Moonshiners on TV

Cambo

@captainshooch said: I am inclined to say, the malted corn ferm, is TV hype to make it look like hes got one ou on Mark and Jeff, Jim Tom talk, take it w/a grain o salt. I would never even bother to risk losing all the grains on taking a chance w/ wild yeast and risking a nasty infection! Grains are not cheap! just last week, 70.00 USD fro a 50 LB bag of wheat, unmalted! The malted wheat only 37.00, now you would think malting would incurr more cost. Go figure.

Dang!! I just paid 22 bucks for 50# of organic unmalted white wheat the other day! About the same for whole corn!

CothermanDistilling

you need to go in with a feed store, brewer or malt supplier and get that price down!

captainshooch

I did not pay it, looking and other options, like a bulk buy thru a feed dealer.

RedDoorDistillery

I buy wheat direct from a farmer. I get it for .19cents a lb. $9.50 for 50lbs. Now granted I buy 3600 lbs at a time so I am sure I am getting a bulk price. I could pick it up for $.17 lb but that would be a 6hr round trip to go pick it up vs 2hrs round trip from this farmer. Saving 4 hrs of drive time is worth the extra .02

captainshooch

Those prices are awesome, 3600 lbs, we'll need 36 guys at 100 each! That can be a PITA in itself

CothermanDistilling

true that... is 3600lb a supersack? I wonder what freight would be, if palletized, should not be more than a few hundred bucks.. has my interest peaked, that is for sure..

applepie

wheat out of the field in my area was $6 a bushel last year. Roughly a dime a lb. Corn was a little more. The issue with out of the field is moisture is /could be higher and you could loose it real fast if it molds. Usually it needs to be fully dry before it sprouts. The mills sell it for around $20-25 a cwt. which is a little more than 100 lbs. That's no special deal 1 bag at a time.

RedDoorDistillery

@CothermanDistilling Yes I grab them in Super Sacks. Normally a super sack would be 2000lbs. But the farmers equipment can only lift 1700lbs to load on my trailer so we short fill them at 1700lbs per bag and I pickup 2 bags at time. Supper Sacks are palatalized for shipping. I would try to find someone closer to you. Shipping it from Washington State to you would be expensive.

CothermanDistilling

shipping to FL from anywhere wheat grows will be expensive. LOL... but cheaper than sugar can molasses...

RedDoorDistillery

Sugar or molasses would be easier to work with as you would not have any waste grain you have to figure out how to dispose of. Under the Craft Distillery law here in Washington 51% or more of the raw ingredients I use in any fermentation must be grown in Washington State. So I can not use just Sugar or Molasses as neither are available from what is grown here. Sugar Beets are grown in this state but they all go to 1 sugar plant in Idaho and get mixed in with all the Sugar Beets from WA, OR, ID, MT so there is no way I can guarantee that 51% or more was grown in Washington.

Smaug

Yes yes but Chico nearly drowned in that cistern last night.

captainshooch

@Smaug and Chico's buggy almost did not make it to the parade, bailing wire to the rescue...say I have a few extra bubble caps...hum sure I have bailing wire in the shop..just wondering what I can come up with, a bailing wire dragon :-B

Moonshine

MythBusters / Moonshiners cross-over!

Good to know it's the fumes causing the explosion, not overpressure... ;)

Overall not the MythBusters' best performance, and not really well researched (it's not Moonshiners for the car chase but Bootleggers), nevertheless interesting to see that newer cars with computer aided fuel injection really can run on pure Moonshine.

captainshooch

I think the shine car had a different fuel system meant for ethanol, some manufacturers offer convertion kits and such. Back in 1991 I spent some time in Brazil and everything there runs on "moonshine" ie ethanol except for the diesel trucks and such. I owned a Ford Escort XR-3 ethanol car and it had quite a bit of pep!

CothermanDistilling

I wonder if I can convert my 1964 fork truck that was converted to propane to 'ethanol injection', put a keg of neutral on the back, a little CO2 for pressure... oh wait, then comes the 'boom' part.... nevermind... can I buy an ethanol golf cart?

crystal_skull

@CothermanDistilling You just have to get an regular carburator and file/bore the jets out 30% (for e85) bigger. Easyer on older engines couse there are less plastic in the fuelsysstems.

CothermanDistilling

unfortunately, the fuel pump and carb were 1964 and deleted probably 20 years ago... so would need new everything,, fuel tank is there, but looks really scary... and besides, I have a dozen things with carburetors, no thanks on another one!

bentstick

If it has boobs or tires it will give ya hell!

