Home Distillation of Alcohol (Homemade Alcohol to Drink)

Home Distillation of Alcohol (Homemade Alcohol to Drink) Also see the recipes on Grain based washes - Page 1

Poitin

Also see the recipes on the Fruit based washes page

Jack writes ...

This is an 1842 recipe for poitin (pronounced Pah-cheen) - I have modified it for modern "ease-of-use"

boil 5 gallons of water and pour it over a mix of ten pounds of rolled oats (unflavored oatmeal) that has had a pound of 6 row barley (ground) and mixed in to it.
Allow this to sit until it is cool enough to add yeast, then add a dry ale yeast and 15 drops of liquid beano (or three of the pills). When you add the yeast/Beano enzyme to the cooled mash the stuff may be thick - like stiff oatmeal- don't worry. The yeast breaks it down with the beano as it is fermenting. Within a day it will be a liquid with grain floating in it.
ferment until dry
double distill in a potstill.
Don't age drink it white.
From what I have read, oat whiskey is the ONLY spirit to have totally died off.. The last commercial distillery was in Ireland- and it shut down in 1975. Oats are a relatively expensive grain, as well as being very sticky, so distillers don't like it very much. If it is filtered well, and run on a water-bath still (or an ice water/wok still) there should be no problem

Akvavit

Teemu writes about Akvavit ...

Here is a recipe for the most popular flavoured vodka in Scandinavia.

Akvavit -The Scandinavian flavored vodka.

The most famous flavored vodka from Scandinavia is probably Akvavit (or Aquavit if you ask from any Dane.) Akvavit is not actually vodka, it is just specially made grain based spirit flavoured with caraway seeds and sometimes aged with oak. Most fanciest type of Aquavit, the Norwegian "Linie Aquavit" even travels in oak barrels on a ship from Australia and back, just for getting the special flavor... Other well-known brands are the Danish "Aalborg" and the "Aalborgs Jubilæums Aquavit".

Akvavit has quite long roots, the oldest recipe that I found is dated back to year 1642, this is a Finnish recipe is from year 1802, and this is how it goes (converted for home distilling purposes):

1 kg of barley flour
1 kg of oat flour
2 kg of rye flour
5 kg of cooked and smashed potatoes
5 kg of gristed rye malt
about 30 L of water
15L of sour mash (from previous batch) or 20g of citric acid and 10l of water
couple of juniper branches
½ L of beer sediment

Clean linen cloth and some rope
50 - 70L bucket

100 g of coarsely chopped caraway seeds
500 g of powdered charcoal (made from birch if available)
20 g of coriander seeds
10 g of dill
Couple handfuls of washed sand
Cotton bag, big enough to hold all these

Copper or silver coin

Large bottle (and optionally some oak (and sandalwood) chips)
Put the grains and potatoes in the bucket and soak in the sour mash for couple of hours. Boil the juniper branches in 30litres of water; remove the branches and pour the boiling water on the grains and potatoes and stir well. Leave there over night, and in the morning check the temperature (must be 20 - 27 degrees Celsius) and add beer sediment (or about 50g of ale/porter yeast). Stir. Cover the bucket with the linen cloth and secure tight with rope. (You'll see why in a day or two). Let ferment until there is about 10cm (4") deep layer of clear liquid on the top (this should take about two weeks or so). Distill in a water/steam bath pot still (with the tails from previous batch) three times (just like you were making Irish-type whiskey).

Fill the still with the middle run from third distillation and put the coin in the still. Fill the cotton bag in the following order: first put sand in the bag, enough to cover the bottom of the bag. Then put the spices (caraway seeds, coriander and dill) in the bag. Mix the charcoal and the remaining sand and put in the top of the bag. Hang the bag below the stills outlet tube, so that the distillate can drop through the bag to the receiving container. Distill slowly; the heat input to the still is correct when the coin rattles about once in a second (col... col... col...). Collect until the tails show up. Cut the distillate down to 50vol.% with spring water (use bottled water if you can't obtain fresh spring water) and age in the glass bottle at least for two months. (Add couple of oak (and sandalwood) chips if available).

Simplified recipe (of my own invention)

4 L of 40 vol.% vodka (or well made Moonshine...)
30 g of caraway seeds
5 g of coriander seeds
5 g of dryed dill
Some oak chips
Splash of Irish whiskey
Combine all in a large jar and macerate for a week. Filter trough a coffee filter and ad a teaspoonful of glucose (dextrose), age for a month or so.

Akvavit is mainly used for aperitif, and it is commonly served ice cold from 4cl shot glass. Traditionally there is some salted Baltic herring or smoked salmon served as "sakuski" with it. Another traditional way of serving any type of vodka is that you put a silver coin in bottom of a large cup and pour coffee on it until you can't see it anymore, then pour enough vodka in the cup so that you can see the coin again; drink the whole cupful with one swig...(Warms well in the winter). And, of cause, the real smorgasbord is never complete without an ice-cold bottle of Aquavit...

Wal writes about Poitin...

Quite possibly poitin distillers in the west of Ireland do not have computers so cannot post their recipes to us! Based on background information, together with parallel developments with U.S. moonshine (by Scotch-Irish immigrants) and Russian samogon, here are some possible recipes for Irish poitin.

1) Single Malt Poitin
(This would be the original raw 'uisce beatha' before cognac aging techniques were adapted. Prior to this cognac method, dried fruits were used to provide flavor)

20 litres water (5 U.S. gal)
5 kg (10 lb) crushed malted barley grain
Yeast (preferably beer yeast)
Barley is malted by soaking and spreading out in a 25 mm (1 in) layer to sprout. Wait until sprouts ('acrospires') are 5 mm long. You can then use this 'green malt' immediately by crushin lightly and adding to water at 65C (149F) for a 90 minute conversion rest. Leave to cool to fermentation temperature of 24C. Add yeast. (It is possible to harvest yeast from the sediment in bottle conditioned Australian or Belgian beer.)

2) Grain Poitin
You only need about 10% malted barley grain to provide the enzymes to convert starch to fermentable sugars. According to the literature rye, oats and wheat were used. About 1-1.5 kg (2-3 lb)/4 l (5 US gal) is used.

a) Single Grain

20 l water (5 US gal)
4 kg (9 lb) crushed and cooked grain (barley, rye, oats, wheat)
500 g (1 lb) crushed malted barley grain
Yeast

b) Mixed Grain (from )

20 l water (5 US gal)
2 kg (4 and 1/2 lb) crushed malted barley grain
1.5 kg (3 lb)crushed barley grain (cooked)
250 g (1/2 lb) crushed oats (cooked)
250 g (1/2 lb) crushed rye grain (cooked)
250 g (1/2 lb) crushed wheat grain (cooked)
Yeast

3) Sugar and Treacle
This recipe came from County Fermanagh and is from 'In Praise of Poteen'

20 l water (5 US gal)
3 kg (61/2 lb) brown sugar
250 g (1/2 lb) treacle (molasses)
65 g (2 oz) hops
450 g (1 lb) bakers yeast
Steep ingredients in 2 l (1 qt) of lukewarm water. Add additional cold water and yeast.

4) Grain and Sugar

20 l water (5 US gal)
4 kg (9 lb) crushed barley (cooked)
500 g (1lb) crushed malted barley grain
2 kg (4 and 1/2 lb) sugar
Yeast
1 kg of grain is equivalent to about 600 g of sugar. Beer yeast would ferment out about a maximum of 5 kg(10 lb) sugar/20 l (5 US gal) of water, so you can juggle the proportions to suit.

P.S. Do not forget to throw out the first 50 ml to "the fairies"

I have formed the opinion that early poitin was raw single (barley) malt whiskey. Peat was the heat source. Later to cut costs (possibly in line with Scottish practice) malted barley and other grains (wheat, oats, rye)were used. The use of treacle (molasses) is mentioned, as is raw (brown) sugar, (one source says sugar was used after 1880). Currently barley and sugar, or even sugarbeet pulp is mentioned. I would imagine if potatoes were not suitable for eating, that they would be used too. Potatoes, were once an essential staple in the Irish diet (in 1845, consumption was 5 kg/day), and even now 140 kg/head/year are consumed. 1 acre could feed a family for a year. Larger farms grew grain that was used as a cash crop. It is all a matter of convenience and economics. I doubt whether potatoes were used before the 1900's the time they became the principal source for vodka in Estonia. A similar story is seen with U.S. moonshine and Russian samogon. The Irish pot still and the Scottish pot still are similar and have basically simplified the geometry of the alchemist's alembic still. A similar shape is often seen in the U.S.probably brought over by Celtic immigrants.

