Homebrew / Moonshine - Sink vodka appreciation

[Joe Shmoe]

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,.

Thx I'll maybe look for one of those second hand but to be really honest I was looking for some method to polish without a machine. However if that isn't a thing I guess I will just have to buy one

 

[Honored guest]

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

I have been slowly picking up blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, cranberries, and whatever fruit I find on sale. I'd love to hear any one gallon mead recipes that you'd recommend.

 

[Troonos]

I have been slowly picking up blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, cranberries, and whatever fruit I find on sale. I'd love to hear any one gallon mead recipes that you'd recommend.

Are you freezing them as you buy them? I'd recommend that for both preservation and to cold macerate them to break down the skins and release more juice for brewing. How much of each berry do you have?

 

[Honored guest]

Are you freezing them as you buy them? I'd recommend that for both preservation and to cold macerate them to break down the skins and release more juice for brewing. How much of each berry do you have?

Yes I've been freezing them as I buy them for both of the reasons you've mentioned, I only pick up a few packs at a time and I'm currently sitting on about 3lb of blueberries, 3lb blackberries, 4lb strawberries and 4lb cranberries.

 

[Troonos]

Yes I've been freezing them as I buy them for both of the reasons you've mentioned, I only pick up a few packs at a time and I'm currently sitting on about 3lb of blueberries, 3lb blackberries, 4lb strawberries and 4lb cranberries.

Oh, that's more than enough.

I'd definitely make a cranberry batch and a triple berry batch.

How large are your brewing vessels?

 

[Honored guest]

Oh, that's more than enough.

I'd definitely make a cranberry batch and a triple berry batch.

How large are your brewing vessels?

I've got a 2 gallon bucket and one gallon carboys. Eventually I'll move up to larger batches, I just need to find some recipes I like and get some experience under my belt.

 

[Troonos]

I've got a 2 gallon bucket and one gallon carboys. Eventually I'll move up to larger batches, I just need to find some recipes I like and get some experience under my belt.

The bucket is fine for the primary, but I highly recommend you pick up a Little Big Mouth Bubbler (only $25) from Northern Brewer for your secondary. You're going to be miserable dealing with fruit in a gallon carboy. And make sure you crush the cranberries after they're cold macerated, because the skin is so tough that all the juice released won't be able to escape without crushing.

CRANBERRY
Primary
3 lbs 13.9 oz of your preferred honey
2 lbs cold macerated and crushed cranberrIes in a mesh/muslin bag
5 lbs 6.1 oz filtered spring water

Pitch
126 mL filtered spring water, 6.3g GoFerm maintained at 85-95°F, then add 5g Lalvin K1V-1116 yeast. This SG and volume would call for 3g, but the benzoic acid in cranberries inhibits fermentation, so you need extra yeast to compensate.
Let bloom 10 minutes while maintaining this temperature, then remove from heat and add primary must every 5 minutes to acclimate it to the gravity until it reaches room temp, then pitch into the primary.
SG: 1.102

Fermentation
Pitch 1.5g of Fermaid O at the 24h, 48h, 72h, and 7-day mark. Ferment until two hydrometer readings a week apart show no change in SG (hopefully at/below 1.000), then let it sit 2-4 weeks until yeast has floculated and batch is nearly clear. Then stabilize with the correct doses of potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate without stirring, and rack off the yeast and fruit into the secondary. The above recipe makes 1.4 gallons so you can avoid headspace in the Little Big Mouth Bubbler I hope you'll buy, without sucking up lees.

Secondary
In another muslin bag, drop in the other 2 lbs of crushed, macerated cranberries, and let it sit on them two weeks, then pull out the bag.
Because of the high benzoic acid and tannin content of cranberries, you'll want to backsweeten this pretty hard, and oak it with wood with lower tannic value.
I'd backsweeten to 1.032 or so. Once you get to this step and have the final gravity, I'll help you with the calculations to achieve this. Stir in the honey gently to avoid introducing oxygen, until fully dissolved and the stirrer comes out with no honey. You may want to stir, wait 24 hours to dissolve, then stir once more to make sure all the honey is off the bottom.
Let it sit on 1/3 of a dark (less tannin) toast French oak spiral for 1-2 months, but taste it weekly until it has the wine barrel taste you desire.

