GRAPE WINE, CIDER AND INSERT "STILL" PUN HERE

here are some i thought of:

1. "yo guy, still"
2. "in the still of the night"
3. "i hate myself"

well it took a few trips to several hardware stores, pissing off my girlfriend by using her j-cloths, some pizza and some rap music but we got it finished last friday.

here's a list of materials:

• 14L stainless steel stock pot
• stainless steel bowl with same diameter
• bronze floor flange with 3/4 inch attachment
• nuts and bolts
• rubber stoppers
• cobalt drill bits
• 1 length of 1/2 inch M-grade copper pipe
• 1 length 1/2 inch of soft copper pipe
• various copper joints
  
• torch
• lead free solder
• flux
• 3/4 inch - 1/2 inch adapter
• cooking thermometer
• stolen j-cloths

unfortunately i've been drinking all my booze so i don't have anything to distill, so that'll have to wait for about a month.



we didn't attach the lyne arm to the condenser because we were tired and it was time to start drinking, but that's about a 5 minute job. in a few weeks when i have something to distill, we'll give it a run.

there's a few changes i'd like to make, including replacing the bronze floor flange with a stainless steel one. all in all it was a successful effort and we learned some things. after this one is working properly, i'm going to start on a reflux column still, it seems a lot easier now that we've made this one.

on to the grape wine!


pictured above is a delicious 2009 concord blush. this has turned out great. you can't tell in the picture (the bottle is green), but this bitch clears after being in the fridge for only about 48 hours. i'm pleased. i've already drank 10 of the 20-odd liters i made. i'm definitely sticking with this recipe for future batches.


finally, my friend and i are making some cider:


the recipe is simple, just 16L of cider and some wine yeast. you can use bakers yeast if you want, too. one of the bottles is missing some cider because i made a starter. this should be ready in about a month. we're making it for a get-together we're having for everyone to bring their homebrew and see what's best. and also to get drunk.

HOBO WINE AND SOON...WHISKEY!

my grape wine is turning out fucking great. it's cloudy and still very much alive, but it's dry as hell and it's really boozy. i got pretty fuckin licked off it last night and i'm currently nursing a hangover that i'll be taking with me to work in a few hours. it's pictured here in the nice glass carboy a friend gave to me a while ago. it smells really sweet but like i said, it's nice and dry.

yes, our fridge has dinosaurs and hearts on it. eat a dick.

one thing i did with this batch, is about two weeks in, i boiled up some of the wine (about 1 cup) along with some yeast. i did this on a hunch after looking around for homemade yeast nutrient. when i added it (after letting it cool), the yeast went nuts and when i took the airlock off it sprayed black all over my face. while that sucked, the result was a pretty vigorous fermentation. yeast like to eat dead yeast.

so yeah, i'll let this bitch ferment until sunday the 15th, i'll rack it and then i'll bottle it. i might use some of the clarifier my friend gave me, as well. we'll see. maybe i'll split it up, half with clarifier and half without, to see the difference. my guess? ONE WILL BE CLEARER THAN THE OTHER. if anyone wants their fortunes told, just email me.

i've been doing a lot more reading on home brewing the last little while. i decided for now i'm going to stick with grape wine and sugar wine, going with consistent recipes and methods. i have some ideas for sugar wine recipes and home made yeast nutrient. i'll probably start a new batch on friday so i'll update on that this weekend.

uhm...aside from grape wine and sugar wine...i'm also working on another boozey project:

oooooh?? quest que cest le? I'M MAKING A FUCKIN STILL, BITCHES.

my friend and i will probably be finished making this on friday. it's a pretty basic pot still. for anyone interested in doing this, i highly recommend looking over homedistiller.org. there's a lot of great information there. pictured above is my secret booze closet. for some reason we have like 19 closets in this modestly-priced apartment, so my girlfriend gave my the top half of this one. it's pretty rad, i can put carboys in there and let them ferment and since i'm not looking at them i'm not tempted (as much) to drink and/or fuck around with them.

anyway the hobo grape wine is probably the best booze i've made so far.

BANANA WINE AND NEW GEAR

well...i drank most of my banana wine.

IT IS FUCKING HORRIBLE. if anyone actually reads this stupid blog, do NOT use the banana wine recipe i made up! it got me pretty drunk but it tasted like someone put banana peels and shitty vodka coolers in a blender.

another mistake i made was that i didn't let it age. apparently banana wine is a lot better after a few months, but i was broke and impatient and i wanted to get drunk.

in other news, i got some new gear. some i bought, some i pilfered.

• hydrometer ($8.00)
• racking cane ($6.00)
• airlocks (about $5.00 for 3)
• bungs (about $3 for 3)
• 4 16L food-grade buckets w/ lids
  

the buckets are great, i got them from work. the lids have holes that are the perfect size for airlocks (i was still using balloons when i took these pictures). the lids had some holes stabbed into them but i just patched them up with a glue gun. below is a picture of how shitty the banana wine looks:




look at that awful mess! normally i'd be loathe to give away the last of my booze, but i passed off the last bottle to a friend last night. he can fucking have it. i told him not to drink it for a few months, hopefully he'll just forget that he has it and never drink it.