after a bit i decided to take it out today, and i looked up the signs that its done, it had a sediment layer, a kreusen layer, but it was still cloudy, and smelled like oj that was slightly weird, when i took a sip of it my throat started burning a little and i caughed for like three minutes straight, right now im freezing it, final update in about 24h 👌 (btw i tried transferring it to another bottle to keep the sediment layer in the original bottle but it moved with it, so i decided to freeze it as is)

Hello fellow distillers,

I’m one of the founders of Holsted Whisky, a small Danish craft distillery currently building out our setup (LEAN-style: starting small in a converted shipping container).

We run a closed “insider” community where we share the real build process - not polished marketing, but actual decisions we’re wrestling with. Right now, for example, we’re debating classic two-run pot still vs. a hybrid setup with 1-2 plates, and weighing the tradeoffs on cut precision, logistics, and what we might lose by skipping the classic pot still route.

We have most of our spots filled, but we’re specifically looking for a few more people with real hands-on distilling experience - preferably someone who has been in a similar process before, but most of all, people who’ll actually push back on our thinking, not just cheer us on. If that’s you, I’ll be happy to send an invite.

Full transparency: I’m a founder, so take this as a founder asking for critical eyes, not an ad.

BTW: Our community members are mainly danish, but we have AI translation build-in for posts and comments.

Gauging difficulty here, open to suggestions. Still doing my own investigation; don’t tell me “google it”, give me some takes to Google.

I’m interested in doing my first non-beer home hooch. The inspiration comes from the idea of a “true rum” undistilled for a strong-wine level ABV (as a pirate might drink straight from the bottle, but still manage to swashbuckle.) Sake then came to mind, rice is a staple in my kitchen, so I figured sugar cane and rice would make up my mash. I’m looking to avoid the “house paint” taste of wine alcohol (all wines) for more of the “jet fuel” ether of agricoles and shine. I figure two 5-gallon carboys make it worth the effort.

Three big points of suggestion I need:

1) Volume of sugar cane and rice for a batch this size.

2) a yeast you’d use for a project like this, for both high alcohol yield and preservation of natural flavors

3) best preparation/mash method suggestions.

I’ve read into doing this before but never pinned down a recipe that suits my interest. I’m just kicking around as my life has turned to a point where I can ferment things, and a simple boil, ferment, strain and bottle project sounds fun right now.

Opinions?
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/TOWIN-Distillation-Equipment-Accessories-Copper-Tee_1601243003033.html

I've been distilling for a little over 6 years off and on.

Beer brewing is how I started figured hey why not do some stilling as well

Got me a turbo 500 to start and off I went.

I've tried a single malt whiskey using 100% 2 row about a dozen times. And it comes out tasting like bread/beer malt or those digestive cookies.

Its not awful but its not whiskey.

I thought maybe im being to greedy with the tails but I dont run under 70% abv for the hearts it tastes ok but at that proof and above my palette is holding on for dear life.

My question is is this usual and im being impatient or am I missing something.

I do have a proper 8 gallon flute still I've ran a few times for other spirits before I moved to the new house. Unfortunately a stilling/brewing room is hard to build with no 220v power and water. But we'll get their.

And no i haven't tried making bourbon but its on the list. Maybe its easier to come out flavor wise?

To be fair my longest oaking is 6 months with oak chip/sticks in a glass carboy and as I understand it time can't be cheated nor can a proper full barrel.

Added a picture of the flute still for you still porn people.

You can see the t-500 column on the table

I’ve been doing sugar washes for nuetral with just sugar, nutrient and DADY, but I got some free turbo yeast and figured I would give it a shot. I thought maybe if I did a 10-12% wash and kept it cool it wouldn’t be too bad. When I ran it I thought maybe I was running it too fast because it never really smelled clean in the hearts, so I diluted added sodium carbonate, discarded the heads and reran it slowly. Even now, none of my hearts are truly neutral. Did I just make rocket fuel with the turbo yeast?

Just got start

I did not realize that steam injection was not as popular as it is around here. It is simple with what we have for years called a steam ring. But North Georgia Still Co. posted some videos and some shorts about how to make a steam wand using two pots. Phillbilly (Moonshine) did a video on one he threw together with two kegs in less than a day. I know a few people have wandered through asking about steam injection. Thought looking those videos up might help.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3nTXNuafzAc

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9Nf-Ht9spMg

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/71JpX2dYD4M

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lihGbO3d7UY

I have dozens and dozens of peach and nectarine trees near Chico California, too many of which have fruit falling off of because I can’t sell it quick enough. I’d like to find somebody interested in trading.

