Moonshine at sea

[dannc]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Distillation on a boat is't really viable I don't think, at least not a small boat, and it is very highly illegal.
But if you chose to anyway, be wary of un-intentionally distilling Methanol, that would be bad.

There is heat distillation and freezing distillation.

Hard apple cider was traditionally made by fermenting the apple juice, and when winter arrived, allowing the hard cider to freeze the water. The ice was removed, aka the water, which increased the amount of alcohol in the cider.

The crew on Delos is doing heat distillation on the boat.

Both distillation types would be illegal in the US. I would suspect distillation on a US flagged boat would also be illegal.

Moonshining is alive and well in NC. A decade or so ago a politician got into trouble because he was giving away peach brandy to friends and family. He thought it was legal since he was not charging for the product. There are still shot houses in NC where shine goes for a dollar an ounce.

Later,
Dan

[denverd0n]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Distillation on a boat is't really viable I don't think, at least not a small boat, and it is very highly illegal.

Lots of people make beer on their boats. We get discussions about that here pretty regularly. Distilling liquor doesn't require any more space, and really isn't difficult.

Of course if your "small boat" is something like a Catalina 22 then, yeah, you probably don't have room. Any cruising boat above about 35 feet or so, however, should have no problem. In fact, most of the equipment that you would need is probably already in your galley.

As to the legality, it is "very highly illegal" in the United States. It is perfectly legal and acceptable in a lot of other places around the world.

[sparrowhawk1]

[QUOTE=Mike OReilly;2221695]Thanks SH, sounds good. Do you brew while underway or only at anchor/moor/dock?

When traveling I'll usually use plastic. It's easiest to take the container the juice came in and drink a tall glass of it and then add sugar and yeast.

[Mike OReilly]

Thanks dance, good tip about looking for pasteurized. I know in my beer/wine making days on land ran into a problem when I added store-bought juices (forget what it was), and it promptly killed my yeast due to all the preservatives. Lesson learned...

Have never distilled anything ... seems like too much effort and energy to me for such a small return. Give me a nice hefty glass of beer or wine and I'm happy. But I do like the freeze distillation idea. Might try that one just for fun.

Originally Posted by sparrowhawk1

When traveling I'll usually use plastic. It's easiest to take the container the juice came in and drink a tall glass of it and then add sugar and yeast.

Perfect. You've inspired me to give it a try. Too bad I just pulled my boat out for another winter season here in the Great White North. I guess I'll just have to practice on land over the winter

[belizesailor]

For a simple cider (or cider vinegar) I just look for a high quality brand of 100% juice (disturbingly hard to find on super market shelves these days). Have not had issues with preservatives, but the fewer additives the better.

Serious cider makers choose the mix of varieties of apples carefully, but you can make a rudimentary cider with just good old generic apple juice.

[belizesailor]

Given that you are not likely to have access to a blend of apple varieties while cruising, unless in the PNW, you could try a blend of store bought juices....might be interesting.

[belizesailor]

Broceht would be another relatively simple, and very tasty, thing to brew aboard. It is a type of mead made from caramelized honey. I made a little test batch recently just to get familiar with it: local honey, water, bread yeast, "yeast hulls" (killed yeast) for nutrients yeasts need missing from honey. Wasnt expecting much since it was just a quick and dirty test, but DAMN it came out quite tasty. I have 5 gallons more brewing ashore now. :beer:

Carefull working with hot honey and especially careful mixing it with water (the boiling point for honey is higher than water...so you can get a dramatic boil over if you add water to honey thats => boiling point of water).


https://db.tt/uarCFC42

[Bleemus]

Is there a website with a simple recipe for making hard cider? I have an unlimited supply of fresh pressed cider.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Bleemus

Is there a website with a simple recipe for making hard cider? I have an unlimited supply of fresh pressed cider.

It's a "language thing"

Just go to any of the relevant posts above and replace "cider" with "hard cider" and "apple juice" with "fresh pressed cider".

(Outside of the US, the expression "hard cider" is rarely used. For the rest of us, plain "cider" is alcoholic "apple juice".)

[zboss]

Originally Posted by cameron82

Here's my version for a 25L wash.

5kg sugar
80grams bakers yeast
1/4 tea spoon citric acid
200 grams leggo's tomato paste.

Mix sugar, tomato paste, citric acid and 10 liters hot water into your fermenter to dissolve all the sugar.

Top up with cool water and hopefully you've got it at about 30c

Pitch yeast.
This wash will clear on it's own to a pale pink colour, there is no need to for any sort of filtering.
therefore, there is no home brew shop additives or agents required.
Happy stillin' Folks

OMG.. Prison hooch! Just use bread instead of the yeast!

[Dirk Williams]

A good friend up in Bend Or, makes hard cider for market" RimRock" , tasty stuff. I have my wife bring home a couple growlers everytime she's up visiting her parents.

Honey meed, sounds very tasty. We are newish bee keepers, 2nd year, got about 100/120 pounds of honey this season, actually that was the overall weight of the honey boxes and their content.

I think I'll find a recipe tomorrow.

DW

[RaymondR]

Originally Posted by Dirk Williams

A good friend up in Bend Or, makes hard cider for market" RimRock" , tasty stuff. I have my wife bring home a couple growlers everytime she's up visiting her parents.

Honey meed, sounds very tasty. We are newish bee keepers, 2nd year, got about 100/120 pounds of honey this season, actually that was the overall weight of the honey boxes and their content.

I think I'll find a recipe tomorrow.

DW

You keep bees on a boat?

[SSgtPitt]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

You keep bees on a boat?

Putting leashes on them must take ALL day.

[sparrowhawk1]

Just a couple of points: the yeast may stop fermenting in 10 days but it's much better if you wait 20 or more days. The longer you wait the clearer the cider will be. Like I said before I've had excellent results with bread yeast but if you want to use champagne yeast here's an example https://youtu.be/3sCvkObWaHU oops that's the video of everything he ordered that was good, here's the yeast.

[sparrowhawk1]

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