Finishing
Once oaking is done, fish out the oak and let the secondary sit for at least a month. Taste monthly if aging longer. Once it's enjoyable, check for perfect clarity; if it still isn't clear, use two-step DualFine (step 1, stir, wait 24h, step 2, stir). When it's crystal clear, drop in another dose of potassium metabisulfite without stirring, let it incorporate 24h, then rack it into bottles and cork.

That took a long time to build and write, and it's past my bedtime, so I'll have to build your triple berry recipe tomorrow.

 

[Honored guest]

That took a long time to build and write, and it's past my bedtime, so I'll have to build your triple berry recipe tomorrow.

nightynight lil nigga, don't strain yourself bro, thank you again for sharing! A big mouth bubblier is definitely on my next supply order, once I'm done with the random country wines I'm brewing, I'm going to place an order.

 

[VeteranOfTheRetardWars]

I’m back from a trip so the brews had a month to just chill out and get less rough.
The cherry/cranberry wine is honestly not really amazing. It’s ok, it’s not bad, but compared to my last raspberry/strawberry mead I’m just not impressed.
But my cranberry-cocktail cider is a different story. This shit’s legitimately really nice. It’s mild and refreshing where the flavors of the different juices come out together really well. I’m glad I made three gallons of it, I’m liking brewing lighter beverages and I like fruit ciders as is so I’ll make something similar when I come across something interesting.
And a question, is brewing using canned fruit fine? I want to experiment with some fruits I was exposed to overseas but they straight up only exist canned in America. I can’t think of any problems with using canned fruit but it never hurts to ask, and I do want to try something with longan or jackfruit.

 

[Troonos]

I’m back from a trip so the brews had a month to just chill out and get less rough.
The cherry/cranberry wine is honestly not really amazing. It’s ok, it’s not bad, but compared to my last raspberry/strawberry mead I’m just not impressed.
But my cranberry-cocktail cider is a different story. This shit’s legitimately really nice. It’s mild and refreshing where the flavors of the different juices come out together really well. I’m glad I made three gallons of it, I’m liking brewing lighter beverages and I like fruit ciders as is so I’ll make something similar when I come across something interesting.
And a question, is brewing using canned fruit fine? I want to experiment with some fruits I was exposed to overseas but they straight up only exist canned in America. I can’t think of any problems with using canned fruit but it never hurts to ask, and I do want to try something with longan or jackfruit.

Did you backsweeten the cranberry wine?

 

[VeteranOfTheRetardWars]

Did you backsweeten the cranberry wine?

I haven’t, is that a standard thing to do?

 

[Troonos]

I haven’t, is that a standard thing to do?

It's a standard thing to do for non-dry wines in general, but a cranberry wine desperately needs it due to its high levels of benzoic acid and tannin. Almost every new brewer who says their batch tastes mediocre failed to backsweeten. 90% of unsweetened secondaries aren't going to be drinkable unless you have the skill to intentionally make a dry and balance it correctly.

And you'd have to post the ingredient list of the canned fruit. Many canned products have preservatives that by their very nature inhibit fermentation. Jackfruit and longan aren't impossible to find here. I'm in a semi-rural town on the east coast, and there are 4-5 international (mostly Asian) markets within an hour of me that all have whole frozen jackfruit and fresh longan.

 

[VeteranOfTheRetardWars]

It's a standard thing to do for non-dry wines in general, but a cranberry wine desperately needs it due to its high levels of benzoic acid and tannin. Almost every new brewer who says their batch tastes mediocre failed to backsweeten. 90% of unsweetened secondaries aren't going to be drinkable unless you have the skill to intentionally make a dry and balance it correctly.

