A Guide To Making Moonshine
Moonshine is one of the most famous spirits in the U.S. and it has a very long history. Moonshine is especially popular with home and craft distillers and, when made properly, it can be one of the smoothest and most potent liquors available. Americans have been making moonshine for centuries, and moonshine purists continue to perfect this exceptional drink.
Moonshine is a variant of whiskey, which is distilled from corn mash. When made properly, it is completely clear and very potent. Distillation is the only way to make moonshine, and distillation in pot stills is the most popular method. Distillation occurs when the corn mashwith appropriate amounts of sugar and yeast to cause fermentationis heated in a large tank or pot. Vapors rise from the heated mixture into the condenser, where they are then cooled into a purified liquid. This liquid is the ethanol, which gives moonshine its powerful trademark zing.
The corn mash consistency will affect the production of ethanol, so adjusting the yeast, corn and sugar in the mixture will make a difference in the moonshine produced. Different times and temperature also make a difference; the first liquid distilled can be toxic and should be discarded. To learn more about how to make moonshine and moonshine recipes, see our books, how-tos, videos and other resources online. See our;homepage;for our latest videos and featured products.
What Is Moonshine And What Is It Made From
Historically, moonshine is a homemade drink. Farmers in the Appalachian Mountains would use their own still to make their own shine and bottle them in mason jars. Eventually, they realized that it could be a steady source of extra income, so they produced larger quantities for sale.
Moonshine is made from any grain or fruit. Traditionally, whatever grain or fruit that is easily accessible in a given place at a given time would be the base ingredient of choice. However, the moonshine that we know today typically uses corn as the main source of fermentable sugar. Process-wise, there is not much difference between vodka and moonshine. Both are unaged neutral spirits, typically cut with water to add volume and result in an alcoholic beverage thats safe to drink.
Moonshine makers or moonshiners can either base the drink on a fruit or grain mash from which natural sugars are extracted through fermentation, or they can also use commercial sugar. Sugar is vital in the process, and there lies a notable distinction from whiskey, which uses 100% grain. Some people actually refer to moonshine as a kind of “clear, unaged whiskey.”
Setting Up The Bucket
Using the 3/8 inch drill bit, make a hole at the buckets base about an inch from the bottom. This is where the coil will come out, so be sure to drill the hole at an angle that matches the direction of the coil. Run the end of the coil through the hole so that an inch or two sticks out. Glue all around the hole to make sure there are no leaks. This will be your condenser.
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How To Serve Homemade Moonshine
Serve as a Chilled Shot: Chill your moonshine for several hours and serve in these small shot cups. Perfect for parties!
As a Sipping Liquor: Simply pour over ice in a lowball glass.
Make moonshine Jello shots: When making jello shots, replace 1/2 of the water called for in the jello recipe with the moonshine. If you use more than that, the jello wont set up.
Make a Mixed Drink: Most popular is to make refreshing Blackberry Moonshine Lemonade. Mix 1 part Blackberry Moonshine to 3 parts Lemonade.
Enjoy!
How Is Pear Brandy Made
Pear Brandy This whole fruit mash is carefully fermented, and the spirit is distilled in our German-made pot stills. It takes 20 pounds of pears to make one 750ml bottle of Pear Brandy. The pear nose is intense, the taste is strong, but pure, and the aftertaste is clean with a surprisingly strong taste of pear.
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Research And Purchase Ingredients
Basic Moonshine Mash Recipe
- 5 gallons of malt grains
- 1 package of bread yeast
- 10 pounds sugar
- 5 gallons warm water
Because moonshine has often been made in secret, there are no standardized measurements for the different ingredients in moonshine – it can be a process of trial and error to find a recipe that you like and that works well in your moonshine still.
Most people have used 5-gallon grain buckets to measure grains over the years, and that is often still a typical measurement given, because stills are also measured in gallons
Some recipes call for yeast, while others call for sugar. Ours, however, requires a bit of both. After a few runs, you may find that one type of fermenter over the other is right for you.
Its best if you can use distilled water to make your moonshine mash, because you know that distilled water will not add any impurities that could throw off the fermentation process, or the flavor or alcohol content of your final product.
How To Make A Grain Mash
Making a grain mash requires an additional step because your mash needs to be converted before it can be fermented.;
Basically, this means that you need to heat your mash ingredients in order for your ingredients to be converted from a starch into fermentable sugars. This is an important step because without the conversion from starch to sugar fermentation cannot take place.;
Making a mash requires a large volume of ingredients as well as large equipment. In addition, the ingredients necessary for many mash recipes can be difficult to source.
