Homebrew / Moonshine - Sink vodka appreciation

[IamnottheNSA]

Ok, so I have a bunch of unwanted horseradish patches growing at my dacha, so I decided to experiment for a little bit. I decided to make some horseradish booze (хреновуха).

The recipe goes like this: for 1 liter of vodka (or moonshine) you'll need about 40 grams of fresh horseradish. Peel it, chop it up into small pieces, put it in a glass jar, fill the jar with vodka, close the jar and leave it in a dark, cold place for a week.
After a week had passed, it should become slightly yellowish in color (almost like fresh piss). At this point, remove the horseradish cubes (but don't filter the booze just yet), add a tablespoon of honey, mix it, close the jar and put it back for two more weeks bro.
Then, after two more weeks had passed, filter out the remaining horseradish fibers - coffee filters work just fine. And that's it, it's done.

Should be easy enough.

 

[GratsTheat783]

Any tips for filtering out sediment? I've been using starter kits recently, and would like to filter out sediment better. I have tried using a small sift and a cheese cloth, but it's never filtered much out. One thing I realised I was doing that would cause a lot of sediment in the drinks was moving the fermentation barrel onto the table when transferring the liquid so I'll avoid moving it next time.

 

[Troonos]

Ok, so I have a bunch of unwanted horseradish patches growing at my dacha, so I decided to experiment for a little bit. I decided to make some horseradish booze (хреновуха).

The recipe goes like this: for 1 liter of vodka (or moonshine) you'll need about 40 grams of fresh horseradish. Peel it, chop it up into small pieces, put it in a glass jar, fill the jar with vodka, close the jar and leave it in a dark, cold place for a week.
After a week had passed, it should become slightly yellowish in color (almost like fresh piss). At this point, remove the horseradish cubes (but don't filter the booze just yet), add a tablespoon of honey, mix it, close the jar and put it back for two more weeks bro.
Then, after two more weeks had passed, filter out the remaining horseradish fibers - coffee filters work just fine. And that's it, it's done.

Should be easy enough.
View attachment 6517484

Adding honey without stabilizing is just going to cause the honey to be consumed by the yeast, so it won't add sweetness.

Any tips for filtering out sediment? I've been using starter kits recently, and would like to filter out sediment better. I have tried using a small sift and a cheese cloth, but it's never filtered much out. One thing I realised I was doing that would cause a lot of sediment in the drinks was moving the fermentation barrel onto the table when transferring the liquid so I'll avoid moving it next time.

Don't filter. Filtering introduces a ton of oxygen which causes oxidation to destroy all the flavor and give it off-flavors. Once active fermentation finishes, you need to be patient and wait a couple of weeks for the yeast to clean up the brew and then floculate to the bottom, then you can siphon the clear part off by keeping the siphoning tube above the lees.

Commercial breweries can only filter their brews because they have extremely expensive and complex equipment that can filter through a closed system that prevents any air from being introduced at all.

 

[GratsTheat783]

Once active fermentation finishes, you need to be patient and wait a couple of weeks for the yeast to clean up the brew and then floculate to the bottom, then you can siphon the clear part off by keeping the siphoning tube above the lees.

The ones I've done generally recommend about 2 weeks. Would that be enough or should I leave it longer? Also, should I try to leave the barrel in one place even when syphoning out the liquid?

 

[Troonos]

The ones I've done generally recommend about 2 weeks. Would that be enough or should I leave it longer? Also, should I try to leave the barrel in one place even when syphoning out the liquid?

You're fermenting in a barrel? Like a wood one?

Yeah, my yeast usually takes 2 weeks to floculate enough, but "enough" depends on how clear it is; if two weeks isn't enough for the floaties to be at the bottom, it obviously needs more time. After I rack it off onto stabilizers, another month or so will allow the fine particulate matter to settle for perfect clarity, at which point you'll rack it again or bottle it. If you have a stubborn batch where even the finer stuff won't settle, that's when I go to DualFine.

 

[GratsTheat783]

You're fermenting in a barrel? Like a wood one?