Found one sugar based recipe for Poteen -'Poteen from Ireland' http://www.harvestfestivals.net/poteen.htmScaled down to 20 litres or 5 US gal -

Poteen

20 l water
450 g bakers yeast
3 kg brown sugar
250 g treacle (molasses)
65 g hops Steep ingredients in 2 litres of lukewarm water. Add additional cold water and then add the yeast and ferment for several weeks. Transfer to still.

See also: 'Poteen - making on Tory' http://www.tirchonaill.local.ie/content/44773.shtml ".....ingredients, including barley, oats and rye...."

'Illicit stills....Poteen....' ~http://indigo.ie/~kfinlay/lefanu70/lefanuXVIII.htm "It is a curious fact that in parts of Donegal they grow a crop of oats and barley mixed; they call it 'pracas' (which is the Irish for a mixture), and use it for no other purpose but illicit distilling."

'History of Potcheen' 'Bunratty Potcheen' (a legal poitin) http://homepage.tinet.ie/~bunrattywinery/historypotcheen.htm

It is often said that the 'exise free' Irish poitin (poteen) is made from potatoes. Home distillation is still a word-of-mouth tradition in Ireland and I have not been able to find actual recipes for poitin, but I picked up some interesting clues.

Potatoes were actually introduced by Sir Walter Raleigh onto his plantation in Cork in 1589, and quickly became a staple in the Irish diet. But was it fermented and distilled? In Poland, until the 18th century, vodka was produced chiefly from rye, wheat, barley and oats. Johann Joachim Becher developed a method of producing spirits from potatoes in 1669, but it was not until 1798 that the first instructions for "a practical way of distilling vodka from potatoes" was published. Distillers did not begin to use potatoes on a large scale until 1820. The potato is a relatively expensive source for alcohol. Potatoes contain 15-18% fermentable material while grains contain 50-67%. 10 kg of potatoes produce 1 litre of alcohol while 10 kg of grain produces 4 litres. Because of the 1845-1849 Famine in Ireland, some 1 million people died and some 1 million people emigrated. The immigrants to the U.S.A. brought their distilling knowledge with them but they did not use the potato, preferring the native maize. This suggest that a poitin made from potatoes is a late innovation and it is more than likely this began after 1900.

Here are some quotes from 'Google groups' on the subject of poitin:

'Beercommie' "Poteen is Irish moonshine, it is pronounced 'pocheen', and is usually made from grain, barley, wheat, or rye. I'm not ruling out potato, but its safe to say that potato is not the fermentable of choice."
'Fintan Swanton' "Poitin (literally 'little pot', meaning the still in which the drink is made) is an illicit spirit made from just about anything which comes to hand - grain, potatoes, or probably commonest these days, just yeast and sugar."
'Ross McKay' "I recently saw a documentary on Poteen, and IIRC, you start off by brewing an ale from barley and oats (maybe about 20:1 ratio?),then double distilling it."
An interesting article on poitin appeared in the Malt Advocate: 'The Poteen Game' by Cormac MacConnell "The beer is created by fermenting barley, yeast and sugar for about three weeks in wooden barrels. though sometimes in Connemara, the moonshiners use sugar beet pulp purchased from Irish sugar plants in the South." "....about 100 gallons of 'baor' produce 12 gallons of poteen,...."

Jack Daniels Black Label Recipe

Jack advises ...

I just found the "mash bill" that the black labeled Jack Daniel's bottle is made of. It consists of 80% corn, 12% rye, 8% malt (a high enzyme 6-row variety will be needed). It is distilled once in a pot still with a thumper, then filtered through a 10 foot layer of maple charcoal (this takes about 4 days). It then is placed in new, charred American oak barrels where it ages for 5 years, 6 months before it is bottled.

The premium brand called Gentlemen Jack is aged in the same way, with the same grain bill, but it is filtered through maple charcoal again after aging. By the way, it was 1941 when the American government gave Tennessee whiskey it's own classification.

regarding a homemade version, Jack adds ...

I have tasted Jack Daniels that was homemade that was better than the original, using the JD mashbill. The distillery uses 80% corn, 12% rye, 8% malt (6-row). They ferment with 25% backset from a previous distillation run- homemakers should do the same. They use a 64inch diameter copper beer still with a doubler- but a homemade potstill with two runs (collect one-third of the mash volume out of the still as low wines, then re-run it, collecting from 75%abv to 55%) works just as well. The resulting spirit is then aged on charred American oak, and sweetened with a dash of REAL maple syrup (the kind that has a slight smokey flavor)- this will taste JUST like the store bought spirit- but will be a LOT smoother. The spirit should be aged at less than 65%abv, to prevent vanillins from clouding up the smokey sweetness from the maple syrup.

Bushmills Black Bush Recipe

The recipe for Bushmill's Black Bush whiskey: Mash a grain mix of equal parts (by weight) of malted and unmalted barley. Shoot for an alcohol level of 8%. Triple distillation in a pot still is the method they use but anything you can do to get it to 80% should work. Dilute down to 63% and age in Oloroso sherry casks for about ten years (keep in mind the Irish climate is a cool, mild one), then mix it with aged corn whiskey of the same strength then reduce to 40% and bottle. (20% corn whiskey, 80% of the malt whiskey). The strain of barley they use is Golden Promise. An ale yeast should be used for the ferment.

Moonshine

A "genuine" moonshine recipe, as still being used by Deb Brewer is ...

5 gallon bucket all grain horse feed (we use MannaPro Hi Grain sweet feed)
one package of yeast (using bread yeast now--others will increase quality and ferment time)
5 pounds sugar
water

Put enough feed to cover bottom of 5 gallon bucket a good 4 inches deep Add 5 pounds of sugar. Fill 1/2 full with warm water--warm enough to melt sugar but not so hot as to kill yeast. Mix until sugar is dissolved. Add yeast and mix some more finish filling with warm water--again not so hot to kill the yeast. Cover with lid--our lid has a little cap that screws on, leave it loose to breathe.

4-5 days later it's ready to run! This is an old-timer recipe and works quite well. Our liquor is always 170-190 proof. You can substitute corn meal for the grain (horse feed) but I don't recommend this for pot stills cuz you can't filter it well enough. The meal will settle and burn in the bottom of your still. The old-fashion way of making corn liquor--with real corn--just is not feasible time wise.
Diamond writes from Kentucky ...

the only way I can tell you is by the barrel full. We used 55 gal. barrels or 53 gal. oak whiskey barrels. Take 100 lb. of cracked yellow corn ( this corn needs to be air dried, not dried by gas, gas dried takes the goodies out of it) Put the meal in the barrel, put about 40 gal. of good water in your cooker and heat the water to about 100 degrees, drain the water by the bucket full and stir your sugar in so it dissolves good, we used 50 lbs. sometimes 60 lbs. of sugar on the first barrel.

Here's probley whats different, we DID NOT add any YEAST of any kind to this. If the weather is in the mid 90's this would work off in 5 to 7 days, about day 2 or 3 it sounded like Rice Crispie's that just had milk poured over them, agin no yeast was added. We did take a wood paddle and maybe stir it once or twice a day. In those days all there was available was baker's yeast, and adding baker's yeast caused an off taste, hic-ups, indigestion or heartburn so thats why it was left out. In cold weather sometimes yeast was used to get the first barrel going.

When the mash got "dog heads" on it, that's when the large single bubbles come about 20-30 seconds apart it was ready to cook off, its better to cook a day early than a day late. The mash also had a sour taste to it. On a 50 or so gal. cooker with two propane burners, shine would start running in about an hour. The cooling barrel was also about 55 gal. with a 5/8 inch by 40 foot copper worm, had cold water running in the top and discharging water coming out mid ways or most time at the bottom of the barrel. This first run would usually start at about 120-125 proof and let it run down to about 80 proof, this was strained through a heavy white felt hat, sometimes a double hand full of hickory charcoal was used in the hat also. You put this 80-125 proof to side to keep, but kept running from the 80 proof on down to about 45-50 proof, this would be about a gal.and we called it singles. The 80-125 proof would be about 4 gal.