With the large volume of ingredients you will require a large pot for making your mash. Of course you can always half or quarter the recipe you are working with, but this requires an extra and possibly confusing step.;
Once you have gathered all your ingredients and have your large pot you will need a heat source. At How to Moonshine, we want to make the process of moonshining as simple as possible. So with our recipes, we cook our mash on a regular stovetop.;
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Can I Make Fermenting Any Faster
While there are ways to speed up the fermenting process, most will not work with moonshine mash. The only tip that will genuinely help you speed up fermentation is to do as the name implies and mash. Mash the corn. Mash the fruit. Mash anything thats going to be fermented. This creates more surface area and allows more sugars to be fermented at once.
How To Test Moonshine
Making moonshine alcohol is a fun hobby, it can involve the whole family or it can involve some friends. Making your own moonshine alcohol can introduce you to a whole community of people who have the same passion like you, one that does not create damage, is interesting and does not require a big financial investment.
However, if you want to properly enjoy your homemade moonshine, then you need to pay attention to how you prepare it, as well as to the ways to test your moonshine and see if its any good.
Hence, before making the moonshine alcohol, you need to be careful to the next safety tips:
;;; Always use a pure copper moonshine still. Using copper is not just a traditional way of making moonshine, but it has huge benefits such as absorbing syntheses with sulfur, reducing bacterial contamination, has great heat transfer properties and increases the entire quality of the product.
;;; Always use a solder without lead. Lead can cause health problems and, once in your organism, it is very hard to eliminate. Try a silver solder instead, for example.
;;; Always use natural ingredients .
;;; Always use a collection pot made of glass, never of plastic and preferably of small mouth. And remember to place this vessel away from any fire or other form of heat.
;;; Always dispose of the first bit of moonshine, in order to avoid contamination with methanol . Contagion with methanol can be noticed by the bad smell and taste of your moonshine and needs to be avoided, since it is toxic.
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How To Make Your Own Whiskey
1. Select which grains to use as the base for your homemade whiskey. There are a variety of different grains which you can use. Popular examples include rye, barley, corn or wheat. The mixture of grains that you use is referred to as the grain bill or mash bill. Some whiskies use just a single grain. In the case of barley, this is referred to as a single malt whiskey.It is a good idea to use malted grains when making whiskey because they contain a higher sugar content than grains which have not been malted. Malting is the process of allowing grains to germinate and then drying them afterwards. This process converts the grains starches into sugars which can easily be fermented. Malted grains are available on our online shop.
2. Mill your malted grain. Grinding or crushing your grain is an important step because it releases and exposes the sugars, starches, and enzymes inside of the grain. This can be done in a number of ways, but common methods include using a grain mill or even a food processor.
What Are The Ingredients Used To Make Whiskey
Water, yeast and malted barley or any types of grain are used to produce whiskey.; Water has a huge influence on the taste of the whiskey at the end of the day.; Scottish whiskeys are known for their unique flavor.;
Some areas in the USA like Kentucky, Maryland and Indianna are areas that are rich in limestone.; Water with traces of limestone contains carbonates that alters the flavor.; This is why whiskey made in different regions can taste so differently.;
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How Did Moonshining Begin
Of course with this new form of currency also came the government in to regulate it. More specifically, Alexander Hamilton saw an opportunity to help pay for the mounting expenses of American Revolution.
At this time beer was easily spoiled and the import of rum was disrupted by the Revolutionary War and so the consumption of whiskey in the United States increased rapidly.;
The tax applied to all distilled spirits but with the increase in consumption of whiskey it became known as the whiskey tax.
This law led to a whiskey rebellion and many lives were lost. The end result forced those who wanted to distill their own spirits to do so by the light of the moon to avoid detection.;
The Process Of A Simple Homemade Moonshine Still
A simple still can be made from a testtube, some heavy rubberhose, and an ordinary bottle. ;When making moonshine, you willneeda far bigger contraption, but the purpose of putting this here is sothatyou can see the process. This still is for distilling water.Securea stopper for the test tube, and bore a hole through the center of thestopper, into which fits a small piece of tube. The bottle is alsofitted with a stopper containing a piece of tube, and both bottle andtest tube are connected with the rubber tube.The test tube is partly filled with water and supported or held over analcohol lamp. Thebottle should stand in a basin of cold water. When the water in thetest tube begins to boil the steam passes over to the bottle, where itcondenses. The basin should be supplied with cold water as soon as itbegins to get warm. The rubber tube will not stand the heat very longand if the still is to be used several times, a metal tube should besupplied to connect the test tube and bottle.
