Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Moonshine who knows how to make it drink it ?

my uncle is retired atf, he told years ago in the early 70s they had to arrest a old guy in his 90s for making moon shine out in east TX. he said they really regretted having to do it, they had looked the other way way for years because his shine was so good and they enjoyed drinking it. he aid they went pretty easy on the old guy.

I've been reading about distilling for quite some time, and am a lurker over at http://homedistiller.org/
They have an excellent forum, also. No whining allowed. it's strictly booze

If you drop the sugar[refined] and go corn only there is a major difference in the end product.

I can imagine. White sugar in beer gives it a cidery taste.

so it just takes longer to ferment or do you up the amount of corn.

Takes longer and some more[corn]. I think. The end product[when made in the old way-sugarless] can be drank much like water. It is almost THAT smooth.
That's just what some ol feller told me up here one time.

Whole lotta work and know-how involved in mashin grain--taste be worth it.

Do you progressively heat it up like you do when mashing malted grain for beer?

heat to a 173

I don't mean to let on like I know more than I do--I'm sure they is guys on here know way more about it than I do--thay just got the sense to keep quiet about it.

When I was a little kid my dad was a feed salesman and butcher in south Missouri. He traveled around from farm to farm butchering cattle and hogs. Wasn't much cash in those days and he got paid lots in meat,sausage,coal and moonshine. I seen a lot of it made and paid attention but I never seen an all grain mash done, it was all sugarhead.

I'm like stx in that I don't drink--haven't in 30 years but I remember them ole Germans saying it was way harder to make good beer than it was to make good white dog.

so from what i've been able to find, even though you can legaly buy a still already made, the company's that make them have to keep records of who they sell them to for the feds.

but you can buy the parts separate and build your own.

One of the Fox Fire books has a good article on Moonshining. They talk about using charcoal to filter off the "barda grease". I assume that is methanol & other greasy-type alcohols/esters/whatever.

The "old world" shine from the days before sugar was easily available in #50 bags was a totally different product. Once the almost commercial moonshiners figured out how much easier it was replacing corn with sugar everything changed.

Talked to uncle he said if a person wanted to make some and wasn't blatant about it they wouldn't have anything to worry about. He said defiantly build or own still don't buy one already made that would leave a paper trail. He said he'd like a quart or two if somebody was to make some.

I haven't read the whole thread but I will, I don't make shine ....anymore, but I got my old recipe

16 gals water
13 lbs cracked corn
35 lbs sugar
3 packs freshmanns yeast (or better buy you some real distillers yeast)

also instead of 13lbs crack corn try 9lbs corn, 2 lbs rye, 2 lbs barley

mix it in a 32 gal food grade container cover with screen and then leave a crack in the lid and stir once a day for 14 days and cook it on the 15th day, you got to have a hydrometer and mason jars

also - check this out www.whiskeystill.net the best out there, ...I got, I mean like the 10 gal

boy I miss the 80's when we were teens making shine

I have built several--for distilling water of course.

You need some copper in the vapour path--to get good clean water.
15 gal keg makes a good boiler iffin it be Stainless--inch and quarter copper pipe for the head with copper scrubbies shoved up inside reduced down to 3/4 inch liebig condenser if you got runnin water.

Get good clean distilled water that way.

Makin liquor ain't no different than baking bread. Think about it--if your oven crapped out and you had to bake a loaf you would look around the shop and yard and figure it out pretty fast.

You're boiling a liguid--collecting the steam and condensing it back into a liquid. Rocket Science it ain't.

I once saw a group of Indians sitting around a campfire, boiling mash in an old outboard motor fuel tank and takin turns sniffin the steam. They got drunk in no time.

I wouldn't recommend that anymore than I would recommend storing high-proof hooch in plastic bottles like they show on that TV show.

As has already been suggested go to Homedistiller.org if you are serious about it.

good thread here on a all grain recipe.

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=46428

wow the moderators there sure make their presence known, going to take a little getting use too.

I come from a family of Oklahoma bootleggers ...

One of my uncles taught me how to make 12 year old whiskey ...

Seems like sprouting hominy corn makes the best !!!