mac b's diy general

why tf brewpots god damn 35-80 bucks wtf

alright, on flavoring
went looking around to the website of the company that sells those flavor essences (i think it is anyways) and since I want to rely on the process for most of the flavoring (i almost scrapped the idea of adding flavor altogether because I envision the post-filtered to be keesh at it is) I don't intend on using a full on flavoring essence.
However on their site I found something called flavor additives, which, i get the impression from the broken-english description of the product, is just what it sounds like. basically, a more specific set of flavors which im led to believe aren't as strong as their full flavoring counterparts.
here they got 'carmel', toasted oak (something you can get by just aging), vanilla, raspberry, strawberry, cinnamon.
I doubt I'll buy one but it's nice to know, and it did give me an idea and a little direction to how I want to flavor this

I've whittled it down to two, either the contemporary, generic and quirky vanilla, or cinnamon.
I'm not really settled on a definitive choice but I am leaning more toward cinnamon.
If I do vanilla I just might get the additive if I can afford it, but I'm better off just throwing in some vanilla
If I do cinnamon, I'll throw some cinnamon sticks in there either at the same time I throw in the oak chips, or around the halfway mark in the aging for a more subdued taste.
If I can make two batches of this, I'll have the other one without added flavors. I'm pretty confident and proud in this because it's likely the first recipe I'm taking the time to really develop into becoming it's own.

Still looking around on this site, looking at their flavoring kit right now and I must say it's pretty damn nice. Comes with an oak barrel, a choice essence, barrel stand, funnel, spigot, those usual items, and you can get the barrel engraved which is pretty badass.
It's from $50-$200, kinda rip-off-ish but you're getting a full on barrel so kinda not. I wouldn't buy it, I'm averted to buying a barrel as it is. (They're expensive as fuck, a bitch to take care of I've heard, and you can just buy fucking oak chips/tabs which, I'm no scientist of the matter but I personally think is better because the flavor's coming from the inside out)


Coming to fruition, recipe will be updated when I finalize it, hope I got the money for the equipment bill lol

ill 3d print an oak barrel for you

you fuck with honey shit

oaky wrote:ill 3d print an oak barrel for you

i fully encourage you

bj wrote:you fuck with honey shit

yeah boy my first brew was a god damn apple mead

edit: disregard deleted post
ordering supplies now

the package is in the po in heartselle so it oughta be here tomorrow morn
also, absolute fuck i forgot to get some star san
i knew i was forgetting somethin i held off a day trying to remember what

ah well i dont need it terribly, at least not yet, and it is decently expensive

gonna brew whenever these FUCKIN KIDS GO THE FUCK TO BED

since i dont have corn on me, or corn syrup, I'm gonna have to substitute. im gonna throw a little apple juice in with it, enough for it to mingle with i s'pose. last minute change but I don't think, given the ratio it'll be done at, that it'll have a strong impact

Oh yeah brewing was sloppy as shit, made a huge mess ^

This isn't really an update, mash is in the fermenter fermenting and I'm lookin up how to make charcoal (even though i got some) but ive had this idea, highly improbable since it's basically willy wonka ware, but
What if you had an aging barrel made out of, or rather more efficiently, interior lined with, hard candy. Like butterscotch or something

It'd be impractical as fuck but that sounds fun and novelty as hell

A few details about the brewing

It boiled over several times cause I had to use a saucepan instead of the bigass pot i usually use (which it still may have if i wasnt careful) but I suppose there wasnt too much loss. I'm not too certain, I'd be more worried if it were, say, a beer, and even then there's not much to worry about. I didn't have any corn or corn syrup on hand so I went without, I decided not to add apple juice to replace it. Just a rye malt body, but next time I get around to making this recipe I'll have the bases covered.
Speaking of recipes
Here it the full recipe for The Longstreet as it stands


Brew up a rye malt body with a corn backstand (throw in a fermentable corn additive, either sacchirated flaked maize or corn syrup), about 2.5 - 5 gallons (i brew smol batches so in my case it's round 2.5 or so)
Ferment 1-2 weeks (2 weeks for a more cleared up mash, most of the sediment will be at the bottom of your fermenter by then and it'll be easier to leave it behind)
Distill (stripping run with a pot still to get the most flavors out of it, do any other runs to increase alcohol content)
Age in American oak, toasting half of the oak is optional but recommended, 4-6 weeks.

