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Dia duit agus dea-shláinte

I'm glad I have found this particular site on the Internet. StillDragon was a suggestion by a friend and it has proved to be fruitful. I'm now in receipt of some seriously cool SS that will help me up production.

I have joined quite a few sites in the last two years and I recognise many of the members handles from them and this site appears to be flame free which makes for a refreshing change. Nothing worse than joining a new site where they welcome newbies and then flame you when you ask for confirmation of procedures or techniques.

Anyways, I'm in God's chosen land, Ireland, the only place on the planet where poiteen can be made and I'm doing my best to keep us at the top of the list ;)

Slainte

Comments

  • Actually, we make and sell a poitin variant, that is, with all malted barley and no unmalted barley. Triple-potstilled and sold white at 110 proof, it's what we also age at 135 proof, cut to 86, and sell as our "Irishish". I hope we haven't taken your name in vain.

    Zymurgy Bob, a simple potstiller

    my book, Making Fine Spirits

  • edited January 2019

    @DannyBoy. Well there are many people of Irish Heritage who can or could make Poiteen. I would qualify with 2 Irish convicts who were transported to Australia, in my heritage. I have tried making poiteen but its on my list of recipes to do.

    You are right about this site. I joined another site and said that I wanted to set up a commercial distillery and 2 cocksuckers told me I was full of shit and it would never happen. . Well I have $50k of still gear in my garage and I am about to buy my shed. I would bet those guys are still spending all their time on webboards, watching porn and wanking off. Anyway. This is a great space. SD gear is the best you can get. It all works. There is a wealth of knowledge here. What really works is when you give back. So if you know how to do something it helps if you share when people ask.

  • Welcome.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • edited January 2019

    Welcome @DannyBoy, have a look around and familiarize yourself with the StillDragon® Way Of Doing Things.

    Good starting points are the available manuals and the pinned discussions in our Beginner's Talk category.

    Your Place to be >>> www.StillDragon.org <<< Home of the StillDragon® Community Forum

  • edited January 2019

    @moonshine. I have to say that the StillDragon gin basket manual was what made me believe I could make gin. Great work and thanks.

  • @DannyBoy welcome, ask as much as you need to - no such thing as a stupid question.

    Interested to hear about poiteen (or however else anyone spells it) making. I've heard about people using all sorts of things from potatoes to barley. I reckon there's more misinformation / urban legend surrounding it than pretty much anything else. Maybe start a thread on it?

    @DonMateo glad to hear the SD gin guide I wrote has opened up a world of fun for you. I enjoy reading about your adventures.

  • @crozdog What we make as poitin is tne all-barley-malt, triple-potstilled as in commercial Irish variety. We take off the spirit run at an aggregate 136 proof, and proof it to 110 proof with the great-grain-taste stuff that would be tails if it didn't taste so good.

    I figure there's about 6.8 pounds of malt in every 750, and it tastes like it.

    Zymurgy Bob, a simple potstiller

    my book, Making Fine Spirits

  • @zymurgybob said: crozdog What we make as poitin is tne all-barley-malt, triple-potstilled as in commercial Irish variety. We take off the spirit run at an aggregate 136 proof, and proof it to 110 proof with the great-grain-taste stuff that would be tails if it didn't taste so good.

    I figure there's about 6.8 pounds of malt in every 750, and it tastes like it.

    For heaven's sake that sounds delightful.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • @smaug Well, I'm proud of it, but with the 110 proof and no aging/wood flavors (but big malt flavor), it's kind of a niche product, and only about 1 taster in 8 or 9 buys it. On the other hand, the folks who like it keep coming back.

    Oh well, we have to make it anyway to age for our Irishish, so we might as well sell it, too.

    Zymurgy Bob, a simple potstiller

    my book, Making Fine Spirits

  • @zymurgybob sounds great. do you use all malted... interesting, I thought that one of the characteristics of Irish was the use of malted & unmalted barley

  • I've read both ways, but there's always a chance I've been misled. What really put me in the all-malt process is the fact that milling unmalted barley with a mill designed for milling grain to be mashed is like trying to mill pea gravel, an awful strain on the mill.

    Zymurgy Bob, a simple potstiller

    my book, Making Fine Spirits

  • nearly all of our whiskies are 100% malt and pot stilled, and I have a McGillicuddy about 8 generations back... hmmm....

  • edited March 2019

    @zymurgybob said: Actually, we make and sell a poitin variant, that is, with all malted barley and no unmalted barley. Triple-potstilled and sold white at 110 proof, it's what we also age at 135 proof, cut to 86, and sell as our "Irishish". I hope we haven't taken your name in vain.

    Not at all, the more the merrier ;)

  • So I'm sitting here distilling a 50-litre beer keg that was made up of several stripping runs made earlier this year, and I got to reading this thread again and it got me thinking. Do you know the term 'there's more than one way to skin a cat' well that sums up poiten perfectly.

    It's been made in a pretty regular fashion by pot stills with many different ingredients for several hundred years in Ireland ( the history books that are available here are so different from each other you would think they came from different countries ) but for the purpose of this post I will just post mine that was handed down to me.

    No quantities, just percentages, or buckets as my dad would use.

    10 flaked corn 10 sugar 2 Malted barley steeped for a few days on the edge of the range so it doesn't burn. The above make up 50% of the fermentation bin, the rest is made up with clean water from the drains on the bog. Any yeast and sugar mix will suffice, but it must be made and allowed to work for a day or so before pitching to in.

    The only change I have made to this is to add two dessert spoons of Marmite after being recommended it, it makes a huge difference IMHO.

    Now I know that you guys are professionals who take many readings regarding PH levels, water quality and all that, but I don't, the only thing I do is wait until I have a .990 reading then I strip that bucket fast and store it for the quality run.

    Primitive? Hell yes, and we love it.

    Slainte!

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