DonMateo

Southernhighlander. 

Thanks for the comment and clarification. I didnt know barrel aged moonshine was called Charter Shine.  Great explaination.   I think thats what I might call my barrel aged moonshine when I finally finish building my distillery. Until then i will just have to sell it illegally.  

In general I would have to agree but I put some of my Corn whiskey and did some accelerated aging on some Brazillian woods and it came out very nicely, with some nice unusal flavours on top of a corn whiskey.    But if it was Oak I could only agree.   Still where I live I can experiment to my hearts content.  

Thanks Slickfloss. I think the next couple of corn washes I do I am just going to add 15% malted barley when the temp comes down. 

Hey John, 

I have tried your vodka via our mutual friend Mike Culleton. Good stuff mate. 

Matt

Thanks Guys. I love this web board.  

I am going to make and sell moonshine when I have my distillery built. I am just looking for some land. One marketing angle that I didnt think about was that Moonshine is Gluten Free so celiacs can drink it.  My wife mentioned that to me because in Argentina where I live they have a large population with Italian heritage and the percentage of people who are Celiacs is around 5 %.  Those people cant drink most whiskeys.  Ok so its not a huge market but its a captive market if you can get it.  I really like making Corn moonshine.  A while ago I made some and put it on some brazillian wood and it wasnt bad.  

I just about .2kg per litre.  Which is pretty close to the 1.5lb/ gallon.  So for your 100gallon wash you will need about 170 lbs.  

I am in Mendoza Argentina and I have been just using my pot still.  I have a hybrid still with a fractioning column but I am a huge fan of the flavor produced just using a pot still.  So that is what I have been doing.  I think I am making my cuts OK.  The hardest part for me is resisting the tempation to go too deep into the tails for the sake of volume.  But its a personal thing when it comes to what taste you want. I read about that before I started distilling and its very true.  

I am lazy I dump my water in at 95 deg C and it takes about 2 hours in my jacketed fermenter to get to 80 deg C so it has pretty good conversion.  Its the no heating mashing method that I read about and tried.  Its been working. The last couple of corn mashes that I did this way got 6% ABV on the beer and it made some pretty decent moonshine even distilled off grain.  

I am a beginner but for barley mashes I do 7 days. I recently made a Sour mash bourbon that I let ferment for 4 weeks. The bourbon it made was amazing.  And if I am going to be away I will set a moonshine corn mash fermenting for up to 4 weeks.  If I get a Lacto I run it anyway. Makes great whiskey but I dont do it deliberately.  

AB1965.  I am setting up a distillery in Mendoza Argentina and I am just starting to build the warehouse I need.  While I am still testing recipes I starting with some private sales.  But I have tried making some American whiskey and its great. My processes are small, doing 400l mashes, but recently I made a very nice Gentleman Jack copy.  Although I did an on grain fermentation and let it ferment for about 4 weeks but the result was great. I think it fermented for far too long because my corn grind was too thick.  Anyway mate if your thinking of doing I would say go for it.  I am aging my american style whiskey on oak but with a couple of lingots of south american woods for a different taste but I am allowed to do it where I am.  

To answer your first question, where I am there are 2 large craft distilleries and 1 small one and about 3 in the process of start up.  All of them want to make single malt scotch style whiskey. I am going to do some of that but I am experimenting with alternative grains and alternative woods.  Last week I did a very nice barley and oats run.  In Chile there is one small distillery that is making whiskey and they are trying to make an american style bourbon but they are at the end of the world in a place called Puerto Natales.  

I know there are some craft whiskey distilleries in the South of Brazil but I dont know what they make.  In other parts of South America they make other spirits.  

That just sounds like your just blending a rye and a wheat to get to a bourbon. 

I am doing this now proving out whiskey on Brazillian woods that are used for aging cachaca.  Its going very well. I am aging them in 50l stainless barrels with the brazillian woods cut into 4 inch x 1 inch fingers.  Giving some great results. 

I am just getting started and learning but I heard of the technique of just dumping boiling water on the corn grains to mash in and then let it cook.  Corn needs to be over 80Deg c for 90 to 120mins to gelatinise. In a big mash tun. Mine are small at 240l. You dump 200l of water at 95deg C on 40kg of grain it drops to 90 deg C fast and then takes a couple of hours to get down to 80 deg.  At about 75deg I dump in my Rye and wheat.  That drops the temp a few degrees and then you let it go.  Give it a stir to mix everything up and your good. The next morning when the temp is at 35Deg C I pitch the yeast and its off and running quick smart.  Anyway just an alternative technique I read about that I thought I would try as in my current location I cant boil the 200l of Corn wash easily. I am probably loosing some efficiency but I am getting corn for about 35c a kilo.  Its working so far.  I got a couple of lactos last time right at the end but ran them anyway and they were great whiskey. 

