■ 🕑 1. Homemade alcohol
│  Interested in making booze at home?
│  Is saving money or making delicious drinks an appeal to you?
│  Experimenting with new recipes or techniques? 
│  
│  This a thread for homebrewers and distillers to ask questions, give
│  advice, or share progress reports. 
│  (Pictures and experiences are very welcome!)
│   
├─■ 🕑 2. 
│ │  I've been making alcohol at home for about a year now. I started with
│ │  various wines (grape juice, apple juice, sugar water, and even orange 
│ │  juice) and naturally progressed to distilling about 9 months ago. 
│ │  
│ │  These days, my favorite wines are lower % apple juices or meads, along
│ │  with ginger ale, while my preferred spirit is vodka, in part because 
│ │  it's cheap, as well as because it can be further flavored after 
│ │  production... eg, going from vodka to gin is very simple 
│ │  
│ │  For my "drinking wines" (as contrasted with "distilling wines") I prefer
│ │  making lower % stuff because they have more flavor and are more 
│ │  generally drinkable. Everything I make, I ferment to 100% "dry" (no 
│ │  sugar  remaining) and if I want to correct the taste, I'll add artificial 
│ │  sweeteners after fermenting. 
│ │   
├─■ 🕑 3. 
│ │  Making tomato paste wash (birdwatchers): 18L of 10% 
│ │  https://imgur.com/a/58rhQQc
│ │  
│ │  Doing a "stripping run" to produce "low wines"
│ │  https://imgur.com/a/8DWdYKH
│ │   
│ ├─■ 🕑 4. 
│ │ │  Can I know if baker's yeast can make mead from honey
│ │ │   
│ │ └─■ 🕑 5. 
│ │     Sure can!
│ │     
│ │     I go for 150g honey per 1.5L, works out to be 
│ │     beer strength (around 5%). For best results, you 
│ │     want to keep adding small batches of honey every
│ │     week or two. This keeps the yeast from getting 
│ │     stressed, improving flavor, and also lets you 
│ │     work to higher percents.
│ │     
│ │     Black tea and fruits at the end of fermentation, 
│ │     or throughout, will definitely improve the flavor
│ │      
├─■ 🕑 6. 
│ │  stop drinking anon, you'll become gay dick lover like everyone.
│ │  go out and r.pe someone instead. its better for your health
│ │   
│ └─■ 🕑 7. Ayoo cuh
│     Nigga please, it's just honey, yeast and water in a bottle.
│      
├─■ 🕑 8. 
│ │  Doing a "spirits run" now.
│ │  
│ │  I stripped ~60L of ~10% sugar wine to ~10L of ~40% low wines. diluted 
│ │  down to 12L. Feeling optimistic for how this will turn out, it's been
│ │  a good while since I did some proper distilling... 
│ │   
│ └─■ 🕑 9. 
│     Ack, maybe I should make the spoiler syntax be two percent signs instead 
│     of one, annoying formatting error...
│      
├─■ 🕑 10. 
│   One of my last experiments was 4 parts apple juice to 2 parts cranberry 
│   juice (well, storebought juices, and the cranberry also has pear and
│   grape juices mixed). It turned out fantastic! More sour than a typical
│   cider -- in a good way -- with a lot more complexity. 
│    
├─■ 🕑 11. 
│ │  Started three new wines:
│ │  
│ │  1. Apple:cranberry (5:1)
│ │  2. Blueberry:honey-water (5:1)
│ │  3. Mango:apple:peach (1:1:1)
│ │  
│ │  All should work out to be 10% in about a week from now, curious to see
│ │  how they turn out. I really liked the cranberry:apple from before; 
│ │  wanted to try to do something with blueberry and honey just felt like a
│ │  natural fit
│ │   
│ └─■ 🕑 12. 
│     The apple cranberry finished first: really I have to say, it's an utter
│     delight to drink. Apple ciders fermented *dry* on their own can 
│     sometimes be a bit unpleasant, but somehow the more sour cranberry 
│     matches these off-tastes, and really ups the end result. 
