Rum

[NeilMacleod]

Reminds me of High School, made my own Liquid Blue Flame

 

[Bo T]

Does your second cut hit 190 proof? And how much ethanol is left in the mash?

 

[sidelock]

Back in 1962 I had bought a new rifle and was trying it out at a"semi" friends range on his back forty. He wasn't home but my hunt buddy and I shot for a while and started to leave just as the owner drove up drunk as a skunk. He jumped out of his truck with a bottle and said "how youall" and then "try this it's good". He handed me the bottle and I took a sip ----- I saw stars and couldn't speak,,,, My buddy thinking I was handing it to him took it and took a healthy swallow. Both of us standing there breathless and near unable to move. After a while we recovered a bit and said "that shore is good". See you later. We have never been back.

 

[Bo T]

Several decades ago, one of my friends had a small shot bottle of Everclear that he had picked up in Montana. Pretty much the same experience, bright lights, short of breath, narrowing of vision, and an obnoxious sore throat that held on for months :shocked2:

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Does your second cut hit 190 proof? And how much ethanol is left in the mash?

Not in a pot-still.

190 proof alcohols (and even 151's) are normally done in reflux stills. A single run from a pot still will give you 40 - 60 proof..., probably close to 40 after combining the end products into a single, finished batch.

After all the "beer" has run (mash is when you remove the sugar from the grain and it's dissolved into the water :wink , you combine the product, and run it again. That will give you 80+ proof, probably closer to 100, and then some fellows run it a third time, getting it up to 120. At that point any higher and you lose flavor. Hence as mentioned the XXX marking, or when John Wayne tells Kim Darby in True Grit, "It's the genuine article. Triple rectified; aged in the keg!"

What you have then when using corn..., moonshine, or white whiskey, which if you placed it in a barrel with charred oak sides, will give you bourbon after several years of careful tending. Cheap brands use a glass container and added activated charcoal and wood shavings.

THEN when the aged product is bottled it's often "stepped on" by adding a very good water, to bring it down to 80 proof, but some of the bourbons that are 100 proof just might have been 120 when they went into the keg, and over time as aging has taken some alcohol, they naturally came down to 100 proof.

OH and 151 level alcohols sold in bottles as "rum" or something else, have been mixed with lower forms of the same product to give them flavor.

190 proof alcohols (or 189 if you're in Maryland and obeying a stupid law) are solvent. You can use them for first aid, you can fuel an alcohol stove or burner, you can extract herbal medicines, you can use them as a fuel additive..., or you can step them down, and add flavor.

You can also make something like limoncello, or Orange Bitters with 190 Everclear, and impress your friends at Christmas or other occasions. :wink:


LD

 

[satx78247]

You can also run a vehicle on pure alcohol. - It's takes very few changes to run an older model car/truck on alcohol AND it's perfectly legal if you register with BATFE as a "fuel-alcohol distiller".

Northeast TX is BIG in the commercial poultry business (PILGRIM'S PRIDE & GOLDEN FEAST POULTRY are both headquartered there.) and a large number of our "chicken & egg barons" make fuel from the manure/feathers/bedding of chickens for farm use & retail sale.
(I have a boyhood friend, who makes a great deal of "near pure fuel alcohol" to run his farm vehicles & to see to others. - He has a lot of people who want to buy his fuel to "cut" & drink.- That "image" of actually drinking manure-based alcohol makes me GAG.)

yours, satx

 

[Black Hand]

You can also make something like limoncello, or Orange Bitters with 190 Everclear, and impress your friends at Christmas or other occasions. :wink:

I have 4-5 different flavors right now. My batches end up closer to 80 or 100 proof once made, as a simple syrup is added.

 

[Bo T]

Chicken manure makes excellent fertilizer for corn, so all they would be doing is cutting out the middle uh, stock, seed, whatever.

When you do a second and third run, are the head and pot temperatures the same? It seems that good shiner would manage 3 things while running a batch; pot temperature, head temperature, and pot agitation.

 

[nhmoose]

At 65 I can say I have drank from something the only explanation could be chicken carp.

I now will pass as it is not worth drinking it.

 

[satx78247]

As I've said before, making GOOD/CRAFT moonshine/fruit brandy is an ART that must be learned/practiced.

NO shiner, who cares about his customers (and/or about repeat business!!) RUSHES the process even when doing very large commercial quantities. Also, the larger the pot. the more skill/care that it takes to make GOOD liquor.
(Everything else, including simple decency, aside, KILLING OFF your customers is BAD for business.)

