George. There is no one absolutely, No one that can touch your information and tutorials in these videos. You are the Man with the experience and knowledge of this hobby. Many Thanks for your time. South Wales UK.
Good to have you back George. You inspired me to buy a Fast Ferment conical fermenter for making wine. Just like you said, it made everything so much easier. I will finish out this year having made about 200 bottles. Great fun and have learned so much from your videos. Thanks for everything you do brother!
Just goes to show, I've been distilling for a while now and forgot all about the iondine test ....just got use to my mashes....cheers for the reminder George. Also my PID still working perfect👍
I noticed teh same thing here. I think it is the smallest of things we tend to forget or overlook as we get better at this. It is always good to go over basics to fine tune our art/hobby/skill.
i love how he shows how easy it actualy is, as long as you do it correctly. step by step, you thought me everything i know, and for the past few years didn't buy any alcoholic drinks from the shop. made every drop myself. No more headaches from the chemicals in the drinks, just pure natural corn liquor. I am using a very simple onion shaped copper still, 5 gallon, on an electric hotplate. At the start it gives my 65 to 70 % abv (130 to 140 proof) i stop collecting at about 50% (100 proof) . add some glicerine for smoothness, poor everything in a big glas jar with toasted oak chips, leave it until dark brown, add osmose water until it is 38% (76 proof) the most expencif thing in my whole process, is the turbo yeast. I have no idea what to call my drinks, whiskey, moonshine, rye, bourbon, rum or vodka, i use corn and sugar. Sometimes i poor 1 bottle of captain morgan spiced rum into the batch, and the whole batch tastes like captain morgan. Please tell me what the h*ll i am making, so i can label it correctly.
Sounds like you need to make up your own unique name. The corn and sugar could be called bourbon but adding spiced rum kind of changes the whole character. Good to hear a;ll is going well. Happy distilling George
The iodine test really helped me in the beginning and I still use it on occasion if I think something doesn't appear just right. Tried and true. Thanks for everything, George!!
Thanks, George! Today I learned something new. I've been distilling for some time and _never once_ thought to check the grain itself for unconverted starch!
Great Video!!! When I do my corn mash I bring my water to a full boil, slowly add the ground up corn and let it boil for about 5 min (stirring constantly of course) and then I set the pot over on a 1" thick piece of styrofoam for insulation and wrap a moving blanket around the pot (with the lid on it). In about 45 minutes I can stick my thermometer in the corn starch and it will stand without me holding it. Then when the temp drops to 160 degrees F, I add my malted barley. I also boil three gallons of the water with a 4 pounds of sugar and some Citric Acid to invert the sugar while the corn mash is cooling. It all has to cool for a while before adding the yeast! The fermentation takes off and I think it goes faster with the inverted sugar!!! I use a Champaign Yeast for higher alcohol tolerance.
Hi George, welcome back! As a novice I really appreciate the new format of you videos. I'm trying my first mash, braking the process into individual videos, make it more timely for me to following. Appreciate what you are doing, I hope the community appreciates and respects your commitment. Cheers
Thank you! You do a great job of explaining the process. I’m new to the craft ( yep stole that fromJessie). And have made some great paint thinner/ tool cleaner. I have a mash going today ( bourbonish style) and think/hope with some patience this may hit close to the mark.We all appreciate your experience and willingness to share your knowledge!!
Hey George. You are the reason I got into this hobby. I enjoy the way you present the nuts and bolts of home distilling. The way you present it makes it fun and quite entertaining. Can ya do me a favor? Pace yourself. I know making these videos take time and energy. Don't burn yourself out. We all want you to be around in the future. We can wait a month for each video to come out. I enjoy your content and wish you the best.
Hey George 🤗 As always so glad to see and hear you 👌and looking forward to seeing the rest of the "story" of your grain to glass journey series 🥃 Cheers and happy distilling to one and all ☣
Did you say where you get your corn George? Feed corn is like $12/50lb but dried sweet corn is like $20/10lb. I'll pay for quality but don't like to waste money either. Loving that you're back!!!