│      
├─■ 🕑 13. 
│ │  Distilled ~14L of 40% alcohol from tomato paste wash (72L, 14%) this 
│ │  week. Sadly, they need another distillation or two yet to become a 
│ │  vodka, but it's been nice to keep busy. 
│ │   
│ └─■ 🕑 15. 
│     For those who wondered, I got roughly 7 liters of 80% as an end result
│     of hearts pickiness from a batch of low wines
│      
├─■ 🕑 14. PURCHASE ALERT!
│ │  A few kilograms of dry malt extract, various hops, food grade 
│ │  20L / 5 gallon buckets, and airlocks with grommets are coming in 
│ │  the mail. My beer and whisky making arc will begin soon. 
│ │  
│ │  I'm thinking of initially trying to make whisky via UJSSM tech but also
│ │  considering making one from dry malt extract sans hops -- I hear hops
│ │  are neither necessary nor desirable when producing whisky ... 
│ │  
│ │  Big concern for beer production: I don't have any feasible way to 
│ │  carbonate beverages, whether in glass bottles or keg. So I guess
│ │  it'll be "not even beer!" depending on one's definition. I'd love to
│ │  buy a keg and CO2 tanks, maybe even a devoted fridge down the line, but
│ │  wife is already annoyed as-is by the malt/hops/buckets/airlocks 
│ │  purchase. We'll just have to wait and see. 
│ │   
│ └─■ 🕑 16. 
│     A month out and here's where we stand on the order:
│     
│     1. Airlocks came first
│     2. Buckets came second
│     3. Dry malt extract is still in transit (???)
│     4. The hops seller cancelled the order. Tried ordering a few different
│        kinds of hops from a few different sellers; they all seemed to cancel.
│        I will have to try sourcing hops again later. Until then, I can
│        try making a whisky once this DME shows up. 
│      
├─■ 🕑 17. 
│   Made like 3 liters "low wines" last night, probably going to get 5
│   liters tonight. One of the ferments didn't go well and I couldn't get it
│   to really pick back up. Ah well, still getting my fun + cheap booze out
│   of it :D 
│   
│   I'm planning to make gin after doing a spirit run on this.
│    
├─■ 🕑 18. 
│   Sipped on some apple cider with spices added, then some homemade vodka
│   with coca-cola. Very tasty. 
│   
│   In a few days, my first generation of UJSSM (kilju with cracked corn)
│   will finish fermenting; after I distill that, I'll throw some backset
│   back in the bucket with some new sugar to start a proper sour mash of
│   corn whisky. Looking forward to it! 
│    
├─■ 🕑 19. 
│   Message removed
│    
├─■ 🕑 20. 
│ │  Distilling my "sweet mash" UJSSM whisky now. I was surprised, the top 
│ │  layer of corn is gray but most of the corn is still good and yellow.
│ │  It fermented pretty quick and it smells a bit corny but nothing
│ │  really impressive. 
│ │  
│ │  Once my distillation is done, I'll pour some of the "backset" (the 
│ │  beer without alcohol left in the boiler) back into my corn yeast sugar
│ │  bucket and kick off a "sour mash fermentation." 
│ │  
│ │  Right now I'm using cracked corn for flavor, partially because it's
│ │  so damn cheap, but I've seen people speak very highly of corn flake 
│ │  whisky. 
│ │  
│ │  Made about 6L more of apple cider this afternoon, too. I am a busy 
│ │  little bee! 
│ │   
│ └─■ 🕑 21. 
│   │  I did the second batch of UJSSM whisky yesterday (aka, a proper sour 
│   │  mash bourbon) and ran it with the low wines from the first stripping 
│   │  run. After taking decent cuts, I diluted and blended all the jars today
│   │  and mixed the better tasting stuff together. Ended up with 4x 700ml 
│   │  bottles around 43% each. 
