Home Distillation Made Easy!
Jimmy
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Hi all,
I'm just after a bit of info if anyone has a few minutes - what would you say you're paying per litre of spirit (at say 40% for the sake of argument)?
I know people use different wash recipes, some use essences, carbon in the wash, dextrose, nutrients, etc - would be interesting to get an overview from you guys - cheers!
Jimmy
bluecap
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Alcotec Gold yeast £1.79
Sugar 84p kilo from Aldi x6 = £5.04
Turbo clear £1.20
Carbon £0.50 aprox
Well that adds up to £8.53, I get 6 litres @ 40% of that so £1.42 a litre , plus I take at least a litre of after that collect it till I have 5 litres then add 20 litres of water and run that.
Phantom
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Off the top of my head, last time I worked it out, it was coming out at about £3 a bottle (750ml) without the glassware and stopper.
I'll try and make some more accurate calc's next time (cos I've alreday got 2 batches of wash on the go at the moment).
alan
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mine works out at about £1.6pltr
sugar £16,25kg = about 65p kg
alcotec 48 yeast £2,99.
alcotec turbo clear £1,20p
shrink caps 3-4p each
9ltrs = approx £9,40p
goinbroke2
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Well let's see.
40lb's of cracked corn $10.00
40lb's of sugar $28.80
yeast $ .30?
120L water free
propane $40.00 2 strip runs and spirit run
Oak cubes $ .20 (whole bag was only $3.99)
_________
$79.30 for 19L of 42% = $4.17 per Litre
What is $4.17 Canadian in British Pounds?
Man the propane is killing me, I found a place that I can fill a 20lb bottle for $10.00 though instead of the $28-30 I'm paying now. Haven't filled there yet but that should help.
Sugar here is anywhere from $1.60 to about $2.59 for a 2.2kg bag.
Electric would chop the price, but I love my big propane jet engine! LOL!
optic
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That makes our 25 litre washes look stupid goingbroke2..lol
What is $4.17 Canadian in British Pounds?..it works out £2.38
trelliS
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Alcotec 48hr yeast £2.99
Turbo clear £1.20
Sugar 69p a kilo £4.14 for 6kg
9 Litres at £8.33 = £0.93 a litre
Have just started using Alcotec products instead of ss range was gonna do a tomato wash but need stock for xmas.
goinbroke2
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Picked up another propane bottle and filled them both at walmart. $45.00 for the new bottle and $10.00 ea to fill them.
So, to recalculate..
40lb's of cracked corn $10.00
40lb's of sugar $28.80
yeast $ .30?
120L water free
propane $15.00 2 strip runs, 1 spirit run
Oak cubes $ .20 (whole bag was only $3.99)
Total = $54.30 for 19L = $2.86Can per litre of oaked corn whisky
Now if I only run it through without a strip run, just a spirit run, I'd get about 35-40L of 45% that wouldn't taste as good but would be;
40lb's of cracked corn $10.00
40lb's of sugar $28.80
yeast $ .30?
120L water free
propane $10.00 3 spirit runs
Oak cubes $ .20 (whole bag was only $3.99)
$49.30 for 40L of 45% = $1.23 per Litre.
However, cost only goes so far. I'm more concerned with an awesome whisky than a cheap one. The fact that it is around $3.12 a bottle (750ml)rather than $29.99 at the liquor store isn't the reason I do this. I like making better tasting whisky than I can buy. (without hangovers too) I've got almost 50L on oak right now...waiting...aging...
Cost is interesting but an aside rather than a goal. If you can do what your doing cheaper, great, but don't skimp to save a few pence (quid?) and then "tolerate" less than stellar alcohol.
Great thread btw.
optic
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Goingbroke2
whats your process for starting that wash, wondering about having a go at it cutting back the recipe to make our usual 25litre washes that us air still guys use,not sure about the cracked corn,dont know if its the same thing here in the UK and if we can source it.
cheers Optic
goinbroke2
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My process?
