honey Vodka

[pascopol]

...... what is your recipe for fermenting potatoes and or rye! I am sick of all you teases.

I do not distill vodka, it is not worth it, cheap enough in liquor store.

Besides I prefere Scotch as far as hard liquor is concerned.

[eliahu]

The recipe prior to fermentation take 45kg multiflower honey add 90liter water. you should use old black useless pollen frames or fermentation bacteries too, but if you use pollen frames it will taste better. for quick fermentation you need to put fermetation tanks in the warm place. after fementation it will loose sweetness and will be ready to distill. it will be very hard to explain my stuff better from the web site.

[Barry]

I would make MEAD from my honey instead of wasting it for vodka.

LOL

Good for you. There are other's who would use it in making vodka. No need to laugh at those who do it differently than you.

[Nabber86]

"Vodka" usually refers to neutral spirit (as in having no flavor - other than pure alcohol). It is distilled using a high effciency reflux column and any honey flavor in the mash would be stripped out.

If you distill mead with a pot still, the flavor compounds make it through and you would get Honey Brandy.

Of course, the terminology may be different in Georgia.

[Barry]

I know the homebrew Vodka I had from Poland last year certainly had flavor beyond alcohol.

[Nabber86]

Think of the following list of what is conventionally considered as "vodka":

• Chopin
• Luksusowa
• Absolute
• Grey Goose
• Russian Standard
• Sky
• Ketal One
• Stolichnaya
• Smirnoff
• Popov

All of these meet the definition of vodka (clear neutral spirit distilled with a column, several are further refined with micro-filtration to remove any trace of cogener that may have carried over).

I supposed you could have "flavored" vodka, but that is not really vodka. You could also use a pot still, but that really isnt vodka either.

But why worry about semantics? If I came in here and said that cyser was made with raspberries and honey, or that braggot was made with honey and apples, would you not correct me?

[whiskers]

Look on youtube for "popcorn sutton" or "the last one". You will find parts of a documentary on moonshine making in appalachia. Perhaps it's all there. If not there is said to be a dvd. It shows pretty clearly how to make a still and a small run of moonshine.
Bill

[Nabber86]

I have found this website to be particularly informative.

[MrsTreeBee]

Missouri doesn't follow the federal law on this matter. So if you are lucky enough to live in rural Missouri and don't show off about it or try to sell it you can produce up to 200 gallon for a household of two adults. Yeah for states rights! http://www.moga.mo.gov/statutes/chapters/chap311.htm

[Nabber86]

I guess I forget to post the link:

http://moonshine-still.com/

[eliahu]

you need pollen to ferment it easily and correct dilution of honey and water

[clean6]

I ran 40 gal ferment with 48 lbs honey, distillers yeast and double run got me 1.25 gal 120 proof. Not a good return. http://www.artisan-distiller.net

[eliahu]

To receive good return you need High quality Multiflower honey with high contents of glucose app: 81-91%

[Nabber86]

I ran 40 gal ferment with 48 lbs honey, distillers yeast and double run got me 1.25 gal 120 proof. Not a good return. http://www.artisan-distiller.net

At just over a pound of honey per gallon, you didnt start with that much alcohol to recover in the wash to begin with.

Also, 1.25 gal at 120 proof equates to 0.75 gallons of pure EtOH (200 proof). 0.75 gallons / 40 gallons = less than 2 percent by weight in the wash. Either your measuring is off, or that pot still works pretty good.

[clean6]

Nabber which measurment would that be?
Col Wilson
Stripped to 10% and got 5 gal low wine and ended with above.
Thanks

[Nabber86]

A 1.25 gallon yield at 60% (120 P) is 0.75 gallons of pure alcohol (200 P). Dividing that by a 40 gallon initial batch volume means that the starting alcohol content was somewhere around 2 percent. Something is wrong there. You should have gotten an OG of somewhere around 1.045. If the mead fermented completely out it should have ended up somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 percent alcohol. You lost 4 percent alcohol (1.6 gallons at 200 P) somewhere along the way.

Either the mead was at 2 percent and the still did a really good job of recovery. Or the mead was at 6 percent and the still did a really crappy job. Or you measured something wrong. What type of scale and hydrometers are you using? Did you measure the honey by weight or by volume?

Something else that is odd – How the heck did you run 40 gallons through a small “Artisan” still?

I notice that you are also new here. You arent a trolling ATF agent are you?

[clean6]

I seldom measure except once in a while I use hydrometer to check if ferment is finished..
run enough to know how still works.. 10 gal at a time..
Honey was slightly fermented and crystalized.
I am to the right of Atilla the Hun.
I do not hate much but Gvt is close to being there..
Thanks for the help.

[Nabber86]

Let the yeast do the work for you and start with the strongest mash/mead/wash that you can possible charge the still with. You want something like 15 to 20 percent percent alcohol going in. It takes just as long to run a 10-gallon batch at 5 percent as it does to run a 10-gallon batch at 20 percent, but you get 4 times the end product.

Also, get yourself a good proof hydrometer.

[AndrewGWU]

Let the yeast do the work for you and start with the strongest mash/mead/wash that you can possible charge the still with. You want something like 15 to 20 percent percent alcohol going in. It takes just as long to run a 10-gallon batch at 5 percent as it does to run a 10-gallon batch at 20 percent, but you get 4 times the end product.

Also, get yourself a good proof hydrometer.

I second the hydrometer part... however, I have to disagree with fermenting at that high of ABV. Home distilling is about quality, not quantity. Although a newbie at bees I have distilled for a while. For the cleanest product with the least off flavors you do not want to stress your yeast. I would keep it at 14% or less. Also, a firm knowledge of cuts and experience making them goes a long ways. With a little time and experience you can be putting store bought spirits to shame.

[Nabber86]

I second the hydrometer part... however, I have to disagree with fermenting at that high of ABV. Home distilling is about quality, not quantity. Although a newbie at bees I have distilled for a while. For the cleanest product with the least off flavors you do not want to stress your yeast. I would keep it at 14% or less. Also, a firm knowledge of cuts and experience making them goes a long ways. With a little time and experience you can be putting store bought spirits to shame.

True, but it depends on the apparatus that is being used. With a long enough column, packing rings, and super-fine reflux control, SWIM can produce Russian Standard out of mash made from rotten barley and old gym socks.