│   │  
│   │  It's nowhere near as smooth as it could be if I distilled it another
│   │  time or carbon filtered it or aged it on charred oak for a few years.
│   │  But for what it is, it's pretty good. I've been mixing it with Sprite 
│   │  and sipping it on the rocks. The bourbon is sweet, corny, and... creamy,
│   │  almost buttery. It's a little hard to drink neat, but it adds some nice
│   │  flavor to mixed beverages. 
│   │  
│   │  My 3rd generation UJSSM is currently fermenting, 20L worth, along with
│   │  another 20L of sugar-wine (kilju) that will end up as vodka. There is
│   │  no more tomato paste for sale in my town so I tried adding some of the
│   │  bourbon backset with some boiled yeast to serve as a nutrient for the
│   │  new vodka. 
│   │   
│   └─■ 🕑 22. 
│       I managed to drink 3/4 of a bottle of my bourbon last night (mixed with
│       Sprite and Coca-Cola) while the most I've ever been able to drink of
│       commercial whisky in a night is 1/4 of a bottle. And that 1/4 a bottle
│       of whisky would always give me a terrible headache while I'm feeling
│       terrific today. 
│       
│       Whether that's a statement in favor of or against moonshining depends on
│       your point of view... only $2 down the drain on that bottle, at least. 
│        
├─■ 🕑 23. 
│ │  6 bottles of corn whisky, 3 liters of apple cider, and 1.5 liters of
│ │  ginger ale ready for consumption. Bringing it to a party tomorrow night!
│ │   
│ └─■ 🕑 24. 
│     My friends (2/3) preferred the apple cider to ginger ale, but they all
│     enjoyed everything. They were really impressed by the homemade whisky --
│     per my advice, they mixed it with Sprite (I brought several bottles of 
│     Sprite) and they had several servings of it. 
│     
│     Had fun bringing the party in a dry county for $10-ish. 
│      
├─■ 🕑 25. 
│   Recently produced ~12 liters of "low wines" from sugar washes.
│   
│   Biggest game changer in my fermentation for distillation lately:
│   I add a tablespoon or two of diammonium phosphate and tiny pinch of 
│   magnesium sulfate per ~20L of ferment I do. Seems to make a pretty
│   big difference: ferments go faster and cleaner. 
│   
│   Picked up about 200g of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) today and
│   converted it to washing soda (sodium carbonate) by throwing it in a
│   saucepan on the stove at a low heat and constantly stirring. Sure 
│   enough, I could see the powder "boiling" -- despite wearing a face
│   mask, some funky smells came through. After about 20 minutes or so,
│   the texture of the powder appeared to change, and the powder seemed to
│   stop reacting. 
│   
│   Spilled a little in the process. Post-cook weight of sodium carbonate 
│   was about 120g which is consistent with the theory. 
│   
│   Tomorrow I'll be throwing my 12 liters of "low wines" into the pot still
│   with 3-4 liters water and 4 tablespoons of washing soda. This should
│   result in a large volume of hearts, which will be turned into... gin!
│   this Saturday. 
│   
│   Stay tuned for updates. 
│    
├─■ 🕑 26. 
│ │  Recently turned 80L of sugar wine (containing 12kg of sugar) into ~10 
│ │  bottles of vodka. It was an easy and smooth process. Something that's 
│ │  really aided my hooching lately is adding a small amount of diammonium
│ │  phosphate and magnesium sulfate to the start of fermentation -- barely
│ │  a pitch, hardly a gram of each -- but it somehow makes a huge difference
│ │  in fermentation time. 
│ │  
│ │  I plan on turning most of it into gin, but with the vodka, I've made
│ │  some knock-off Bailey's that turned out amazing well (and only cost $1
│ │  to make a bottle of!) and tomorrow I'll try making a blood mary. Tomato
│ │  juice is not sold here so I intend to make some fake V8 from a mix of
│ │  tomato, carrot, salad greens, onion, bell pepper and then I'll add a 
│ │  dash of worcestor sauce and hot sauce to the cocktail, along with some
│ │  lemon juice. 
