🍇Wild Muscadine Grape Brandy + VEVOR Pot Still REVIEW! 

Check out the VEVOR Pot Still here - bit.ly/3eXFRLy Use Coupon Code *VVKIT5OFF* for 5% off all products on the VEVOR website!

Just a tip for these stills, if you let them sit for awhile, like 4 months, before you run your still, run vinegar through it. The copper tubing has a tendency to corrode, especially in warmer, more humid climates. My liquor ferry figured that out the hard way.

A friend presented me with two five gallon buckets of muscadines to make wine with a few years ago. I had made cider for years out of apple juice but never from whole apples and I had made wine from grape juice but never whole grapes. I wasn't quite sure how to handle processing the muscadines until I remembered my sausage grinder that we use for processing deer sausage. It took about 15 minutes to run through both buckets and the end product (post fermentation) was outstanding. The liquor fairies could have had a field-day......

One year in the 80's after picking wild blackberries I decided to make homemade wine. After following a recipe from Mother Earth News I got a high alcohol thick Brandywine. Knock your socks off stuff. Of course it's because of mistakes. But one shot was yummy, silky and knock you out.

For the Thumper you can use a 8mm compression coupling and a small 8mm copper pipe instead of the suggested quick hack - I have tried and it works.

On my 3 gallon Velor, i hypothetically change the fitting on the slosh box to a compression fitting along with a length copper tubing. I removed the top ball valve and replaced it with a brass nipple. During the run, I pack the thumper with 100% copper Chore Boy scratch pad to give more copper for the sulfur removal. I also take the thumper out of the mix when doing a stripping run. I hypothetically get between 170 to 178 proof from a sprint run with the thumper.

I watched a few of your videos years ago and learned plenty. Found Good Old George and learned more. Now seeing your newer videos you should be complemented on how the look and sound have evolved for the better. Subscribed

Awesome timing! I just got the 9.6 gallon unit in last week. The main pot was almost worth the full price! I'm glad you made this video because I was a bit nervous about putting it together. I am excited to put it to use (hypothetically), but honestly I decided to get it as an emergency water distiller too. It can clean up contaminated water quickly with any heat source. Viva Vevor! Their stuff is amazing! They make a killer air still too. Thanks again!

Your gonna get that warm buttery flavor on every brandy you run, does for my copper still anyways, take some of the sweet tail ends and cut down the proof, then age it in a little barrel for about 30 to 40 days. I put mine in at around 100 proof due to the water I use to seal the barrel, itll soak up and mix inside the barrel dropping down the proof. Its heavenly on the finished product. Great video man, I just got some muskydynes so I'm gonna try it!

I have this exact one but without the thumper and I felt the condenser flow and temp were hard to control, so I made a condenser with a 5 gallon pail and used all the fittings to connect it to the boiler pot and to the pond pump, it makes it a lot easier to run. This set up is totally worth the expense and I'm going to make a thumper from one of your previous video. Cheers man good review, and the brandy sounds great!

My 5 gallon just arrived, I'm thinking I made a mistake and should've gotten the 8, but all of that is moot until I get off my chair and run something!! Thanks for the slobber box/Thumper clarification and very simple suggestion!

Muscadine makes a great drink. I got lucky this year and ended up with 15 gallons of finished wine with only muscadine for fruits. I use the left over skins for jam.

You packed a lot of really good info into this. Not just a review of the vevor but how to get better use than as packaged. Very nice

My grandfather always said the mustang grapes as they called them in Tennessee back woods were so peppery that the old timers would boil them down with baking soda to clean it up. I guess what they were doing without really knowing was to use baking soda to de-acidify them.

Thanks Bearded!!

I've just got this exact still here in 🇦🇺 , can't wait for my sugar wash to be done. Thx to your video I did it as an inverted wash 👍

Muscadine and scuppernongs….love em. Reminds me of my childhood living in North Carolina. Randomly found a batch at a grocery store here in Chicago. Only regret was not buying all they had because they never restocked em.

I make it - Muscadine & Scuppernong Brandy every year - grow my own - good raisins too

I've looked around here for muscadine grapes, never found enough to make anything. I DID stumble on some Paw Paws tho, made some tasty wine ! Not enough to distill, but maybe next year.

Stupid question but what if you had added wine instead of grapejuice? (If you'd really want to avoid the "Welchness" ??) BTW, great video and really nice to see you again!!

My grandmother here in Central Texas used to make a few cases of awesome Muscedine jelly, while grandpa made a couple of cases of wine instead. Bummer I lost track of their recipes.

great info!!! i bought a vevor just because the money to try the craft was reasonable, I tell you it's an awesome little still for someone just wanting to get their feet wet. Enjoying your videos.