I was given 30 4 litre milk jugs of shine from a friend that was moving out of the country. When it comes to terms used and information it’s hard to sift through and ask what I’m looking for, cause I have no idea what I’m talking about. I have zero knowledge, but a garage full of moonshine.

My question is: A - is there any sort of recipes for finished product that I can mix with to create some different types of flavours and dilute the alcohol content?

Follow up question would be: what key worlds am I searching for to find these such recipes; also, is there any personal favourites out there.

One other question I have is what do I have to be mindful of with contamination or and sorts of issues that may arise from trying some recipes of my own.

Going to run some experiments with aged/toasted Gambel, Hungarian and French oak. Why would you distill 11 year old mead? A lot of it was sitting in plastic containers and I didn't want to give my family it. I don't drink.

Shine on, muddafuggaz

Smells like straight booze (not fuel so that's nice). The aroma is clearly honey. I didn't use a thumper on this run. I could see adding a few drops of honey just to backsweeten enough for the flavor to come out a little bit more. I used to like making honey-mint shine. Just shine plus honey and mint leaves (removed after a bit)

I've had a good amount of experience in brewing wines and meads, but this will be my first time distilling. With brewing, I find I can drink the product and it will get me drunk after 2 weeks of distilling, but will taste pretty nasty unless I put it into secondary and leave for at least another week or two. Does this rule apply to fermenting mash as well? I've just made a very simple sugar + water mash that's approaching the two week mark. Should I distill it now? Or put it into secondary for a week or two? And will this affect the flavor of the final shine?

I accidentally added too much powdered ginger to my sugar wash I was originally planning to make ginger bug but didn't have any fresh ginger so I decided to add some powdered ginger to my sugarwash only to accidentally add too much only then did my brother mention that powdered yeast hinders fermentation. I already activated and fed 7 grams of yeast to the brew on top of the 7 inside. Any Advice ? fyi the brown sediment is the powdered ginger. It's a two liter bottle filled to top after I add the activated yeast

Hey guys! I’m reading up on making rum. There’s a lot I’ve read and want to try but I have no experience with any of it. I’m just gonna lay out some strategies and goals and I’m hoping some people here will have some input and advice.

I’d like to get something that’s good to drink white pretty quickly, just to get into the groove of things. I’ve read that straight brown sugar with nutrient and bread yeast is good for this. I’d also like to work with some straight up blackstrap molasses to see what flavor that produces.

But that’s not really the end goal here. I want to actually get into some funky complex rums.

I’ve heard about dunder and saving it to use for subsequent batches. I’ve heard about muck pits to develop organic acids for esterfication. What I don’t really know how to do is any of that.

Sounds to me like rum using dunder is basically like making a sour mash whiskey, is that right? Does using fresh dunder have a noticeable effect on the end product?

As for muck pits, I’m assuming you start with some dunder and help it get inoculated with bacteria by additions like old fruit or solids from a rum ferment that you racked off of. I don’t really know how to take care of a pit though.

I’ve also read (on homedistiller.org) about a guy continually saving the tails from a run and adding them back into the next run. He claimed that over a few generations this concentrated so many fusel oils in the wash that they were forced over during the hearts cut. He found this desirable. What are your thoughts on this?

I found a recipe, again on homedistiller.org, that I’d like to get feedback on here.

It said to make a blackstrap wash, strip it, run tight tight tight cuts on the spirit run. Then use the dunder to make a straight sugar wash. Strip it, add the feints from the blackstrap batch to the low wines, run the same tight tight tight cuts as the blackstrap wash and then blend the two distillates.

That recipe seems easy enough, should yield a lot of dunder to start a pit with, and should yield a lot of tails to blend into subsequent batches.

Anyway, with my stated goals do you think that’s a decent place to start? And any advice on any run specific part of the process is much appreciated.

I got myself a couple of badmo barrels back in 2024 or there abouts - last serial number was in the 1800s, before Bens passing.
I have wanted to get more, but the cost of shipping and the barrels just keeps creeping up. I noticed the other day that Adelaide Wine Barrels have started making their own bain marie style barrels.
I decided to grab 3 of them and have only filled up 2 so far, but I made a little video / review of my first impressions and main points of difference.