Yeah, my yeast usually takes 2 weeks to floculate enough, but "enough" depends on how clear it is; if two weeks isn't enough for the floaties to be at the bottom, it obviously needs more time. After I rack it off onto stabilizers, another month or so will allow the fine particulate matter to settle for perfect clarity, at which point you'll rack it again or bottle it. If you have a stubborn batch where even the finer stuff won't settle, that's when I go to DualFine.

Not a wood one, it's plastic but shaped like a barrel. I have a plastic fermenting bin for the primary fermentation and use the barrel for secondary fermentation.

if two weeks isn't enough for the floaties to be at the bottom, it obviously needs more time.

Is it safe to open the barrel to check during secondary fermentation?

If you have a stubborn batch where even the finer stuff won't settle, that's when I go to DualFine.

What's Dualfine?

 

[Troonos]

Not a wood one, it's plastic but shaped like a barrel. I have a plastic fermenting bin for the primary fermentation and use the barrel for secondary fermentation.


Is it safe to open the barrel to check during secondary fermentation?

What's Dualfine?

You can open a small orifice like the bung hole to take a sample, but I'd only open it at times when an adjunct would reasonably be done extracting and you want to make sure. After fermentation is over, there's not a constantly-replenished CO2 layer floating on top of the liquid to protect it from oxygen, so you want to open it as little as possible. Hopefully you're using some form of airlock.

However, I wouldn't use a small barrel for anything but a decoration. They have such high surface area relative to their volume that extraction is way too fast, leading to a pretty strong risk of overoaking. 10-12 gallons is about the point where you can actually put the secondary in a barrel. If you need oak character, just get an oak spiral.

DualFine is a natural two-part fining agent. You add packet A, wait 1-24 hours, then add packet B. Packet A is chitosan, which is positively-charged, so it bonds to negatively-charged stuff floating in the mead and pulls it to the bottom. Packet B is kieselsol, which is negatively-charged and so does the same to positively-charged particulate. Then you wait a couple of days, and anything stubborn should be at the bottom with a crystal clear brew. But like I said, I don't use it unless there's a failure of the secondary settling of smaller debris, and pretty much every brew will perfectly clear with enough time and patience. Brewing is not a hobby for the impatient.

 

[Big Brutus]

Any tips for filtering out sediment? I've been using starter kits recently, and would like to filter out sediment better. I have tried using a small sift and a cheese cloth, but it's never filtered much out. One thing I realised I was doing that would cause a lot of sediment in the drinks was moving the fermentation barrel onto the table when transferring the liquid so I'll avoid moving it next time.

I've had good results with freeze distillation. The frozen water captured the sediment and I got more potency out of the finished product. Didn't taste half bad for a wine that spent ten days fermenting and two weeks in a fridge before I freeze distilled it.

 

[Troonos]

I've had good results with freeze distillation. The frozen water captured the sediment and I got more potency out of the finished product. Didn't taste half bad for a wine that spent ten days fermenting and two weeks in a fridge before I freeze distilled it.

That isn't going to stabilize the batch, so it could easily referment, especially if backsweetened.

 

[Big Brutus]

That isn't going to stabilize the batch, so it could easily referment, especially if backsweetened.

Freeze distillation can absolutely stabilize the batch and kill the yeast because it raises the ABV. I used Red Star Premier Cuvee and it can only withstand 18% ABV. I'm getting somewhere in the ballpark of 25-30% ABV after freeze distillation.

 

[Troonos]

Freeze distillation can absolutely stabilize the batch and kill the yeast because it raises the ABV. I used Red Star Premier Cuvee and it can only withstand 18% ABV. I'm getting somewhere in the ballpark of 25-30% ABV after freeze distillation.

That still isn't a reliable method of stabilization. Yeast alcohol tolerance is not an exact science. Otherwise, dwojniaks wouldn't be possible.

And killing yeast by means of high ABV is likely to force the yeast to produce off-flavors.

 

[Big Brutus]

That still isn't a reliable method of stabilization. Yeast alcohol tolerance is not an exact science. Otherwise, dwojniaks wouldn't be possible.

And killing yeast by means of high ABV is likely to force the yeast to produce off-flavors.

There's no possible way that Red Star Premier Cuvee can survive 25-30% ABV. It's ridiculous to suggest otherwise. Dwojniak is a mead that has an ABV of 9-18%, I don't see how it supports your idea that the yeast I'm using can survive the ABV my freeze-distilled wine reaches.