You cut your cooker off when you got to the 45-50 proof and let the beer cool down to about 100 degrees. You took about 3, 3lb. coffee cans of your meal out of the barrel and put the same amount of fresh back in ( this makes a difference in your next yield and proof) mix another 60 lbs of sugar to your warm beer and put back in your mash barrel and stir up, let it work off agin.

On your 2nd run, put your beer in the cooker and also the gal. of singles you saved out. This run here should start out about 135 proof, have seen it go to 140, after a gal or so it may be 120 and stay 120 for an hour or better before it drops lower in proof, this run usally last about 2 1/2-3 hours and makes about 9 gal. agin quit saving it when it gets to 80 proof but keep running till down to the 45-50 proof for your singles, it will make about 2 gal or so this run, repeat the whole process 2 more times or more, don't forget to take some old meal out and put same amount of fresh back in each time and also pour the singles back in the cooker. I don't think I've ever seen the proof get above 140, but have seen 11 gal. yields.

On your very last cooking, pour all your previous runs of the 80-140 in a barrel and run your last cooking, keep adding your makings to the barrel stirring and checking till you get the proof you want, most times we done 97-100 proof. But this could be drinked as is or if you wanted it much better, you put all of this finished shine back in the cooker and cooked it agin, this time it comes out at 170 proof and let it run to about 150. Take this and put in a barrel and mix well or spring water with it to get the proof down, it still makes about the same amount, 3 runs always made 22-23 gals. REMEMBER NO YEAST WAS ADDED!!!!!!!!!

MooNShiNeR reckons ...

I've always gone with my tried and true, except for brandies and split-brandies. LOVE making split-brandies!! Large batches of mash ferment the best! Like in 55 gal wooden or plastic (new of course) barrels.

Wheat Bran ~~~~> a five gal. bucketfull and then another half bucket.
Sugar ~~~~~~~~~> 50 lbs. (Sam's club is the deal!)
Fleishman's (Bakers)Yeast ~~~~> 3 packs
Filler up with water.

That'll make anywhere from 6-8 gallons of fine liquor, uuhhh Fuel, yeah fuel...

First batch in will ferment 5-7 days and then form a cap. If you "slop-back" that mash it will work off in 3 days after the yeast is growing up to around 6-7 times. Then it's time to start a fresh mash. When the cap falls, and the beers getting a bitter taste to it, she's ready to run. If it has any sweet taste at all it is too "green" and will not produce as much and will kick and buck and act wild in the still with a posibility of blowing the cap. Not a happy experience. It can ruin yor hole day. Never knew I could run so damn fast... I know a few good common sense tricks on what to do when as far as the mash goes. If is it not workin good or too good for that matter. You make all the alcohol in the barrel. If you don't do it right there, the prettiest still in the world won't do you any good at all. Still just separates the juice from the water. Hell, you all know all that by now, I'm sure of that.

Wheat bran: when U go to the feed store where they mill 'th grain, specify unsalted wheat bran. If the feller looks at you twice or reaaal hard, mumble kinda under yor breath, "damn horse is so constipated..."
Sugar: Go 't Sam's Club or anywhere thet they would sell you sum 50 pound saks 'O sugar and load a couple up on yor cart. Take 'em to 'th check out counter. Whistle a tune, soft and slow like. Don't forget to whistle... And if the checkout countr gurl looks at you funny like or says sumthin smart, you jess say, "Yep, the church is havin a bake sale t'morrow and they all put me in charge of buyin 'th sugars." This'll covr you fer buyin all them packs of Fleishman's Bakers yeast too.
Werks for me...

My notes on sloppin back, ya'll folks've caLLed it yeast recyclin. That's just fine (must be city folk) Ya'll alright. I luv ya jess 'th same.

Ok, see... What I'm tryin to say hear see, is... After yor first run 'O mash, save about half 'O that slop thar in thet cooker 'O yors and put thet rite back in thet there barrel. OK, bucket for you short runnrs. Add half agin as much new fresh grain to hit. DON'T put n'more yeast inner. She's got enuff rite thar whare shes at. OK, put the usual amounts of sugar rite in thar as well. Watchr work up a STORM and make sum goooood likker my frens. Specially on the thrice batch like I toldja b'fore. Now do this up to 6-7 times. Toldja thet one too. Man, ya'll gonna make sum goood sh*t, I tell ya.

When I'm through witchall, ya gwon 't make sum two shot stuff. Two shotz and you'll be bouncing off 'th walls to find jore bed at night.

Moonshine Stills Photos

Brandon makes a corn whisky :

try 25 pounds cracked corn, 25 pounds sugar, 12.5 gals water. First wash your cracked corn really good to get most of the trash particles out-- put in in a large vessel-- (we use a food grade plastic drum with a snap on lid)--in a seperate container collect 6.25 gals hot water--add sugar to this and stir unitl it is all disolved--pour into the drum with the corn-- then add another 6.25 gals. cold water -- stir mixture till u get a thermometer reading of 78F to 80F deg (25C). then add 1.5 pkgs turbo yeast(if u use it) or 4 to 6 ozs. bakers yeast-- stir for a couple of minutes and let it sit -- it will begin to ferment in a couple of hours it the temp is around 80 to 90 deg.--when the wash has quit bubbling and the liquid is clear -siphon off and distill

Wal summarises a few moonshine recipes ...

If you want to make your own recipe, keep in mind grain contains about 60% fermentable material. About 1 to 1.5 kg of grain is normally used / 4 L (1 US gal) as the mash is quite thick, the rest can be sugar. 1 kg grain/4 L water would be equivalent to 600 g sugar/4 L, so you could add an additional 200 g sugar/4 L to give a 10% alcohol yield which beer yeasts should handle. The crushed grain needs 10% crushed malted grain for malting. e.g. a generic moonshine mash for 20 l could be 5 kg crushed grain, 500 g crushed malted grain, and 1 kg sugar. Other combinations are possible.

Kentucky Sweet Mash
20 L water (5 gal)
2 kg (4 and 1/2 lb) corn meal
500 g (1 lb)
50 g malted grain

'Alcohol Fuel Manual' grain mash
20 L water (5 gal)
4 kg (9 lb) crushed grain
400 g (1 lb) crushed malted grain

Ian Smiley's Corn Whisky
20 L water (5 gal)
3.5 kg (8 lb) flaked maize
750 g (1 and 1/2 lb) crushed malted grain

Moonshine : 'Old John Barley'
20 L water (5 gal)
2 kg (4 and 1/2 lb) crushed corn
700 g (1 and 1/2 lb) crushed barley
300 g (3/4 lb) malt syrup
1 kg (2 and 1/2 lb) molasses

Moonshine
20 L water (5 gal)
3 kg (7 lb)crushed grain
4.5 kg (10 lb) sugar

Moonshine
20 L water (5 gal)
2 kg (4 and 1/2 lb) corn meal
300 g (1 lb) malted corn
2.5 kg (5 and 1/2) lb sugar

Moonshine
20 L water (5 gal)
6 kg corn meal (uncooked)
0.6 L malted corn

The Fine Art of Moonshining
Fermenter - barrel (55 gals or 220 l)
1/2 bushel (30 lb or 14 kg) Corn Meal
a)
3 & 1/2 lbs (1.5 kg) malted corn
2 handfuls raw rye to form cap on fermenting mash
Optional - sugar, 40 lbs (20 kg) in 2 lots - 10 lb (5 kg) then 30 lb (15 kg)
Yeast not mentioned.
b)
1 bushel (60 kg) corn meal
1 & 1/2 gal (6 l ) malted corn
Yield -
Pure Corn 1.5 gal (4-6 l)/bushel (28 lb or 13 kg)
Corn & Sugar 6 gal (24 l)/bushel (28 lb or 13 kg)

Shawn is learning corn whisky from an elder neighbour...

He has learned this through trial and error but he is willing to try and teach me. For example there is not allot of exact science that he uses. Its mostly by site, smell, tasting and touching.

Please remember allot of hard work goes into making the mash if you do not use sugar. The problem that I have now is that there is not a local mill here in C that will grind the malt without asking questions.