Note: ImVho, NO "better than average" liquor can be made using a thump barrel or using more than a small amount of sugar. = GREAT/craft-made "white likker" is composed of grains and/or fruit, good pure spring water & yeast.
(Vodka, rum, scotch & grappa are a different case altogether.)

"Sweet feed" made for supplemental feeding of horses/mules (strangely enough) makes quite good "white likker", is readily available & cheap too for the beginning home distiller.
(IF I was going to start home distillation for "farm use", I would start with a traditional 10 gallon all-copper pot still & leave the thump barrels to those folks who aren''t too keen on drinking GOOD "white likker". = Building an all-copper still in 10 gallon capacity can be done for less than 100.oo)

just my opinions, satx

 

[Bo T]

satx,,

I am still working on a fur trade persona and as age defies my best inclination to be young, the best I can do is work on the possible experience a Revolutionary war veteran might carry with him into the next century. A tinker could have the knowledge to make a good brew as well as good distillate. Such abilities could carry a past primer for a decade or two. But there is a need to talk the talk. Even though I don't walk the walk. These skills as well as apothecary, gun smithing, etc. would hold one in good graces in a near primitive society.
Thank you for the knowledge..

 

[Loyalist Dave]

yes the adding of the simple syrup steps the tincture from the lemon shavings, or from the herbs, into an acceptable beverage. To get the essences out of the plants, though, one needs a solvent. :wink:

Another use of all sugar high proof alcohol, is to make bitters or limoncello for those who cannot have wheat. Sounds odd, but I know three folks who cannot have wheat products, and had friends try in the past to make bitters or limoncello from grain based vodka. Now I don't think there are any wheat proteins in Everclear at 190 proof, but they won't touch anything that has a possibility of having wheat. So in the past, I've gotten a fellow with a reflux still to run off some fermented sugar water to the 160 proof range, and used that to make the beverages for the wheat sensitive.

:idunno:

LD

 

[Billnpatti]

Does your second cut hit 190 proof? And how much ethanol is left in the mash?

Usually, to get the highest proof, you will need to do a second distillation of your middle cut. I am not sure how much ethanol is left in the mash but it is hard to get that last bit out and not worth the effort. However, some folks will just add fresh mash to the pot along with the "spent" mash in an effort to maximize the yield of ethanol. You will get better "shine" if you do not try to reuse your old mash. The old stuff contains higher chain alcohols that have been left behind by the first distillation. While they are not as toxic as Methanol, they will ruin the taste of the "shine" and if you get enough in your shine, it can make you sick.

If you want to do a second distillation of the ethanol cut to try to raise the proof, you will need to watch your head temperature very carefully because the temperature change of the center cut of the second distillation will be very subtile. If you did your first distillation carefully, you will have removed almost all of the low and high boilers and what remains in your first distillate will be a very small amount so the temperature changes will be pretty subtile. The reason you can't get to 200 proof (100% ethanol) is because ethanol and water form an azeotrope that is not easily separated. The way 200 proof industrial alcohol is made is to add some benzene to the first distillate and then re-distill it. The benzene forms a stronger azeotrope with the water than the ethanol does and the last bit of ethanol is distilled off without the water. Unfortunately, traces of benzene will end up in the final cut so you never try to drink 200 proof industrial ethanol.

 

[satx78247]

SPOT ON. - Your comments are WISE & VALUABLE to the forum members.

Fwiw, I feel the SAME about re-using mash as I do about thump barrels: Just do NOT do it.
(Craft "white likker" is NOT about QUANTITY; it's about QUALITY.)

yours, satx

 

[satx78247]

My beloved "Duckie" is now gluten intolerant.
(This means that I've had to learn to cook again.)

My suggestion (and that's all that it is: a suggestion) is to use sugar cane and/or fruit to make your liquor & avoid any possible problem.
(You could also use BUCKWHEAT, if you can find it in quantity, as it has no gluten.)

just my OPINION, satx

 

[NeilMacleod]

Been using BUCKWHEAT for years, its great to use for bread, if one knows how to cook with it. Been wheat/sugar allergic for many years.

 

[tenngun]

Does your allergy carry over to distilled liquers?

 

[satx78247]

Just what I was going to ask him.- You beat me to the punch.

yours, satx

 

[NeilMacleod]

Yup, I don't drink, haven't since 1990.
Used to make wine and beer for many years, well since High school, Quit doing shine once I was out of School (used the science lab equipment at home )

 

[tenngun]

K, so much of our food depends on wheat, I feel for you.