│ │  
│ │  When I more-or-less perfect my Bailey's and Bloody Mary recipes I will
│ │  share them here. 
│ │   
│ └─■ 🕑 28. 
│     I need da baileys recipe 
│      
├─■ 🕑 27. 
│   I did the sugar water and baking yeast thing in a bottle.liquid alcoholic bread
│    
├─■ 🕑 29. sad boy
│   I tried turning 5kg of (dry) rice into rice wine, making use of a 20L
│   bucket. I did not buy sticky rice and I did not steam my rice: I just
│   kept throwing batches into my rice cooker. After rice cooked and cooled 
│   down in the bucket, I smeared in rice wine mold-yeast 
│   
│   The end result was not good. Most of the rice became a thick, porridge
│   like consistency. Despite containing high amounts of alcohol, the solids
│   and liquids formed an undesirable team and possibly a 5th state of matter. 
│   
│   Starting throwing slop a bowl at a time through a filter from one bucket
│   to another, and as space began to emerge in the fermentation vessel I 
│   began adding water and shaking, in the hope to liberate more alcohol
│   from solids. 
│   
│   After many hours of pointless labor, my bucket with liters of thick, 
│   milky "rice wine" is just about a bust in my book. At least I can just
│   distill it to make it not end up a complete waste... 
│    
├─■ 🕑 30. 
│   What I made today with waifu:
│   - 3 liters ginger/lime wine (100g ginger, 1/2 lime per liter)
│   - 3 liters apple/cranberry wine (5:1 apple:cran)
│   - 20 liters sugar wine (4kg sugar, yeast nutrient) 
│   
│    
├─■ 🕑 31. 
│   Wiki article on winemaking up: 
│   https://wiki.gikopoi.com/w/WineMaking
│    
├─■ 🕑 32. 
│   Fresh fermenting ciders:
│   https://booru.gikopoi.com/post/view/253
│   
│   Post fermentation / aging dry ciders:
│   https://booru.gikopoi.com/post/view/254
│    
├─■ 🕑 33. 
│   Processed ~20L of 12% ABV sugar wine to 4L of 40% ABV "low wines" last 
│   night. Next distillation this week is ~20L of "trix cereal" liquor:
│   
│   >18L water
│   >3kg sugar
│   >700g trix cereal
│   >pinches yeast nutrient 
│   
│   The idea is that the sugar produces alcohol, and the cereal infuses
│   the alcohol, and provides additional nutrients and sugar to the yeast.
│   I think it should end up as a slightly fruity bourbon, but who knows.
│   Breaking new ground here! 
│    
├─■ 🕑 34. 
│ │  Started 13 liters of apple cider a few hours ago... 
│ │  airlocks beginning to show that fermentation has began
│ │  
│ │  And tonight, I'll distill my "Trix Cereal" wine
│ │  (~18L water, 700g Trix cereal, 3kg sugar, yeast nutrient) 
│ │  notes on smell and taste will come.... 
│ │   
│ ├─■ 🕑 35. 
│ │ │  Just started distilling the Trix cereal wine / beer! 
│ │ │  I wonder how it'll turn out...
│ │ │   
│ │ └─■ 🕑 36. 
│ │   │  The early part of the run has smelled very berry-like. Not what I was
│ │   │  expecting, though I never eat Trix cereal so I'm a poor judge.
│ │   │  
│ │   │  As we approach the end of the run, the corn notes are starting to come
│ │   │  through. It's interesting how different smells and tastes come out at 
│ │   │  different parts.
│ │   │   
│ │   └─■ 🕑 37. 
│ │     │  I got about ~4 liters out of my 18L 9% ABV Trix experiment.
│ │     │  
│ │     │  700g of smashed and boiled Trix cereal with 3kg of sugar. 