Thanks mate, awesome

I've heard that muscadine grape juice is so acidic it will strip paint off a car! But the flavor is unlike anything else. Kind of like sand hill plums. Small, powerfully acidic and sour, but a flavor more delicious than any other in jelly, jam or wine. Gonna have to get some together and send them to you, and see what you can make from them! Thanks again for another great vid. brother. God bless. Rev. D.

I put the fruit in a pressure cooker, add water as needed, then cook it at 15 lbs for 20 minutes. It breaks down the cell walls & in high seed density fruits, like bitter oranges or muscadines, I end up extracting more juice, since seeds get in the way of presses, & grinding up the seeds, could release more bad stuff contained inside the seeds, than the pressure cooker. Also, pressure cooking kills any microbes, leaving no competition or other interference for the yeast, instead turning the microbes carcasses into a "yeast feast". I strain it through a filter bag, funnel it into a carboy or 5 gallon bucket, add sugar as needed, bloom some yeast, pour it in, & cap it with an airlock & carry on from there.

Hi thanks for your video ! Two quick related questions : 1) Are the gaskets silicone ? 2) Aren't you worried of putting silicone in contact of the alcohol vapor ? (hoses + gaskets?)

watch for merlot wine kits to go on sale and use those for brandy.

Interesting Question since I'm the kind of guy that likes experimenting: Can you, in theory, use JUST the Thumper and the Condenser to distill 1/2 or 1/3 of a gallon of alcohol? So you put the boiler away and you get a simple stopper screw for the inlet of the Tumper and you just use the outlet+tube+condenser as they are normally hooked up. I'm just thinking of simple Gin-like experiments where I do just a single bottle + some herbals to see what I get. Then if I'm happy I can scale up. What do you think?

i cannot recall the proper name of it off the top of my head, but french grape farmers would make a low abv (we're talking about 6%) "session" (for lack of a better term) wine from the leftover pomace. might be fun to try. also, have to say, I tried Vevor's air still and it was absolute shite

Hey Brother. So glad to see you back making videos again. Hope all is good with you and the Family. Will drop you an email at some point. -- den in NH.

Thanks for this video. It’s the most helpful one I have found for the vevor yet. I will be doing the thumper mod.

Can you test to see if a magnet sticks to the bottom? I'd like to use it with an induction hot plate.

Great video! I’ve been playing with persimmon wine today.

Good shit my brotha. Yeah it all started with the Vevor. Then I seen it didn’t have the down tube for the thump and the condenser was WAY TOO SMALL. So I ended up spending a shot ton of money and converting it to be a 8 gal thump for my 16 gal boiler and a 5 gal bucket with 10ft of copper coil for the condenser. I use the same hose and in/outlets for the water in my bucket and I pump from a 15 gal Home Depot bucket full of water and ice… lot of money and lot of time because I can’t afford all this at once. Also I re engineered my drawing 4 times so yeah but it’s bad ass and you and Jesse from Still it and George all inspired me bro. I never would have taken this road but im glad I found this community because I love projects and in Oregon you can build and own a still legally. Since I have no intention of using it for anything but water im safe 😜

That short pipe in the package converts the slobber box into a thumper, that is the point of it.

Thanks for the video just purchased same one and wasn’t sure how it was all put together and used etc… brand new to the hobby

I just got the vevor..... Thanks for the code... Cant wait for it to get here

i love mine i have a 3 gallon and just got me a 13 1/2 gallon

it makes great whiskey.

Also my 8 gal Vevor thump has a jump to a 3.5 gal Stainless bucket with clamps for an extra flavor basket Then to the condenser but it’s a attachments and doesn’t have to be used

Great video!! Thank you . I learned something this day and that's always good.

I've been looking for a long time. Looking to move past apple cider and wine. Best video I've seen on a review. I went ahead and bought this same one tonight. Used your code and hope it helps you. Great video and thanks for all that you do.

After reading through the comments I guess my Vevor is the only one that came with the tube for the thumper. It just screws on to the bottom of the lid.

I have one love it first run was a banana rum with a bit of Carolina reaper pepper

great video

Great content. Thank you for the information

Could you proof it down with the original ~8% wine? Would that affect/ruin the distilled flavor? I've been "hypothetically" considering getting into this and your video are great for answering the stray thoughts that sometimes pop up

Haven't tried it, but I bet one of those plastic tools for getting a bike tire on and off the wheel would work great for that grommet.

Great vid Sir Bearded...

Dandelion wine run through a still?

Even if we assume the whole thing is made from raw stock in a sweat shop in Bangladesh the price is ridiculous. They made a good call buying your attention on this, without your review I'd have passed because the price point is just not plausible.

