Sour Mash Moonshine
 
 
Prove your mastery of 'shining with this handy guide!
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Ingredients
  • 10 lbs of Cracked white corn
  • 5 lbs of Corn meal
  • 2 lbs of Table Sugar (granulated)
  • 2 lbs Malted barley
  • 8 Gallons of Filtered Water
  • 1 Small Packet of Distillers YeastEquipment - See our guide here!
  • Fermentation Bucket
  • Boiling Pot
  • Airlock
  • Siphon Tube
  • Strainer/Filter (optional)
  • Moonshine Still
Instructions
  1. Take corn out of manure and wash
  2. Roll corn to crack it
  3. Place corn into 55 gallon barrel
  4. Next add half bushel of corn meal
  5. Pour in five pounds of sugar
  6. Fill remainder of barrel with water.
  7. In about 21 days a red skim will appear.
  8. Push a hose with a stopper at the end to the bottom of the barrel.
  9. Blow out stopper.
  10. Next step is to siphon off mixture until approximately 4 inches are left at the bottom of the barrel.
  11. Strain the remainder of the liquid.
  12. Place in cooker and cook until it boils, then simmer.
  13. This should yield 1.5 gallons of 105 proof moon shine.
  14. Heat 5 gallons of water to 150?F in the boiling pot.
  15. Mix in 5 pounds pf cracked corn, 5 pounds of corn meal, 1 pound of table sugar and 2 pounds of malted barley and hold at 150?F for about 2 hours.
  16. Chill to room temperature, transfer to the fermenter, add yeast, close the lid, and place the airlock ensuring an airtight seal.
  17. Let ferment for 10-14 days until airlock activity stops completely for 1-2 days.
  18. Rack the wash off the yeast sediment into the still using the siphon and strainer.
  19. Do not discard the yeast sediment and grains from the fermenter, add about 3 gallons of warm water for the duration of the distilling run.
  20. Run the still hot and fast, collect all the runnings without making cuts, run down to 20 proof.
  21. Collect the remaining wash from the distiller (backset), mix in 1 pounds of sugar until completely dissolved, cool to room temperature then add to the fermenter with the diluted sediment from the previous fermentation.
  22. Add fresh yeast, close the lid, place airlock and let ferment for 10-14 days.
  23. When the fermentation is finished, transfer the wash with a siphon tube into the still.
  24. Do not dump the yeast sediment and grains, add 3 gallons of warm water and set the fermenter aside.
  25. Add the collected runnings from the previous distillation run into the still with the wash.
  26. Run the distillation as you normally would, in this case managing all the cuts properly.
  27. Collect the backset from the still, chill it to room temperature, mix in 1 pound of sugar and add to the fermenter.
  28. Repeat steps 9 to 14 several times to generate a proper sour mash moonshine.
Notes
With proper skill and grain management the sour mash cycle can be repeated almost indefinitely.

It makes sense to maintain the cycle if you?re planning to distill on a regular basis with a proper schedule.

Check the smell and taste of the mash after every fermentation cycle, replace the spent grains with fresh ones or restart the cycle if you feel like the quality is not as good as in the previous run.

If you?re distilling only occasionally, maintaining a sour mash cycle may prove to be too much trouble.
Recipe by Best Moonshine Cocktail Drink Food Recipes at https://moonshinerecipe.org/?p=209