StillSmart

Hi Peter, I only so your post this morning,
I could not find sweet feed anywhere in this country so I made up my own.
My recipe for a 40 L wash is.
2 kg cracked corn.
2 kg crushed oats.
2 kg crushed Barley
2 1/2 L molasses.
6 kg sugar
4 tablespoons Baker's yeast
2 tablespoons of DAP.
I make up a ph buffer using 100 g of citric acid and 100 g by carbonated soda
add the corn oats, barley sugar and molasses into your fermenter and cover with 20 L of hot water, give it a good sturring up and leave for at least two hours to cool down, when cool top up to 40 L then had your pH buffer and your dap.
Give it a good stir up then cover and leave to ferment,
regards, Alan

Hi alan, many thanks for posting that.
Am travelling around in Britain presently, so have some problems with wi-fi and lack of time generally; so apologies for this late acknowledgement, cheers.

Peter

Decided it was time to do something other than booze and put some of those empty plastic buckets to use. I put down 15 litres of Kombucha. Fermented tea. Sounds vile. Tastes delicious. My niece bought me round a starter bug about 4 months ago and I have been making 4 litre batches ever since. I got sick of rationing it out and decided to do a big bucket full. 3 more days till bottling and then I leave it on ginger for a week. Crisp, delicious, fizzy and nutritious.

The idea of Kombucha alway made me shudder. Maybe I should actually try some...

Don't be put off by the store bought stuff. It can get a little too fancy shmancy. Your only regret is likely to be losing more of your favourite brewing bottles to your new addiction. I am starting to think having .5 % alcohol for breakfast is what makes people so evangelical about it. It's a top drop and it involves our brewing skills and our good friend yeast. Good for introducing kids to brewing too. I have tried adding blueberries raspberries and mulberries but always come back to ginger. There is a joke about red heads in there somewhere.

alan wrote:hi Robert. I started a batch off last night. I'll let you know in a couple of weeks when I run it through the still.
Regards, Alan.

hi Robert. finished off Odins quick recipe its turned out very well far better than any thing iv made before it tastes as good if not better than shop bought
regards alan

Thanks Alan,
Ingredients now on the shopping list.
Robert.

What I did today. Absolutely nothing. The same as I have done for more than a month. Still battling the heat here and although a sprinkle or two has shown up around me, no rain has fallen here. Water pressure is barely enough for a shower. Voltage is way low. Takes about 15 minutes to cook a piece of toast.

My still runs on gas, but without adequate water I can't cool properly. So no distilling taking place.

Scottish summer here,a whole 15°C this evening,my big air-cooled still chugging along nicely.
Maybe not viable where you are......

Robert.

Over this last week or so I've done a bunch of jams; I think about 47-52 kg. The nicest part has been experimenting with combining flavours. I think a single flavour can be a little boring at times....

I had a small bunch of blackcurrants due to it being a young plant. I wanted both jam and wine. So I pulped the currants in a small amount of water, extracted that over a sieve and made jam with the remaining pulp. The jam tastes very nice, if a little on the pippy-side, but then again I like jam wi' bits!

edit

Wayhey!
8 litres each of blackcurrant wine and strawberry wine are now on the go! Fingers crossed! Also full notes made so hopefully I will start learning from experience instead of by memory....

I just re-racked my honey cider's and had a little taste; was well-pleased. A little strong though, it might need diluting with a quality cold lemonade for a summer's evening?

On the look-out for an easy wine label. I was given a link here before (thanks for that!) but I fancied something a little more bespoke/alterable - I may have to say thank you to a few people with a nice bottle and a dedicated label.

just finished running Odins quick gin through the air still got 1Ltr at 80% which I will cut back to 45% i've now got nearly 9 Ltrs, its far better than any i've made using flavorings.now its time for a brew before I make up a new batch
alan

Voddy wrote:Over this last week or so I've done a bunch of jams; I think about 47-52 kg. The nicest part has been experimenting with combining flavours. I think a single flavour can be a little boring at times....

47-52kg....

What?? are you taking on Tiptree....

I did Rhubarb & Vanilla last Sunday...wow it's brill, we are putting as much rhubarb in the bottom of the frezzer so we can make more, when what we have has been eaten.

I decided my allbran and extra light dme faux whisky wasn't tasting like what i was expecting, so i knocked up a batch of cream base (i think it was vino_tintos recipe) blended them and was somewhat surprised. tasted really good compared to the initial drink. I think i need lessons on aging on J.D. smoking chips. i will post the recipe in the recipe section when i get my notes.the crud of it all is i dont want to get used to this or i'll be as fat as butter.

B_D

Should be "what I have to do today" for me......I pickup my new-ish car