Homebrew / Moonshine - Sink vodka appreciation

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I mean the classic choice is to make gin
You can use juniper as a flavoring for lots of different country wines and meads, but your best bet to use a lot of it is rigging up a basket to put in your still and make gin.
I'll probably use some for gin. The gin making videos I've seen always just flavor a neutral spirit after with juniper but that was probably just one guy. I infused some vodka before with juniper and it was very good until day 3 because I left a clove in there and it over powered everything.
 
been watching a lotta city steading vids on homebrewing and its gotten me far. made 3 different brews thanks to them with little to no issues. this def caught my eye, I wonder if lowtax would ever make this;

I have a recipe Im going to share soon but before I do I am waiting for it to age 2 weeks to see if the pallete has gotten better.
 
Nah, I'll denounce a channel that has advised new brewers to just stir fuzzy black mold into their brew and who censors anyone criticizing their shit advice.
They really did that? thats fucking nuts. When did they do that?
 
They really did that? thats fucking nuts. When did they do that?
I remember in at least one video they do say something along those lines. I'm looking for it now, but in this FAQ video he straight up says that you should dump brews that have mold in it.


I think it might be this video.

Given that its 50 some odd minutes and I'd rather not spend the next 25 minutes of my life looking for the specific mention, I've taken the liberty of having Grok check for us.

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They're discussing Brettanomyces infection which is the white film over a brew with big bubbles which is harmless health wise, but adds sour tastes to the brew which could be undesirable depending on your preferences, in contrast to floating white shiny/doughy rafts which would be a wild kind of yeast or potentially mold.

They recommend stirring it into the brew because if it is mold "it will come back" and if it doesn't it was a wild yeast raft.

They go on to discuss mold specifically. They say if it's fuzzy at all, it's definitely mold and to dump it. If it's any color besides white it's definitely mold and to dump it, but if it's white/shiny/doughy it might not be mold and then you would stir it in to test to see if its mold or not.

@Troonos was this the video you're referencing regarding stirring it in or is there another video where they recommend that and how right/wrong are they about the mold coming back after being stirred in?
 
id presume in over 300 vids they fucked up somewhere.
They fuck up a lot:

-Stirring black mold into brew.
-Not supplying nutrition to yeast, resulting in a stressed fermentation that produces fusels and other off-flavors. Their batches stall all the time from lack of nutrition.
-Not stabilizing before backsweetening, which risks bottle bombs.
-Teaching that pasteurization is a reliable form of stabilization, which it isn't, and tends to lead to surprise refermentation after weeks or months.
-Telling people that a handful of raisins is yeast nutrient.
-Recommending bread yeast for brewing, ensuring a shit result.
-Deciding to rehydrate his yeast (once he finally started rehydrating) with Fermaid O over GoFerm because he thinks it's "more natural" even though it doesn't promote healthy fermentation initiation.

Much of their teaching is outdated from when there wasn't a lot of science backing up brewing practices. Many of their recipes sound like prison toilet wine. Many people who start their brewing career listening to CSB end up with disappointing results and have to come to the wider mead community for education on what they learned wrong.

Any time their teachings have been shown to be wrong, they'll get indignant and argue to death that evidence-based best practice is wrong and that they're right. They delete comments and block critics on YouTube and social media.

Besides that, they've always creeped me out like the weird autistic couple that does pony play at fetish conventions. She probably pegs him.

They really did that? thats fucking nuts. When did they do that?
was this the video you're referencing regarding stirring it in or is there another video where they recommend that and how right/wrong are they about the mold coming back after being stirred in?

They did it in two different videos, but took both down after months of backlash. Guess they got tired of deleting comments telling them how dangerous it is to consume mead with fuzzy black mold in it. This was not shiny silver Brett rafts; it was hairy and black. Maybe he learned something since then, but their damage is done, and everyone in the community gets tired of having to correct bad information that some new brewer got from their videos even in current year.

Reddit troons hate them because "he always talks over the poor woman and won't let her speak". I don't care. They just suck at brewing education.
 
Yeah maybe I shouldnt rely on csb for the main advice on making alcohol but I will say it at least made the practice of homebrewing way more approachable. for now im going back to old usenet threads as I found out theres specific ones for even different countries on how to make alcohol. the one im gonna do a bit more research into is the taiwanese usenet brewing group as I genuinely am curious about their recipes they developed.
 
