Homebrew / Moonshine - Sink vodka appreciation

[Fire Flight]

Kiwifarms has a thread on how to make troonshine wtf

 

[Ass to Ass]

It takes some balancing of acid, tannin, and sugars to get a mead/wine to impress anyone. How hard is it to make something appetizing with grains?

I've made wine with store-bought grape juice and Red Star Premier Cuvee that people in my neighborhood desperately want more of. I actually trade with a dude to get stuff like liquor and ammunition all the time.

 

[Civillian 18]

Sugar wine has been sitting nicely for just over 3 weeks now, pale yellow color with all the yeast settled out to the bottom, small columns of bubbles still rising and slow (30 seconds~) between bubbles through the airlock. Going to patiently wait until all that yeast has finished up, hoping that as I kept it a relatively cool temperature throughout it has not ended up tasting like complete ass. I will pray for tasteless but settle for overly sweet I guess.

 

[Fastest Hand In The East]

We have several grape vine's at our family summer house- we live in the area where actual winter with cold temperature and snow is a thing- but if you take a little time and bother to cover vines for winter under a tarp or other dense fabric- it will live just fine.
Anyway- couple of years ago I've made wine from the grapes and I must say it's not as complicated as they make it out to be. If you have access to naturally grown grapes- give it a try, I've never tasted a better wine, but then again- I've never tasted very expensive wines because I don't care. You'll be surprised how thick the liquid is compared to the bottled wine.

 

[VeteranOfTheRetardWars]

I bottled and gave out my raspberry-strawberry melomel to friends and family, it received great reviews. Like, 'holy shit this is actually really good'.
It was 10%, nice and dry and smooth with a lot of that berry flavor. The raspberry flavor was particularly good, the aftertaste was just like fresh raspberry.
I had a coupon for cranberry and apple juices, so I'm now brewing a few gallons of cranberry-raspberry-apple cider for a grand total of like ten bucks. According to wizard math, I expect it to get to around 5%. I like cranberry, so hopefully it goes well.

 

[nuno bo2no]

I bottled and gave out my raspberry-strawberry melomel to friends and family, it received great reviews. Like, 'holy shit this is actually really good'.
It was 10%, nice and dry and smooth with a lot of that berry flavor. The raspberry flavor was particularly good, the aftertaste was just like fresh raspberry.
I had a coupon for cranberry and apple juices, so I'm now brewing a few gallons of cranberry-raspberry-apple cider for a grand total of like ten bucks. According to wizard math, I expect it to get to around 5%. I like cranberry, so hopefully it goes well.

I really thought I would like the fruit meads but I just like the straight up sweet honey ones. I am not a fan of dry wine or pretty much any beer either so I guess it makes sense.

I would still like to try to make some sweet honey mead, someday. The one time I had it it had been back sweetened and I really liked it. I have had more dry plain honey mead and don’t like it as well.

I am going to try it out one of these days! Is there an ambient temperature that is ideal? My house is at around 50 F in the winter and 60 to 75F in the summer.

I do have the recommended mead “bible” around somewhere lol.

 

[VeteranOfTheRetardWars]

My three gallons of cranberry cider came out at 5.5%, and the taste test after ten days is actually ok. It tastes like a cranberry cocktail cider, actually has some sweetness as I put in a half gallon of “less sugar” apple juice that had some type of stevia.
Actually really happy so far, it’s going to be real good.

 

[Troonos]

My three gallons of cranberry cider came out at 5.5%, and the taste test after ten days is actually ok. It tastes like a cranberry cocktail cider, actually has some sweetness as I put in a half gallon of “less sugar” apple juice that had some type of stevia.
Actually really happy so far, it’s going to be real good.

I'm in cranberry land right now too. Got a 14% cranberry mead going, and then I split some of that off and diluted it, so I have a second one that will come out at about 4.5% and get carbonated. They'll be backsweetened, but I also want them to be really tart, so I'll be heavily acid-balancing.

A strong, tart cranberry mead I had in Conroe, TX was one of the best things I've ever drank, so I'm trying to replicate that.

