Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Zak Griffin wrote:Medium toast dominoes, 10g/L works for me.

Your really gotta try a few things and see what you like, though.

Thanks for the quality advice Zak it's much appreciated :handgestures-thumbupleft:
Is that the 10g/L for the entire 12 month period :think:

For ageing, I do it in 2L preserving jars with the top/ lid cracked for it to breathe & have the spirit around the 63-65% range - which incidentally is the total of my hearts. My personal preference for hearts (using both nose & taste) generally fall in the 75-55% range. (I go down to 50 occasionally for my spiced blackbeard's rum & wheated bourbon - but that's another story/ thread). I use a combo of toasted & charred American oak chunks (chips just don't do it for me) that were once barrels - they can be easily sourced on E-bay. For the 1st 3mths a 50/50 combo of charred & toasted oak @ 60g/2L (maybe heavy for some on here but for me it adds good colour & flavour in a shorter amt of time) then back it off to 20g & just let it sit (if you can resist the "taste testing" temptation) :laughing-rolling:

Basically that's it. With recent batches though, 5-6mths seems to be the average length of time it lasts before it's consumed :text-lol: At BBQs, parties, mates get-togethers - it's always the 1st drink people are drawn too (I guess due to curiosity of a home made spirit) & the 1st to disappear.

For those that have been following my recent posts, thankyou for your interest & I hope you get similar results as I have achieved. All I really done is made a slight tweak to Zak's simple, brilliant, hip-pocket friendly recipe. Some may question my ratios/ methods etc - but after some 15-18mths (& batches) of trial & error - this works for me & produces a drink that I'm happy with that is both smooth & flavoursome.

Cheers & happy brewing & drinking :obscene-drinkingdrunk:
Whiskey Baron

Awesome thanks for giving us the heads up whiskey baron, and oh well done mate :obscene-drinkingdrunk:

Whiskey Baron wrote:For ageing, I do it in 2L preserving jars with the top/ lid cracked for it to breathe & have the spirit around the 63-65% range - which incidentally is the total of my hearts. My personal preference for hearts (using both nose & taste) generally fall in the 75-55% range. (I go down to 50 occasionally for my spiced blackbeard's rum & wheated bourbon - but that's another story/ thread). I use a combo of toasted & charred American oak chunks (chips just don't do it for me) that were once barrels - they can be easily sourced on E-bay. For the 1st 3mths a 50/50 combo of charred & toasted oak @ 60g/2L (maybe heavy for some on here but for me it adds good colour & flavour in a shorter amt of time) then back it off to 20g & just let it sit (if you can resist the "taste testing" temptation) :laughing-rolling:

Basically that's it. With recent batches though, 5-6mths seems to be the average length of time it lasts before it's consumed :text-lol: At BBQs, parties, mates get-togethers - it's always the 1st drink people are drawn too (I guess due to curiosity of a home made spirit) & the 1st to disappear.

For those that have been following my recent posts, thankyou for your interest & I hope you get similar results as I have achieved. All I really done is made a slight tweak to Zak's simple, brilliant, hip-pocket friendly recipe. Some may question my ratios/ methods etc - but after some 15-18mths (& batches) of trial & error - this works for me & produces a drink that I'm happy with that is both smooth & flavoursome.

Cheers & happy brewing & drinking :obscene-drinkingdrunk:
Whiskey Baron

Thanks for the response mate. I think that's the beauty of this hobby, as long as you're not drinking fores there's no right and wrong way and things come down to individual taste and preference.

Hey guys I have 50l second gen CFW. I used 8 litres backset, 1l cornflakes, 8kg sugar. It started off fine, didn't take SG. I actually haven't taken SG on any wash I've made thus far. It bubbled for 3 days, after 3 days it stopped bubbling reading 1030 on hydrometer. I assumed it was too cold so I wrapped it in an electric blanket added some fresh yeast and soon after it bubbled again but before the day was out it stopped again, thinking it was too acidic added bi carb, it slowly bubbled in the air lock and I thought it was working but here i am 3 weeks later still at 1030. What would happen if I ran this? Maybe through the reflux for a neutral?

Mmmm this is a tricky one. Without sg reading it’s a bit hard to tell (I'm hopless at taking them as well :laughing-rolling: ) I would have thought it should go lower than that. Has it cleared at all? Does it taste sweet? It should taste "dry" like a wine, no sweetness. Don't trust air locks mate, put your ear against the fermenter and see if you can hear fizzing. What is your temp at?

My best guess is ph. If your gonna do generation recipes I'd recomend buying a cheap ph reader, it’s an easy way to eliminate ph as a problem. I would stay away from bicarb as well as I've heard it can put some bad tastes in your end product. Try calcium carbonate (don't know where to get it HBS i guess).

To answer your question, yes you could run it but you would be risking a pretty low yeld so it’s upto you if it’s worth running or leave it till you get a ph reading or work out what's up.

I tried running a rum that wasnt finished and had massive problems with puking

How does the cfw go with puking? I've got my first drum fermenting at the moment. Getting a bit excited

Can I fill the boiler to the top? Or leave plenty of head space like a rum wash?

:)

Guys, I’m not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but on the ph reading side of things, I got a $10 garden probe ph meter from bunnings and it works a treat. Just give the stem a sand first with a Brillo pad.

I8ian4t wrote:Can I fill the boiler to the top? Or leave plenty of head space like a rum wash?

:)

It’s nothing like a rum wash for puking but I always leave a little head space

Don't think I've ever had a properly fermented CFW puke, but don't take that as gospel...

:text-+1: for that matter no sugarheads properly fermented have puked. Except 50/50 rum :angry-banghead: :laughing-rolling:

And just for the record, I have started adding 250g of rye meal to my CFW wash's

What does the rye contribute?

A very light peppery type flavour that I like

:text-+1: on rye. I was using it in place of wheat in bwko :handgestures-thumbupleft: plan to use it in some all grain burbon next year..

Hmm. Interesting... :think:

bluc wrote:plan to use it in some all grain burbon next year..

That’s my ultimate idea. Just a slow way about it :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Just wanted to let you lads know how our first gen of cfw went. Followed the recipe to a T and b'gosh doesn't it work out well straight off the still? couple of tea spoons from jars 5, 7, and 9 watered down to about 40% (it was coming off the pot at 81/80%) and talk about smooth! Had an almost buttery mouth feel, sweet flavour with no sting whatsoever! Absolutely can not wait to see what generations does to the flavour!

Split the trub into two 23l fermenters, and went about starting gen 2 with about 7l of backset in each. Hands rubbing together for the next two weeks ready to run the still with its biggest charge yet. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Blending in a couple of days... looking forward to that too! :greetings-waveyellow:

I have the makings of a CFW out the back now , must put it together .

Is there a limit to how many gens one can do with this recipe or does it just go on and on ?