Making Moonshine On A Home Made Still : UJSSM Gen 5 Spirit Run 

Knew a guy who made 2 batches of tangelo wine, but one of the yeast cultures failed to start up so he added bread yeast. It smelled foul, like some sour citrus beer or something. He distilled it into a brandy with some oak posts he toasted and it smelled great, nothing like the garbage he started with. Thinking about what you've got before throwing it out is great advice for a beginner.

that's a great use for a yoga mat!

Jesse ... thanks for this series. Really enjoy your manner and methods.

Jesse, these videos are awesome. I have been hooked since I have been looking for information on distilling. I made my own pot still, ran the first mash I made (oats, sugar and yeast in UJSSM style -sub oats for corn) and it turned out awesome. I just started my UJSSM (traditional) gen 1 and cannot wait for the 4th gen to make the spirit run. Keep up the great videos and information, they have been extraordinarily helpful. And, HOLY cow, you got Uncle Jesse on your page! Not sure why I'm surprised, great site!!!

Daniel and Rex mentioned you on the Whisky Vault. I'm glad they did. Liked the video.

So happy to have found your channel. Good stuff man!

Hi Jesse, Thanks for putting out all this great content, I've learned a lot from you. Just a suggestion, I added an inline water pressure regulator to supply my condenser, so it's like 5-10psi now which is WAY better. No change in flow when someone in the house uses water, and no more leaks. $40 eBay, they are made for RVs. Cheers, Daniel

Each generation gets more acidic which can slow or even stop your yeast from fermenting. It's good to add yeast nutrient.

Love it, man! I'm so interested to see what happens with what you've frozen. Also , you're a true field engineer... solving problems and applying solutions in an elegant manner. As usual, well done!

Hi Jessie Recently found your channel and loving it 👍👍👍 I set up a recycling water setup and works great 3 x 220 liter olive barrels on a bench joined at the bottom 1 drum on the floor under bench. I was gravity feeding out and pumping in But new setup requires more pressure so i now Pump out and in. 50 liter keg boiler Water temp goes up 4 to 6 degrees on average On a run. Cheers your Aussie Cusin from DownUnder Keep up the good work. ..

I absolutely love your videos and your channel! Also at 6:36 the Amstel beer crate(?, i don't know the English word for it) made me smile!! I'm from the Netherlands and that's beer from here. Love how some things travel the world. I've learned a lot from your channel and since a short time i try to master it myself. Keep up the good work Jesse!! Greetings Frank.

I just discovered your channel. I've been brewing beer for 2 years now and I just got into distilling. Your channel is a wealth of information. Keep it up and cheers from Poland.

This was the first video of yours I watched back in 2020 and here it is 2021 and I had to come back because it’s one of my favorites. Good on ya Sr

Brilliant! You're a legend!

As soon as you mentioned the mailing list I signed up. Not gonna miss anymore live streams!

Jesse, just made my first run today. Came out ok. I think my next one will be better. I had of course the issue with keeping my water cool with my cleaning runs Tried 4 bags of 20 lb ice. Didn't work. Melted and got hot in like 25 minutes. I have a better system now. Bought a used chest freezer, purchased a coiled copper tubing. And a pond pump. Filled with water straight into the freezer to the step, which held my copper coil, let it cool down good. Ran the return water into the copper tubing to help cool down the return water before it returns to the main pool below. Worked great. Although towards the end. I did wind up adding 1 twenty pound bag of ice. I enjoy your videos mate!

Love the movies man been glued sense the first one I watched

Hi Jess, you mentioned how you would like to change the still water cooling usage....I have the same issue....i have an old bath tub outside. I've got a fish pond pump n used that to recycle the water through the still. it gets hot though. Freeze up old containers of water, & pop into the warm water, cools down the water, to keep the still ticking along nicely.

Awesome video, I really enjoyed the slow-mo montage.

For my condensor I use a heat exchanger with a small resovoir and a pump. Works just like a car radiator. Works great. Similar to the cooling system that they use to cool medical lasers.

Just starting up , your video are a god send! Thanks

I appreciate the tinted ska outtro a lot - nice.