Thanks, I’ll try that out.

 

[Troonos]

Thanks, I’ll try that out.

What was your starting SG and your final SG?

 

[GratsTheat783]

I'm planning on doing mead soon, however some of the recipes I've looked at requires specific types of honey. The Dessert Mead I'm looking at says it needs "heather" honey. Different ones also need specific yeasts like Saternes Yeast, Tokay Yeast, Maury Yeast, etc. It also lists Campden tablets which I've not heard of before. Do these actually matter or can they be used interchangeably? The honey in my local area is blossom honey apparently.

Spoiler: The Recipe

Dessert Mead (sweet)

clover or heather honey - 1.8kg/4lb
hot water - 3.4 litres/6 pints
citric acid - 30 ml - 6 tsp
tannin - 5ml/1 tsp
nutrient - 5ml/1tsp
Tokay yeast - no measurement specified
light brown sugar - 250g/9oz

 

[Honored guest]

I'm planning on doing mead soon, however some of the recipes I've looked at requires specific types of honey. The Dessert Mead I'm looking at says it needs "heather" honey. Different ones also need specific yeasts like Saternes Yeast, Tokay Yeast, Maury Yeast, etc. It also lists Campden tablets which I've not heard of before. Do these actually matter or can they be used interchangeably? The honey in my local area is blossom honey apparently.

Spoiler: The Recipe

Dessert Mead (sweet)

clover or heather honey - 1.8kg/4lb
hot water - 3.4 litres/6 pints
citric acid - 30 ml - 6 tsp
tannin - 5ml/1 tsp
nutrient - 5ml/1tsp
Tokay yeast - no measurement specified
light brown sugar - 250g/9oz

So the source of the nectar determines what kind of honey the bees will produce, clover honey is from what I've seen is your standard honey and it'll be your cheapest, when looking for honey it'll probably say on the container "clover", blossom honey might just be short for "clover blossom" so It should be ok to use. More specialized honeys will be harder to find and a lot more expensive, they'll also have a different flavor and aroma to them and someone who knows what they're doing can make some great brews with them. I personally stick with clover as I'm still experimenting with simpler brews.
Campden tablets are for sterilizing and stabilizing, they contain potassium metabisulfite or sodium metabisulfite and when used will prevent yeast from reproducing allowing you to back sweeten without fermentation restarting. On the topic of sanitizing its imperative that you have the proper sanitizer on hand and that you sanitize all of your equipment before you use it, nothing sucks more than having a brew get contaminated and having to throw it out.

 

[GratsTheat783]

On the topic of sanitizing its imperative that you have the proper sanitizer on hand and that you sanitize all of your equipment before you use it, nothing sucks more than having a brew get contaminated and having to throw it out.

I do use sanitizer on my equipment, but doesn't scalding water work as well?

Also here's a recipe that has a funny name.

Spoiler: Cock Ale

The best of these old recipes is Cock Ale, adapted by the author from an eighteenth century recipe that was very popular among farmers.

500g Malt Extract
20g Hops
250g demerara sugar
280ml dry white or tawny white
the carcase of a plainly roasted chicken
3.8 litres of water
beer yeast

1. Use the carcase, bones, wing tips, parson's nose, trimmings and neck of a plainly roasted chicken - no stuffings or herbs - after it has been carved for a meal, no bones being served!
Crush all these together, chopping up the bones with a stout knife. Place them in a bowl, cover with white wine and leave in refrigerator.
2. Boil the hops in some of the water for half an hour.
3. Dissolve the malt extract and sugar in warm water.
4. Strain on the hop liquor, top up with cold water, cover and leave to cool.
5. Add the yeast, stir well and cover.
6. As soon as the beer is fermenting really well - after thirty six to forty eight hours - strain in the wine.
7. Place the chicken in a wide mesh nylon or muslin bag and suspend in this brew for two days.
8. Remove the chicken, stir the beer and ferment out, keeping the beer covered at all times.
9. Move the beer to a cold place for two days, then syphon into bottles.
10. Prime with castor sugar at the rate of one 5 ml spoonful per quart; seal and store for one month.