He does not use a hydrometer but he reads the bead. Here is how he does it. He takes a quart mason jar half full of the distillate with a lid on it. He holds the top of the jar in his right hand and hits the inside of his left hand with the bottom of the jar three times. This causes the distillate to bubble inside the jar and before the bubbles settle he turns the jar onto its side and it will break into three consistent pools. Thus he said is 103 proof. He was right because I checked it with a hydrometer and its between 100 and 104 every time. Nothing replaces experience

The still ...He has had several different sizes over the past several years but all of them were made of copper. Typically they were pot stills that had thumpers attached to them. He primed the thumpers with what he refers to as backings. Which I have interpreted as (what was at the end of the previous run.) The actual boiler was surrounded with a type of clay and rock mixture and was heated with propane burners. The boiler did not sit on top of the heat source. It was heated indirectly. The large still that he used for corn whiskey had a tank that set beside the still with tubing that ran from the cap of the still through the container. This was filled with mash and was preheated by the current alcohol of the mash being distilled. When he had gotten to the end of the first run the old mash was discarded through a valve at the bottom of the still and the new preheated mash was drained into the still from a valve at the top therefore eliminating the slow heat up of the new mash. Just in a few minutes there would be distillate running. The cooling was done by a 1inch worm in a 55 gallon barrel with cold water being piped up from the creek.

Things have changed quite a bit since the "real old" moonshine recipes ... Jeff wrote of

SOUR MASH MOON SHINE

1 bushel of hard (seed) white corn
bury corn in horse manure
pour 5 gallon of water over the corn
corn sprouts in about two days
remove corn and wash
roll the corn to crack it
put corn in a 55 gallon barrel
add 1/2 bushel of corn meal
add 5 pound of sugar
fill barrel with water
in 21 days a red skim will form and it is time to cook it put a hose with a stopper in the end and push it to the bottom. Blow out the stopper and siphon off the mixture until about 4 inches is left in the barrel
strain remaining liquid, put in cooker, cook it till it boils, then simmer.
yields 1.5 gallons of 105 proof moon shine!!!

SWEET MASH MOON SHINE

1/2 bushel of corn meal in 55 gallon barrel
5 pounds of sugar
1/2 pounds of "Red Star" yeast
Scald the mixture with 5_10 gallons of boiling water
fill barrel with water till five or six inches from the top.
cover barrel with cloth and wait till it quits working (about 2-3 days)
cook mixture until it boils
put a hose with a stopper in the end and push it to the bottom. Blow out the stopper and siphon off the mixture until about 4 inches is left in the barrel
strain remaining liquid, put in cooker, cook it till it boils, then simmer.
yields 4 gallons of 90 proof moon shine!!!

Dave replied to these with ...

Your recipes are interesting conversation, but I don't think you would want to drink the whiskey made from either. Whiskey made from corn exposed to horse shit will have a flavor dissagreable to most. The amount of whiskey produced by the second recipe is way off base. A good rule of thumb is that there is one US gallon of 100 proof whiskey in a bushel of corn. Also, one gallon in 25 pounds of sugar. Here is how my late grandfather made

ALABAMA CORN WHISKEY:

Take one bushel of untreated seed corn.
Put it in two croaker sacks ( burlap bags to any Yankees reading this).
Put each sack in a #2 washtub of water at about body temperature.
Weight each sack down with a concrete block.
Soak the corn for 12 hours,
Bury the sacks about 4 inches deep in the compost pile.
He had a special compost pile for this. It was composed entirely from oak leaves.
When the sprouted corn root is about half the lenght of the corn grain you are ready.
Wash the corn in clear water. Grind the corn very course. He used a Corona mill.
Put the ground corn in a 50 gallon wooden barrell. Finish filling the barrell with water.
Add 12 packs Fleishmans yeast. Let ferment until complete.
Siphon off the liquor, leaving behind any dead snakes, rats, birds or other varmits.
Put it in the still. Fire it off slowly.
If anything came out in under an hour, you are too fast.
Run it through the still 3 times. Catch the first pint of each run. Save it for your Coleman lamp. It ain't fit to drink. That is where your headaches are.
Yield should be about 1 US gallon of pure 100 proff, triple distilled whiskey.
Don't empty the spent grains outa the fermenting pot just yet. You can use it to make seconds or " backins" as the old timers called it. To make 'good stuff' add another bushel of sprouted corn ( no more yeast) . Let it work and repeat the above procedure.
To make rot gut for your brother-in-law add 20 pounds of sugar and proceed as above
Keep in mind: Never, ever under any circumstances whatsoever let anything touch your whiskey except wood, stainless steel, copper or glass. Age your whiskey in charred oak barrels for at least a year. Or for small amounts, tale a wide mouth gallon jug. Add lump hardwood charcoal ( NEVER use briquettes, only REAL charcoal). Fill with whiskey. Age at least a year. Filter through a coffee filter & drink it.
Nearly 40 years ago, as a young scientist, I took a sample of grandpaw's whiskey and several storebought whiskeys to the lab & ran 'em through the gas cromatagraph. Grampa's was much more pure !!

Mark found an old recipe ...

"It is many years ago that this Norwegian recipe was used and I put it down here just for a matter of record. It would be a blessing if modern distillers would adopt this old pure old formula.

Take one bushel of corn meal and one-fourth bushel of malted barley meal. Place them in a large kettle and cover with enough good well water to cover the meal at least four or five inches. Slowly bring to a low boil and simmer for at least one hour, preferably two hours, and keep adding water to keep up the water level as the meal absorbs the water. Stir to keep from burning. This cooking or mashing gives the malted barley enzymes a chance to change the starch in the corn to maltose which is an easily fermented sugar. Yeast cannot change cornstarch or any other starch to sugar. Remove the pot from the heat. Let cool and strain the liquid from the cooked meal into a fifty gallon oak barrel. Add well water to the cooked meal mass. This is called "sparging" it and stir and again squeeze out the liquid. Repeat until all of the liquids possible are washed out of the cooked meal. Add about one hundred pounds of corn sugar or invert sugar or cane sugar, if you do not have the others, and stir in well. Fill the barrel about three- fourths full by adding good well water. Take a saccharometer and test the solution. By adding sugar or water, adjust the solution so that it will produce sixteen percent alcohol. Add a gallon of top fermenting yeast "starter" or about five pounds of yeast skimmed off from a previous mash or bakers' yeast if you have no top fermenting yeast. Put a cover on the barrel as yeast produces alcohol much faster if it does not have too much of a supply of air. Never set a mash where it is windy or drafty as then the yeast will turn the sugar into carbon dioxide and water, not carbon dioxide and alcohol. Let ferment at not colder than 75 degrees. Test the wort or liquid every day with a saccharometer. Let the saccharometer go between 996 and 998.

Then siphon and run the wort through a pot still, not a patent still, in not less than three hours time producing not more than ten to twelve gallons of whiskey running about 90 proof. Strain the whiskey through a three-foot-thick layer of hard maple charcoal. Add one quart of dry sherry wine and the juice from a level tablespoon of nutmeg boiled in a half cup of water to the whiskey. Store in oak barrels or in glass jugs with a few oak chips in the bottom. The oak barrels or the oak chips will give the whiskey color. No modern maker has ever equalled this whiskey and will admit it if asked. It is so smooth that you can drink it down like water, needs no mixing with anything. Any Scandinavian worth of the name was highly insulted if you ever tried to diulte this drink of the gods." Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes -- G.L. Herter, circa 1969

Sour Mash

One style that is sometimes used for whiskey is that of a "sour mash".

Jack explains ...

The reason sour mashing is done is to lower the pH of the fermenting mash in order to help prevent bacterial infections. It is used in both rum and bourbon making because both grain and sugar cane/molasses have a large amount of naturally occuring yeast and bacteria growing on them because of the high sugar and starch content these products tend to have. It is much easier (on an industrial scale) to reuse the liquid left in the still after the run is finished to adjust the pH of the next batch, rather than using higher cost food grade acids. It will also help to create a more consistant product from batch to batch.

Jack on how to do a bourbon/sourmash ...

All the grains you listed (

) look like a de-husked, pre-processed variety (that will prevent any husk flavors - wheat is (I think) the only grain you can leave in the ferment without worrying about off (tannic) flavors developing. The husk on any other grain will make a drink that tastes like hay horse bedding). It also looks like a bourbon recipe, so, keeping with the industry standard, you ferment on the grain (only malt whiskey is sparged, anything with corn or rye in it is fermented on the grain).

Here is how I do it.