Looking forward to your blending vid. I've mostly done neutrals so when the tails start coming through I just ramp it up and turn it into a stripping run for the next time. That said, I'm making low wines for bourbon as we speak so blending tips would be well appreciated

I built a simple recirculating chiller with a cooler and a pond pump. I keep 4 or 5 2.5 gallon plastic water jugs in the freezer then put them in the cooler with about 3 gallons of water. I get about 7 hours of run time before I have to switch out the jug. I'll try to shoot a simple video of it this weekend.

Looking good man! Glad you used the “suspect” keg. You did the right thing. Remember our emails about how this stuff started out - far from laboratory grade sanitary. Can’t wait to see what you come up with after you blend your cuts.

Hey, I know this is an older video but I'm working through some of your videos and loving them! Thanks for this wealth of great info! I'm just wondering what you do with your foreshots? I saw that you store them with your petrol etc, do you use it in place of gasoline? After a bit of research I HAVE experimented with pouring about a liter of heads right into my car with a full tank and it seemed to work fine LOL but I'm not sure that would be good for it in the long run :D So, I'd love to hear how you use up the foreshot and even the heads. Thanks again :)

Great advice

Love your content ty for everything one suggestion though you need some fly tape LMFAO 😆 love the videos keep up the good work 👍👏🤜🤛

ok ok ok been on all of this for years now ...a little bit of moonshine history as well !! That $1400 come in .. it is on !!!!! ... You gave me an idea !! Thank you so much !!

I love the boots!

i use a 1000 ltr pod and a 12v bilge pump to cool my still.im on my 4th sourmash run.using a reflux still,i dont need to strip heads or other,i regularly get 86%alc/vol and its not a bad drop.

Jesse, I love the videos, and the Kiwi Sense of Humor, I have been trying to figure out from your outdoor shot if you are on the North or South Island. My guess is south but I could be biased as I have spent the most time on the South Island.

Hello your info is great my question i made my first suger mash day before yesterday I made 8 gallons and my fermenter is 30 gallon looks like everything is working so when i put the lid on with the air lock not getting any release through the airlock is it possible that my container is so large that its not building enough pressure,

Love your videos. If it were legal i'd be getting my new 10 gallon copper still in the next few days ;)

And for the last run, siphon you spirits into a container approximatley 30 cm above your head and filter it by gravity feed through your beard into another bucket. :) Top drawer content.... loving it from a frozen part of Canada

I use a 200 litre water butt for my cold water supply. It works a treat band I can fun the water through very fast.

I´ve got a little question: Have you (maybe off camera) tryed to charcoal filter some of your spirits? If you did how was the resulting chane between normal white dog and refined batch? Btw you could try to conserve some of your GEN 5 with an little white flour. Use it like you would use normal yeast for baking, but after you made the dough, you roll it flat like a pizza, before you set it on an nice warm place with good ventilation. Use a kitchen towel to cover it, and then let it dry out. flip it from time to time when the top side is dry. After that store it on an cool place with low humidity. If you want to use the yeast, soak a good portion of the dought in warm water, a big masion jar is perfect. But cover the top with cloth so you didnt get visit from unwanted critters ;)

Hi Jesse, what's your thoughts on recirculating water from a chlorine salt water pool through a copper still? Any idea if there would be side effects on the copper?

If you ever have a gnat (Fruit fly) problem, (See the 8:28 mark or so) they, and regular flies, love the foreshots. They have a sweet fruity smell. Running through a screened funnel into the jar helps keep them out. Nothing worse than getting a nice jar of hearts, only to find a couple dead gnats in the bottom. I have a starbar captivator fly trap. Instead of throwing the foreshots away, dump them in this and it attracts gnats/flies like a magnet in the house. Sometimes in the summer, when I'm grilling on the back porch, regular flies get terrible. If I set this somewhere in the vicinity where I'm grilling outside, in a couple hours I've seen dozens of flies floating around pickled. I've even seen some dead at the opening that never went in. Just hung out in the fumes a while too long. It will evaporate in a couple days, quicker outside, but I rarely fill it more than @ 1/3 full. I've had it for many years and the high proof alcohol hasn't hurt the plastic. Just a suggestion! And no, I have no affiliation with these fly traps, I just like 'em! lol.

gotta love jar number 5. hope you didn't get in trouble for that Jesse...

love the slowmo beard shot

Hey still it been watching alot of your vids recently, love the content. I'm planning on having a go at this in the next couple of weeks, just a question when you save the back set do you let it completely dry out or do you add straight to the next gen Wash? Like if you was going to do the next gen a few weeks later does the back set need a specific way to dry out or literally save it as it comes out ready to add when needed if that makes sense. Thanks

Awwwww ya team!!! Finally balanced !!! So stuck in.....93 c kettle 78.5 head temp...

interesting channel! Do you have experience using Chinese Kodzy yeast?

do you have 2 get hearts only if its only a sugar wash or is all the run good?? Great vid. by the way

If you'd done things over again would you have made your CCVM still with 3" piping?