Note: This is a superb, well-flavoured beer of good body and texture. Serve it slightly chilled.

 

[Troonos]

I'm planning on doing mead soon, however some of the recipes I've looked at requires specific types of honey. The Dessert Mead I'm looking at says it needs "heather" honey. Different ones also need specific yeasts like Saternes Yeast, Tokay Yeast, Maury Yeast, etc. It also lists Campden tablets which I've not heard of before. Do these actually matter or can they be used interchangeably? The honey in my local area is blossom honey apparently.

Spoiler: The Recipe

Dessert Mead (sweet)

clover or heather honey - 1.8kg/4lb
hot water - 3.4 litres/6 pints
citric acid - 30 ml - 6 tsp
tannin - 5ml/1 tsp
nutrient - 5ml/1tsp
Tokay yeast - no measurement specified
light brown sugar - 250g/9oz

Honeys are entirely your personal preference. Find one that tastes good to you.

Campden tablets are potassium metabisulfite with some binders mixed in. This is an antioxidant. Alone, it's used during aging to prevent oxidation of the brew, and it can also be thrown into a batch of fruit 24 hours before fermentation to neuter any wild microbes on the fruit, but this is generally unnecessary. Its most important use is being added alongside potassium sorbate in order to semi-permanently halt fermentation so the brew can be sweetened without consuming the added sugars. You'll want to sweeten, as balancing a totally dry brew to be drinkable requires a bit more brewing experience than you have.

Also, don't add citric (or any other) acid in the primary. Add it much later when you're balancing the flavor in the secondary.

And I'd also wait until the secondary to add brown sugar. All the sugar components will be consumed by the yeast, and you'll be left with sulfur compounds that can slow fermentation and contribute a sulfury taste in the final wine.

clover honey is from what I've seen is your standard honey and it'll be your cheapest, when looking for honey it'll probably say on the container "clover", blossom honey might just be short for "clover blossom" so It should be ok to use.

Clover is monofloral, so it isn't going to be cheaper than wildflower in most cases.

I do use sanitizer on my equipment, but doesn't scalding water work as well?

Not reliably. You need an acid-based brewing sanitizer. StarSan diluted per instructions is cheap and the most effective way to sanitize.

the carcase of a plainly roasted chicken

Most historical recipes are kinda retarded. There are advanced techniques you can use to infuse meat flavor into a brew, but in most cases, adding any part of an animal to your brew is likely to result in fat rancidity and infection.

 

[samarinda]

Time to breathe some life into this thread as someone who's been brewing and distilling for several years after moving to a jungle full of Muslims. Unlike a lot of commenters here I am not a try hard so maybe I will get some pushback but the goal is to deliver easy, actionable advice . The name of the game is getting a cheap easy tasty buzz and I'm delivering . however the hard truth of making drinks is that 99% of it is patience and waiting. and there is no way around that. Any questions welcomed, I'll answer what I can

Laziest way to make decent hooch: buy a 1-2L bottle of water, dump out the water, refill with juice, add a bit of bread yeast (like a teaspoon, just a pinch). Pinprick a balloon with a needle or pin and pull over the top. The balloon should inflate within 6 hours and deflate within 2 weeks, especially if it's kept in a warm place. If 12 hours go by and the ballon is still limp, add a touch more yeast. Trial and error will inform the proper amount. When the balloon deflates, throw it in the fridge and enjoy the next day. Whether you age or plan to drink soon, either way take care not to pour the sludge into your glass when nearing the end of the bottle. I usually do 10 or 20 bottles as a time so I can share with friends and let stuff age as I start consuming the product. The only hard rule for fermenting fruit juice: don't do orange juice! Otherwise there's plenty of room to experiment. I like using apple as a general base for my "wines" ...