As for the possibility of off-flavors, I proceed to freeze-distilling after refrigeration (two days refrigeration, six to nine hours freezing, this is after it ferments to ~17.5% ABV). It doesn't produce any off-flavors for me. If anything, it tastes as good as store-bought wine. No sediment, no dead yeast, just a dry red with a tarty undertone and a good kick to it.

When a wine must is refrigerated, yeast enters into a dormant state. All metabolic activity ceases. The yeast can't produce off-flavors at this point, because off-flavors are a result of strain on the yeast causing defects in metabolic activity. Once it's been refrigerated, the wine must can be frozen without issue.

(My apologies for the spergery.)

 

[Troonos]

There's no possible way that Red Star Premier Cuvee can survive 25-30% ABV. It's ridiculous to suggest otherwise. Dwojniak is a mead that has an ABV of 9-18%, I don't see how it supports your idea that the yeast I'm using can survive the ABV my freeze-distilled wine reaches.

As for the possibility of off-flavors, I proceed to freeze-distilling after refrigeration (two days refrigeration, six to nine hours freezing, this is after it ferments to ~17.5% ABV). It doesn't produce any off-flavors for me. If anything, it tastes as good as store-bought wine. No sediment, no dead yeast, just a dry red with a tarty undertone and a good kick to it.

When a wine must is refrigerated, yeast enters into a dormant state. All metabolic activity ceases. The yeast can't produce off-flavors at this point, because off-flavors are a result of strain on the yeast causing defects in metabolic activity. Once it's been refrigerated, the wine must can be frozen without issue.

(My apologies for the spergery.)

Dwojniaks are never under 15% unless you have a failed fermentation. Other Polish meads are even higher, the highest of which (Połtorak) are 18-25% from fermentation alone depending on how well they tolerate step-feeding. Alcohol tolerance is not a hard limit; it's just an average based on testing.

 

[IamnottheNSA]

So, a week had passed, and the result is pretty much what I expected - it's now fresh piss-yellow. Most of the horseradish pieces gathered up at the top and it seems like they started falling apart a little - when I removed the pieces by putting the booze through a sieve there were quite a few fibers still floating in the booze. I'll need to filter them out a a later step.
Proceeding onto the next step. Only two more weeks.

Adding honey without stabilizing is just going to cause the honey to be consumed by the yeast, so it won't add sweetness.

I went on and checked many different variations of the recipe - sometimes honey is added along with the horseradish, sometimes after a week or so had passed - but not one of them mentioned anything about stabilizing.
I ultimately decided not to deviate from how everyone else is doing it, even if it may end up producing worse results - at least not on the first try anyway.

 

[Troonos]

So, a week had passed, and the result is pretty much what I expected - it's now fresh piss-yellow. Most of the horseradish pieces gathered up at the top and it seems like they started falling apart a little - when I removed the pieces by putting the booze through a sieve there were quite a few fibers still floating in the booze. I'll need to filter them out a a later step.
Proceeding onto the next step. Only two more weeks.
View attachment 6542880

I went on and checked many different variations of the recipe - sometimes honey is added along with the horseradish, sometimes after a week or so had passed - but not one of them mentioned anything about stabilizing.
I ultimately decided not to deviate from how everyone else is doing it, even if it may end up producing worse results - at least not on the first try anyway.

Stabilization isn't a suggestion. If you want to backsweeten, it's mandatory to stabilize to avoid 1) consuming all the sweetness you were attempting to add, and 2) preventing bottle bombs. It's not personal preference; it's science. Yeast doesn't really die unless you boil it, so return of spontaneous fermentation is always a risk unless you actively prevent it with stabilizers.

If you're leaving it 100% dry with no sweetness, feel free to not stabilize.

And please don't filter or sift. It has a 100% chance to introduce enough O2 to oxidize your brew. Just have some patience and let things settle.

I'm not telling you what I want you to do. I'm telling you what the homebrewers, professionals, and researchers have learned over billions of man-hours. If you don't want to follow best-practice to create something with good quality, maybe you should start a Prison Hooch thread.