Mix your grain bill together and weigh it out. For every 3 pounds of grain (1344 grams) you will need one gallon (4 liters) of water.
Put the grain-I use 15 pounds (6.75 Kilos) per 5 gallon (20L) batch- into your fermentor (sanitized, 20+liter buckets are best), pour in 10 liters of room temperature water, and mix it with the grain. Make sure there are no lumps or clumps, and that all the grain has been wetted down (no dry spots are allowed). The first water mixed with the grain MUST NOT BE HEATED!! If it is, the grain will clump together, leaving dry spots in the middle of the clumps, leading to an infection.
Take the next 10 Liters of water and bring it to a boil in a pot on the stove. Once it's boiling, pour it into the bucket with the pre-wetted grain, and stir it up to prevent any clumping. This will liquify the starch, and sanitize the batch (the precooling effects of the grain/water in the bucket will prevent the bucket from warping/melting).
Leave the hot water/grain filled bucket overnight. When cool, add your yeast and your enzyme, and let it ferment. Depending on the grain, when you add the yeast, the mash may be as thick as oatmeal- don't add any more water, it will thin out in a day or so, during the ferment.
Wait until all foaming and bubbling has stopped, and all the grain settles to the bottom (3 days to 2 weeks, depending on temperature), filter this through a layer or two of cheesecloth, and distill it.
This is how bourbon is made commercially in the US. It's also how I've been doing it for the last year.

If you want a true sourmash bourbon, after the distilling of this whiskey, save 4liters of slop from the still (it will be sour after it's been stripped of it's alcohol) and add it to the grain, along with 6 liters of room temp water, instead of just adding 10 liters of cool water. The idea is to get a mix of water/still slop that is 25% still slop (this is the minimum amount required by law to call the stuff sourmash bourbon in the US). The sour slop will lower the pH dramatically, helping to prevent bacteria, and helping to promote enzyme activity. There you go- no extra equipment needed, and you can fill your fermentor up to just about the top.

Mashing (holding the temps, etc) is a waste of time for whiskey- the enzymes work in about 90 minutes at mashing temperatures- at room temp, they take about 2 or 3 days (you know, about the same amount of time for a seed to sprout- this is a natural proccess, after all). Because the yeast is in the mix all ready, no time is really lost. As soon as starch converts, it's fermented.

Ted Palmer advises

In distilling 'sour mash' is the process of using up to 1/3 of the stillage

in the next batch of mash. The pH is low and it helps save water in the distillery.

(This is different from 'sour-mash' as done by beer brewers, where sour mash is made by allowing lacto baccilus bacteria to lower the pH of the mash before or during ferment. No distiller would ever add lacto or any other bacteria to his mash, for the reason that the bacteria lower the yield of ethanol. If you want to try making a lacto culture take barley malt and soak/cover it with water and let it set for a day or two. You should smell a vinegar aroma, if not, toss it out and try again. Lacto bacillus live on grain)

Brad also adds ...

I have never done it but it is used occasionally in brewing. Some like a sour tang in stouts and Belgian wheat ales. The procedure is very simple. Bring a few handfuls of cracked pale malt in a small mini-mash up to a warm temperature, around 50 °C or so. Hold for a few hours and leave for a couple of days covered with aluminium foil. Some people put it inside a thermos flask to keep the temperature up. The naturally occurring lactobacillus on the grains will multiply and acidify (lactic acid) and sour the malt. It is then added to the main mash. I don't know the theory or practice behind sour mash whisky nor why it is done.

Jeff writes about the "backset" coming from still residue...

The most explicit is Waymark & Harris _The Book of Classic American Whiskeys_ (although they contain some other inaccuracies) (p. 59 - 60): "Meeting the fresh mash in the fermenting tub is some of the leftover 'distiller's beer' from the lasts distillation. Called by many names - - thin slop, backset, setback, yeast back - the proportion of this 'yeast back' tends to be around 25 per cent of the total volume of the new mash. The high temperature of the distilling column has taken out the alcohol and killed the yeast, but the leftover spent beer is mildly acidic as a result of the fermentation process. Added to the new mash, the boost in acidity provided by the spent beer inhibits undesired bacteria and yeasts, making the mash - technically, but rarely by distillers, called 'wort' at this stage - safe for the desired distiller's yeast. it also provides a certain continuity in character between batches. It is from this step that we get the term, 'sour mash.' Because of the limestone character of the water, a sweet mash, that is, a mash not using any of the acidic 'yeast back,' would be pH neutral or even a bit alkaline, and hence at high risk of spoilage through undesired microbiological growth."

BTW, backset is also added to the mash, not just the fermenter (from Murray's _Classic Bourbon, Tennessee and Rye Whiskey_): It is also at this stage [the mash] ,that the sour mash process is introduced (adding an amount of the backset, that is the spent grains from the previous distillation, the thin stillage, to the mash). This succeeds in controlling the acidity of the mash and helps prevent bacterial infection."

Regan & Regan define backset in their _Bourbon Companion_ (p. 173): "Liquid strained from the mash after its primary distillation. Sometimes referred to as sour mash, stillage, spent beer or setback."

So here we have it described as both spent grains and as liquid. It would appear that since the writers are neither distillers of even brewers that they are not writing from a position of first hand familiarity with the processes.

Regan & Regan write in their _Book of Bourbon_ (p 211): All sour-mash whiskeys use a measure of backset to bring continuity of style to subsequent batches of fermentable mash. _Every_ straight bourbon, rye and Tennessee whiskey made at present is made by the sour-mash method. [I don't know if they are including Anchor's Old Potrero - JSR] Regulations used to require a minimum of 25 percent of the total mash be made of of backset in order for a whiskey to use the words "sour mash" on the label. Although that rule no longer applies, most distilleries still use upwards of 20 percent."

Regan & Regan list the percentage of sour mash used by different distillers in their _Bourbon Companion_ (although I think this should be taken with a grain of salt - for one thing, Murray says that Beam declined to provide details of their processes and recipes but the Regans give details). They range from 20 - 25% at many distilleries to 32% at Maker's Mark to an astounding 41% reported for Jim Beam!

As an example of how backset is used in both the mash and the fermentation, Murray reports (p. 50) that Bernheim uses 12.5% in each, for a total of 25%.

I have seen some authors (but can't find it right now) compare sour mash to sourdough in that it provides a continuity of process, but as a baker who knows sourdough, this is not an entirely apt comparison. Sourdough, after all, contains live organisms.

Ian Smiley explains how the sour mash recipe is a variation on the "no-cook" technique :

The reason that modern mashing methods use specifically optimized temperature, pH, water chemistry, etc is to maximize the efficiency of the operation. And, some distillers over the years have argued that such practices over-process the mash and produce a much less natural or desirable flavour.

No-cook recipes have been around for centuries and there are people even today that swear by them. However, a no-cook recipe is very slow and extremely inefficient, and that is why the old-time sour-mash methods were developed, probably about 200 years ago.

The sour-mash method involves the mixing of corn pone (i.e. meal), and other grains such as rye or wheat, with water, and sometimes barley malt, at ambient temperature. Almost all no-cook recipes nowadays involves the addition of sugar as well. A large charge of whiskey yeast is added and a very slow and inefficient fermentation takes place. When the fermentation is complete, the spent grains that float to the top are skimmed off and discarded. The liquid is strained from the mash and distilled into whiskey.

A mixture of about 50% backset (i.e. the left-over liquid in the still after the distillation is finished) and 50% water is added to the remaining grain in the fermenter, and some additional grain is added to make up for what was skimmed off and discarded. There's ample yeast left in the grain sediment in the fermenter so no additional yeast is required. And, a second batch is fermented. When the fermentation is complete, the process is repeated, and so on.

This no-cook sour-mash method is very inefficient by commercial standards, but in the end almost nothing is lost. The same grain and the same liquid (backset) is recycled again and again, with only the spent grains removed. Even the residual alcohol and non-fermentable sugars in the backset is cycled back for another enzyme exposure and fermentation.

It was by this sour-mash method that distilleries were achieving very high grain-to-alcohol conversion efficiencies 200 hundred years ago with very little scientific understanding of the process.

Regarding Old Prorero Jack offers ...

Rye mash is fermented on the grain- it is not sparged, or boiled.