│ │     │  Fermented for 1 week, allowed to clear a bit before boiling
│ │     │  
│ │     │  1st jar (1.5L) smells very fruity -- perhaps berries and citrus 
│ │     │                 ... but also very strong in alcohol
│ │     │  2nd jar (1.5L) is a bit more ambiguous. 
│ │     │  3rd jar (~1L) is much more corny, but also weaker in alcohol. 
│ │     │  
│ │     │  I will likely incorporate this with my ~10L of "stripped" tomato paste
│ │     │  wash to make some kind of gin. The corn and berry notes should add a
│ │     │  nice complexity to the juniper, coriander, et al.
│ │     │   
│ │     ├─■ 🕑 38. 
│ │     │   Sampling jar #2 of the Trix cereal wine (72% ABV), mixing with cola.
│ │     │   
│ │     │   The strongest flavors carrying through are corn with incidental 
│ │     │   berry / lemon sweetness. But the heads and tails present hinder the 
│ │     │   potential for tastiness. I feel like if it were to be distilled again,
│ │     │   aged hearts on oak would taste as a pretty tasty bourbon ..
│ │     │    
│ │     └─■ 🕑 39. 
│ │         Mixed some of jar #1 with milk -- wondered how milk w/ cereal liquor
│ │         would be. I'm not sure if it was the "heads" or what but the cocktail
│ │         was almost completely revolting and not something I would wish upon
│ │         my friends or enemies. 2/10 
│ │          
│ └─■ 🕑 41. 
│     fermentation finished in under a week; another week of aging made it
│     quite clear and smooth. Great cider! 
│      
├─■ 🕑 40. 2025-04 ferments
│ │  I started a 20L ferment tonight of a new recipe
│ │  
│ │  In the boiler:
│ │   * 100g of homemade tomato paste
│ │   * 100g of old bran
│ │   * 8g of old yeast
│ │   * 30ml end of old bottle of wine  (mostly sludge)
│ │   * 4kg sugar
│ │  
│ │  After cooling:
│ │   * 50g baker's yeast
│ │   * pinch DAP
│ │   * pinch epsom salts 
│ │  
│ │  just finished cooking this up. Never tried using bran as a nutrient 
│ │  before so I'm curious how it turns out. It should finish around 12% ABV 
│ │  or so, fingers crossed! I wonder how bran flavor will compare with 
│ │  tomato flavor... 
│ │   
│ ├─■ 🕑 42. 
│ │ │  Tonight's ferment of 20L: 
│ │ │  
│ │ │  * 4kg sugar
│ │ │  * 700g "honey stars" breakfast cereal, crushed up
│ │ │  * 30g baker's yeast
│ │ │  * pinch DAP, epsom salts
│ │ │  
│ │ │  Breakfast cereals have tons of yeast nutrients and this one tastes like 
│ │ │  whole grain and honey. So this is more whisky-esque than the Trix cereal
│ │ │  experiment -- I've tried it before and it turns out well
│ │ │   
│ │ └─■ 🕑 47. 
│ │     6 days later and the SG is at 1.010. So maybe it's at 12% but can reach
│ │     the full 13% with a bit more time. A pretty fast ferment. 
│ │     
│ │     Smells corny and sour, cloudy yellow color. The cereal on top still
│ │     looks and smells pretty good. This was a fun brew and I'm looking
│ │     forward to see how it distills -- I'll give it a bit more time to 
│ │     finish fermenting and clear up.
│ │      
│ ├─■ 🕑 43. 
│ │ │  New ferment tonight:
│ │ │  
│ │ │   * 4kg sugar
│ │ │   * 250g bran
│ │ │   * 50g yeast
│ │ │   * pinch DAP, epsom salt
│ │ │   * fill up 20L bucket to top
│ │ │  
│ │ │  I cooked the bran for about 30 minutes before adding the sugar, 
│ │ │  never did an all bran but curious how it'll turn out. I want to compare
│ │ │  tomato paste washes and bran washes once I get my new reflux still up
│ │ │  and running.