 

[Civillian 18]

For someone completely ignorant of the hobby, what reading/media would you recommend as a starting point? @Troonos and @Catgirl Tyranid you both seem full of information and guidance. For something as 'simple' as desiring to make something similar to the 'kilju'/sugar wine to have as something to use as a base for carbonation or drinking over ice with separate flavoring, what information would one need to seek out?
Cursory research leads me to thinking dextrose and water would make for a 'cleaner' - for lack of a better term - result, along with EC-1118 or 'champagne yeast' and a further yeast nutrient as opposed to raisins.
Something simple like this that can be adjusted once consistency is achieved is what I would be striving for.

 

[Troonos]

For someone completely ignorant of the hobby, what reading/media would you recommend as a starting point? @Troonos and @Catgirl Tyranid you both seem full of information and guidance. For something as 'simple' as desiring to make something similar to the 'kilju'/sugar wine to have as something to use as a base for carbonation or drinking over ice with separate flavoring, what information would one need to seek out?
Cursory research leads me to thinking dextrose and water would make for a 'cleaner' - for lack of a better term - result, along with EC-1118 or 'champagne yeast' and a further yeast nutrient as opposed to raisins.
Something simple like this that can be adjusted once consistency is achieved is what I would be striving for.

I'm coming at it from the Mead side, so I'd recommend Ken Schramm's "Compleat Meadmaker" as 90% of the principles in the book apply to homebrewing in general. Also in the mead category are the YouTube channels Man Made Mead, where I learned a lot of what I know, and Doin' The Most, which is a good best-practice informational channel with lots of good recipe videos too. Additionally, there are three great Discord communities if you use that cancerous app, one each for Man Mad Mead and Doin' The Most, and a third called "The Mead Hall"; all of these Discord servers will have tons of people who have non-mead knowledge to share, as long as you're asking in the right channel.

If you need a clean-fermenting yeast, EC-1118 is a good option. So are Omega Lutra, Red Star Premier Rouge, and Safale US-05.

Yeah, raisins are poor practice. I have an older reply on this thread explaining why. You want either Fermaid K with added DAP, or Fermaid O (I prefer this one) to feed 24 hours after pitching the yeast. You also want GoFerm to rehydrate the yeast before pitching. Using a Fermaid and GoFerm will give the yeast the best possible chance for a healthy fermentation.

 

[Civillian 18]

I'm coming at it from the Mead side, so I'd recommend Ken Schramm's "Compleat Meadmaker" as 90% of the principles in the book apply to homebrewing in general. Also in the mead category are the YouTube channels Man Made Mead, where I learned a lot of what I know, and Doin' The Most, which is a good best-practice informational channel with lots of good recipe videos too. Additionally, there are three great Discord communities if you use that cancerous app, one each for Man Mad Mead and Doin' The Most, and a third called "The Mead Hall"; all of these Discord servers will have tons of people who have non-mead knowledge to share, as long as you're asking in the right channel.

Much appreciated, I will have a read through it more thoroughly and look into those YouTube channels. Hopefully I can avoid jumping into the cesspit that is Discord. Other than that time to buy a bunch of socially acceptable glassware.

 

[Troonos]

Much appreciated, I will have a read through it more thoroughly and look into those YouTube channels. Hopefully I can avoid jumping into the cesspit that is Discord. Other than that time to buy a bunch of socially acceptable glassware.

Nah, avoid Discord for most purposes, but these communities are pretty sane. It would be a tragedy to dismiss them as great resources just because the platform is generally shit and full of pedophiles. I definitely prefer MMM's server, because DTM's server is run by a woke faggot who permits people to violate the "No Politics" rule only if they share his views, but even then, as long as you avoid the retarded channels that aren't brewing-related, it pretty much stays on-topic.

 

[Trigger Me Timbers]

I never back sweeten the entire batch, I personally will just back sweeten the batches I plan on drinking within the week.

Ever since drinking my own homemade alcohol, I believe I’ve developed a weakness/intolerance to sulfates. I can taste sulphates in most commercial booze I drink especially wine.

Getting ready to ferment about 2.6 gallons (10L for non space faring countries) of Apples to turn into cider (hard). Although as I prep, very tempted to over sweeten the batches to get a higher abv German style apple wine… but I don’t think I could have that ready before Christmas.