/diy/ - Do It Yourself

What follows is the result of a few years of hard work and it isn't precisely whiskey, but rather brandy. But it's the best-tasting and most efficient process/recipe I have come across. I actually invented it.

First you need a still. This can be accomplished easily using a 5 gallon enameled hot water canner, a length of 5/8 copper tubing, and a 5 gallon bucket. Pic related. The trick is in bending the copper tube to connect your enameled pot through the 5 gallon bucket at the right downward angle. I find that those little squeeze clamps work to hold down the lid and mixing water with flour into a dough is effective in sealing the hole you drilled in the lid to the copper tube. After you fill the bucket with water you only need a slight dribble to keep your jacket cool.

Now you need your mash. 2 gallons of distilled water + 7 ozs of raisins (boiled for 15 minutes then pureed in a blender) + 7 lbs of sugar + 1 cup of yeast is the base recipe. I use that much yeast because I want it done fast and I use standard red star baking yeast which is cheap and has a good flavor. You can order it online in one or 2 pound bags for a few bucks. Basically I heat up a gallon of water to dissolve the sugar then add the raisin puree and use the rest of the water to cool it: since it's distilled you know it's sterile. Distilled water also negates any off flavors. Make sure the water is below 90 degrees F before you add your yeast, and pour the mash back and forth to inject oxygen which helps a lot. Save your mash after you distill out the ethanol: all you need to do is add more sugar and this is called sour mash and tastes better than fresh mash. Add the sugar when the mash is hot after your run. Throw out the first .5 cup, this is called head and tastes like shit. You can obviously expand this recipe but I like small batches because they heat up faster and get done faster. This recipe will produce about 2 fifths @ 75% depending on how much sugar you use