│ │ │   
│ │ └─■ 🕑 48. 
│ │     This bran recipe fermented really well. 5 days later and it's below
│ │     0 standard gravity -- still pretty cloudy and lots of carbon dioxide
│ │     going on, but it smells fine. 
│ │     
│ │     So, according to ... science it looks like yeast like bran more than 
│ │     honey corn cereal (see >>47) 
│ │     
│ │     while the bran doesn't smell bad, it doesn't smell good either -- even
│ │     if the cereal takes 2 or 3 days longer to ferment out (which is
│ │     nothing in the big scheme of things) I have a feeling it's going to
│ │     have the superior end result 
│ │     
│ │     After my reflux still comes, I plan to run a tomato paste wash and 
│ │     bran wash and do some blind tastings for the vodka they produce. I 
│ │     suspect they will be identical but we will have to wait and see.
│ │      
│ ├─■ 🕑 44. 
│ │   It's been ~4 days but the tomato/bran wash (4kg) is essentially done 
│ │   fermenting, with a SG of 0, so it's roughly 18L of 13% ABV. That is
│ │   pretty magnificent from < $5 EUR worth of sugar! I'm going to give it 
│ │   another few days to finish fermenting and clearing before I run it, 
│ │   but that bran is no joke.
│ │    
│ ├─■ 🕑 45. 
│ │ │  Started 3 ferments today: 
│ │ │  
│ │ │   - 1500ml apple cider
│ │ │   - 250g honey, fill bottle with water
│ │ │   - 210g honey, 500ml cider, fill bottle with water
│ │ │  
│ │ │  I didn't add any kind of yeast nutrients so I wonder if the honey-alone
│ │ │  drink will be able to ferment. All the drinks will end up in the 6-8%
│ │ │  range so I feel they should be able to ferment fine without extra help...
│ │ │   
│ │ └─■ 🕑 46. 
│ │     Started 4 more ferments:
│ │     
│ │     - 1500ml apple cider with sugar added (estimated ABV 8%)
│ │     - 1500ml honey/water (estimated ABV 8%) 
│ │     
│ │     3 hours in, balloons are beginning to inflate .
│ │     I didn't add any yeast nutrient but I think it should be fine.
│ │      
│ ├─■ 🕑 49. 
│ │ │  Started another cider today, mixed with blueberry juice (2:1 ratio).
│ │ │  With added sugar, should ferment to 8% 
│ │ │  
│ │ │  Also mixed some banana-flavored syrup with water until it should
│ │ │  reach about 6.5% fermented. It smells terrific -- exactly like those
│ │ │  marshmallow peanuts -- but I'm worried the yeast will struggle due to
│ │ │  lack of nutrients. I added some blueberry juice with the thought it
│ │ │  could provide some nutrition.
│ │ │  
│ │ │  This week I've distilled ~36L of 12% hooch to ~8L of 40% hooch --
│ │ │  the bran stuff. Sampled a bit of the bran liquor low wines. Very strong
│ │ │  smell but subtle flavor. I'll do a spirit run tonight with the still
│ │ │  filled up with 30% ABV low wines; I intend to make some gin. 
│ │ │  
│ │ │  I feel a bit bittersweet about this week's distills. Probably by next
│ │ │  week, my new, much more efficient still will be complete. I learned a
│ │ │  lot from this little guy. Now he will sit in a box somewhere
│ │ │  collecting dust because there is no market for tools like this. 
│ │ │   
│ │ └─■ 🕑 50. 
│ │     That sounds delicious. No home brewing
│ │     culture in your country? I'd like to 
│ │     try the banana drink. 
│ │      
│ └─■ 🕑 51. 
│   │  18 liters of 35% ABV in the boiler tonight.
│   │   
│   └─■ 🕑 52. 
