody cares if you pull over and pick them. They are considered weeds for the most part.

>>13122220
What yeast?

>>13113955
Like just freeze jacking? What made it gross? Did you try heating it to 150ish?

>>13122220
>ferments for 4 months
>still has enough residual sugar to carbonate inside of bottle
What

Wine has sat for 24 hours with campden tablets, just removed the grape mash and added the yeast. 1.095ish gravity, so looking at potential of 12.7% alcohol.

I’m the Concord grape wine guy, I removed the skins now to try and prevent the “foxy” flavor from being overpowering.

>>13122800
is that why the dogs helping
is he there to chase off the foxes

>>13122740

I'm freeze jacking right now. Fuck it's cold up here and my penis is blue.. purple, bluish purple.

>>13124067
No, she is trying to drink my grape juice. Stupid dog has already cost me a grand at the emergency vet for eating grapes.
Fucking grapes.

does triple distilled just mean its gone through three stripping runs
or are they all treated like a spirit run with proper cuts

im looking for something to brew/flavor specifically for dropping in beer
would a lime orange neutral spirit be good

>>13122784
Also seems to think he's getting 20% from yeast.

>>13124615
I'm betting its just stripping runs, if they even run it as separate runs.

I'm wondering if they can get away with using bubble plates and similar.

>>13111464
I'm making my first mead. Starting with the classic Ancient Orange recipe since it's almost impossible to fuck up.

If it turns out great, I'm gonna start experimenting with other fruits and have multiple batches going at once.

Anybody else hear have experience with mead?

>>13111464
I ferment food and beverages. And I am a cellar Assistant at a winery. I really want to get in to home distilling.

>>13125901
Think you might try freeze distillation?

>>13111464
People who do this for a living are the biggest fags in the world, I work at a hard cider brewery and making it is legitimately set and forget but other brewers act like it’s some form of art. You could teach a monkey how to ferment in a week.

>>13129256
From what I understand, it's more of yes its easy to brew, it's harder to come up with new flavors/combinations that people actually want.

Slightly offtopic but what goes well with port? Missus cracked open an ancient LBV (that should probably be vinegar by now but miraculously survived) to make a fucking christmas cake for her friend's get together and I'd feel guilty just chugging or chucking it, but I've read online that LBV doesn't keep longer than a week once opened. What do? Cook with it? Impromptu posh dinner night? Can I freeze it or something without destroying the flavour?