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How To Make Whiskey
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Store bought whiskey can be incredibly tasty, especially if it comes from a local brewhouse or high-quality distillery. However, preparing your own whisky at home will allow you to control exactly what goes into it and find a flavor that suits you perfectly.
Distilling Rye Whiskey At Home
Once the fermentation process is finished, strain your mash through a cheesecloth to remove any solid particles that may interfere with the distillation process.
Siphon the wash into the still.
Slowly heat the wash in the still to a temperature of 120 to 140°F . During the first part of the distillation, toxic byproducts like methanol and acetone are removed from the wash. So make sure not to increase the heat to quickly to best separate the bad from the good elements. Reaching 150°F should take around 45 minutes.
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Four: Let The Mash Ferment
Now all you have to do is wait. Let the mash do its thing for about a week. Youâll know when the mash is done when you can no longer see the bubbling produced by the yeast as it releases carbon dioxide.
Once the fermentation is complete, strain the liquid to remove the spent solids and place the liquid into your still. This final liquid is called the wash. You only want to put the wash into the still.
And thats it! I told you it was easy!
If you are interested in building your own DIY still on the cheap, check out my two-part video tutorial:
You can also purchase this Vanell premade still kit for home use from Amazon.
Get your mash started, order the still, and by the time your mash is ready, you will have your still at your doorstep!
Bringing It All Back Home With Barrel Aging
If you want to call your fresh new batch of alcohol real “whiskey,” you need to let it age in a barrel first. For a smaller volume batch of alcohol, barrel size definitely matters. “A smaller barrel means a decreased surface area. So the alcohol will be able to absorb the qualities of the wood, like the notes of oak, cedar, or other components that come directly from the wood itself,” Katz said. So, small batches require smaller barrels to be fully effective. You can leave it in as long as you want, but if you are making your own small batch, you probably want to try it sooner than later, right? This will give you the most flavor, in the shortest amount of time.;
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How Does Distillation Work
The art of moonshine distillation involves extracting and purifying alcohol from corn mash. The mash is first heated to extract the alcohol in the form of vapor. This vapor, once removed, is then cooled back to liquid, forming clear alcohol. Its not a complicated process, but it is very sensitive and doesnt like changes.
Making Moonshine Mash In 3 Steps
To make moonshine, you will combine your grains in an enclosed chamber with a fermenter, such as sugar or yeast. Add water, and you have a mixture that is called a mash. Mashes are used for other alcohols as well, such as whiskey. Youll leave your mash in the chamber for a limited amount of time, to allow the sugars in the grains to turn into alcohol.
Before distilling, you can filter the solid husks and plant matter out of the mash. If you remove these solid materials, the liquid that is left is often called the moonshine or whiskey wash.
Either a mash or a wash can be distilled, so that the alcohol is separated from the water, and you can enjoy your own fine homemade whiskey.
Tips for Moonshine Mashes:
- Corn meal does not filter well out of a wash, and a cornmeal mash may burn the bottom of a copper still
- The first product in a distilling batch has the highest alcohol proof
- Measure your yeast fermentation and the mashs alcohol content using a hydrometer
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What Happens During Aging
Putting whiskey in a barrel is like you going to your closest spa and getting a facial. It makes it happy! It also removes a bunch of bad stuff and adds a bunch of good stuff. There are a vast number of processes that go on during the barrel aging, but we will only cover the most important ones at a very basic level. The first process is the addition of flavors, aromas, and sugars. As oak is heated, different compounds begin to develop . When the oak barrels are created, they are heated on the inside. As that heat works its way into the wood, you get a temperature difference , which creates a spectrum of different flavors. As the spirit works its way into the porous wood, it extracts each of these different flavors. Temperature changes, which can be seasonal or artificially created, cause a natural expansion and contraction that force the spirit into and out of the wood, helping it extract even more flavor. The second process is the removal of some of the harsher, nastier compounds. As the spirit works its way through the layer of charred oak on the inside of the barrel, some of the larger molecules are actually trapped in small pores . Additionally, some of the more volatile compounds actually evaporate through the walls of the barrel. Lastly, some of the unwanted compounds actually oxidize with time. The;cumulative;effect of all these processes is a final product that has more flavor and complexity with less bite.