│     │  when I get 6 liters out I'm going to shut off the machine
│     │  starting to taste a lot of tails coming through now 
│     │  
│     │  I estimate maybe 2.5L are hearts but I'll need to wait and let the jars
│     │  air out before diluting, tasting, and blending. Really excited to be 
│     │  making gin again.
│     │   
│     └─■ 🕑 53. Spirit run results
│       │  Pretty happy with the yields I got from $14 worth of sugar and trivial
│       │  amounts of bran, tomato, and yeast. Water and electric are cheap so I'm
│       │  not factoring them in to the total price. 
│       │  
│       │  > Phase 1
│       │  60 L of sugar wine (12kg sugar)
│       │  
│       │  Distilling these in 20L batches gave me..
│       │  
│       │  > Phase 2
│       │  20 L of 35% low wines
│       │  
│       │  Distilled slow, collected in small jars gave me...
│       │  
│       │  > Phase 3
│       │  ~7 liters boiled out 
│       │  ~4 liters of heads and tails to save for a rainy day
│       │  
│       │  ~3 liters "hearts" (all with consistent ABV, 70%)
│       │  ~6 liters 40% spirit, dilute with water
│       │  ~8x 750ml bottles of 40% spirit, will be turned into gin
│       │   
│       └─■ 🕑 54. 
│           I wanted to make a ton of gin but I forgot to do inventory on my 
│           juniper berry stash.
│           
│           Using this recipe, per liter : 
│           - 15g crushed juniper
│           - 5g crushed coriander
│           - 1/4 lemon peel
│           - 1/4 lime peel
│           - pinch various spices
│           
│           I steeped 2.5L of "gin" overnight, then took out the citrus peels and
│           threw it all in the boiler. Heating up now but I'm looking forward to
│           this. 
│            
├─■ 🕑 55. 2025-05 ferments
│ │  A new month, a new subthread.
│ │  
│ │  Made 3 liters of apple cider tonight. Usually 5.5% ABV but I added 
│ │  enough sugar to bump them up to 8%. I prefer the lower ABVs because they
│ │  ferment and age faster, but a big thing I get out of this hobby is 
│ │  practicing patience and appreciating things that wait in the future, so
│ │  it's not a big deal.
│ │   
│ ├─■ 🕑 56. 
│ │ │  Cooked up a new sugar wash today: 
│ │ │  
│ │ │  - ~18 liters water
│ │ │  - 4kg sugar
│ │ │  - 250g bran
│ │ │  - boiled for 30 mins with spoon of yeast
│ │ │  - pinch DAP and epsom salts
│ │ │  - 50g yeast at room temp
│ │ │  
│ │ │  Smells pretty good, very wheaty and sweet. 
│ │ │   
│ │ └─■ 🕑 59. 
│ │     After my strong success doing a 1.5x run of breakfast cereal with 
│ │     sugar, with various feints in my new reflux still, I was curious how 
│ │     running a "wash" on its own through my reflux still would do, after 
│ │     seeing that my new still can effectively reach azeotrope on relatively 
│ │     lower %s.
│ │     
│ │     The results were somewhat disappointing! Reaching azeotrope again took 
│ │     a lot of fiddling around and stalling, overall output was not worth it, 
│ │     and the output spirit (while quite drinkable!) was not what I was 
│ │     expecting. 
│ │     
│ │     I think for the future I will be sending spirits stripped at least once
│ │     to my reflux still, whether diluted feints or low wines. It does add
│ │     time and electric use to the process relative to a simple one and done
│ │     run, but I think the intermediary step is worth it, in terms of operator 
│ │     burden and quality of end result. 
│ │     
│ │     Reflux is still a new world for me. But it's fun playing. 
│ │      
│ ├─■ 🕑 57. 
│ │   Ran my new reflux still for the first time on 05-07, Wednesday 
│ │   
│ │   After I took off foreshots, it stabilized at 78.3*C for nearly the
│ │   entire run which means the stuff coming out was 96% ABV. Probably lost
│ │   some due to evaporation, but wow.