Misflt

As I laughed my way through this thread, I decided I might could shed a little light on the Malt corn/no yeast mythology. I am from NC, my Grandpa and his before him and so on, all made shine. In this area, the most common fermentation vessels were handmade wooden vats or troughs. They were made from wood, using the same methods used for making the submarine stills. You had to keep the wood wet to keep it swollen up and water tight.

In keeping the wood wet when not being used for fermentation, they provided an environment that would keep yeast alive in a dormant state. As soon as any quantity of mash was introduced, the dormant yeasts sprung to action and began the ferment. These were not wild yeasts. Every winter, any yeasts in these troughs would die off or go dormant, come spring, when they would go to ferment, if they saw no action or slow action during the first ferment of the year, they would add some yeast. The yeast would go to work and settle into every nook and crevice and crack as fermentation subsided. They always had more mash ready to go right back, so it was a continuous process, like a UJSSM ferment.

The guys weren't as educated as most of us are now, they just believed it was wild yeast, it was really just the same yeast they had been using all along, it just remained viable as long as it had a moist, warm, environment.

Wild yeasts do exist and there are some that can be used. I recall my Grandpa saying he liked to go out to his old silo where he stored feed corn, it had been built in an area that had a bit of a moisture issue and the concrete at the base of the silo was notorious for being damp and corn would begin to ferment, he said some of the best likker he ever made got its yeast from a few shovel fulls of that corn from the silo, he let it go to work in some new barrels he had, so as to not mess up his larger fermenters. Supposedly, from what my uncles told me, these barrels made such good product, that they introduced the yeast from them into the new "Fermenters" they built that still sit in the old barn to this day. Granted, this was long long ago, now that barn has fallen in on itself and nothing remains of his old still.

My last living Uncle passed a year ago, but not before I was able to ask him a lot of questions that the show mentioned here, brought up. From the broken info I got from him, I put two and two together. This is how I came to the realization, that, the yeasts they thought were wild, were really just generations old yeast from the first ferments of the season when they had to pitch some yeast to get things started. I am sure some of the old, lesser educated shiners, believed that it was the malt corn doing the job.

One last thing that could answer this "myth" is, the method of making malt corn. You have to soak it, let the corn sprout, causing the kernels to convert stored starches into sugars. after it has soaked, it has to be dried, done by my family by laying the sprouted corn on a tarp and raking it often, much like Scotch makers do when drying their malt in the peat kilns. If the sprouted corn wasn't dried properly, a wild yeast could possibly take a hold, although, I would think mold would set in first, still, it would be possible for a wild yeast to establish a colony in a batch of moist corn. Still, the whole mashing process should kill all the yeast, but, if they managed to add some malt corn with the yeast into a more modern corn wash like UJSSM, they could have got some fermentation, or, just got lucky and got a decent wild strain to take hold in their wash by pure luck. Who knows?

applepie

Good write up Misfit. Its a shame that the old timers didn't have the technology that we have today. Its really amazing that the old timers were able to do what they did with what they had. Why do you call your self Misfit. Misfit?

SDeurope

Shockingly a lot of farmers here in Austria use wild fermentation for their fruit brandies because they don't know elsewise. :-O

Misflt

Misfits are a band I Iike. I spell it with a L because that in itself is a misfit. An attempt at wit. :)

Moonshine

With Moonshiners enjoying off-season, what to watch? How about Brew Dogs, those two Scotsmen just came back for their second season, only on the Esquire Network (and your favorite corners of the world wide web)! :D

Makes me wanna have a cold IPA right now! [-O<

Moonshine

How about some more beer brewing? Dark Horse Nation @ History Channel

punkin

Content unavailable.

Moonshine

@punkin said: Content unavailable.

Because it's History Channel USA. Not in USA = content not available -> please have a look if that show is carried by any local TV station (which almost definitely will not be the case) or get it from the usual corners of the interweb ;)

Lloyd

@Moonshine said: How about some more beer brewing? [Dark Horse Nation @ History Channel] (http://www.history.com/shows/dark-horse-nation)

They look like the Sons of Anarchy on brew day.

Moonshine

Moonshiners Season 4 kicked off yesterday with The Off Season Special! What have Tim & Tickle been up to in the meantime? Hasn't Steve Beam's Limestone Distillery burnt down right after shooting last season was finished?

NO SPOILERS PLEASE (= use our nifty spoiler function when posting, it's the button to the right with the question mark in the button bar above the text entry box)!

Spoiler:

TOO LATE! NOW YOU HAVE BEEN SPOILED! HAH! :D

Lloyd

Cool!

I just wanted to say to @Law_Of_Ohms

Spoiler:

Bite me =))

Law_Of_Ohms

lol. with pleasure