12:55 mine came with the down tube

Next time don’t kill off the wild microbs. Pitch your yeast and make them compete. You might find that the yeast on the grapes digest it the best. Natural selection.

one thing i noticed in your video not sure if it matters but the seal on thumper goes on pot not the lid

Love you videoes - this comment is meant to please the YT AlgoRythm' goods for your profit 🙂

Just a thought. Would it be better to use cheese cloth to really squeeze everything out? Strainer just your preference?

Does it come with anything to cover the airlock hole when distilling?

Excellent video. I'm too poor to get a good still, but I'm really wanting to start distilling.

Best way to find muscadine grapes? They are here in GA and I love them. Would be fun to do

Have you tried Chitosan and Kieselsol for clearing up your wash/must? It is amazing stuff!

They grow wine grapes here but I don't think those grow here

Also how's the blackberry brandy or wine coming along

I always thought that silicone and brass were bad ideas for stills. I've heard the high levels of alcohol leach silicone/metals. Anyone else under the same impression?

I have always been leery about cheap stills including parts that are not stainless and dubious gaskets. Has your liquor fairy noticed any degradation of the tubes and gaskets after six runs? C’è or says that they use “Food grade silicone”. Great video! My uncle’s farm near Fort Worth had “mustang” grapes growing wild along the Brazos river when I was a kid. They were highly acidic!

Question, I have heard that these stainless stills produce a different .. almost off.. taste as compared to copper. Couldnt one use copper pipe and tubing along with some copper wool to clean that up?

I really want to make my own booze

Shoulda stomped em! Add that organic neanderthal flavor. Lol

Excellent video. New to this do i need to release pressure after finishing a run and if yes how can i do it? Please

Might have missed it....rationale for the two yeasts?

One question I have always had but never found a video topic on, is the use of artificial sugar for sweetening wines, liqueurs etc after distilling and flavoring. I always make vodka or rum and by column distilling and I flavor afterwards with a lot of the flavors that are out there. I make wine too. Most of them call for sweetening with sugar but I’m Diabetic so have to be careful. Have you tried this?

Thanks for the info, Good Video.... However I'd like to know what temperature was set on the pot on the stove ?

Any word from George lately??

Why wouldn't you crush down the muscadines and just bring that whole solution to a boil which would kill off anything wild in there. That pretty much how I do it. Crushing them down and bringing to a boil also releases a lot of the sugars in them.

I grew up in sc …100% jealous you have that many muscadines (Iam in ne Ohio now :(. )

Hey B&B. Would there be any benefit to packing copper mesh in the tube right where it connects to the boiler pot? Thank you and the fairy! 😁

Много благодаря! 🤠

Can we make essential oil with this machine? Thank you

Is okay to use those brass fittings? I have one of these stills and i get a grey patina inside the fittings. Im worried thats lead. What size are the fittings? Id like to order stainless versions

these the grapes used to make muscatel wine?

Doesn't the Campden stop the pectic enzyme too?

Awesome video about to try my first time. Question tho when the liquor ferry begins its work what temperature should the pot be maintained at on the stove top? Thanks