│ │   
│ │   The takeoff rate was pretty slow because I'm using a hack until I buy
│ │   a proper needle valve. 500ml per 2 hours. But still, 96%! 
│ │   
│ │   I fed some old tails and heads from other runs into the boiler with most
│ │   of a bucket of 12% ABV sugar wine that had breakfast cereal soaking in 
│ │   it for flavor. Some of the breakfast cereal notes carried through but
│ │   it smells and tastes ultimately like a rum. Dilute down to the low 40%s
│ │   and I ended up with 6 liters from 12 hours of operating time. 
│ │   
│ │   Based on my math, the ~80cm of packing in a 2" pipe is achieving 13 or 14 
│ │   "plates" worth of distillation when refluxing. A stripping run normally
│ │   takes me 8 hours to pull out 4L of 40% that have a lot of off flavors,
│ │   and running 18L of ~35% takes 9 hours to extract ~3L of "hearts" around
│ │   70%. So big picture, the reflux saves a lot of time for producing a 
│ │   clean, strong spirit. 
│ │   
│ │   going to do another reflux experiment next week with the bran sugar wash, 
│ │   curious how it will compare to the cereal sugar wash. I suspect it will
│ │   taste like a pretty good whisky. There are hints of whisky flavor in my
│ │   breakfast cereal reflux (some of the heads/tails I dumped in were from
│ │   my bran sugar wash spirit run) but it ultimately tastes more like rum
│ │   than anything. 
│ │    
│ └─■ 🕑 58. 
│   │  I forget how many days ago I started but I started doing UJSSM 
│   │  (cracked corn + sugar "whisky") a few days ago and started a 
│   │  birdwatcher's vodka (tomato paste + sugar) last night. My plan is to 
│   │  save the UJSSM hearts after I hit generation 2 with a mild amount of 
│   │  heads/tails to age on oak and send the feints along with birdwatcher's 
│   │  to my reflux for future experiments.
│   │  
│   │  ----
│   │  Expected ABV ujssm: 9% 
│   │  Expected ABV birdwatchers: 12% 
│   │   
│   └─■ 🕑 60. 
│     │  Boiled out the "birdwatchers" today, got a bit over 4L, jars being 70%,
│     │  60%, and 38% strength. Once I get some more "low wines" from tomato 
│     │  paste wine, I intend to run them through the reflux with some 
│     │  sodium carbonate (washing soda) to see how that turns out. 
│     │  
│     │  Smashed some matcha candies up and threw them into a jar of 95% ABV a
│     │  few weeks ago. Diluted it today with a mix of matcha powder, creamer,
│     │  water, and a dash of barley malt syrup, down to about 23% ABV. The 
│     │  matcha flavor is really impressive, lots of creamy goodness happening,
│     │  and the alcohol is barely present. This stuff is on par with Bailey's
│     │  yet a liter only cost about $3 to make (totally worth it) 
│     │   
│     └─■ 🕑 61. 
│       │  I forgot to update the thread, but last week I started 12L of apple 
│       │  cider. It's finished fermenting -- only took 4 days -- but it needs
│       │  time to clear up. 
│       │  
│       │  I got some of the mead I made a few weeks back and freezejacked it 
│       │  today. Balanced it out with a little artificial sweetener and I'm 
│       │  impressed with how it turned out. Maybe 18% ABV, very strong honey 
│       │  flavors, and a nice satisfying amount of burn. 
│       │   
│       └─■ 🕑 63. 
│           The gikocider cleared up a few days ago. I also started fermenting
│           the second generation of UJSSM corn beer a few days ago and it's nearly
│           done. 
│           
│           Blog post on oaking/aging spirits -- may be relevant to oaking wines,
│           maybe not. https://4x13.net/blog/oaking1.html 
│            
└─■ 🕑 62. 
    considering starting another batch of gikocider.