Well that’s good to know. Now I can start making pocheen.
I’ve never liked moonshine…
Pocheen!
You use wash made from barley.
We use mash made from corn.
We both call it “Mountain Dew”! How awesome! All those poor Potato Famine dudes came from Ireland to East Tennessee.
-Moonshine is super versatile! If you don’t like it plain, dump some stuff you do like in there. Berries or peaches or Apples and cinnamon sticks work great.
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Yaaaaaaa, maybe I haven’t given it a fair shake. It always tastes like rubbing alcohol smells to me…
Haha!
There may have been rubbing alcohol in that shit! “Moonshine” is usually some kind of scam.
But once you have the still, you can get crazy.
Distilling wine makes sherry.
Distilling mash made from fruit makes brandy.
Potatoes=vodka
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Potatoes, eh? I grow my own potatoes. I could use them 
Just FYI distilling anything even if it’s for personal consumption is illegal everywhere in the US. Those stills are always marketed as “for display only” or some nonsense.
Any mash or wash is going to have undesirable products in there (like methanol) as a product of fermentation.
The methanol and other “bad” compounds all have boiling points lower than ethanol. So a very conservative thing to do is to is to discard the first 250 to 500ml that come off the still before the vapors reach that magic 180 degrees F. These are the “heads” of the run, discard them immediately because they are poison.
You want to keep the “heart” of the run as good product and keep the “tails” for use in later mashes.
Also the old timers would cut pure moonshine (180 proof) with water to keep from killing people. Also you can let raw moonshine soak with fruit/flavors to make something appealing to women. I’ve tasted an apple pie version that was 90 proof and tasted like delicious candy. The old timers called these recipes “panty droppers”.
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I invite you all to join in song.
Good tune. And for the next durge:
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Hey, that’s awesome. I’ve never really listened to Steve Earle before, to my shame. How about this?
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Like if you’re drinking homebrew now. I certainly am- it’s been raining all fucking day so I’ve thrown in the towel and started drinking.
You indepently wealthy or retired? I’d love to drink before noon every day lol.
Although that process is technically “concentration” the feds still consider it “distillation”. So I wouldn’t tell people that you do that. Might want to store your Apple jack in old whisky bottles. There’s no still to find so that’s good.
That process doesn’t remove the methanol, fusel alcohols or other cogeners. While it’s not a problem drinking normal cider at 5-7% when you concentrate it to as high as 45% you can reach dangerous levels with pectin based washes (like cider). The simple solution is to heat the concentrated solution up to 170 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes in a normal pot.
WARNING: Methanol vapors and flames/heat sources don’t mix. This should be done outside with a fan for ventilation. Keep the temp at 170 or less or you will boil off the ethanol which is what you want.
Seems kinda nuts that amazon sells them if they’re illegal?
Notice how everyone drives 65mph on a 55mph road? It’s all about enforcement.
The ATF has much bigger fish to fry than hobbyists making hooch in their basement. But yeah, if you distill any amount of liquor in your home you’ve committed a federal crime.
If you don’t sell it to anyone or run your mouth/post online about it you’ll likely be perfectly fine. One caveat though. If your house burns down (unrelated to the still) or has a tree limb fall on it etc… fire marshals and insurance adjusters will report you if they find the remains of a still. Also if you have a vengeful ex wife or something you don’t want to be doing illegal stuff in the basement. “Anonymous” tips are a bitch.
It wasn’t before noon- it was 2:00 in the afternoon over here in Wales :o I haven’t drunk before noon since I was a student. I was supposed to be digging a hole but it rained so much today I decided to get drunk instead.
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Isn’t it always raining in the UK? Lots of no digging days then lol.
There is that. I also do a load of other random jobs like carrying barrowloads of horse shit up a hill, but there was no demand for that today.
Incidentally, I find the best policy for home brewed wine is to drink a year behind- i.e. drinking last year’s batch this year.