Old Protrero recipe:

Mash 100% rye malt at 110F for 30minutes, then 145 (30minutes), then 155 (30minutes) to get the best conversion, then cool with a wort chiller to 80F and add your yeast. (if you wonder about water chemistry, use the kind for "California common" styles of beer)
The 110F rest is called a "beta-glucan" rest- it is done to break up the gums in malted and unmalted grain, and in beer brewing can increase sugar yields by as much as 15%.
Double distilling in a potstill (collect the run in separate lots, say 100ml, and blend them together by taste) is what is done for Old Protrero (they use an old fashioned alembic style still- it looks like a onion-topped Cognac still).
It is aged for just about one year in UNCHARRED American oak barrels- he did this to allow the peppery/honey quality of the rye to come through more strongly than the vanillins from charred oak, plus, he admits to trying to replicate an early 1800's whiskey, and charred barrels were not required in America until 1933- he ("he" being Fritz Maytag- the founder of the distillery, and founder/owner of the Anchor Steam brewery) is also experimenting with some new charred oak for his later runs- but I don't think any has been released

Scotch

Jacks recipe for "liquid golden heaven" ...

Try this-

Soak 50 grams of peated malt in a gallon of water at 155F for 45 minutes- remove the grain, add another gallon and a half of water and bring to a boil- stir in 12 pounds pale malt extract-top up to 5 gallons and cool. Ferment with a dry ale yeast.
Then put this five gallons into 10, half full gallon milk jugs and freeze them SOLID in your freezer. Invert the jars over some one quart canning jars and allow the liquid to drip out (no external heat) until the quart jar is full- the result will be about 2.5 gallons of malt wine at about 17%abv.
Use the "brewing schnapps without a still" type of still (the ice water bath still) to turn this liquid into a 55% abv spirit.
Then blend this unaged spirit 50/50 with some sugar spirit (double distilled and carbon polished- diluted down to 45%abv then aged for one week on virgin-new, uncharred, American oak- 1cup of oak per gallon of spirit) then add one tablespoon of honey per quart bottle (dissolved and boiled until clear in some water- just use equal parts water/honey)
TA DA!!! liquid golden heaven. For a slight fruitiness to this, toss in a raisin or two (per bottle), and let them soak for a week. Having alot of pure sugar spirit around thats really clean tasting is a good thing for anyone (including traditional potstillers') to have laying about! Without blending, pure malt (made with extract) costs about $10US a litre- this makes it more economical, but just as tasty!!

For a wheat whisky, Jack writes ...

This is the grain bill for Maker's Mark "red wax seal" whisky (the founder of the distillery insisted on the Scottish spelling, instead of the Irish "whiskey):
70% corn
14% wheat
16% 6-row barley malt.
Mash in the 150 to 155F range for 90 minutes, then ferment on the grain, strain out the solids, then distill to about 70 to 80%abv. If you have any soured mash (from previous whiskey runs) or "backset" use a mix of backset (33%) and water (67%) for your mashing water- this is how the distillery does it. If you want a more neutral flavor, Stoli vodka is wheat based, just distill an all-wheat mashbill (ferment on the grain again) then distill to a higher proof- around 90%abv.

Beer Schnapps

Jack offers ...

Beer schnaps are a somewhat unheard of spirit. for the most part, it is made privately among brewers in Germany, and shared among other brewers. Of the beers turned into schnaps, the pilsener style tends to produce the most complex distillate. With a complex malt profile and a powerfull hop bitterness/aroma they make a great spirit to show off to any commercial brewers you happen to know. One of the best pilseners I've turned into schnapps was a clone of a Czech pilsener: Pilsener Urquell. Here is the beer/mash recipe.

Steep in a half gallon of water at 150F for 20 minutes:

1/2 pound 2.5 lovibond German light crystal malt
2 oz German Munich malt
Strain the water into your brewpot, rinse the grains with 1/2gallon of 150F water.
Add water to the pot to bring the volume up to 1.5 gallons, bring to a boil and add:
6 pounds extra-light dry malt extract
3.5 oz of Czech Saaz hops @3% alpha acid
Add water to bring volume up to 2.5 gallons, bring to a boil and boil for 45 minutes, then add:
1oz Czech Saaz hops
1 tsp Irish moss
Boil for 15 minutes, then add:
1oz Czech Saaz hops
Boil for 3 minutes, remove the pot from the burner, put the lid on the pot, and cool with an ice water bath or a wort chiller. Top up with cool water to 5 gallons, put into a sanitized fermentor and add your yeast. The best yeast is Wyeast's 2278 Czech pilsener lager yeast. If you don't want to go to the trouble of fermenting it at 45F for 3 weeks, you can use two packets of EDME dry yeast. Just make sure you add the yeast when the beer is at 70F - NO HIGHER!! OFF FLAVORS WILL DEVELOP AT HIGH TEMPERATURES!!
After 7 days soak 1/2 oz Czech Saaz hops in a quarter cup of vodka, and add to the beer (the vodka sanitizes the hops and acts as a carrier for the aromatic oils).

14 days later, run it into a potstill, collecting the first 75ml as heads, then go by taste. Keep a teaspoon by the collection jar and taste it as the run progresses- it will end sooner than you think due to the lower alcohol. Don't try to adjust the recipe to get more alcohol in it- it will ruin the balance of the malt and hops. Some like to end the run at higher strenths, making the hops more dominant, some like to let the run progress a little farther, so the malt can come through a little more (my preference).
You should make an attempt to ferment with a good liquid lager yeast at lager temps. A five gallon carboy fits into a 5-gallon bucket, which can then be filled with water. Ice can be added to the bucket when you leave for work, and when you come home, to maintain lager temperature. This gives the beer/spirit a better aftertaste/finish. If you decide not to distill it, just bottle the five gallons with either 3/4cup of corn sugar or 1.25cups of light dry malt extract, boiled in water. You now have something German brew masters talk quietly among themselves about.

Russian Vodka (Samogon)

Volodia reports ...

I was under the impression that vodka was made from unmalted grain until I came across a Russian language site: http://www.stopka.ru/drink/samogon/samogon00.shtml.The site gives instructions for making a simple pot still and a Chinese still (using a central wok-like condenser), and samogon recipes. For the social and economic background to samogon production (in English) see http://www.exile.ru/feature/feature93.html. See also ..

http://www.stopka.ru/drink/samogon/samogon00.shtml
http://samogon.by.ru/index.htm
http://homepages.irk.ru/quant/samog/samogon.html

Measurements are given in buckets, the size of which is not given, but the old Russian bucket measure was 12litres. When yeast is not available, a sourdough starter of 3l of boiled hops and 1.5l of stillage(back slop) is recommended. A fully malted grain based mash recipe from malted rice, wheat, barley, millet, maize or peas is suggested. The consistency of the mash is to be a watery gruel (kissel). 500g of yeast is recommended for 12 buckets of mash.

Recipes from Samogon site:

Wheat grain malt. 10kg malted wheat, 30l water, 500g yeast.
Potatoes and malted grain. 5 buckets potatoes, 2 buckets malted grain.
Bread and malted grain (1). 20 loaves of bread, 2 buckets malted grain.
Bread and malted grain (2). 12 loaves of bread, 1/2 bucket malt grain, 15l water, 750g yeast.
Sugar mash. 6kg sugar, 30l water, 200g yeast, bunch currants or morello cherries or dill for flavor.
Sugar-beet. 30l of shredded and cooked sugar-beets, 200g yeast.
Sugar-beet and sugar. 15l shreded and cooked sugar-beets, 6kg sugar, 10l water, 500g yeast.
Sugar-beet molasses. 1 bucket molasses, 25l water, 250g yeast.
Starch. 2 buckets water, 10kg starch, 2kg sugar, 500g yeast.
Medovukha. 3kg honey, 3l sugar syrup, 27l water, 300g yeast.
Mixed mash. 20 glasses wheat grain, 1kg sugar 21litres water.
Other recipes are for fresh apples, pears, plums and dried apples and pears (in winter I gather).

Bread

Wal writes ...

Bread is already a baked (cooked) milled grain i.e flour, and seems like an great waste product to ferment. At least 50% starch apparently.

I collected over a period 7kg of left-over bread. Dried it to make sure it did not go mouldy, and just treated it like a milled and cooked grain. You have the option of adding 10% malt to convert the starch to sugars or using amylase enzymes. Yield is apparently about 60% sugar from the starch in the bread. I used 1 kg bread/5 litres of water. (1 lb - 2 lb/gal seems the norm)
Method:

Crush bread (gelatines easier)
Raise temperature of water to 75C ( I used a 60 litre HDPE open-top plastic drum with 2/1500W jug elements screwed in)
Add crushed bread
Wait for temperature to drop to 65C
Add malt or amylase enzymes (I used enzymes)
Hold at 65C for at least 1 hour.
Cool to 24C (overnight)
Add yeast (You could first strain off the sugar rich liquid for a clean wash)

Left over bread can also be used as a supplement with a sugar wash to provide nutrients for the yeast.

