Today in the Shed

punkin

Just stacked away 350 kg's of malt. Should last me a good few months.

jonno

^^ That is alot of malt! LOL!!

Doing a low wines/feints run. Mix of UJ low wines/feints, some weetbix/corn feints and some other whiskey type feints i can't remember. Total of about 30L @60%

By the calculations should end up with about 15L @ 100% so might be in for a long day :((

Started the run at 6am, now i've got my power controller sorted i've got her running at 2.5kw and 1 and 3/4 turns @ the needle valve for the rc. putting out at around 2.4L/hr which is good. Could probably push her to 3L/hr and will try that abit later on in the run to see if alco moves off azeo.

Fun filled day ahead :)>-

punkin

Does sound like a good run mate.

jonno

Pushin out at 3.2l/hr and the alcohol ain't moved

fadge

Did a Stripping run, done a video, but just need to remove some crap out of it and post up.

Fadge

crozdog

on saturday knocked our 5l of 40% gin un the GB4 in around 2 hours (not counting setup or cleanup).

Sunday saw me do the cuts on a white rum run that had been airing since last weekend after running through the 4 plate hybrid, then a batch of dark rum on the dash 1.

A couple of gins finished the weekend nicely <:-P

Lloyd

Crozdog's gin thread? hint, hint

We'd all like to know how you make YOURS, after all you wrote the book. ^:)^

crozdog

Hi @Lloyd,

Not holding out, only Just saw your post... sorry for the delay. How do I make it? Just like I describe in the manual! haha.

HINT Everyone loves recipe # 4 (cough Bombay cough Saphire cough clone cough but cough more cough intensely cough flavoured cough) which is what I made when I made the previous post.

Anyway back to today... you'll recall my steam generator build well I ground up 10kg briess flaked maize + 3.5kg Hygain micronised maize (horse food left over from previous experiments) 2 kg rye & 2 kg pale ale malt & chucked it in the mash tun with about 40l water & 20ml Deltazyme HT enzyme & steam cooked it for an hour. It was a nice and loose all the way through - didn't go really gloopy like I expected - might be the flaked maize?

Heaps better than any previous attempt at cooking on a gas burner! nothing stuck or burnt on - yay! now waiting for it to cool to less than 70C to add another 2 kg pale ale malt & 20ml deltazyme AMG enzyme. If things work out, the SG should be 1.060+ depends on enzyme efficiency & how much I sparge.

I have cooked up in my mash tun this time so I can sparge out of it cause I'm sick of having to manually squeeze out all the dregs after fermenting on grain.

Thinking of splitting it into 2 smaller 30l fermenters & trying 2 different yeasts. Will decide after the sparge. Hopefully this will be the bourbon success I've been chasing for a few years. will keep you in the loop.

crozdog

had to wait till 10 last night to add the extra 2kg malt + the Alpha amalayse enzyme. was still at 53c this morning.

Went to drain - got reasonable flow for about a minute then the braid clogged up!!!! Bugger. Was scooping and manually "straining" through 2 different colanders then squeezing out the excess liquid before chucking the grain into another fermenter.

Several hours later & sticky drips all over the bench & floor.....50l strained wash in the fermenter at 19 brix / 1.074. Still had more to strain so poured it all into another fermenter, added the squeezed grain, 10 kg sugar, some backset & filled to 60l. measured the gravity after a good stir & it too was 19 brix! Did the calcs in beersmith & have got about 30% of the sugar from the grains. That agrees with my beer making experience doing partigyle where you get 2/3 of the sugar in the 1st runnings, so cause I didn't sparge the remaining 1/3 remained - Glad I didn't chuck em!

So have chucked some safspirit whisky yeast at the strained UJSM batch & some safspirit american whisky.

now to wait for the ferment to finish & psych myself to strain / squeeze the sugarhead

punkin

Praps some rice hulls are in your future?

crozdog

have been thinking that

crozdog

Also been thinking about a fruit press. something like this

@Lloyd can you source these in China? If so put me down for 1

Lloyd

I don't know @crozdog, everything I've seen here so far is huge and electric powered.
Can you modify a GB4 gin basket? It might work OK for grapes. A small electric juicer might work even better. I had a Jack LaLane vegetable juicer in the states and it was great but a pain to clean or I'd have used it more often.

Most of what I've seen is single purpose - grapes or apples or sugar cane or citrus, etc.
I'm guessing the feedstock has a big influence on the design of the machine.

Myles

Well you are probably already further ahead in your fruit press project than I am in mine. I got the fresh green oak to make the beams, put it in the barn to wait for a suitable opportunity, and got delayed by house renovations.

My oak is supposed to be nice hand prepared squared beams ready for mortice joints, but currently look like this: :(

jonno

Was supposed to be heading out to celebrate Australia day but my young fella decided to get sick last night. So I'm doing some long overdue runs on the bubbler

cunnyfunt

Straya day in the shed, stilling, JJJ hottest 100 sounds like bliss to me ;)

punkin

In front of the computer all morning researching Koh Samui, street food and shopping in Bangkok.

cooperville

;)

fadge

@cunnyfunt said: Straya day in the shed, stilling, JJJ hottest 100 sounds like bliss to me ;)

Worked 5 hrs then hit the shed exactly like @cunnyfunt .

Almost time for a drink, still run close to done.

Farge

punkin

Made Kahlua using @rossco 's home grown coffee beans. Absolutely stunning. I used half the sugar volumes in the recipe and came out about right for me.

Now i just have to keep the Bourbon Girl away from it for a few months.

captainshooch

@punkin good luck keeping that girl away...Started last night, went on all day today and will continue into tomorrow or the next day...stripping 275 Gallons of "Rise N Shine Beer" made by a local brewer and fixing to go out of date so we're gonna strip it an run it. I am pooped with capital P. :( So far stripping runs a pretty darn tasty!

cunnyfunt

Rise n moonshine :O

captainshooch

@cunnyfunt LMAO that is exactly what the master brewer said at the brewey...call it Rise n Shine moonshine.. :))

rossco

Glad you putt them to good use Punkin. I've been learning about AG beer. There are heaps of ways to screw it up and I recon I've done about half of them. Havin fun :)) Rossco

nvnovrts

@punkin said: In front of the computer all morning researching Koh Samui, street food and shopping in Bangkok.

Full Moon party? Samui is a lot of fun.

punkin

We will be there while the full moon party is on, but i think we will be staying well away from it. We are in our retirement years, i'd just get frustrated with 40,000 drunk and stoned poms and aussies.

Seems funny that it will be on the same time as the buddhihst alcohol free holiday, i guess it's up to them how that will work out.

crozdog

punkin I was in Thailand on Buddha's birthday - The shops wouldn't sell us any grog, but the guest house we were staying at was happy to serve us beer in coffee mugs so as to not offend the locals!

punkin

Goodo. So long as i can get a few beers i'll be happy. From what i've read the major resorts are pretty much exempt too.

CothermanDistilling

Ryse and shine - it has Rye in it..... how's it taste?

cunnyfunt

Do you guys drink spirit in indo? I can't bring myself to do it. Even "top shelf" has killed.