On 1/11/2013 at 9:22 PM, Mash said:

We are using electric elements so distilling on the grain is not practical for me. We will in the next distillery I'm building. We are developing methods to seperate the grains from the wash. Our conversion has improved so much that what would be 20 to 15 gallons of grains is now like five, all based on a 55 gallon drum batch.

I did a couple of on grain bourbon runs a little while ago with electric elements and they worked fine with no scorching. I just had the heating elements  dialed down to about 60%. The moonshine that came out was really nice.  OK I didnt have a full charge of grain in with the wash, only about 20% but enough to cover the elements.  It took a little longer but it worked.    

In his book Alt Whiskeys. Derek Bell from Coarsair whiskey distillery. Says that Triticale is a fantastic grain to work with and makes a very nice whiskey straight or as a blend where you want a softer taste than rye but you want some bite.  Apparently Triticale is a lot easier to work with than Rye.  I am in Argentina and I have been trying like crazy to get my hands on some and its not easy.  Go for it and try triticale.  

PeteB.  Read the aussie regulations mate.  I am an Aussie too but I am setting up in Argentina and I have had to find the regulations here.  Now in Argentina they are very very rarely enforced but the TTB wont apply where I am. Neither will the in Tasmania.  

Get your hands on a copy of Derek Bells book  Alt Whiskeys, from Amazon. It has everything you need to know about alternative grains and flavors.

Craig, 

To answer your question call it a Liquor factory or fabrica de Licores.  

Matt

Craig, 

If I were you I would be thinking of trying to make some interesting bourbons there not trying to compete with the old Pisco families.  I lived in Peru for 8 years and subsequently I have moved to Argentina and then become interested in setting up a distillery here.  But in Peru there are hundreds of different types of corn and a thriving craft beer industry so you can get other grains to make different whiskies.  While your at it there is no-one in Peru making top quality gins with Local botanicals.  Peru has about 10% of the Amazon forest and there is still a lot of knowledge up in the mountains of local herbs and flowers.  You could make some gins that are great tasting and sell them to the tourists coming in and out. The same with bourbons.  

Anyway I am going to set up my distillery here in Mendoza Argentina, then I will do one in Chile and I am trying to get a mate in Lima to start one as well.  The key to anything in Peru is getting the upper middle class to buy it and flogging it to the tourists.  there are about 1.8m tourists a year go to Peru and most of them go in and out of Cuzco and Lima. 

Cheers and have a great ceviche for me. If you want to talk about this some more PM me.  

Matt 

Thanks for the response Allan, 

I am just putting together my basic gear and then starting my learning curve on making really good spirits.  Here in Argentina there are lots of high quality cheap grains and I have 24 recipes to try and then 12 gin recipes. Just as well my mates here are drunks.  I beleive I have learn and practice the techniques like crazy before going public. There is no substitute for practice when attaining technical excellence in anything. 

Thanks to all of the other commentators here. 

Regards

Matt 

OK I am posting this for a friend who cant get the new thread thing working.

For sale: 2 UNIQUE copper vessel 2000 liters - heating system: steam - Copper thickness: 8 mm - PRICE: usd 20.000 each vessel

Refer to the attached photos. These stills are currently located in Mendoza Argentina and are genuine original french stills and vessels. For more information please contact Christian Williams at this email address for more info and photos. cwilliams@gulatina.com.

THanks.

Matt

Welcome,

I am about to start buying my equipment but the main advice I would have is read everything you can. There is a lot of knowledge on this forum, also check out stilldragons forum and the Homedistiller.org forum. There are many thousands of years of experience that is freely shared. Its a cooperative community. Good luck too.

Matt

I think the people who are want to do a craft distillery they are very independent people but they also like the same sort of people and are generally helpful. The advice you get on this board and other craft distilling boards is gold and given freely. Check out the stilldragon forums. There is are lots of very helpful people sharing ideas and advice. The other good website is homedistiller.org and which has some huge following of guys sharing advice.

I work in mining projects, at least I have and I too believe in Trust but verify. Good luck in your endeavour and I hope your successful.

Cheers

Matt

How good is your Spanish ??? Ever thought of living in South America ? I am about 12 months from having my distillery up and running but nothing like experience if you want a long holiday in a years time.