'Bouza' which has been known in Egypt since the days of the Pharaohs. See http://www.fao.org/docrep/x2184e/x2184e07.htm Here is a redacted version.

Bouza (Egyptian beer):
To get a 5% abv beer you would use
4 kg coarsely ground wheat
1 kg wheat grain
30 litres water
Knead 4 kg coarse flour with a quantiity of water into a dough.
Cut dough into thick loaves and bake lightly.
Moisten with water the 1 kg of wheat grain and allow to germinate (3-5 days).
Sun dry grains, crush and mix with the bread loaves which are soaked in water in a fermenter.
Add active slurry from previous mash. Ferment. Bread is also still fermented to make a 'bread kvas' by the Eastern Slavs (Ukrainians, Belarusians, Russians) and the word 'kvas' is mentioned in 10th century Kievan chronicles. 'Kvas' is a generic word covering weakly fermented drinks from malted grain, bread, fruits and tree saps (maple & birch). Red beets were also fermented to make a sour 'beet kvas' for borshch before the introduction of tomatoes which provided sourness. 'Bread kvas' which is allowed to go sour, is also used as a natural vinegar for borshch. Sometimes one comes across the word 'kvas' and for comparison purposes here are several redacted recipes.

Green malt and rye bread kvas:

1 kg green rye malt (barley & oats were also malted)
1 kg sliced dried dark rye bread
20 litres water
For a reddish color, roast a small quantity of the malted grain) Crush malt lightly. Add green malt and bread to water (65C). Allow to stand for several hours. Add sour dough starter (or 30 g yeast) and allow to ferment for several days. Strain. Keep in cool place. Drink when still effervescent or bottle as for beer.

Rye bread kvas:

1 kg sliced dried rye bread (lightly toasted in oven)
1 kg honey, molasses (or sugar)
20 litres water
Pour boiling water over bread, honey/molasses. Allow to cool (24C). Add sour dough starter (or 30 g yeast) and allow to ferment for several days. Strain. Keep in cool place. Drink when still effervescent or bottle as for beer.

Crabapple and wild pear kvas:

7.5 kg apples (cores removed)
7.5 kg pears (cores removed)
20 litres water
Pour water over apples and pears. Cover and allow to ferment (traditionally by wild yeasts). Strain. Keep in cool place. Drink when still effervescent or bottle as for beer.

Kvas is a folk beverage, and there are many variations depending on available material and personal taste. I have seen recipes using mint or horseradish root for flavoring.

Rice

Jack experiments again ...

A friend of mine wanted me to try and make for him a traditional Korean spirit. I'm not sure how traditional this is, but, judging by the info on ancient Chinese distillation techniques, this stuff would be considered a high quality drink.

Go to an asian food store and look in the fridge section for something called Koji (it's a mold culture used to make soy paste, sake, etc), it typically comes in a plastic, 20oz container (round, taller rather than wider- I used Cold Mountain brand rice koji).
Soak an equal VOLUME of short grain rice in enough water to cover it overnight (just dump the koji into a bowl and use the container to get an equal volume of rice/koji), then, steam the rice for 45minutes. After steaming, add 20fl.oz. of cold water and 1.25teaspoons of Morton Salt Substitute (no other brand is allowed- this is the only stuff with the right chemical composition)
(The salt substitute is a mix of potassium chloride, fumaric acid, tri- and mono- calcium phosphate. It's not essential to the brewing proccess (I've made 2 batches, one with one without- I couldn't tell the difference) as far as I can see, but the book on sake brewing I have reccomends it. If you can't find it- don't worry, for this recipe it's not critical. It's more of a requirement for plain sake brewing, though. I guess it acts like a micronutrient source for the yeast and the koji. The sake book also adds a little winemaker's yeast nutrient, but I ran out while trying out the recipe- it didn't harm it any.)

Stir the rice/water until there are no clumps of grain, then add the koji.
Cover and let it sit for 2 days, then add a wine yeast (I used lalvin k1v-1116).
Allow to ferment at LAGER temperature (50F) until the rice settles down to the bottom of the fermentor.
Distill this sour smelling sake twice in a potstill- that's it- a traditional korean folk liquor.
If you use sorghum instead of rice, you get a drink highly prized in China called Mao-Tai. I personally hate sake ( I thought tequila hangovers were bad!),but this distilled product is pretty good- It has a buttery, grainy smell/flavor that is really quite good (the sorghum version has the same taste but with an underlying soy flavor- my personal favorite). Forget all the sake you have tried- this stuff has none of the sourness of the mash. It is, in fact, not sweet, but almost malty in texture (like a thick beer-despite being out of a still), and is definitely the strangest batch that you can bring to any homebrew tasting. Something grand from those who brought you Kimchi!!

Wal writes ...

Japanese rice wine or 'Sake' is distilled to make the spirit 'Shochu' ('Soju' in Korean). Koji mold (Aspergilus ssp.) is traditionally used to make the mash, but enzymes (amylase) and citric acid are also being used currently to make shochu. This could be copied by homedistillers. See:
'Sake World' http://www.sake-world.com Click on 'How Sake is Made'
'Ingredients of Japanese Sake' http://www.media-akita.or.jp/akita-sake/materialE.html
'The Chemistry of Sake Brewing' http://brewery.org/library/sake/techpa15.htm Click on 'Top' to go to the Index
'Production of Shochu Spirit from Crushed Rice by Non-Cooking Fermentation' http://ss.jircas.affrc.go.jp/engpage/jarq/33-1/nishimura/nishimura.html

A Japanese experiment by Kenryo Nishimura and others proved that it is not necessary to cook (to gelatinize) or convert (malting) milled grain prior to fermentation. Milling, soaking, adding enzymes and citric acid is sufficient - "....the product obtained by the non-cooking fermentation method was superior to that obtained by the cooking fermentation method in terms of both aroma and flavor components." The product referred to is 'shochu', a Japanese distilled spirit from rice. The non-cooking fermentation did take only one day longer than the cooking method due to the initial concentration of glucose in the cooking method. The method eliminates the messy cooking part of using grain and should encourage more to try grain-based washes. Here is a suggested quick moonshine mash for 5 US gals or 20 litres:

Quick Moonshine
5 kg (10 lb) crushed grain (grits)
2 and 1/2 kg (5 lb) sugar
20 L (5 US gals) water
2 tbsp acid (2 g acid/litre)- a pH 4-5 is required.
2 tsp amylase enzymes (alpha-, beta-, gluco-) or 750 g (1 and 1/2 lb)
crushed malted barley grain (15% by weight)
Suitable ale yeast
Yeast nutrient (D.A.P.)
This should produce about 10-12%abv.
No pre-soaking of the crushed grain is required as there is sufficient sugars for the yeast to begin the fermentation process while the grain soaks.

Steve explains about Koji ...

Kojiis a type of mould similar to that which turns bread green and furry. Scientific name: Aspergillus oryzae. It breaks down starch with an enzyme called amylase, the same one as in saliva and malted grains (the very same enzymes we activate when we mash malted barley, wheat etc to produce wort.)

Koji comes in two forms. First is koji kin, in other words, seed koji. This is generally in the form of rice grains on which the mould has been allowed to run rampant and go to spore and then dried. This is now the inoculum.

The second form is what is more commonly referred to as simply koji, but to distinguish it from koji kin is referred to as kome koji (kome means rice in Japanese--it is pronounced as two syllables, the "o" should be as in of, and the "e" as in egg.) So this koji is steamed and cooled rice that has been inocculated with some koji kin and then incubated at 30 to 35 degrees for a few days. The mould hyphae grow right through the rice. You need to stir it every 6 to 12 hours and stop it by bunging it in the fridge if it starts to go yellowy green--that means it is trying to form spore. In Japan, it is possible to pop down to the local supermarket and buy koji in this form fromm the cool-goods section as it is used for making miso paste and a few other food-related things.

In sake making, it is this kome koji that is mixed together with a larger quantity of steamed rice, some water and yeast to get the fermentation underway. At coolish temperatures (10-15 deg) the koji chugs away making amylase, the amylase converts the rice starch to sugar, and the yeast does what yeast does best. And yadda yadda yadda, eventually you get sake.