Note on aging:

The last two steps are, as far as I'm concerned, interchangeable. As it stands now I don't think there's too much of a matter on which you do first, though I advocate doing it in the order I write them here, and I'll go into that in a bit

Set up a simple PET bottle-to-jar filtration rig (cut the end off a soda bottle and put it upside down over a jar, basically) - pack a coffee filter at the mouth of the soda bottle and one at about halfway down the bottle. Surface the entirety of the middle filter in activated charcoal.
Filter the whiskey through this.

When you've got the product here n filtered, smoke the whiskey.
This can be done by basically having one jar filled with whiskey, put a thin metal strainer over it put some oak chips over the strainer, have another jar on handy. Toast the chips with a little gas-station torch til they start of course smoking, when you got a good smokin burn going, put the other jar over the strainer and wait for it to get clouded in smoke. Wait for it to steep in good, then discard all other equipment. (I got another idea on how to get more smoke in it but I'll have to test it) I advice covering the mouth of the jar with your smoked whiskey to lessen the risk of losing the smoked flavor.

When all is done, filter one last time through a coffee filter or two (or don't I don't give a fuck) and bottle.


Also, quick roll call of all the recipes I've posted here
The Longstreet - Developed, Being produced
The Flaming Communist - Developed, not produced
Thundershine - Underdeveloped
Candy Apple Cider - Developed, not produced (it's seasonal so it won't be done til october)

Careful when working with polyethylene terephthalate if something degrades it (usually heat so I guess that isn't a problem) you can introduce acetaldehyde into your liquid which will make it taste differently than you might expect

Thanks for the heads up. I don't think it'll be a problem at a room temp bottle, but I'll keep that in mind.

Alright, it's been about a week of fermentation, and by the looks of it, it could very easily go another week, good amount of bubbling in the air lock.

However, I'm antsy. I want to have this mostly procedurally done by the end of this month. This is effectively a draft batch of The Longstreet anyways, so I can chip it a little as I've already done w/ the brewing.

with the rate of fermentation i dont doubt theres a decent amount of alcohol content in the mash already, so i dont worry that id be losing too much.
i plan to distill (and lincoln county') it maybe tomorrow night.
i might actually do the lincoln county process the evening after since running the still at the ungodly late hours that i do does tire me.

after that, all that's left will be aging.

for aging, I'm setting the standard at 4 weeks.
Although
This is a very small batch
I naturally figure 4 weeks is for bigger batches, so I'll be moreso intuitively monitoring it. if it takes a deep color at 2 weeks i'll go ahead and smoke it.

i wanna get into soda making too but god damn making a carb system

im hoping to get a dehydrator next month to start on the bj, i hear you gotta get butcher-fresh cuts which may be an issue in consistency cause i dont have many opportunities to go to places w/ fresh meat

one ive got my eye on is just a little over 30 bucks which means if I spend anything on brewing for those few weeks it wont be much. i still have a goodd bit of unused malt (which I hope is still ok and usable) from my grandpa not making his beer, and plenty of fermentable juices, so I have enough to keep projects going.

ive also had this recipe ive been kinda developing in the background since i made my first batch of hooch but i wont be releasing it til i do a run for the flaming communist since it's long overdue. plus it still needs some touching up on.

god fucking DAMNIT lost that whole damn post

basically at first the still run was a catastrophe but i got it under control, i made whiskey with fuckking fiddles in the background, I filtered it, and I'm preparing the oak chips to put in

threw the oak chips in, it's a little uneven with the heads having a little less but w/e

you prep them by putting them in water for an hour which i suppose makes the wood open up a bit and release its tannins or whatever (thigns you dont want to taste) and the water was pretty damn well tinted, hyped to see what a single day will do to it let alone a week or two


smoking it will be the hardest part about this, not that it is hard, just gotta be careful

Day 2

Gonna post pics of 1 and 2 weeks in

its a tad more clear than it looks in the pic

week 2
(basically)

lo quality pic

mmm cinnamon

puttin that SIN A MEN in the WHISKEY to MORROW!

so mac when can we expect you to go national with your distilling

when i get a permit and i get a still that isnt chinese

Don't have to worry about saving for a pc nearly as much so I will be able to focus more on developing recipes.
I might even be able to get a dehydrator for the jerky, and be sure I'm getting back on that sauce shit