I'm up to generation 6 of my UJSSM. The first 2 or 3 generations used to ferment in under 2 weeks, a couple of them had 5 day turnovers. The latest generations have been fermenting for over a month now, about 6 weeks. Is this because of the ph level of the wash now? Is there something I can put in it to adjust the ph and get it fermenting quicker again? The ambient weather temps are ideal for fermenting right now (SE QLD Spring time)

I use a D5 pump which is a 12 volt Computer Pump with a stupid high flow and head pressure for it's size. However, A fountain pump would probably be way cheaper.

Just for shots and grins I just did a UJSSM with a rice mash I added some fresh rice 8 lbs of cane sugar and 25% back set 🤷‍♀️ I have the run from this rice mash to compare guess we will see in a week or so if it comes out better worse or the same That's a 5 gallon batch

Was this low wine's gen 1-5? Or did you add low wine's gen 1-4 to the gen 5 mash before distilling?

hey man how much shine do u normally get out of one run out of your still I am trying to figure out what I should get close out of mine

thanks man

I’ve been doing all grain runs. After I finish the rye that’s waiting I’ll start gen 2 of ujssm but my shit is much smaller scale I only get about 3/4 gallon. But I have been oaking and flavoring I got to say. I think I’ll like the ujssm as much if not more than the all grain. Less bite. I definitely want to be on mail list. Love the Channel could I send you some product to try and tell me your thoughts.

Great ending!!!!

Jessie. Had a thought about your “happy accident” which was adding some of the backset to the really low wines. Of course this would be s huge deviation from the UJSSM recipe, but just a thought. I was thinking about how you made your rum where you take some of the stillage to create Dunder. Then you added the dunder to the beer just before running it. That’s if I got the process right. What do you think might happen? Would this be a worthy experiment? Please let me know your thoughts. Thank you for your channel and candor. I believe you have added much value to the learning process for those open minded enough.

ive been watching these and i am wondering what did you do with the alcohol from each gen does it matter what gen youre on to collect the alcohol or can you collect it all

Instead of freezing can the backset be canned? All distillers have big enough boilers, and most have mason jars.

So was gen 5 a much larger batch than the others? If so how much wash was it? Did you strip gen 5 and then spirit run it?

Hey mate, great vid as usual. i have a question for you, I noticed when do the spirit run on the pot what ABV to you take off down to? in your case where do you see the tails coming in?

Where do you get your white gaskets for the glass jars?

Hi, as a long time distiller but having lived my still life in the dark, I hav no idea what the acrinims you talk about are. please tell us what they are and I love your channel. I want to make a particular tennissee whiskey!

I am new to This process... What is "for shots" How much is it and at what point do you cut it off and throw that away or do you throw it away...? Are you able to drink the heads, or tails?

10:06 where in the world is that jar from?! I needs me one of those. 😍

Hey, do you bother calculating the amount of volume you can expect to have in your foreshots cut? And do you simply taste the distillate after collecting a reasonable amount of the foreshot cut to determine when you are into the heart or drinkable cuts? I expect that you simply take cuts, tasting along the way to know when you are getting into the tails. Do you track the temperature as another way of knowing where you are in the run?

Hey I am in the middle of making apple jack. I let it sit for 30 days and I just tested it and it’s at 1.000 I didn’t check it before, what does that mean and is it ready to go forward or should I dump it?

always remember that a graduated cylinder is the most accurate way to get your proof. but if you are in a pinch or rather you dont have enough time its ok to drop the hydrometer in the jar for a roundabout proof.

epic beard man

Hi, I'm thinking about building a reflux column, could you help me with some diagram? Thank you

Have you got a video on your home made still build?