Whisky

Steve writes to the dbd ...

Scotch is made from traditionally manufactured 2-row malt (no bromates of giberellic acid to speed the process). Takes about 15 days. The malt is similar to a lager malt (less modified than a PA malt) and some or all is smoked above peat fires for flavor. Green malt contains hexanal related chemicals which impart a grassy flavor. Distillers malts are low kilned like lager malt, since they want to preserve beta-amylase. There is no crystal malt used in whisk[e]y making since the Maillard flavors are left behind in the still. Scotch starts with a ~65C mash. That wort is run-off into a fermenter, then more water is added to the spent grist for a second mash around 74C. After that is runoff there is a third mash at around 80C. The three runoffs are combined in a wort around SG=1.050. I think the first mash is thinner than the second and third, but I don't recall the figures. The total mash time is around 8 hours if I recall correctly. The wort is never boiled and the enzymes are still active in the open fermenters. The wort is allowed to undergo some small amount of lactic fermentation before yeast is added - a 12 hour delay before pitching I think. The yeast is conventional brewing yeast from local breweries - random stuff. The fermentation is brief - like 4-5 days before distillation begins. They don't wait for the full completion of fermentation since there is a loss of about 5% of the ethanol to the yeast, which convert it to acetolactate and use it for energy, if they wait. It's distilled in intentionally low efficiency pot stills either 2 or 3 times. The ~5% ABV 'beer' first becomes ~ 15-20% "low wines" then 55-60% barrel strength whisky. The scotch is stored in used oak barrels (bourbon or sherry use) for a number of years - typically a minimum of 10 to 12. It is then diluted with water (various sources) to bottle strength - 43-50%ABV.

There are several US whiskey making variant, but basically they perform a cereal mash with a large portion of grain - majority is corn typically with some rye (spicy flavored) and wheat (dull flavored). They will then perform a single infusion mash of the result. This thin mash - grist included - is cooled and pitched. US mfgrs are quite picky and secretive about their yeasts. The open fermentation proceeds and the active enzymes continue to produce fermentables during the fermentation. The fermented mash - grist and all - are distilled in a column (coffey, continuous) still. The result cannot be more that 80% pure alcohol in order to retain the name whiskey (US law). The alcohol must be stored in new charred oak barrels at no more than 125 proof for 4 (3?) years before it can be labeled whiskey.

During distillation the early runnings (foreshots) are removed. This contains a high concentration of acetic acid, esters and any methanol. This only occurs in the first distillation for double or triple distilled pot stills. Late runnings containing fusel alcohols are also removed by stopping the distillation process as the vapor temps rise. When pot distilling Scotch the liquid remaining from the 2nd distillation is added back to the 'green beer' for redistillation.
Pot stills are basically a pot with a gooseneck lid - alembic stills. Continuous stills are a tall column with several condensation "plates" inside. You can think of the pot still as sort of a broad or crude filter since it doesn't control the vapor temp very accurately. The column still's plates cause a very tight temp control of the vapor at the top. For whatever reason it appears that the pot still does a better job of preserving the flavor components at a given ethanol concentration IMO.

Properly speaking, sour mash is a US whiskey making term for mash after yeast+lactobacilli have decreased the pH making it acid. US distillers pitch a fraction of sour mash (backset) into the upcoming batch. It adds an active yeast (and lactic) cultures to the new batch and also decreases the pH which makes fermentation easier for the yeast and harder for their competition.

HBers sometimes speak of an extended bacterial acidification rest (lactobacilli rest really) as a sour mash, but it's not quite the same thing.

The book I mentioned "Whisky Flavour:..." by Piggott has a lot of great detail on Scotch mfgr.

Jeff gives me more details on producing a whisky ...

For a Scotch-style malt whisky, I'd use all malt (duh!), of the palest, lowest protein variety available. I'd mash with water that gives an appropriate pH (just like beer), and aim for a high gravity (1.070 or so, I think). No need to boil as for beer, but the second runnings will dilute. Scotch distilleries do three runnings and use the third running to mash in the next mash. You probably aren't going to have successive mashes.

For a bourbon I'd use 70 crushed maize, 15% crushed rye and 15% crushed barley malt (highest diastase possible, such as pilsner malt if you can't get distillers malt). Aim for a gravity of 1.070 or so. Add a little malt to the maize and hold at 65C, then raise to a boil for 30-40 minutes, then let cool and/or add cold water to bring to 75C, add rye, hold 30 minutes to gelatinize, then add malt, aiming for 65C. Hold until conversion is complete as indicated by an iodine test. No need to run off the wort - just ferment the entire mash.

For bourbon's first cousin, rye whiskey, you could use 60% rye, 15% barley malt and 25% maize, or all malted rye (my preference), or other combinations of malted and raw rye.

To do a sour mash (traditional), first sour some grain by doing a small mash as above, then throwing in some crush barley malt into the cooled mash and hold at warm temperatures for several days. Then add this to main mash with the yeast.

Cool to 25C and pitch lots of highly attenuating yeast. Dry yeast should work fine. Maybe Danstar Nottingham, perhaps followed by champagne yeast, which is less characterful but more attenuating.

Keep the temperature between 20-25C if possible.

Scotch is made from wort that is fermented into beer. With traditional North American whiskeys, the whole mash is fermented and distilled. I would think you'd have to worry about scorching the grains on the bottom of the still.

Charred oak barrels and warmer year round temperatures contribute to the faster maturation of bourbon (4 - 8 years) as compared to Scotch (10-15 years). Bourbon and rye are greatly influenced by the charred oak barrels. I'd like to make a 100% malted rye and age in uncharred and/or old barrels, much as Anchor Distillery is doing.

Alex H writes :

you can make very good malt whisky from malt extract and grain mash. I find that it is best to use a blend of two row pale malt extract and pale malt powder. The liquid malt extract has been boiled heavily and adds a nice rich, deep chocolate flavour to your wort and the powdered malt gives it that round fresh malt flavour.

I use a blend of cracked maize and the above malts in my wort and find that this gives a balance of flavour that is a lot like an Irish Whisky. Due to using malt extracts instead of malted grain I never cook my wort as this would caramelise the malt and give a nasty flavour to the distillate. I used to always use malted grains and cook my wort and go through the whole process but I have found that using malt extract is just as good and so much easier. A lot of emphasis is placed upon SG, enzyme conversion of starches into fermentable sugars and many other esoteric factors but the truth is that these factors are more important in the making of beer or if you are not using added sugar and are relying upon the sugars from the grain starches.

I use a 120 lt pot still and run to a high wine of 30%, empty the still and then re-distill the high wine to 60%. After distillation, I run the entire run through activated charcoal to remove any impurities. To age my whisky I use a 225 litre American oak barrel that I have heavily charred inside, this is the only way to age whisky as wood chips do not simulate the many chemical reactions that go on inside the barrel over time. You can get smaller barrels but they must be American oak and they must be charred (you can do this yourself.) I use used red wine barrels from Margaret River and rinse them out well with a few litres of white lightning to get the excess red wine out before I char the inside. A famous distillery in Scotland who I will not name has just released a premium scotch whisky aged in used French red wine barrels, selling for over 250 pounds per bottle (my idea first!!) The red wine remnants in the oak give a beautiful, round flavour to the whisky.

My recipe is as follows;
10 kg cracked maize
2 kg liquid malt extract
2 kg pale malt powder
22 kg sugar
1 pouch Alcotec turbo yeast
Water to make 100 lt (inclusive of above ingredients)

Method;
Fill fermenter with 50 lt hot water.
Add sugar, malt extract, malt powder and maize. Stir until sugar dissolved.
Add cool water to fill up to 100 lt mark (will be less than 50 more lt as dry ingredients displace water)
When mash is approx body temp cast your yeast over the top and stir well.
Mash will be rich brown colour.
Seal the fermenter (I never use an airlock. Trust me, you do not need one as the fermentation and escape of co2 is so rapid that nothing will get in)
Wait approx 10 – 14 days depending on ambient temp.
Mash is ready when it has gone a lighter colour, has no sweet taste and is non reactive (no foaming response) to added sugar.
Strain grain out and run through still.
Age and enjoy!

Obviously you will have to adjust this recipe to suit your still and fermenter size. This is a great recipe and will produce sublime whisky!!

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