 

[VeteranOfTheRetardWars]

This cranberry-raspberry cocktail cider is actually really nice.
I literally had a coupon for cranberry juices, so I got two and a half gallons of cranberry-raspberry juice and half a gallon of apple juice with stevia for not even ten dollars. The cranberry, raspberry, and apple flavors really come through even though it’s less than two weeks old. I’m heading out for a few weeks, so I expect that after some time hanging out it’ll be even better but already it’s one of my favorite things I’ve brewed.
I also have a gallon of cranberry-cherry wine brewing. I needed to use the cherries from our tree that we froze and jarred so hopefully that turns out nice.

 

[Honored guest]

Just Racked my first basic bitch apple cider wine into a secondary for aging. Its very light and I imagine it'll be really nice to drink chilled, I'll very lightly back sweeten it before I bottle it. Considering that its my first, and it only cost me like 4 bucks in grocery store cider(no preservatives) and like a dollar in yeast/nutrient/tannin I'm very happy with it and I can't wait for my other batches of random wines to finish.

 

[code123]

anyone got any experience with the Vintners Best wine bases?


i was talking to some family at Christmas and they wanted me to try and brew them some wine, as a beer guy it looks like its going to take some new chemicals and sweeteners but looks to be pretty straightforward, and they are going to give me bottles, and front some of the cost for the corker and other stuff i need to get to get started.
this looked like a pretty cheep fruit wine base, just wanted to know if anyone here had something to say about it or another good place to start in in wines for cheep.

 

[Joe Shmoe]

Hi, any sake makers here? If so then how do you polish your rice, with a machine or is there some cheaper other method? I've been looking for a machine too but can't find anything that's not industrial-scale.

 

[GratsTheat783]

I mentioned trouble with sediment before and I found out the issue. I only used the siphoning stick after primary fermentation, not after secondary fermentation which apparently filters out a lot of the sediment. I tested it while doing a wine kit and noticed the 2 wine bottles which I didn't use the siphoning stick were full of sediment while those which I did had practically no sediment.

Once I've gotten through all my current homebrewed stuff (it's hard to get through since someone keeps buying me alcohol from the shop), I want to try and make alcohol using raw ingredients rather than using a kit. I've never had mead before, despite looking all over supermarkets for it so I might try and make that.

 

[Zhores Medvedev]

Hi, any sake makers here? If so then how do you polish your rice, with a machine or is there some cheaper other method? I've been looking for a machine too but can't find anything that's not industrial-scale.

A guy I know uses this one, Its good but the basket is known to dull. I personally just use sushi rice as that it already polished in the range of sake and dropping money on a miller that would not get that much use is not something I'm terribly interested in. But his sake is crazy good though, so maybe its worth the investment,.

 

[Troonos]

I mentioned trouble with sediment before and I found out the issue. I only used the siphoning stick after primary fermentation, not after secondary fermentation which apparently filters out a lot of the sediment. I tested it while doing a wine kit and noticed the 2 wine bottles which I didn't use the siphoning stick were full of sediment while those which I did had practically no sediment.

Once I've gotten through all my current homebrewed stuff (it's hard to get through since someone keeps buying me alcohol from the shop), I want to try and make alcohol using raw ingredients rather than using a kit. I've never had mead before, despite looking all over supermarkets for it so I might try and make that.

A siphon doesn't filter anything. The only thing keeping sediment from transferring is keeping the racking cane out of the lees until the very last second and stopping the flow before it reaches the secondary.

Best practice for dealing with sediment:

1) After primary fermentation finishes, give it an extra few weeks before racking to secondary. People think they should rack as soon as the SG stops moving, but this deprives the yeast of their final job which is to clean up their environment. Every brew I've made has cleared probably 80-90% to crystal clear by just leaving it in primary for an extra 2-4 weeks, THEN stabilizing (without stirring) and racking.

2) It may look clear in secondary, but there's a massive amount of microscopic particulate still suspended throughout. Bottling now means this invisible fluff will form a thin layer of white that'll make it cloudy when you pour. Whether or not you're adding flavorants or backsweetening to secondary, give it another 1-18 months for the tiny lees to floculate and compact before bottling.

3) Only after this period that you decided to let it sit, should you resort to fining agents (preferably DualFine) to clear any stubborn debris, then rack after that's had a couple of days to work.