Bearded! I DIDNT KNOW HOW ELSE TO CONTZCT YOU. BUT I had a crazy idea inspired by Man Made Mead's 16 Yeast Shootout video and left the crazy idea over there. I also went to Doing The Most considering this level of crazy is almost certainly beyond Man Made Mead but seems like the kind of idea that you and Doin The Most might be like "you know? Know I want to know, CAN it be done and what would it taste like". So I'm letting you know. Maybe one or both of you might try it. I'm gonna try it as soon as I get some supplies, though I might have to wait till next year when corn is more in season. It's almost too late for corn. In that bmvideo they had 4 different sample (I think for) with a "corn tortilla taste" and they were rated lowly. Well I'm sitting here eating corn tortilla and was like "if didn't taste bad. They THOUGHT it tasted bad because they had the preconceived idea of what mead should taste like. If you didn't know what mead 'should' taste like it wouldn't taste unpleasant. It woukd taste more like an unbaked sour mash". So I got this CRAZY idea. Get bunch of fresh sweet corn, decor it, freeze, mash, freeze. Take the husks, fill with a little steamed rice or really thick steamed corn flakes or grits. Wrap in servant rap, set in the oven for a few days and see if you can get koji-kin (aspergillius oryzea), the mold or bacteria which converts starches to sugars for sake. It can be done, I watched a RU-vid video on it. I did it, out if like 14 samples I got 3 that turned to sweet fragrant delicious smelling liquid goo, BUT the other samples were contaminated with bad molds, I let it fo way too long and dumped them all. In hindsight I shoukd have thrown those 3 samples in a bucket with steamed rice and yeast and just rolled with it. Anyway, once the holy grail of sugar producing molds has been acquired, add to a bucket with steamed or boiled grits or flaked cornor maize corn meal, the mashed corn, mead must and one of those yeasts that gave a "corn tortilla flavor" (which could have come from the honey, not the yeast. But the yeast obviously brought it out to a notable level), stir every couple days, and just let it do it's thing till it's pretty much all liquid. In the end you have a mead that shoukd have that sour mash flavor. Whisky typically has "Carmal notes" (they generally add straight up caramelized sugar to the finished product to enhance the signature flavor) that would be crested in the distilling process. Well this would have lighter honey notes and character. Then oak the son of a gun! I don't know what yo call it because it's certainly not a mead or beer, kind of like a wine, not a sake or anything like that because there's no rice. But, to me, it sounds tasty. Like a beer ir wine that tastes like whisky. But is lower ABV and and thus more of a 'session' beverage. Or, could, "hypothetically", be distilled into an actual whisky. I know it sounds like a convoluted way to make whiskey vs making a beer or a sourmash with amylase enzyme thrown in it to convert the starches to sugars and sugars to alcohol. But to me it's the "more than one way to skin a cat" and the "let's throw this together and let nature do what it does and see how it turns out" appeal. And there IS a benefit. For a typical beer or sourmash you have the whole boil and everything that you have to do every time. Sure there would be a boiling or steaming process to rehydrate a sack of cracked corn or grist. But because it's a SCOBY and a biological conversion rather than a enzymatic conversion of starches... in theory, you shoukd be able to drain off the liquid, throw in more hydrated corn or grist into the barrel, stir, leave it, stir every few days, come back and repeat with draining the liquid off. Where with the enzymes you have to keep being enzymes, calculating, measuring, babysitting the mash tin while you "boil" at just the right temp for the enzymes... where this is more set it and forget it and let the trillions of tiny workers do the heavy lifting for you. Anyway. May not be your thing. But I might try it out if I ever get a good sized bucket or barrel. Maybe leaving some out on Christmas and the elves might turn it into a distillate. If it's not your think thats cool. But check out the comment on the 16 yeast shoot out. I may have missed some things here. And again thanks for the awesome videos.

How did you vent your thumper after shutdown? Did you just release the spring clips?

Hi, What can be done with Heads and Tails when distilling consecutive runs of wine ?

I just did plum jam but saved a letter to add to other jam's to make brandy , quick question do you need pectin enzymes if you have boiled the fruit? I did jamy brandy ,plum jam, blackberry jam, apple sauce,5 kg sugar and some wild yeast and apple tree blossoms

Would there be any use to the slobber box? Does it do all the much to get a cleaner product? I can see how its supposed to work, but no one talks about its effectiveness.

Some French dude who makes very expensive brandy...his sits out side in barn..it was funky looking as hell...i guess it was good...by looks not soo much..

Can i make vodka from grapes with this?

I watched this video with interest, more for knowing how much hate the Vevor stills get in the hobby forums. I have an 8 gallon Vevor clone myself, amen am generally happy with it. It’s not the worlds greatest still, but as you said, it’s not bad value for the money. One small issue, though. While I’ve read your comments on the use of silicone, and I know that it’s used in commercial distilleries, I would have liked to hear you at least acknowledge the negative opinions about it in the hobby world. I’m sure that you are well aware of both the rules on the home distiller forum and the logic behind them, and while you are of course not bound by them in any way, it would have been nice to see you at least acknowledge that differing opinion, possibly with a suggestion on how to address the issue. It’s not at all difficult to replace the silicone gasket with PTFE, after all.

Hello great video! So I just got a new Vevor 5 gal still I plan on cleaning with citric acid and doing a vinegar run, but really don't want to run a sacrifical run since I'll have to use a mash feels wasteful and I'm being lazy, do I have to?

Awesome video! My hypothetical vevor still arrived recently and I hypothetically made my first 2 runs. I tried your thumper hack but I guess the heat makes the plastic loose and both times the liquor fairy found the thing lying at the bottom of the box. Any idea how to make it so it doesnt just pop off during the run?

good info

Doh! That is the thumper tube. You just insert it into the boss. No need for the silicone tube.

I’m sorry but what kind of muscadines do you have? I live in Eastern NC and muscadine and scuppernong grow everywhere. I’ve never had one that is anything other than super sweet. No spice whatsoever.

The brass seems like a bad idea, I would rip it off of there, also not a huge fan of the silicone either

does it work?

My china still actually came with a complete thumper

Kolejny naganiacz sprzętu do pędzenia bimbru w cenie wielokrotnie wyższej od ceny whiskey, którą można by kupić w markecie. Stal "nierdzewna" z której 25 ltr. baniak wykonany rdzewieje po sześciu pędzeniach - PRC quality.

VEVOR 5 gallon still thermometer rusted watch out. I believe this could be unhealthy.