If you want to go even lazier you can just add in a bit of sugar to a water bottle after draining out some; in lieu of a balloon, you can squeeze the bottle, screw on the lid, stop squeezing, and then unscrew the lid until the bottle suck in air again. Add just a dash of yeast. Alcohol converts roughly at 1% per 17g of sugar added per liter and bread yeast can handle up to 12% fine with diminishing returns, flavor-wise, after 6% or so (at least in the short run). I prefer juice and balloon because (a) it tastes better, (b) the balloon is a pretty obvious marker of when fermentation is largely over.

SECRET: secondary fermentation is really not necessary. If you want good stuff to share or shelve, either way you're going to need time and/or clearing agents before eventually siphoning stuff into smaller bottles. Skipping the middle step saves time and work and reduces risks of exposure to unwanted elements. The main people encouraging reracking for secondary are sleeper agents for Starsan, encouraging this tiresome practice to push more product.

---

I don't know if anyone here is much of a distiller, or distilling-curious, but if you plan to start, I say start with a boiler of at least at 5 gallons / 20 liters and then move up depending on space and electric potential. I ferment three 20L buckets of ~8% hooch at a time, strip em, and do a spirit run. Each run takes about 8 hours on my 3rd world electric grid, cuz using more electric flips the breaker. Spirit run produces about 10 bottles of good drinkable stuff, for about $1 a bottle, all expenses considered. Another reason why I think 20 liters is a good "resolution" is because it's pretty easy to buy clean sealed water at that volume, you can usually get the jugs refilled cheap after you consume their water as well.

I started with a 20L pot still I got from China and tweaked but ended up buying parts to make a bokakob still and paying some local guys to build it. Distilling is very easy. The difficulty of distilling is closer to making sugar wine in a water bottle than it is making sake/beer. As long as you do your research, there is 0 risk. If I were living in an apartment or something I think I'd go for an airstill because they are very small and discrete, but the larger the better because it means you can make better cuts during the spirit run + you get more product for about the same amount of work. (and depending on your rate of production vs consumption you end up being able to age a lot of it)

Both of my stills together probably cost under $500. Maybe sounds like a lot but I have produced way more than enough drinks over the years to justify the investment. Again most of my bottles end up costing about $1 each to make, if a bottle of liquor costs $20 the machine ends up paying for itself in a sense after around 30 bottles or 3 "runs". Bonus value can be considered in that you can use stills to produce distilled water or essential oils, cleaning products and fuel, besides just hooch.

Distilling is a lot more forgiving than winemaking. I was doing some UJSSM one time and some maggots started to appear a few generations in. I thought "ah well, fuck it" and ignored them and kept going. Good product despite that! But who in his right mind would drink maggot wine? lol

---

Three recipes past "juice + yeast" I really enjoy:

• Ginger ale: 100g sugar, 100g shredded ginger, 1 lime's juice per liter
• Corn flake whisky: 3.5kg sugar, 800g smashed cornflakes, boiled and poured into a bucket filled up to 20L with water.
• Birdwatcher sugar wash: boiled 4kg sugar, 8oz tomato paste, fill up bucket to 20L, add dash of DAP and epsom salts

 

[Joshua Connor Tomar]

Does anyone in this thread have experience using actual juniper berries to make gin? I have a crapload of Eastern red cedars, and I'm thinking of throwing together a still and making some gin.

I haven't distilled with juniper berries but I've infused some Vodka with it and some other botanicals. I believe i watched a video once of a whiskey distillery and they just did an infusion after the first pass.

The stuff I made was very tasty but I left a clove in there and the clove conquered all other flavors. I did my infusion with an ultrasonic so I'm not too sure how long to let it seep, but you can just do it to taste.

I also was not too sure on when the berries are fully ripened. I've read it's a two year process but I've not really been able to find any good guides on identifying a ripe juniper berry.