Feed corn will work but it is the lowest grade of corn available. Ingredients do make a difference. Sort of like junk in equals junk out. Even sweet feed will work which proves that almost anything can be fermented. The real question is - Should anything be fermented? I would offer that when we have a choice, and we do when we understand all the basics, we should make a good choice. Try distilling feed corn and high grade corn side by side and you will probably never use feed corn again. It is hard to make the comparison until you do. Happy distilling George
Thanks. I did have that worry that I may have lost the flow of this after being gone for so long. I try hard to run these videos as a one shot routine without cutting and pasting during editing. For the most part I do. Normally just turn on the camera and go at it. Really appreciate the comment. Happy distilling George
hi George ,i knew you will be back,you are amazing i want to ask you a long time ago, i have a fermentor wih agitator, is there any benefit to stirring the sugar wash during fermentation? thank you
Please help me! I am getting ready to try making the scotch you posted 3 years ago. I am very new to using all grain. I am getting together the grain bill for the run, and I am confused about malted grain vs non malted. I understand using two row will convert the starches to sugars, but the rest of the grains can be bought as malted or un-malted. Should all of the grains be malted or just the peat. Such as the rye and oat grains. Thank you so much for your help! I really enjoy watching your videos.
Hey George, welcome back. If you'd humor a hillbilly for a second please. I have a bag of pre-gelatinized corn. How does this change the process in the video with the application to the pre-gelatinized corn?
Hi George, I've often wondered , if my strike temperature is to high for to long will it inoculate amylase enzyme to the point it wont work at all when it comes down to the optimum temperature ? Thanks for everything you do for this community you created.
HI George - I noticed that your mash kettle was very full before you added the barley (only about 1 inch of freeboard to the top). You stated that you added 5 lbs of malted barley. Did that cause a problem with the volume and overflow the kettle? The before and after pictures of the added volume of barley look to be the same. I would have been very worried about adding the malted barley with the level of liquid only an inch below the top of the kettle!
Not at all. I had room for the malted barley. I was a little concerned but it left about 1/2 inch of room to the top. I did not remove any liquid at all.
Yes, and in most cases the corn meal has been gelenatized already. The only problem is the mess it creates. Very difficult to remove the solids before fermentation and even after. Brewing in a bag seems to be the best method for using corn meal. Even then it is still a bit messy.
Nuts are high fat, so it'll be a bit weird. You'll get allot of oils from it too. They tend not to have allot of sugar and starches, so it could be done, but it'll be overly expensive to get a quality product. 👍
You know what I would like to see, George? Do you NEED to make vodka from wheat or potatoes? high quality, clean vodkas have been sold for decades. Let’s make some from whatever.
Vodka is a neutral spirit which really is just a baseless character (so to speak). Any grain or product that is starchy will produce a good vodka. It is the lack of a clear flavor profile that creates a neutral spirit, it is also high proof so a reflux still is almost a must.
Hello George thanks fore all your god videos. But I have a few questions about a Stiller ju tested a 2 years ago know is There some way to contact you? True email ore some other way ? FILIP
George, I appreciate you, but could you dumb down the ph stuff (if possible)? brewing beer 10 yrs, drilling less. I just buy water from supermarket. Too many minerals where I am.
Will do. Ph is iimportant and even with spring water it is a good idea to check and adjuct it. The good thing is it is a one time thing you can do to start and then just forget about it. In most cases the spring water will be very close to neutral (7). If you added about 1/8 teaspoon citric acid per gallon (just open the top add it in) that should bring you close to 5.2 and you can use the water when ever you are ready. Citric acid is available in the isle where they sell canning jars (mason jars).
Hi George Can I dilute down a ferment that’s come out too high in ABV? Can I filter my mash after turbo clearing using say a water filter? Sugar wash not mash Thanks bud