Yeah maybe I shouldnt rely on csb for the main advice on making alcohol but I will say it at least made the practice of homebrewing way more approachable. for now im going back to old usenet threads as I found out theres specific ones for even different countries on how to make alcohol. the one im gonna do a bit more research into is the taiwanese usenet brewing group as I genuinely am curious about their recipes they developed.
If it helps, I browse this thread, and the HomebrewTalk forum.
 
Yeah maybe I shouldnt rely on csb for the main advice on making alcohol but I will say it at least made the practice of homebrewing way more approachable. for now im going back to old usenet threads as I found out theres specific ones for even different countries on how to make alcohol. the one im gonna do a bit more research into is the taiwanese usenet brewing group as I genuinely am curious about their recipes they developed.
Man Made Mead and Doin' The Most are the best evidence-based but casual mead education channels. They teach best practice, do triangle tests and comparisons, do massive brewing trials where they compare the result of 40 identical batches but each made with a different yeast, and share really quality recipes.

Discord is cancer, but they both have great Discord communities with tons of experts to answer your questions. There's also a "The Mead Hall" Discord server; I'm not sure who runs it, but it shares most members with the other two. Because these servers are for adult hobbies, they aren't full of spastic children.

And r/mead is fine, but it's half "here's my weird mead experiment", half "I watched CSB and my fermentation didn't start" and half "is this mold?"

Also look up interviews with Ken Schramm for more expert knowledge, as he's spent literal decades mastering mead techniques. I've never tasted an alcoholic beverage as delicious as his fruit meads. Sadly he had a heart attack last year and is trying to sell his meadery now.
 
Apologies for the doublepost but this was way too cool to not share. After an immense autistic session of browsing taiwanese usenet boards I have uncovered two incredibly detailed recipes. I know not everyone has google so I will also attach a text file to the recipes as well.
Taiwan Beer:
Google Groups (8/20/1999)

Plum Wine:
Google Groups (4/8/1999)

If anyone attempts these let me know!
 

Attachments

Apologies for the doublepost but this was way too cool to not share. After an immense autistic session of browsing taiwanese usenet boards I have uncovered two incredibly detailed recipes. I know not everyone has google so I will also attach a text file to the recipes as well.
Taiwan Beer:
Google Groups (8/20/1999)

Plum Wine:
Google Groups (4/8/1999)

If anyone attempts these let me know!
Lmao.

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And the Stinger:
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I'm going through some of Jack Keller's wine recipes and most of them call for a can of grape juice concentrate, from what I've found he used Welches. The problem is that Welches discontinued making frozen juice concentrate, has anyone had luck substituting grape juice in place of concentrate?
 
I'm going through some of Jack Keller's wine recipes and most of them call for a can of grape juice concentrate, from what I've found he used Welches. The problem is that Welches discontinued making frozen juice concentrate, has anyone had luck substituting grape juice in place of concentrate?
Can't say I've ever heard of him or his recipes, but I have made wine of some sort with just store bought juice in a bottle. I added sugar to up the ABV of the final result
 
I'm going through some of Jack Keller's wine recipes and most of them call for a can of grape juice concentrate, from what I've found he used Welches. The problem is that Welches discontinued making frozen juice concentrate, has anyone had luck substituting grape juice in place of concentrate?
Juice without preservatives will ferment fine, I think that it would just be a matter of how well it works for a given recipe. I don't see why that wouldn't work as long as you're using suitable juice and adjusting for the juice not being concentrated. You could also look into other brands of juice concentrate if that's available to you.
 
Can't say I've ever heard of him or his recipes, but I have made wine of some sort with just store bought juice in a bottle. I added sugar to up the ABV of the final result
Juice without preservatives will ferment fine, I think that it would just be a matter of how well it works for a given recipe. I don't see why that wouldn't work as long as you're using suitable juice and adjusting for the juice not being concentrated. You could also look into other brands of juice concentrate if that's available to you.
Maybe I should have worded the question better, has anyone that has make a wine recipe that calls for a can of grape concentrate been able to get similar results substituting grape juice instead? I love making juice wines, but in some of Jack's recipes he uses some grape concentrate to add body to wines that other wise would be to light. While on the subject of Jack Keller here's a pdf with a bunch of recipes from him.
 

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Keller's recipes work fine with grape juice or whatever you have on hand, as long as it's preservative-free. In fact he overused the stuff for my tastes. Flowers and lighter fruits do best as a light-bodied brew in my opinion, though I will make a sweet wine every once in a while. A bit of extra sugar will get you the same ABV but a lighter body, and a pinch of powdered tannin or some aging on wood can fill out a wine if you are so inclined.
 
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