I have a fair amount of bog oak, seems to have spent about 4000 to 6000 years buried in a peat bog in sw ireland, dont hear about it much in whiskey making but would you be interested in some

Re circulating system wont work, it eventually gets too hot and obviously no longer good at cooling, I would suggest you run it into a large (2-3,000lt) poly water tank, then use the water later on to either recirculate then and you would have a lot more volume of cold water, or use the water to water your veggies, or do both.

Dayum boi ! Down to 18%ABV!

So I did uncle Jesse recipe. Got the corn ,sugar ,and water. in gravity was at 1080 pitch the yeast and went to put the top on my fermenter and add my airlock. when I pushed the airlock down the rubber grommet push down and went into the fermentation. So I siphoned out the water into a bucket and found the grommet. I then put it back together took another gravity reading 1080 good. But just in case I add more yeast. Did I put to much yeast? Yeast is dady yeast.

Do you find following generations fermenting out quicker than previous generations with same starting gravity ???

Hay Jessy what about doing a taste test between generation 2 through generation 5.

Might be a stupid question. But after the final spirit run and you’ve blended your cuts to what you like, I take it, it doesn’t get filtered through carbon? Or does it?Sorry for my lack of knowledge, been reflux the last 10 years. Only just getting into pot stilling now.

flies carry the vinegar bacteria on them, so if they get in some alcohol or sugary water, it will turn to vinegar.

where do we find those little jars with the red muppet-esq monster on them??? Thats the real question!

Hey jess are you running 2 heating elements🤙

Them flies You need some spiders Top stuff again dude Gen 5 you won't be disappointed that stuff is so good even as white dog

Hey Jesse, I hope you didn't only use the hose to rinse it out, but did a proper cleaning run again with some vinegar.. Otherwise you run the risk of getting verdigris in your finished product and that's poison! Like ordog213 says, the greenish blue spot on your spout is just that.. Once you've got a green or blue distillate, it's ruined because you can't filter it out. Rule of thumb is that if you don't run the still for more than a week, do a cleaning run and your always on the safe side. Stay safe dude, great vid and cudos on the Amstel beercase you've got there 🤘

Loving this series!! My question is, did you run your Gen 5 wash along with the rest of your stripping runs to do your spirit run??

How long does a run like this normally take?

Another great video. Here in America we have beers people call "birch beers" also a whiskey called Southern Comfort that here in the South we call liquid panty remover lol. Basically they are sweet, in the case of the beers blended with fruits and designed for the female persuation.

Is this proof that cannabis and distilling don't mix well without taking notes?

How long did this spirit run take? First drips till shutdown

Bourbon is not sour mash and sour mash is not bourbon. Sour mash is made in TN an filtered through charcoal before it is put into aging barrels. Sometimes it is filtered a second time after aging. Bourbon must be at least 50% corn and must be made in Bourbon County KY. Originally made with maze or indian corn. The process is a little more complicated but that is the basics.

Fermentation Failure Mash 3 Month . Please Solution

If you would still saltwater and make drinking water - How would you do it? How would that still look like? You know, if shit hits the fan situations one can´t wish for drinking water if there are none

Another thing to mention is how cheap ujssm is. A guy can do a whole run under $25 if you buy feed cracked corn

Legend. I’m stilling a wash tomorrow , answered a few questions.

Will normal flies do. I not have fruit flies..

The video was great and the slowmo montage was just insane :o I don't know sh*t about video editing but this stuff looks professional! Keep them coming :p 🤘👍

LOL you need a GNAT TRAP! 8:28

You kinda remind me of Crazy Dave from PVE :)

Warning..... incoming noob question!!! I’m guessing that it’s ok to use an aluminum pot (obviously) but I was under the impression that you weren’t suppose to use aluminum in the distilling process 🤷‍♂️

OK, so here's what I don't get, regardless of the recipe of the wash going into the still, if all that you do is to keep your hearts, and hearts are pretty neutral in flavor, where do the flavors come from to make a particular run a "rum," or a "whiskey," or whatever?

To confirm you one spirit run from the combined distillate from gens 1-4 and this is video is the spirit run from gen 5 only?

15:04 your hydrometer hit the bottom of the jar

There is a way to let everyone know you are going live on RU-vid without having to make a video saying so. I've seen it with other RU-vidrs I fallow. It's a post or card something like that. I'm not to sure how to do it i just know I've seen it. I think that might help you, to say that you are going live in like a hour or when ever.