- Forum Clout
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I have a little set up that works real nice, but it's a lot of work and pretty time consuming. I use 5 gallon water jugs for the mash with a little p-trap at the top as a one-way valve to let gas out but stop air from getting in. I tried a few different mashes at first, but eventually i just started doing sugar, water, and molasses (so rum, I guess?) which consistently works the best.
It'll usually take a week before the mash ferments, and once it does, I run it with a pressure washer on a hot plate that I rigged up with a goose neck made out of copper tube. That tube runs into a 5 gallon bucket where I formed it into a coil which pops out of the side near the bottom. I use a small pump to pump ice water into the bucket, which then overflows back into the cooler that has the ice water. It's some real country ass looking shit, but works like a charm.
The trick to doing it right is knowing how much alcohol should be flowing out of the coil. If there's too much alcohol flowing out, you're not running the pot hot enough to burn off the nasty alcohol vapors that make you go blind, if there's only a slow drip coming out, you're running it too hot and burning off all the good shit.
For a 5 gallon jug, I'll usually get about 6-7 mason jars. The first jar is called the "head" and that shit is toxic as fuck. You can see it almost has a blueish tint to it. You gotta toss that shit right out. Then the next jars to come out usually go from 70% down until 30%. Once you're at 30% you can save that to toss into the next mash to give it a jump start. I'll take the 70-50% stuff and mix it together to get some decent booze.
I went and got a few 1.5 liter barrels that I use to age some of the better stuff I run. The smaller the barrel you use, the faster it ages. After about 3-4 months it'll end up pretty good.
It'll usually take a week before the mash ferments, and once it does, I run it with a pressure washer on a hot plate that I rigged up with a goose neck made out of copper tube. That tube runs into a 5 gallon bucket where I formed it into a coil which pops out of the side near the bottom. I use a small pump to pump ice water into the bucket, which then overflows back into the cooler that has the ice water. It's some real country ass looking shit, but works like a charm.
The trick to doing it right is knowing how much alcohol should be flowing out of the coil. If there's too much alcohol flowing out, you're not running the pot hot enough to burn off the nasty alcohol vapors that make you go blind, if there's only a slow drip coming out, you're running it too hot and burning off all the good shit.
For a 5 gallon jug, I'll usually get about 6-7 mason jars. The first jar is called the "head" and that shit is toxic as fuck. You can see it almost has a blueish tint to it. You gotta toss that shit right out. Then the next jars to come out usually go from 70% down until 30%. Once you're at 30% you can save that to toss into the next mash to give it a jump start. I'll take the 70-50% stuff and mix it together to get some decent booze.
I went and got a few 1.5 liter barrels that I use to age some of the better stuff I run. The smaller the barrel you use, the faster it ages. After about 3-4 months it'll end up pretty good.