I put a 30L stock pot on the stove and bring the water up hot then add as much of the 40lb's of sugar as it will take and still disolve. Stir the hell out of it for 15-20 minutes (or until the wife yells )to infuse it. Put 40lb's of cracked corn in the fermenter and pour the boiling sugar water on top and stir it up. Add tap water until it is about half full and add the rest of the sugar. I made a hardwood paddle in the shop that's about 4ft long to reach the bottom of the fermenter. Stir the crap out of it while adding all the sugar and then bring the water up to about 7/8's full. Get my strainer and scoop out the chaff/crap floating on top. Put in about 1/2 cup of lemon juice. (stir the..you get the idea..)
Take a 2L mixing bowl and fill half way with luke warm water and a sprinkle of sugar then put in about...hmmm..don't really measure...5-6 tablespoons of bakers yeast and let it sit for 15-20 minutes open to the air to let the yeast grow. (floculate, ooh big word!) Dump that into the fermenter and then about an hour later I put in about 10-15 more tablespoons of yeast...just because. Throw the lid on and let it ferment away for a couple weeks or so, doesn't really matter, when it's done it sits until I have time to run it. Last batch probably sat a month or more.
By this time it is done fermenting, the lee's have settled to the bottom and you have about 80-100L of clear liquid on top at about 12-14%abv. I syphon out the liquid about 40L at a time and strip it. 2 40L runs and a 20L run from about 120L or so. The rest is absorbed into the corn/evaporated.
Take the backset from the still(about 20L) and put it in the stockpot hot and add the sugar for the next batch. Stir it up and dump it in the fermenter and start over.
A couple notes, as you know backset stinks..BAD! Don't take it in the house to heat on the stove to add your sugar..stinks the house for two days and mama ain't happy at all!
Second, when you finish fermenting the nutrients taken out of the corn will turn it white. (it's spent) instead of trying to scoop out the spent corn so you can add an equal amount, put your sugar water in the fermenter and the spent corn floats where good corn won't. If you just add water it won't float as good, you must add your sugar and up they float.
So, for 20L pail...(same for your 25L just more water) I think my recipe was 10lb's of corn, 10lb's of sugar, fill up with water and sprinkle 2-3 tablespoons of bread yeast. Give it a couple tablespoons of lemon juice if your water's ph is high. Around here it's about 7, add some lemon juice and it drops to about 5-5.5 which is good. Oh yeah, the lemon juice I use is just store bought that you would have in your fridge.
What else...oh yeah, a 4L icecream container holds 5lb's of cracked corn when rounded full. The cracked corn is just that, the corn you would feed horses or birds or whatever. Each kernal is broken into 4-5 pieces and if it's from a feed store for animals it won't have any pesticides etc because that would kill the horses.
Here it's between $10-13 for a 55lb bag.
Is there a record for long drawn out blabbering posts?? LOL!
Hope this helps.
Oh crap, I almost forgot! I strip it then when I have 40-45L of low wines at about 45-55% I run a spirit run and collect in 500ml mason jars. Keep them in order and cover with clean cloth or rags. After a day or so of airing out I start in the middle and work my way one jar at a time until I get purfume/off taste for heads or wet cardboard/watery taste for tails. Back up one each way and dump the middle (hearts) in one 20L glass carboy and the heads/tails go in another glass carboy. I forget what the last batch was but it was about 19L at 68% of heart and 14L of feigns at 55%. I throw away the first 250ml as foreshots.
I put the corn whiskey in 750ml whiskey bottles and add one cube (1"X1") of toasted hungarian oak per bottle. Store them away and try to forget about them. After about a week I find they taste/smell worse then when first bottled. After about 3-4 weeks they start to get nice, after about 6months they are AWESOME and certainly better than anything you can buy. (actually others said that, not just me hehehe)
About the only other thing I can think of is I try to get to the bottles once a week or so and shake them up and open the cap to air them out/get rid of nasties. Sometimes I'll load 20-30 bottles in the freezer for a couple days and then take them out for a couple days just to "distress age" them. (again until mama yells "the freezer's full of likker, get it out so I can put the groceries away" !!!
Probably forgot something...but there you go.
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