For months now, I’ve been really wanting to learn how to distill spirits or learn to brew beer. They’re both such an art and one that I can actually do since I can’t paint or draw for shit.
So I’ve been browsing YouTube videos under the search of “Home Distillation How To”, I’ve run across a few that are pretty good, some are really elaborate and some are kinda sketchy…
So I found a distillery that’s pretty close, St. James Spirit in Irwindale, CA. I want to give them a call, see if they do tours, maybe I can chat with a distiller. If not, I will go back to the instructional video drawing board.
So I think the best option will be doing a sort of single pot still, I’m kinda scared though, after talking to Hoover about this, he’s making me think that if I mess anything up, just slightly, that I might go blind!
But if things go well, I’ll have whats known as White Dog whiskey. This is the clear, pure spirit before it’s aged in a charred white oak barrel.
So I want to do both for my first batch. I found a cool website that sells pre-charred white oak barrels in a couple of different sizes. The site is MileHiDistilling.com. I’m going to order a “5Lt (1.32 Gallon) Oak Barrel Oak Keg Medium Charred”, they’re out of stock on the 2Lt barrels right now.
5Lt (1.32 Gallon) Oak Barrel Oak Keg Medium Charred
www.milehidistilling.com
What I’d like to do is try a controlled version too, one that I know the whiskey is good and the barrel is prepped. Just the other day I saw this from LaughingSquid.com, it’s a “Age Your Own Whiskey Kit” from WoodinvilleWhiskeyCo.com. They have a kit with a bottle of White Dog, 2 glasses and a barrel. You pour it in, wait 3-5 grueling months for it to age and enjoy! HOW GREAT IS THAT!? Such a cool idea!
So, I want to document my journey on this quest for self-imposed inebriation, and for those of you who might want to try this for yourself, you can learn from my successes or mistakes. And if you’re already doing this yourself, PLEASE, hit me up, let me cheat off your test, don’t let me make the same mistakes you did!
I do hope that this experience inspires others to do this, if only 1 other person makes their own whiskey, the world will have 2 new flavors of whiskeys! EXPERIMENT!
Wish me luck!
- Brad