Keen to know if anyone else has used these - looking at the reviews they have sold a fair few already.

i cant find any alcohol yeast, and i only have bakers yeast on my hands right now, is it possible to make a low abv beer with it and freeze distill it until it has a high %??, also im doing it in my room without the houseowner knowing in a closet, the batch that i did today was :
-750ml of store grade orange juice
-250g sugar
-7 to 8 grams of bakers yeast
i mixed the sugar in, and swirled the yeast in and left space for the carbon dioxide to escape, now it has a kreusen layer what do you guys think

So with infusing fruits or other things with a lot of moonshine flavors. It comes out cloudy or full with chicks from blackberries or mostly lemonade.

i figured I’d have to build my own filter system but i can’t find any good filter.

i figured id need a filter with 5/16th tube with ≈10micron filter but. everything decides to show me industrial filter systems or fuel filters.

here’s a picture of the pump I plan on using.

my idea is to take alcohol from 1 jar, filter it clear, then into another jar.

edit: it’s not distillation issue, I’m basically aging berrys or fruit and it’s dissolved fruits chunks that break off. I might go for the freezing process

Banana rum, chunks are banana but idk about the shiny film and eapecially about that white stuff at the middle.

This was under an airlock and still had quite the carbonation, but finished 3-4 months ago. (Physically couldnt be here to distill it.)

The smell was striking, couldnt really give it any other name than horse feed molasses though, And by now i cant smell anything hahhah.

I know people have distilled nastier stuff here, but can people give a guess to whats grown? Is it fine to put through my new airstill? As in will it taint my still and leave the taste there hard or maybe something about the wild bacteria? (I am sorry i am not educated on infections at all yet, i know there are resources, but im not sure where to begin.)

Thanks in advance.

Hello,

Was at the fishing cabin planning my next rum batch and gin spirit run. Noticed there is not a very mobile friendly calculator available so tried vibe coding one. Thought that it might be useful for some. Credit to the calculator available at American Home Distillers Association. Copied some parameters from there.

Here is the link:

https://firewatercalculator.lovable.app/

Let me know what you think and if you find bugs or have suggestions what to add?

I added the option to save your own presets and also when intended spirit is set to gin, it opens a new box to add botanicals to your recipe.

Cheers

Not sure if this is the right sub for this, but here goes

I purchased a Vevor style still (3 pot, main, thumper and condensor) and wondering if I'll be able to use it to collect catnip essential oil.

I looked at a more chemistry/scientific distiller, but thought this would work for my current needs and eventually allow me to try and make vodka and rum.

What I plan to do is build a gin basket to sit above the water level in the main pot and have steam pass through the catnip so I can collect both the pure essential oil and the catnip scented water.

I'm pretty sure I won't have great efficiency and my yields will be small, but if it works I'm a super small home business and would allow a cat-centric new product.

Is this doable or folly? (Please say doable so I can show the mrs that this isnt a new purely for my alcoholism hobby purchase)

Thanks

I left my Irish whiskey wash in the hot garage with the intention of running it later. I like to keep a wash ready for when I might have time to do a stripping run.

Anyway, I noticed one of my 5 gallon buckets must have warmed up enough to slightly pop the lid. I did keep water in the airlock. Not sure how it happened. I peaked inside, and it's been completely compromised by mold or fungus. I'm assuming it's shot and I've learned my lesson, but thought I would throw the question out to see if there's any options.

Second batch I've ever made!

My first fermentation was a cider that I turned into apple brandy, and it came out so well that I figured I'd jump right into a rum wash.

It's been pretty hot here, and fermentation took off fast. I'm already getting a faint banana aroma from the blow-off tube, which I'm assuming is from esters being produced by the yeast.

My main question: does the blow-off tube need to be higher than the demijohn? Right now fermentation is vigorous enough that CO₂ has no problem pushing through the water, but I'm wondering if that could become an issue later when things slow down.

You can also ignore the second bottle. I was experimenting with a double blow-off setup to reduce the smell and keep insects away. It didn't really work a d the insects do t seem interested anyway but I'm leaving it connected since the smaller air space above the water might help slow evaporation over the next week or two.

Anything you'd change, or does this setup look fine?

TL;DR: Second-ever ferment (rum wash). Smells faintly of banana already. Does a blow-off tube need to sit higher than the fermenter, or will CO₂ keep pushing through even after fermentation slows?

Neighbors friend who is Ukranian brought over a wheat vodka that was excellent. Just seeing if anyone has done this.

I just have a couple runs under my belt and wanna be able to share some good stuff with my coworkers and friends. Are you able to share your best apple pie recipe?

Thanks.