Of course, all of this is irrelevant if you're commercial and wealthy enough to have a closed filtration system.

I'd be happy to help you design a mead recipe if you want to try and make it without a kit.

 

[Civillian 18]

First batch has been comfortably sitting in the fridge, having portions taken off for just over a month now. It came out a solid 5/10. Almost the entirety of that rating is based on the fact it came out drinkable at all, and actually has an alcoholic content. It was a pure dextrose ferment (wash? brew?) but honestly it was a fun learning experience. Drinking it with tonic water and a bit of bitters puts it at a solid 7/10 though. Otherwise, a pretty apparent taste of 'fermented' which I would obviously like to avoid.
Currently have a pure raw/brown sugar batch on, I did pull a bit off the top to check SG, currently the yeast/fermentation activity has slowed all the way down, slow singular columns of bubbles and a nice yellow color to itself, still 'cloudy' or at least I cannot see entirely through it.
Am I being retarded by wanting to leave it until it clears up/clarifies? I know you speak of racking it off to a secondary once fermentation completes, and then again, but for a wine (especially one with no intention of drinking 'as-is' and instead being utilised as a base) I was wondering if anyone had any advice on when to move it out/off of the lees.

 

[Troonos]

First batch has been comfortably sitting in the fridge, having portions taken off for just over a month now. It came out a solid 5/10. Almost the entirety of that rating is based on the fact it came out drinkable at all, and actually has an alcoholic content. It was a pure dextrose ferment (wash? brew?) but honestly it was a fun learning experience. Drinking it with tonic water and a bit of bitters puts it at a solid 7/10 though. Otherwise, a pretty apparent taste of 'fermented' which I would obviously like to avoid.
Currently have a pure raw/brown sugar batch on, I did pull a bit off the top to check SG, currently the yeast/fermentation activity has slowed all the way down, slow singular columns of bubbles and a nice yellow color to itself, still 'cloudy' or at least I cannot see entirely through it.
Am I being retarded by wanting to leave it until it clears up/clarifies? I know you speak of racking it off to a secondary once fermentation completes, and then again, but for a wine (especially one with no intention of drinking 'as-is' and instead being utilised as a base) I was wondering if anyone had any advice on when to move it out/off of the lees.

See my comment above yours.

 

[Civillian 18]

See my comment above yours.

Clearly I missed that, almost exactly what I was asking. I will organise a proper secondary container to sit in, get a little production line going methinks. Much appreciated.

 

[GratsTheat783]

A siphon doesn't filter anything. The only thing keeping sediment from transferring is keeping the racking cane out of the lees until the very last second and stopping the flow before it reaches the secondary.

I looked it up, I meant racking cane. My mistake.

1) After primary fermentation finishes, give it an extra few weeks before racking to secondary. People think they should rack as soon as the SG stops moving, but this deprives the yeast of their final job which is to clean up their environment. Every brew I've made has cleared probably 80-90% to crystal clear by just leaving it in primary for an extra 2-4 weeks, THEN stabilizing (without stirring) and racking.

2) It may look clear in secondary, but there's a massive amount of microscopic particulate still suspended throughout. Bottling now means this invisible fluff will form a thin layer of white that'll make it cloudy when you pour. Whether or not you're adding flavorants or backsweetening to secondary, give it another 1-18 months for the tiny lees to floculate and compact before bottling.

3) Only after this period that you decided to let it sit, should you resort to fining agents (preferably DualFine) to clear any stubborn debris, then rack after that's had a couple of days to work.

Thank you for the advice. I get a little nervous at the idea of leaving it in longer though since I have a brother who tried to make mead, but apparently left it too long and it became ethanol.

I'd be happy to help you design a mead recipe if you want to try and make it without a kit.

It'll be a while before I do since I've got quite a bit to get through, but thank you for offering your help.

 

[Troonos]

I looked it up, I meant racking cane. My mistake.

Technically a racking cane doesn't either. Its design only serves to keep the entry above the level of the lees, but if you don't lower it conservatively as it empties, it'll suck up all the lees too. If you aren't commercial with the budget for a filtering system, any level of filtering is a terrible idea regardless as it introduces a ton of oxygen to the brew and risks oxidation. Just want you to understand what your equipment will and won't do.